Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese-American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor asks the question of whether one’s identity is derived more from one’s nationalism or one’s ethnicity and which deserves loyalty when these two aspects of self are forced into conflict with one another. Indeed, for second-generation Americans the question of identity is a puzzling one that often leads to conflict either with their preceding generation or their adopted culture.

To understand the role of the American Nisei in Hawaii during the lead up to war with their ancestral homeland Japan, it is vital to understand how the Nisei self-identified at the time and why this identification was at the core of the argument that the Nisei posed no risk to national security. According to psychologist Beverly Tatum,

The concept of identity is a complex one, shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts. Who am I? The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says I am. Who do my parents say I am? Who do my peers say I am? What message is reflected back to me in the faces and voices of my teachers, my neighbors, store clerks? What do I learn from the media about myself? (Beverly, Daniel Tatum.