A Hawaiian sovereignty group occupied the grounds of 'Iolani Palace, locked the gates and blocked non-Hawaiians from entering for about eight hours yesterday to protest the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian government more than a century ago.
The protest was conducted by the Hawaiian Kingdom Government, one of several groups that claim to be the successor government of Hawai’i. The group said it will return to the palace today but will not lock the gates.
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Kahau and other leaders of the group began meeting with state officials earlier this week. Kippen de Alba Chu, executive director of Friends of 'Iolani Palace, said he and DLNR officials were given papers from the Hawaiian Kingdom Government on Monday “claiming that they are the legitimate government and not subject to state law.”
“This is the seat of government; we’re not going to go away,” Kahau said. “The Hawaiian Kingdom Government has resumed its lawful status as the functioning government.”
Between 50 and 70 people claiming to be part of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government arrived at the palace grounds at about 5:30 a.m. yesterday and began locking each of the roughly eight entrances. They also placed signs stating, “Warning! No Trespassing; This is private property” on the famous wrought-iron gates surrounding the palace.
During a tour of Oahu earlier this year, we were very surprised by the tone a couple of the driver/guides took as they showed us around the islands, commenting repeatedly about the “illegal U.S. occupation and overthrow” of the native government.
While it didn’t bother me at all, I just looked at it as understandable nationalism, I know many on the trip were offended by slights and accusations being expressed. I guess it’s pretty widespread.
I have two points: first, the native Hawaians (let alone the fruitcakes in this mess) are outnumbered more than 10 to 1. So I think they’re in a bad way here. I don’t like monarchies when I’m not he monarch, and if they actually acheived independence I’dprobably get some of my buds together and go kill them and take over.
Let’s see… Emperor Bandit? Supreme Warlord Bandit? King Kamehameha Bandit? Infinite Lord The Mighty Bandit, Devourer of Flesh and Drinker of His Enemies’ Blood From Their Skulls?
I had been reading up on Hawaiian history a while back. They really did get screwed out of their country. Hawaii had a proper and orderly monarchy, with embassies, a palace, and the whole deal. The US came in at the request of the companies (like Dole), that were owned – irony of ironies – by the missionaries and their descendants. Grover Cleveland actually opposed annexation, but Dole and other forces dragged their feet over Cleveland’s orders about restoration, and McKinley finally annexed the islands in 1898.
You can find this information on a number of websites, including the US Department of State’s (!):
I wouldn’t be so certain of the independence movement’s lack of chance, silenus, though I don’t know about this particular group of people.
I did quite a bit of reading about this a while back too, and it does seem that the monarchy was actually overthrown. Now, whether the subsequent republic’s desire to become a US territory was a legitimate expression of the will of the Hawaiian people, I don’t know. And when the territory voted to become a US state, what other choices were thjey offered?
Given the size of the non-native population in Hawaii, the only way I can see independence succeeding is if a united independence movement gained the support of a majority of the total population… and at the same time, something happened to weaken the links between Hawaii and the US government. A major series of disasters or other distractions at home, a fuel crisis causing difficulty in travelling long distances, I don’t know.
The US government would not give up its bases in Hawaii easily. An independence movement with broad popular support might avoid the problem by offering to lease the bases to the US. A financial crisis might force the US government to reduce expenditures and close overseas bases, but I suspect that the Hawaiian bases would be among the last to be closed; they’re just so useful.
I don’t think an independent Hawaii would be a bad thing. It would have plenty of assets: tourism, the observatory, the military bases, fisheries. And it would still be the place to make trans-pacific connections.
Well, these things pop up yearly. If you go along Oahu’s leeward side, you’ll see signs talking about how it’s been restored, etc. They usually meet in tents by the beach. Actually, they have can the Nanakuli and Waianae, as far as I’m concerned
Nothing serious will come of this.
Oh, and giving that tired old falsehood about the United States overthrew the monarchy, whereas it was an internal revolution by citizens of Hawaii. While it’s true it was led by American immigrant businessment, they were an independent Republic of Hawaii for 5 years before the US annexed them.
There were some shenanigans and it probably wasn’t legal (are takeovers or revolutions ever to the ex-ruling party?), I cannot believe Hawaii would’ve remained independent from 1898 to now. If not the US, then Britain or Japan or someone else would’ve easily done so. The overthrow was done with the help of 100 or so marching Marines without a shot even being fired. The queen promised to send a strongly worded letter or something.
What I can’t figure out about this group is their timing. Why now? Yesterday wasn’t anything historically significant. If it’s for today, Lei Day, then that’s pretty tacky.
I could never support these groups. During the annexation centennial, a bunch of these guys came out of the woodwork, and it seemed the prominent ones were led by criminals or racists, all them blaming ethnic Hawaiians’ current woes on Evil White Man. All of them spoke of reclaiming the land for Hawaiians but none really addressed what they wanted for the non-ethnic Hawaiians. Though they seemed to want the same things, none of them could work together and put up a unified front. They were all noise and no substance, and after the media was done talking about them excessively, they disappeared.
Personally, I think Hawaii is far better off having become part of the US and any attempt to separate from it is biting the hand that feeds you. lieu’s experience makes me sad. People taking vacations shouldn’t be made to feel badly about what happened. As much as Hawaii relies on tourism dollars, we have a funny way of showing it.
You know, this is an incredibly good point. It always seems to be Hawaiians vs whites. You NEVER hear about what happens to those who don’t happen to be less than 1/16th Hawaiian (what you need for Kamehameha Schools). What is the plan for govt participation for the Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Portuguese, Samoans, etc (who far, far outnumber Hawaiians)?
There was a huge flap when a haole tried to get into Kamehameha schools last year. Would the protest be the same if it was a Hawaii-born Filipino or Japanese student who wanted in?
When I heard about this, I just :rolleyes:'d at it.
It’s not too unusual to be driving through town and at some point see signs or a gathering saying that they’re some sort of ‘Reinstated Hawaiian Monarchy’, people protesting that the evil white man came and took all their land away, they want freedom (what freedom do they NOT have now is what I wanna know), et cetera.
I’m in the same mood as silenus. They’re not getting the islands back the way they want it back. If they want to be some sort of independent nation all on their own, I say we give 'em some small island somewhere else in the chain and let them make heads or tails of it all and see just how well they fare.
Another reason why I just rolled my eyes is because there’s one song that they play on the radio here sometimes, which basically asks how the old kings and queens would react to how Hawaii is today, and how they would be towards cars, railroad tracks, stoplights, etc., and saying how they would basically weep at it all at some sort of huge loss to the old Hawaiian ways.
Y’know, the kind of Hawaiian ways such as if the King passed you by and his shadow fell on you, (or if you stepped on it), you’d be executed.
Because y’know, these modern things are apparently a big blow to the old ways as well, and if they hadn’t been overthrown, then they wouldn’t have all these things.
Gasp, cars!
I love the Hawaiian culture, I love living here, I love having been born here and the spirit of Aloha that we have here. I have had my own boyfriend comment on how much more friendly Maui seems to be compared to where he lives.
Though under it all you will eventually be confronted by the Hawaiians who pretty much border on racist (or are racist) against everyone who aren’t Hawaiian by blood, and you can’t help but eventually roll your eyes and be on your way.
I’m damn sure if America didn’t come along and make us a state, we’d be speaking Japanese by now since WWII happened. Hawaii is just too precious a central spot in the Pacific not to take. He who controls Hawaii also controls a good amount (if not all) of the Pacific because of our location.
Former Honolulu resident chiming in here, and I’m in Silenus and Maui Lion’s camp. I rolled my eyes, too, same as I’ve always done when this sort of activity pops up. There’s always been a certain amount of action by an exceptionally tiny pecentage of disgruntled ethnic Hawaiians. The main reason they make the news is the novelty factor. The people involved will persist in it for a while, high-fiving and patting each other on the back for a job well done showing up The Man. Then it all blows over, and everything returns to normal.
The US is like the Mafia. Once you get in, you don’t get out. The Civil War settled that, and that involved states where the people actually wanted to secede. The people “occupying” Iolani Palace are not representative of most people in Hawaii, even other ethnic Hawaiians (whose numbers are tiny indeed now).
And Maui Lion makes a good point about speaking Japanese. As I recall, at the time we took Hawaii, Japan, Russia and the UK all had their eyes turned to it and were thinking along the same lines.
IIRC, Kamehameha had the help of a US navy sloop when he forcefully unified the islands*
and I also remember there having been a fort built by the Russians out by Pearl City. Having your county absorbed by another is always unfair, but some absorbers are worse than others.
*which reminds me of the thread a while back about some Sioux radicals wanting to make the Dakota Reservation a soverign country, not that the earlier tribes they’d displaced in the 1700’s could come back and have any say in the matter
If it took them 100 years to get organized enough to reestablish the monarchy I can only imagine how long it will take to get the cable guy to show up.
I once took a tour of the Iolani palace, and the tour guide dramatically told us the sad tale of the Hawaiian monarchy being overthrown in a coup fomented (led?) by American business interests. I remember thinking that, while it was unfortunate for the royal family, it didn’t sound like an unusual way for a monarchy to end. They can’t be voted out of office, after all.
As I understand it, the Hawaiian monarchy was established (again, as is typical) through armed conquest. In fact, Kamehameha accomplished this feat by buying guns and ammunition from American and English traders. According to Wikipedia (and I remember hearing about this when I visited the island) the climactic battle ended with Kamehameha’s troops cornering the troops of an opposing ruler on mountaintop, and forcing the enemy off a thousand-foot cliff. As those guys were falling, I doubt they were thinking, “Hooray! Hawaii has finally been united under a native Hawaiian king!”
Fast forward a hundred years, and the Hawaiian monarchy has had a falling-out with the western interests that helped the monarchy come to power, and they get overthrown. To me, this is an example of, “live by the sword, die by the sword.”
This isn’t to say that I don’t sympathize, to some extent, with the desire of ethnic Hawaiians to control their destiny. But the end of the Hawaiian monarchy doesn’t strike me as a particularly tragic event, in the context of history.
At this point in history, Hawaii really could not become an independent nation and still enjoy the lifestyle it currently has. Hawaii’s only real economic advantage is its location. It can earn money as a stopping point for shipping liners and aircraft, but it is questionable if that would be enough to keep it going. Improvements in weapons reduce its usefulness as a military base. There isn’t enough agriculture or fishing to even feed its current population, let alone provide money. The tourism trade is nigh maxed out as it is and would only decline in the face of political turmoil and infrastructure decay.
As Maui Lion has pointed out, the people pushing for sovereignty almost always have thinly veiled racial motivations, they neglect to be realistic about the history of the place even if it had been left to its own devices, and they underestimate exactly how much would things would change if they got what they wanted.
The husband and I both love and dearly miss Oahu. But it sure is nice being able to find work here on the Mainland.
