Hawaii|Pearl Harbor (Location Key)

Hawaii was formally annexed to the U.S. as a territory in 1898. But in the early 20th century, Honolulu was still a remote spot on the globe when Joan Heppleton mentions it, along with several other faraway places, in the history of her lovers she gives Horace Benbow in Flags in the Dust. Hawaii is mentioned again as a tourist destination in Requiem for a Nun, when in Act I of the drama, Temple Drake Stevens tells Gavin that her family "may go on to Hawaii in the spring" (44); they don't, but by 1929 an average of about 22,000 tourists visited the islands annually. The context for the other mentions of Hawaii is defined by the surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the 'day of infamy' that plunged the nation into World War II. That event is important in both "Two Soldiers" and "Shall Not Perish"; it is also mentioned by the narrator of the prose introduction to Act III of Requiem, who connects the event to his account of how the racial demographics of Yoknapatawpha change during the 20th century (193).