Did imperialist Japan ever want to annex Hawaii because of the Japanese minority living here?

Question

Hawaii had been colonized by Japan during the 19th century, before it became an American territory. There was [an estimated 40% of Japanese in Hawaii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii#Ancestry) in 1900 and 43% in 1920; thus we can extrapolate it would have been similar during World War 2; this is far from being insignificant. Considering the irredentist trend of the time, I think Japan could have been especially interested in annexing Hawaii, justified by the long presence of Japanese there and the very large Japanese minority. **Was Japan interested in the Japanese Hawaiian population ?**

Answer 1

I don't know what the attitude was of either the Government of Imperial Japan or of the general Japanese public towards the Japanese people living on the islands of Hawaii, or anywhere else for that matter. You may be able to find the answer to your question in John J. Stephan's Hawaii Under the Rising Sun: Japan's Plans for Conquest after Pearl Harbor. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984.

I don't know that I would characterize Japanese immigration to Hawaii in the 19th century as 'Colonization.' A 'Colony' in the political context is a territory, often geographically separate from a specific 'Colonial Power' / 'Mother Country' (an overseas colony), that is in the possession and under the control of the Colonial Power in question.

Whether or not the Japanese Government ever contemplated seizing Hawaii in the 19th century, up until 1898, when the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii was a sovereign nation-state ruled by a monarchy.