Answers: all true, and all part of "Hawaii's Forgotten History: the Good ... the Bad ... the Embarrassing," by Rich Budnick.

Budnick — who served as public information officer for Gov. Ben Cayetano and Maui Mayor Hannibal Tavares, and authored "Hawaiian Street Names," "Stolen Kingdom: An American Conspiracy" and other books — compiled 2,001 overlooked or forgotten facts from 20th-century Hawai'i.

Presented chronologically as a series of synopses, the bite-sized bits of history cover politics, crime, immigration, the economy, education, land use, wars, education and much more.

"My criteria was that if it was newsworthy, I would use it, whether I agreed with it or not," Budnick said. "Some of it is funny, a lot of it is shocking. I fell off my chair when I read some of them for the first time. I was literally stunned at how much I discovered."

The book was originally intended to cover the entirety of Hawaiian history, but the volume of material convinced Budnick to concentrate his efforts on the pivotal past century.

Budnick started by reading some 300 books on Hawaiian history. To resolve conflicting dates and accounts, Budnick then pored through some 8,000 editions of The Honolulu Advertiser and other news sources of the day, finding even more long-forgotten facts.

"If you ask most people what they know about Hawaiian history, they'll probably say annexation, Pearl Harbor, internment, statehood and not much more," Budnick said. "Most people know a little about the Massie case and maybe the Chinatown fire."

Budnick said he hopes his book will offer readers an easy way to get a fuller picture of Hawai'i's complex, often disturbing past.

For example: While many residents know at least the gist of infamous Massie trial — in which the admitted killers of a local man accused of raping a white woman were sentenced to one hour in the governor's office — only a dwindling few recall the sad, strange case of Myles Fukunaga.

Fukunaga was executed for kidnapping and killing the son of a Hawaiian Trust Co. executive, setting the stage for racial tensions that would come to a head when Thalia Massie cried rape two years later.

Still fewer are likely to recall the case of U.S. sailor Henry Allen, who in 1918 shot and killed his housemate John Walker for making a pro-Germany speech at A'ala Park. Allen, who justified the shooting on the grounds that he was a patriot and Walker was a traitor, was acquitted after just four minutes of jury deliberation.

Dizzying at times, Budnick's collection of events functions a bit like a stereograph picture, with definite themes emerging in sharp focus from the blur of facts.

Criticism of Hawai'i's educational system is echoed, decade after decade.

The presence and influence of the military is represented in dozens of entries, including the nation's first submarine accident, in 1915, a mile off Honolulu Harbor; the U.S. Army's "Scorched Earth" plan to level industries and hotels in the event of a Japanese invasion; and the race riot involving 250 black and white troops at Kane'ohe Marine Corps Air Station in 1969.

And certainly Hawai'i's long and complicated history of racism, discrimination and class division is impossible for Budnick to ignore.

"The story of Hawai'i is how the power elite dominated Hawai'i," Budnick said. "If people dared to challenged inequality, they were called agitators and communists, not just in the 1950s, but back in 1900, too."

In studying the front pages of thousands of newspapers, Budnick said he was struck by casual characterizations that today would be considered racist and offensive.

"They underplayed the lack of equality and opportunity for non-Caucasians," Budnick said.

"People today cannot appreciate the contradictions to what was being said about Hawai'i as a melting pot of racial harmony, the same kinds of words that we still use today. And yet, in 1920, when Japanese and Filipino plantation workers went on strike, they were evicted from their homes, and 1,200 people died during an influenza outbreak."

Budnick's voice was pinched with incredulity as he recounted the 1907 incident in which Gov. George Carter stated that he wouldn't mind if his daughter married a Japanese man. The ensuing furor resulted, a week later, in a bill at the Territorial House that would outlaw marriage between Caucasians or Hawaiians and Japanese. Legislators dropped the proposal when they could not rally the two-thirds vote support needed to override a governor's veto.

"That shocks people," Budnick said, "but these are things I couldn't make up."

Budnick doesn't simplify history into a single argument; he includes little-known instances where plantation owners and others in power also worked for the benefit of laborers. For example, he makes note that scientists from the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association began manufacturing penicillin, then a new wonder drug, in 1943 to treat sick workers.

Budnick said he hopes the book will inspire others to look further into Hawai'i's recent past.

"It's been considered safe to research the monarchy years, but the 20th century has been almost taboo," Budnick said. "The history is lacking. I'm hoping people will be intrigued by what they learn here and will want to find out more."

History found

Hawai'i's 'Forgotten' history: A timeline

1900: Chinatown fire and bubonic plague

1946: First territorywide, industrywide sugar strike

1982: Terrorist bomb kills a boy on a Pan Am flight before landing here

1900191019201930194019501960197019801990

1938: Hilo Massacre. Police shoot and stab 51 strikers in the back

1970: Hawai'i becomes the first state to legalize abortion

1976: Hokule'a makes its first voyage to Tahiti

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.