As they did everywhere across the US, American flags became a fixture of the landscape. They could be seen swinging from the fronts of buildings and homes, waving frantically from car windows and radio antennas, standing guard on top of desks and hanging on shirts, bags and hats. The wave of patriotic fervor that swept across Hawaii was such that within 48 hours most stores had run out of flags.

"This is the United States, this is the state that had Pearl Harbor," said one Waikiki resident. "Everyone will be able to see that we are supporting the victims and families whatever way we can."

The show of support went way beyond flag-waving. Hawaiians also dug deep into their pockets and contributed more than $250,000 to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Jocelyn Collado, the American Red Cross's communications manager, called the response overwhelming. "This is the largest contribution we've received in the shortest amount of time in response to a disaster," she said. "It is unprecedented."

But despite the overwhelming show of sympathy, patriotism can be a touchy subject in Hawaii. And, based on the islands' history, quite a few people here even object to being considered part of the US.

In the 19th Century, traders and missionaries from England, France and the US came here and sought to introduce "more refined Western social mores." By the late 1800s the Hawaiian monarch became a figurehead and, with Caucasian foreigners being the only group allowed to vote, native Hawaiians became second-class citizens.

The monarchy was deposed in 1893 and by 1900 Hawaii had become part of the US territory. Its strategic importance grew as the US Navy established a huge military base at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was the pivotal event that persuaded the US to enter World War II. After the war, opinion polls showed that more than 90 percent of Hawaiian residents favored US statehood and, on August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state.

Today a small but vocal native sovereignty movement exists in the islands. Some groups within it favor the restoration of the monarchy; others are calling for a Hawaiian nation within the US and the return of crown lands taken during annexation.

Following Sept. 11 the conflicting undercurrents that run through the state--pitting those who dream of Hawaiian citizenship against those bristle at the suggestion that Hawaii is somehow less patriotic than the rest of the country--came bubbling to the surface.

When the American flag was raised over the Iolani Palace, the 19th Century seat of the Hawaiian monarch whose overthrow is still mourned by some here, what was meant as a respectful gesture for the victims of Sept. 11 provoked a tempest of hurt feelings and angry messages.

Henry Noa belongs to Hawaii's sovereignty movement. He was recently appointed prime minister and acting head of the state of Hawaii by the Reinstated Hawaiian Government, one of several movements working to form a new government here.

Noa refused to comment on the Sept. 11 attacks. "I will not comment on those events because Kanaka Maoli [indigenous Hawaiian people] who have responded trying to express the truth have only been marred in the newspapers here."

What he made very clear is that his movement considers the US "a thief who stole our country and keeps hypocritically invoking moral principles such as justice and freedom for all."

The outcry from members of the native sovereignty movement struck many residents as preposterous. So did a column published in a Washington-state newspaper, The Tri-City Herald, by Karen Spears Zacharias, an Oregonian who was visiting Hawaii on Sept. 11.

"The spirit that prevailed in Waikiki was not a patriotic one," she wrote. "Corner chatter continued to focus on surfing and snorkeling conditions and tan lines." The idea that Hawaii's residents were being somehow less than patriotic struck a powerful chord here and Zacharias was inundated with furious letters and phone calls.

And yet the question remains: Is Hawaii just as much part of the US as the prairies of Midwest and the Golden Gate Bridge? The answers vary. While the US Constitution says that Hawaii is unequivocally part of the US, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the World Court in The Hague has ruled that Hawaii is an independent, sovereign nation that has been occupied by the US in violation of international law since 1893. President Clinton admitted as much in 1993 when he authorized Public Law 103-150, which states that " Š the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States Š "

A sense of belonging, however, goes beyond international law and sovereignty claims. National identity comes with its defined set of imagery, and Hawaii, where East merges with West in a blur of hula and disco, soap operas and creation myths, junk food and Japanese tea ceremonies, and Shinto shrines and surf clubs, hardly fits into the image of apple-pie America.

Still, the hundreds American flags waving in the flower-scented breeze speak for themselves. So do the adverse effects of the attacks on the local economy. During the week immediately following Sept. 11, this icon of tourism saw air travel, hotel reservations, retail sales and restaurant occupancy in Waikiki fall by as much as half.

For Kimo Kaleiwahea, a native Hawaiian who is in the Navy reserves, this is not the time for nationalist disputes and inflammatory statements. "We now have to defend our soil; we are all in this together," he said. "Now is not the time to be dividing ourselves based on perception."