Many of them "want" to reopen the businesses they worked their whole lives for, and to go back to their jobs so they can support their families.
Poverty takes lives. Poor nutrition & lack of regular medical care are both poverty-driven, and they take lives every day.
Also, a conservative reopening plan (such as their planned 72-hour testing protocol) is a way to reopen without flooding the islands with Covid cases. It isn't an all or nothing situation.
Exactly. The arrogance of those who expect a population to remain closed is frustrating. Privileged nations like Australia, New Zealand, etc are impacting the lives of those already living in poverty in places like Fiji, and yes, Hawaii. It is not reasonable to continue to keep borders closed globally, and the impacts of this are now being felt in places like Africa, or Asia, as NGOs and voluntary services cannot access those who are at risk of starvation, or dying from other illnesses.
Hawaii has two industries - the military, and tourism and related services. They cannot switch gears to become a tech industry, or revert to agriculture as a main industry, without years of change.
What should have happened in the past six months is improved testing, tracing, social distancing, increased medical services and ICU beds. From all that I read, the state government failed at most of those in Hawaii, and the only effort has been to remain closed. One of the poorest states will become even more poor in the coming weeks. White collar workers and business owners have already lost jobs, and people are already leaving Hawaii. They have an impact on the remaining open businesses and there are endless reports of businesses gone for good.
And remember, any reopening will take months to see any sustainable visitor numbers as people need advance notice to plan trips. Japan has an aggressive domestic tourism plan including rebates and deep discounts, so even if Hawaii does eventually open to Japan they will be competing with the domestic market for any business. (And Japan's numbers are currently increasing so no guarantees that they will be included in a bubble.)