This event is a part Honouliuli National Historic Site's 10th Anniversary Celebration.

Higa’s research on the legal status of Okinawan prisoners of war during World War II provides critical insights into the broader historical and legal framework of civilian internment and military detention policies in the Pacific. Okinawans, many of whom were forcibly conscripted by the Japanese military or caught in the crossfire of the Battle of Okinawa, occupied a complex legal position under international law as both subjects of the Japanese Empire and an indigenous people with distinct historical ties to the Ryukyu Kingdom. His work examines how these legal ambiguities influenced the treatment of Okinawan POWs and how their experiences parallel those of Japanese Americans and other detainees interned at Honouliuli and similar camps in the United States. By drawing connections between the wartime internment of civilians and the evolving legal frameworks governing military occupation, Higa’s research contributes to understanding Honouliuli’s role as a site of remembrance and historical reflection on civil liberties, war, and indigenous identity.

Brandon Marc Higa is a lecturer in law and licensed attorney with a doctor of juridical sciences (S.J.D.) and juris doctor (J.D.) degrees from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law. Higa received a NSEP Boren Fellowship to complete post-graduate research at Stanford University’s Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama, Japan. His undergraduate study abroad experience includes exchanges to Waseda University (Tōkyō, Japan) as a Freeman - ASIA awardee and Kyung Hee University (Seoul, South Korea) through the Critical Language Scholarship while completing dual bachelors and master's degrees in international relations at the University of Southern California.