The result was a protracted crisis in civil liberties, as the army subjected more than 400,000 civilians - citizens and alien residents alike - to sweeping, intrusive social and economic regulations and to enforcement of army orders in provost courts with no semblance of due process. In addition, the army enforced special regulations against Hawaii's large population of Japanese ancestry; thousands of Japanese Americans were investigated, hundreds were arrested, and some 2,000 were incarcerated. In marked contrast to the well-known policy of the mass removals on the West Coast, however, Hawai'i's policy was one of "selective", albeit preventive, detention. ... Based largely on archival sources, this comprehensive, authoritative study places the long-neglected and largely unknown history of martial law in Hawai'i in the larger context of America's ongoing struggle between the defence of constitutional liberties and the exercise of emergency powers."--Publisher's description.