Introduction Chapter 1 War Stories: a Militarized History of Hawai'i
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Notes Introduction 1 According to Schmitt, the highest number of military personnel in Hawai‘i was 400,000 during World War Two. More recently, the highest number of military personnel and dependents peaked at 134,000 in 1988 (Hawai‘i Data 158). 2 In a 1926 study of the US invasion of the Philippines, authors Moorfield Story and Marcial Lichauco tell how ‘the President of the United States [in 1925] still asserts that the islands came to us “unsought”’ (Loewen, Lies Across 141). 3 Unless stated, all other data is from this source. 4 For example, in his book John Tyler: the Accidental President, historian Edward P. Crapol describes a ‘classic display of French gunboat diplomacy’ in the islands (137), and a second incident of ‘unauthorized gunboat diplomacy’ by the British (158). However, he chooses not to describe similar actions by Americans as ‘gunboat diplomacy.’ 5 A notable exception is Professor William R. Chapman, Director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at the University of Hawai‘i. As a preservation- ist, Chapman believes the memorial is an important part of Hawai‘i history and should be conserved. He states, ‘There are so few major important buildings from the territorial period that to lose any one at this point would be a tragedy’ (Leidemann). Chapter 1 War Stories: A Militarized History of Hawai‘i 1 The ‘ap’ in Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones, is a Welsh term meaning ‘son of’. 2 According to Ralph S. Kuykendall, conspirator Lorrin Thurston would later admit that the new constitution ‘was not in accordance with law’ (371). The source for this quote, Kuykendall’s Hawaiian Kingdom, is listed in Pearl’s bibliography (405). 3 Most historians who have written about Hawai‘i could not speak Hawaiian and therefore only had access to English-language sources. More recently, however, a new generation of Hawaiian historians has unearthed a wealth of sources written in their native language, including newspaper archives and, in the case of Noenoe Silva, an anti-annexation petition signed by over 21,000 people. The petition is the basis for Silva’s remarkable book, Aloha Betrayed, in which she details the extent of resistance to the overthrow of Lili’uokalani’s government. 4 ‘Revisionist’ in a positive sense: as Paul Boyer notes, ‘all good scholars are “revisionists,” continually questioning an revising standard interpretations on the basis of new evidence, deeper analysis, or the fresh perspectives offered by the passage of time’ (‘Whose History?’ 131). 224 Notes 225 5 The Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, for example, is notable according to Loewen more for ‘things not mentioned’ than its actual contents. These omissions include visual images — a lack of photographs or representations of dead bodies — and also historical events or narratives that contradict the commonly held view of World War Two as the ‘good war.’ Loewen concludes that ‘The Nimitz Museum not only prettifies the Pacific War, it also prettifies America’s role in it’ (188–95). 6 A rare example of a dispute that did raise public consciousness occurred in 1995. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum planned to exhibit the Enola Gay, the airplane which was the delivery vehicle in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The theme of the exhibit was that the bombing not only ended World War Two but also, in effect, started the Cold War. Conservative politicians and commentators such as Senator Bob Dole, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Pat Buchanan claimed the exhibit was divisive and unnecessarily ‘political.’ World War Two was the ‘good war,’ after all, and the divisive arguments of Vietnam-era politics should not be brought to bear on the ‘greatest generation.’ Conservatives argued that the proposed exhibit made America the villain and the Japanese the victims of World War Two. Furthermore, the inclusion of a narrative about the begin- ning of the Cold War brought into question the decision to drop the bomb. If allowed to proceed, conservatives argued, the exhibit would dishonor America’s war veterans. Under pressure from politicians, the American Legion, and a section of the general public that had been motivated to act by the controversy, the museum eventually backed down and its director resigned. As Edward Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt note in History Wars, ‘The fiftieth anniversary of any major event that put large numbers of people in peril naturally tends to establish a protective membrane around the commemorative moment. This accounts for the outrage.’ (4) However, it also seems clear that at least some of the uproar occurred because of the public’s fear that ‘revisionist’ history (in the negative sense of the word) had penetrated the hallowed halls of the Smith- sonian Museum, which, until that moment, had been seen as a metonymy for historical integrity and truthfulness. 7 I use the word ‘partially’ because land was still passed down to descendants of the ali‘i by kauoha (verbal will) as if they were all their own Mo¯‘ı¯. Chapter 2 Remembering and Forgetting at Waikı–kı–’s Great War Memorial 1 From this point on the Pacific Commercial Advertiser will be referred to as the Advertiser. 2 These organizations included the Outdoor Circle, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, Ad Club, Free Kindergarten, Hawaiian Historical Society, Child Welfare Commission, Humane Society, Outrigger Club, Pan-Pacific Club and the Daughters of Hawai‘i. Reclaiming land was, in many cases, double- speak for appropriating it from small landowners, who were mostly Asian and Native Hawaiian. This lack of concern for small-ownership land rights was not unusual for either the rich elites in Hawai‘i or for the Advertiser. 226 Notes Some 20 years before, when 38 acres of Chinatown was destroyed by fire, the Advertiser had stated that ‘the fire would give the white man’s business district room to expand’ (Daws 303). 3 Although not considered one of the Big Five, the Dillingham family had dredging, construction and real estate interests that coincided with the interests of the ruling economic oligarchy (Kent 72; Cooper and Daws 3). 4 These included the Daughters of Hawai‘i, Rotary Club, Outdoor Circle, Pan- Pacific Union, Central YMCA, Hawaiian Societies, Junior Auxiliary, Hawaiian congregation, St Andrew’s Cathedral, War Camp Community Service, Hawai- ian Women’s Guild, Kamehameha Alumni Association, Hawaiian Civic Club, Order of Kamehameha, Longshoremen’s Mutual Aid Association, Knights of Pythias, House of the Chiefs of Hawai‘i, and the Ad Club. 5 See also ‘Memorial Project Takes Real Shape’; ‘Pan-Pacific Art Committee to Plan Memorial’; ‘Statue or Memorial Hall Issue Must Be Determined’; ‘Proposes Aid For Memorial Funds’ and ‘Rotary Club to Honor Officials of Old Republic.’ 6 One wonders if the title of this article was intended to remind readers of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915), a movie which championed white supremacy. 7 Revealingly, Hathaway applies the term ‘unprincipled’ only to those who organized labor unions, but not those involved in the overthrow of the sov- ereign state of Hawai‘i or the theft of native lands. 8 Burnham was a well-known architect responsible also for the design of the United Spanish War Veterans Memorial (aka The Spirit of ’98) situated at the Wadsworth Hospital Center, West Los Angeles, erected in 1950. Text from the plaque on the memorial reads: ‘1898 — To Those Who Volunteered and Extended the Hand of Liberty to Alien Peoples — 1902.’ 9 All further references to Fairbanks or his proposed monument are from this source unless otherwise stated. 10 In John Ford’s 1943 documentary December 7, ‘Uncle Sam’ describes the pro- cess of ‘civilization’ undertaken by haole missionaries and business men as ‘a pioneering story that compares favorably with the opening of the West.’ 11 The use of Native Hawaiian imagery in the designs is especially problematic since it appears that they were excluded from the whole process. With the exception of Prince Jonah Kuhio, whose name appears in only one early account of the War Memorial Committee, there does not appear to be any input from the Native community at all (‘Statue Or Memorial’). It cannot be taken for granted that Kuhio represented Native Hawaiian interests on the War Memorial Committee. Although he had been imprisoned for his role in defending Queen Lili’uokalini during the 1895 uprising, Kuhio later accepted a role in the Republican Party running in opposition to Home Rule candidate Robert Wilcox in the 1902 election for delegate to Congress. Perhaps Kuhio thought that in this role he could best defend the interests of the Hawaiian people. Certainly his efforts as delegate after he was triumphant in the election seem to suggest this. For example, in the 1904 Territorial elections he pushed for devolution of local government powers away from Honolulu and towards the larger individual Hawaiian islands. He was also instrumental in the estab- lishment of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920. However, as a figurehead for Hawai‘i’s haole business elites, Kuhio attracted many Native Notes 227 Hawaiian votes away from the decidedly pro-Native Hawaiian Home Rule Party. Within ten years of Robert Wilcox’s defeat at the hands of Kuhio, the Home Rule Party was finished (Daws 293–302). 12 For a fuller discussion of these masquerades, see Deloria. 13 These photographs, of clothed white explorers dwarfed by nature, demon- strate a familiar theme of American photography and painting. For instance, Thomas Cole (1801–1847) was a member of the Hudson River School of American artists. This was the first batch of American artists who focused on painting American landscapes instead of European.