Aloha

Hawaii didn't become a state until 1959. Before then, it was a Republic, but not by choice. A coup by an American fruit corporation staged a coupe and took control. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The day
started like many others, of warm seventy three degrees with

(00:22):
partly cloudy skies. Civilians were going about their early Sunday
morning routines when the dive bomber appeared, the first of
two hundred. At eight ten that morning, an eight hundred
pound bomb landed on the USS Arizona. The explosions sank
the ship, trapping its thousand men on board. More Japanese

(00:43):
planes flew overhead, darkening the skies. The USS Oklahoma took
several hits from torpedoes. The battleship rolled to one side,
then slid beneath the water along with four hundred men.
Beth Slingerland, a teacher with a husband in the military,
watched the planes descend. Black smoke billowed into the air

(01:03):
as the aircraft kept dropping bombs. Fireballs appeared over the
hangars at the airfield. She could do nothing except worry
and wait. Army Air corpsan Everest capra knew they were
under attack as soon as he saw the planes. He
ran outside to warn the others, then hurried back to
the barracks. Just as the bombs and bullets started. He

(01:25):
and a couple of other men dodged enemy fire while
gathering injured and taking them to the hospital. An explosion
knocked Capra out, but when he awoke, he refused to
head to the hospital himself, knowing the Japanese would strike
there too. Despite his injuries, he continued to help others.
Honorary Chaplain Joe Morgan at first took shelter under an
I beam inside a hangar and hoped for the best. Outside,

(01:48):
crew members with nothing other than handguns, took to shooting
at the planes. Morgan went to the armory and grabbed
the machine gun. Then he fought back. The US had
tried to stay out of the war, responding to Japan's
invasions and atrocities with sanctions. Japan hoped this attack would
prevent the US from intervening in their aggressive expansion in

(02:09):
the South Pacific. For two hours, the assault continued. Every
battleship in Pearl Harbor was damaged. Over three hundred planes
and hangars and on the airfield were destroyed. Wives waited
on word about their husbands, children waited for their fathers.
At five that evening, Beth heard her husband's boots on
the driveway. They were fortunate. Hundred people died and another

(02:35):
thousand were injured. Aboard the Arizona there were thirty eight
sets of brothers. Sixty three of the seventy nine men died.
Those four hundred men remained buried in the harbor. With
the Oklahoma nine hundred are interred in the Arizona. Pearl
Harbor became a memorial. Though the U. S. Navy didn't
know when or where Japan would attack, tensions had risen

(02:57):
significantly before Pearl Harbor, and intel suggested an aggression was eminent.
After the attack, life for everyone on the Hawaiian Islands changed.
The people had been through changes before, though before Japan's assault,
the islands and their peoples found themselves under another threat.
Long before that first plane flew into Pearl Harbor. For

(03:19):
many Hawaiians, paradise had already been lost. I'm Lauren Vogelbam.
Welcome to American Shadows. Thirty million years ago, the Pacific
tectonic plate shifted, performing a chain of islands right near
the center, about as far from anywhere else as you

(03:41):
can get. The volcanic eruptions created a hundred and thirty
seven islands in the area, including what are considered the
eight major ones today a Maui, ca Lave, Molokai, Lanai, Oahu, Hawaii,
ni how and Hawaii often referred to as the Big Island.
While there are many volcanoes on the islands, only six

(04:03):
remain active today, a two on Maui and the other
four on Hawaii. The largest mana Loa, located on the
Big Island, stands nine thousand feet tall. The first Polynesian
settlers arrived in Hawaii around four hundred CE, having traveled
thousands of miles in big canoes with the stars and
elements as their guide. They settled down building new homes.

(04:27):
Life near the ocean was comfortable. What the ocean didn't
provide small farms did. They and other groups of Polynesian
settlers who came of the next few centuries brought crops
like tarot, red fruit, bamboo and sugarcane, and domesticated animals
like chicken and pigs. The settlements spread across the major islands,
from their blush windward sides to their lean leeward sides

(04:50):
as technology and trade systems advanced, starting around the thirteen hundreds,
the population boomed and sort of congealed. Large temples appeared.
A complex and efficient society evolved. A high chief controlled
the land of holding it in trust for the population
and supervising its divisions. A whole island, known as a

(05:11):
mokupuni was split into smaller parts called moku, which were
themselves divided into ahoopwa, each one a wedge stretching from
central mountains to the sea. The size of each ahoopua
depended on the available resources. Of Poorer areas were the
largest ahoopua, which helped offset having fewer resources. The chiefs

(05:32):
ruled each self sustaining section. Taxes were paid to the
high chief and his court through konohiki or supervisors, who
oversaw the communal labor and fair use of the land
and ocean. The people traded goods with other villagers. The
inlanders provided the fishermen with wood for their canoes in
exchange for fresh fish. Everyone tended to the farms and livestock,

(05:54):
and though people lived in different ahoopwaa, they shared knowledge
and labor. The Hawaiians lived in peace with the land,
believing in the deep connection between nature and humanity. Along
with the konohiki cohuna, who could be considered priests or
cultural experts, ensured that the people took great care of
the land, its resources, and all the life that resided

(06:17):
within it. And some species of fish were taken only
during certain times of the year. Of plants were only
harvested during certain seasons. All in all, they had created
a harmonious and sustainable life. The Hawaiians made everything they needed,
from beautiful cloth and handcrafted canoes to exquisite arts and crafts.
They used roots and vegetables to die clothing, and wore

(06:40):
flowers for scent. For sports, they held athletic competitions. They
feasted and danced and sang, told stories, and played music.
Powers within the groups changed from time to time as
chieftains vied for more control. Mostly, though, they lived in
peace with each other through the seventeen hundreds, Captain James
Cook became the first European to make contact. He stumbled

(07:03):
across the Hawaiian islands in January of seventeen seventy eight.
At first, the locals welcomed Cook and his crew. He
brought iron tools, which they traded for fresh water and food.
During his brief visit a year later. His return to
the island of Hawaii happened to coincide with a harvest
festival there and the celebration of a god's return. It's

(07:25):
hard to tease out legend from history, but it seems
that some Hawaiians associated Cook with this god. A Cook
and the crew joined in the feasts and dancing that
lasted a few days. They left the island shortly afterward,
though a storm forced them to return. Their reappearance sparked
suspicion this wasn't part of the myth. Tensions escalated. Cook

(07:48):
determined that the Hawaiians had stolen items from him, and
chose to deliver swift and harsh punishment. He might have
thought these people, whom he considered inferior, would cower, they
did not. Angry over Cook's accusations and violence, warriors overwhelmed
the British sailors. Most managed to escape, though Captain Cook
was captured and killed. In retaliation, the sailors fired their

(08:12):
cannons on the shoreline, killing thirty Hawaiians before heading back
out to sea. It was just the beginning of Hawaii's
contact with the Europeans. By the turn of the century,
the islands were an established port of call for ships
trading in goods like furs and sandalwood as part of
the increasingly global economy, and unfortunately, Cook's bloody skirmish set

(08:34):
the tone of what was to come. Between seventeen and
eighteen ten, chief by the name of Kamehameha united the
islands and became the first king of this unified Kingdom
of Hawaii. Though he died in eighteen nineteen, his title
and leadership fell to his family. For generations. It was

(08:57):
a time of cultural upheaval from inside and out. The
new generation of Hawaiians was becoming acquainted with more outsiders,
this time from the newly formed United States. At first,
their contact with Americans came in the form of merchants whalers, followed,
then missionaries. Determined to save souls with their faith and Bibles,

(09:20):
they brought something else to the islands, diseases that decimated
the local population. Americans pushed westward, and spurred by the
government's assurance that taking land inhabited by indigenous peoples was acceptable,
especially those who didn't submit to becoming what they called
civilized missionaries and colonizing farmers, created many changes within Hawaiian culture.

(09:43):
On September two of eight thirty eight, a group had
gathered outside one of the grass huts along Pouaina, a
volcanic creater on Oahu that the westerners called the punch bowl.
Inside the hut, a woman labored, just as the baby
girl entered the world, rain and to fall to the people.
The rainfall seems like nature had joined in the celebration.

(10:06):
Her parents were well respected and shared lineage with Kamehameha
the First. They named their daughter Liliu. The people thought
great things were in store for the child. They weren't wrong.
Her position and rank climbed shortly after her birth when
her parents sent her to live with other higher ranking
family members. The custom, known as hanai is meant to

(10:27):
strengthen family bonds. While the new family took over raising Liliu,
her briok parents still had to say and what was
best for her. The missionaries thought the practice was barbaric,
and they aimed to save the indigenous people's souls by
doing away with such traditional Hawaiian practices. By the time
Liliu turned to the monarchy, that Kamehameha the First, once built,

(10:49):
had begun to crumble. Americans and Europeans kept arriving and
carving out territories. The churches, homes, and sugar cane fields
cropped up, and the missionaries baptized as Liliu and called
her Lydia. After her fourth birthday, Liliu was sent to
a missionary school to civilize the indigenous children. The founders

(11:09):
allowed only short and infrequent visits with their families. Native
customs weren't allowed. Their attire was deemed overtly sexual, so
students clothing reflected a more European style of dress. While
the children were allowed to learn to speak, read, and
write in Hawaiian, they were also given traditional European courses
and Christian religious teachings. King Kameha the Third sent emissaries

(11:34):
to France, England, and the United States to establish his
position and Hawaiian sovereignty. He succeeded in eighteen forty two,
though it would not last. Foreign powers began to eye
the islands for themselves. Disease, potential threats from the West,
and an attempted attack from the British became the backdrop
for Liliu's childhood. Approximately three hundred thousand indigenous people had

(11:58):
lived on the islands when Cook first arrived. By eighteen
fifty three, only seventy thousand remained. Mahemeha the third died
from smallpox in eighteen fifty four. Liliu's older brothers, Princess
Alexander Leeholiho and Luck Mehemeha became king. Kamehameha the fourth
and fifth, respectively, both were against American annexation. Liliyu, now

(12:22):
an adult, watched the proceedings within the king's court. With
her lineage, she had been groomed to rule. After Kamehameha
the Third died, she met with the surviving king's adviser,
John Owen Dominus in eighteen sixty. Two years later the
pair married. The marriage turned sour when John fathered a
child with one of Liliu's servants. She busied herself with

(12:45):
charity projects and political matters. Though a woman, her lineage
made her opinion equally valued. In eighteen seventy three, King
Kamehameha the fifth died, leaving no heirs. The Hawaiian constitution
called for an election. Kamehameha the Fourth's widow, Queen Emma,
and Lili's brother David Cala Cola, were their choices, David

(13:08):
won the election. King Calaca remained childless, and Liliu became
the heir presumptive. From then on, people referred to her
as Princess Liliu Kalani. Meanwhile, sugarcane and pineapple production companies
owned by colonists pushed for more power over the royal family.
Along with the princess's new status came more responsibility, and

(13:30):
she had more say when it came to political matters
and acted as regent whenever King Kalacoa traveled. At times
had become uneasy, though Queen Emma's supporters looked for ways
to move her back into power, and American plantation owners
sought to remove all authority from the Hawaiian government. Princess

(13:56):
Liliu Kalani stayed busy with speeches, handling the smallpox epidemic
and the logistics of a leprosy hospital in Cacacko. She
funded a bank for women and the school to educate
young women. In a time when women had few rights
and fewer options, the princess and her sister were exceptions.
Married women weren't allowed to own land, and their husbands

(14:19):
managed all of their business affairs, but the sisters maintained
control of their finances and business decisions. Lilio Kalani visited
England in seven her Queen Victoria's jubilee. Buckingham Palace treated
her as a monarch equal to their own. During the trip,
she received word of a coup. Back in Hawaii, Armed

(14:39):
plantation owners had forced their way onto King Colacoa's property.
They made him sign over power from the monarchy through
the threat of death, granting voting rights to non native
landowning colonists. The document that had drafted also granted the
United States control over Pearl Harbor. This document granted more
commer sial rights to plantation owners, reduced the right to

(15:02):
vote for lower income Native Hawaiians, and excluded Asian immigrants
who had come to work the plantations. With his signature,
three out of four Native Hawaiians lost their right to vote.
It's been nicknamed the Bayonet Constitution because it was signed
at gunpoint. Liliu Klanni returned to find her brother in
ailing health. Still, he traveled to the US to discuss

(15:25):
a tariff that had severely hindered the sugar industry. He
died in San Francisco on January. News of his death
didn't reach the islands until the ship returned a week later.
The Hawaiians held a traditional funeral ritual and the crowned
Liliu Klanni on January twenty nine. She became Hawaii's first

(15:47):
ruling queen. For the next few weeks, she remained in
mourning for her brother. Afterward, she sought to return the
power that had been stolen from the monarchy. The battle
took two years. She planned to reinstate her people into
control over both politics and the Hawaiian economy. The plantation
owners took to the press in a smear campaign. None

(16:09):
of it phazed her, and she pushed forward. A tragedy
struck again when her husband, who was also o wah
Whu's governor, died on August. While the two didn't have
a good marriage, he had supported his wife's endeavors. The
plantation owners, including one Sandford B. Dole, worried a return

(16:29):
to the monarchy would affect their profits. Aside from being
a landowner, Dole was a lawyer who had been appointed
as an associate justice on the Hawaiian Supreme Court. Sandford's cousin, James,
owned the Dole Food Company, and both men had a
substantial interest in keeping Hawaiian land in American control, and

(16:50):
both men had plenty of power. Sandford was part of
a clan of business men called the Committee of Safety,
who in January of plotted a coup. Their leader, politician
and lawyer Lauren A. Thurston, set to work. They gained
support from other US politicians and the captain of a

(17:11):
US worship anchored in Honolulu Harbor. By January fourteenth of
that year, Lilio Kalani had received over sixty hundred signatures
to repeal the document her brother had been forced to sign,
and she proposed a new constitution. But all was not
as it seemed. One of her ministers made a copy
of the new constitution and sent it to Thurston. By

(17:34):
January six the Committee of Safety held a public meeting
to denounce the queen. Some of her council fled the palace,
fearing for their safety. Outside, indigenous Hawaiians gathered. They were
tired of foreign powers buying off their officials and thwarting
the Queen's efforts. A hundred and sixty two US sailors
and marines arrived that day support the coup. Hawaiian attempts

(17:58):
to resolve the conflict with an negotiation failed. The next day,
Thurston and his men gathered outside the court house demanding
that the queen stepped down. He declared martial law and
for the queen to be removed. The remaining council advised
her to surrender control to the U. S. Government instead
of the committee. It should be noted that the plantation
owners were American, but that the U. S. Government didn't

(18:21):
officially sanction the coup. By midnight, Lilio Klannie had signed
over her control to what she thought was the United States,
though she had been betrayed once more. Sandford Dole became
the head of the new government. He immediately pushed to
have Hawaii annexed. In February, President Benjamin Harrison agreed. When

(18:43):
Grover Cleveland took office a month later, he ordered an investigation.
The commissioner reported what had happened and that the people
supported the queen, not Sandford's government. Cleveland ordered that Lilio
Klanni be reinstated, but only if she granted amnesty to
those involved with the coup. Dole refused to hand over
his power, and even when Liliuklawi agreed and President Cleveland

(19:07):
didn't intervene, and Sandford Dole proclaimed himself president of the
newly formed Republic of Hawaii. Paradise had been forcefully taken,
and without help from President Cleveland, Hawaii no longer belonged
to the indigenous people, and without voting rights, they had

(19:30):
no means to get it back. In December of Congress
realized they had a problem that allowed American citizens to
overthrow a foreign government and had taken control by threat
of war. Dole clung to his ill begotten power while
Congress talked about justice. The indigenous people felt by they

(19:51):
had waited long enough for the president to act. Hawaiian
royalists plotted to take back control. Their rebellion failed. Dole's
got namant had the rebels and the queen arrested for treason.
The Republic offered her a deal abdicate and saved the
lives of six of her people, who faced a death sentence.
She agreed and was heavily fined and sentenced to five

(20:15):
years of hard labor. Afterwards, she remained under house arrest.
A year later, Dole announced that he had generously pardoned
the Leio Kalani without any children of her own. She
traveled to Washington with her niece, whom she designated as
her heir. Her attempts to convince the president to restore
Hawaii's independence failed. The United States and x Hawaii in

(20:38):
under the McKinley administration and treated it as a US territory.
Hawaii became the fiftieth U S state in nineteen fifty nine.
Congress offered a formal apology to Hawaiians in Today, native
Hawaiians remain the only indigenous people in the United States
to not have political sovereignty. A tourism flourished when Hawaii

(20:59):
became a date. Air travel made it easier for the
middle class to visit. Tourism outstripped both the pineapple and
sugar industries in terms of income. Hotels, shops, high rises,
and golf courses have cropped up, and the beaches are crowded.
While it's still a paradise, there is a debate over
who's paradise. A one cultural icon from the past remains

(21:22):
strong though. The song Looha Oi is still sung today
and has been recorded by many musicians. It's a song
of farewell and the hopes for reunion. As the story
behind the melody goes, it was written in the late
eighteen seventies. A young woman had taken a trip on
horseback with a group of others at a ranch belonging

(21:43):
to Colonel James Boyd. At the end of the ride,
she watched as he and a close friend shared an
embrace and a passionate kiss. The lovers parted reluctantly. The
longing and affection shared between the two inspired the young
woman to write the words to the melody that we
all know today. Years later, she would sing the song
again when control over Hawaii was stripped from her people.

(22:07):
That woman, it's none other than Queen Juliu Kalani. There's
more to this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor
break to hear all about it. Very few came to

(22:31):
the peninsula, at least willingly. King kameh Mayha the Fifth
Law went into effect on January three, eight six, and
families were ripped apart. Surrounded by rough seas and steep
sea cliffs. The topography of the Peninsula of law Papa
on the island of Molokai lent itself to seclusion. Yet

(22:53):
there are long stretches of sandy beaches. While it was
and still is a natural Paradise, a yse fifth largest island,
housed a lepre colony in the eighteen hundreds. Humans have
been afflicted with leprosy for millennia. The disease is often disfiguring,
causing sores, and internally it causes nerve damage. Although not

(23:15):
the most contagious, repeated exposure raises the risk. When it
first appeared in early history, people believed the disease was
a curse or punishment from the gods. Others thought leprosy
was hereditary and shunned entire families if one member fell ill.
Research suggests that leprosy, now known to be caused by
bacteria called microbacteri in leprey, has been around since humans

(23:40):
have been human. It's followed roots of migration in trade
and war for over forty thousand years. Until nineteen forty,
there was no cure or effective treatment in medieval Europe.
Those afflicted often walked on a different side of the
road than others, or rang a bell or war clothing
to warn others to keep their distance, and mostly though

(24:02):
people were quarantined for life. This is where the island
of Molokai comes in. No one knows when leprosy was
introduced to Hawaii. It may have arrived multiple times, but
starting in the eighteen twenties, European missionaries began reporting leprosy
like symptoms on the islands, and by the eighteen sixties,

(24:23):
with the population growing through immigration and colonization, it was
considered enough of a problem that may have the Fifth
and his Board of Health passed the Act to prevent
the spread of leprosy. It created a policy of permanent
segregation that would send over eight thousand people with leprosy
to live out their lives on call pop U Peninsula
on Molokai. Hawaiians sometimes called it the disease that separates families,

(24:48):
and children fell victim to it more often than adults.
One father, Damon, saw his calling on the island in
eighteen fifty eight. He and his brother were part of
the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Belgium. His
brother had been asked to go to Hawaii, but fell ill.
Damien took his place. He first arrived in eighteen sixty

(25:09):
three and ministered to the people on the Big Island
for ten years until the colony on Molokai needed help.
He and three other priests alternated caring for those sent
to live on the peninsula. He traveled to the island
by boat along with cattle and fifty patients. The colony
petitioned to have a full time priest lived with them,

(25:29):
and Father Damon never hesitated. He wrote to his superiors
that he would not be leaving the island. The people
needed him. They had come to the island expecting the
worst and feeling they'd been sent there to die. Father
Damon became determined to give them a place to live.
He learned their language and helped build homes. Together with
the patients, he planted gardens and trees. He organized schools

(25:54):
for the children when he wasn't busy tending to residence
medical needs. The children enjoyed the usual thing that had
on the Big Island, like bands and choirs, and when
people died, he helped bury them. He returned to the
Big Island to campaign for more funding. He relentlessly championed
better conditions, more supplies, and clothing. His tireless work attracted

(26:17):
worldwide attention, shedding light on leprosy and the colony on Molokai.
For twelve years, he lived with the people on Molokai
before he contracted leprosy himself. The Health Board certified him
as an inmate on March thirty of eighteen eighty six.
Though he could no longer leave the island, he stated
that he was with his people and happy. The disease

(26:40):
caught up with him three years later, and he died
at the age of forty nine on April fifteenth of
eighteen eighty nine. The colony, the Kingdom of Hawaii, and
the world mourned his death. In two thousand nine, Father
Damon was named the patron Saint of people with leprosy. Today,
leprosy is more commonly called Hanson's disease. It's now relatively rare,

(27:01):
as there are treatments, manicure courses of antibiotics and steroids.
Although the forced relocation of people with leprosy to Molokai
ended in the nineteen sixties, of freeing the population there,
six or so of the law survivors still choose to
make the island home of all the islands, Molokai is

(27:21):
said to retain much of its original beauty and indigenous roots.
The people who live there celebrate their connection with nature.
The land or aena, is so important to Hawaiians that
they believe it should be treated with the utmost respect.
For every commercial city full of hustle, bustle and modern
ways of life, there are places where nature and the

(27:43):
aena remain relatively untouched. Guides still navigate by the stars
like their ancestors. At night. There are celebrations with food, music,
and dancing. Residents and visitors are frequently moved to say
the places like kloup op up on Molokai, our paradise found.

(28:12):
American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbond. This episode was
written by Michelle Muto, researched by Alexander Steed, and produced
by Jesse Funk and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Monkey,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick, and special thanks to Elijah McShane.
To learn more about the show, visit Grim and Mild
dot com. Or more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit

(28:33):
the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.