Jet age Militourism in Hawai‘i and Okinawa during the Vietnam War

Abstract

The advent of the jet age enabled the massification of international travel. U.S. airlines, faced with overcapacity, sought to inaugurate the Pacific routes, especially those between the mainland U.S. and Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i represents a symbolic intersection with militarism and tourism in the Pacific. “Militourism” is a phenomenon that the military as securing tourism operations and the tourism industry as masking the violence of military including usurpation and destruction against indigenous peoples. This essay analyzes the jet age militourism in Hawai‘i and Okinawa during the Vietnam War. Both archipelagos were positioned as the Rest and Recreation (R&R) sites for the service personnel as well as military bases for the U.S. armed forces. This paper aims to clarify how the U.S.-Japan alliance and the rivalry for trade and commerce of the two countries were involved in militourism in Hawai‘i and Okinawa, while examining the development of civil aviation commerce in the Pacific.