CLEAR

Interview with Martin Pence, session 1 of 4 (12/18/1989)

Interview with Martin Pence conducted by Michi Kodama-Nishimoto and Daniel W. Tuttle, Jr. on 12/18/1989 in Federal Judges' Chambers, Prince Kuhio Federal Building Honolulu, Oʻahu as part of the Hawaiʻi Political History Documentation Project. Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaiʻi discusses his early law career in Hilo in the 1930s. Other topics include his family background and childhood in Sterling, Kansas; education at Sterling College, Kansas University and Boalt Law School; arriving in Hawaiʻi in 1930 to work as a claims manager for Home Insurance Company of Hawaii; living in Waikīkī during prohibition and flying between islands; memories of W. H. "Doc" Hill; how the sugar industry and the Republican party dominated politics and power on the Big Island; discrimination against Japanese in business and wages; defending union leaders as a trial lawyer; his philosophy of representing as clients the "little people" who really needed help; and running for County Attorney as a Democrat in 1938. Interview spans 5 videotapes.

Languages: English

Genres

  • Public affairs

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