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Hawaiian Sovereignty (2 of 5)
We were drilled to live as white men, coerced into adopting their moral concepts, language, ambitions and God. We were educated with their books and their version of history, trained to measure life by a financial standard and told that we were American citizens. I believed.
Inside of me I knew something was wrong.
College after high school merely meant four more years of recycling. I obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science still believing in the righteousness of the American system in Hawaii. It was not until after I volunteered in the U.S. Air Force that I began a major reconsideration of the ingrained values and allegiance I had formed to the United States. That spark came from words written by Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaii, who in 1917 wrote Hawaii's Story, detailing her side of Hawaii's occupation by the United States. This book had been repressed in Hawaii since its original printing in 1898 and was finally reprinted in the mid-1960's.
From her writing, I discovered a secret kept from generations of our people. Hawaii once was fully recognized by the world community as an independent nation. While at peace with the U.S., we were invaded by heavily armed American marines in 1893. As had been planned, after the invasion, the marines turned the government over to American planters and other businessmen (annexationists) who then drafted a treaty of annexation with the United States. A bargain was struck which found Hawaii" ceded" to the U.S.; in return, the annexationists were given almost total reign over politics, business and education in Hawaii. All the while, my ancestors, citizens of Hawaii, were given no voice in these transactions. Liliuokalani raised her protest but to no avail. Without the consent of the Hawaiians, we were declared Americans.
With the annexationists in charge, lucrative government contracts were passed out, monopolies in shipping, finance and communications blossomed. The Big Five, a coalition of five business entities, controlled every aspect of business, media and politics in Hawaii. When they teamed up with the Republican Party and the U.S. Navy, there was virtually nothing left unexploited in Hawaii.
