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In the Land of Aloha … the Betrayal of a Nation, Part 1
March 26th is a state holiday in Hawai’i. It commemorates the life of an extraordinary man, the only prince to ever sit in the United States Congress: Ke Ali’i Jonah Kūhiō Kalani’ana’ole Pi’ikoi. But one cannot remember the prince without being reminded of a crime carried out by our own nation — the ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ — 125 years ago.
More specifically, I am referring to a series of criminal acts over a five year period, beginning with treason and ending with betrayal and conquest. It dramatically changed the life of Prince Kūhiō, and it ended the Kingdom of Hawai’i, an independent nation closely aligned with the United States. For a small country, Hawai’i had been remarkably progressive, and was regarded for a time as the most literate member of the community of nations.
The Hawaiian Islands are the most remote archipelago on the planet. Those of us who call the islands ‘home’ are 2,390 miles from California and a whopping 3,850 miles from Japan. The state consists of eight main, volcanic islands, ranging in size from Kaho’olawe (slightly more than 44 square miles) to the Big Island of Hawai’i (4,028 square miles) as well as a series of uninhabited islets, sunken islands and seamounts, extending roughly 3,000 nautical miles from southeast to northwest.
