Although we already know some of the history behind how Hawaii came to be the 50th state, when I saw in the newspaper that there was going to be a series of costumed performers explaining how the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, I felt we needed to go. I confess I thought it would be something to blog about. Here is a link to a National Archives Teachers Guide to teach this part of Hawaiian history.
We made a reservation for this past Sunday. It's a good thing we did because the groups were packed!
Our docent took us to seven stations where we would meet costumed actors who would explain a part of the history to us.
From the very start we were blown away by the highly skilled actors' performances. They took us back to 1893 when illegal and immoral machinations led to the Hawaiian people losing their monarchy and sovereign nation.
Will Ha'o as Mr. Ah Sing explained how Caucasians took away his right (along with all other non-whites) to vote.
It was explained that the descendents of missionaries who brought Christianity to the islands now took away their kingdom that belonged to the Hawaiian people.
It was because those descendents considered themselves above the Hawaiian people and were motivated by the greed of the sugar industry.
The overwhelming majority of Hawaiian people signed petitions to the Queen not to be annexed to the United States. Hawaii had already been recognized as a sovereign country by other nations such as England, France, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Tahiti, Samoa, etc.
This actress portrayed Queen Liliuokalani who tried her best to help her people who wanted their own constitution rather than what the businessmen had written up, taking away the rights of the Hawaiian people.
There was a rebellion and the Queen was accused of treason and held prisoner in the Iolani Palace.
She was told that if she did not abdicate, her supporters would be killed.
The businessmen (Provisional Government) then asked the United States to annex Hawaii (they wanted a sugar farm subsidy which they couldn't get if Hawaii was not part of the U.S.) but President Grover Cleveland refused and sent representatives to Hawaii to discover those who were responsible for the illegal overthrow which he considered "an act of war."
The businessmen realized that they'd better withdraw their request for the annexation. In 1896, the Hawaiian language is banned in schools.
The Hawaii Provisional Government now asked President McKinley for the annexation.
In 1898, the Spanish American war began and the U.S. needed a base for military purposes.
On August 12, 1898 Hawaii is annexed to the U.S.
There was this actor portraying a Japanese plantation worker. Like many other immigrant workers, they supported the monarchy who tried to protect them. Here Mr. Suzuki tells of white plantation owners who brought them over promising good living conditions and wages. Instead, they were often worked to death and had to live in terrible conditions. When one plantation owner heard about a worker who died, he was reported as saying it's a good thing it wasn't his mule because the mule was more valuable.
When Queen Liliuokalani heard about all these injustices, she forced the plantation owners to abide by the contracts they'd written. Because of this, immigrant workers supported the Queen.
I hope I'm being accurate here. There are too many details for me to record in this post.
I learned so much that I didn't know. It was just all so much worse than I thought.
It is a terrible, shameful part of Hawaiian and U.S. history.
This all happened only 119 years ago.
I don't know what you can do to redress a wrong of such magnitude except that I hope we can all learn from it by bringing it out into the open so it doesn't happen again.
We made a reservation for this past Sunday. It's a good thing we did because the groups were packed!
Our docent took us to seven stations where we would meet costumed actors who would explain a part of the history to us.
From the very start we were blown away by the highly skilled actors' performances. They took us back to 1893 when illegal and immoral machinations led to the Hawaiian people losing their monarchy and sovereign nation.
Will Ha'o as Mr. Ah Sing explained how Caucasians took away his right (along with all other non-whites) to vote.
It was explained that the descendents of missionaries who brought Christianity to the islands now took away their kingdom that belonged to the Hawaiian people.
It was because those descendents considered themselves above the Hawaiian people and were motivated by the greed of the sugar industry.
The overwhelming majority of Hawaiian people signed petitions to the Queen not to be annexed to the United States. Hawaii had already been recognized as a sovereign country by other nations such as England, France, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Tahiti, Samoa, etc.
This actress portrayed Queen Liliuokalani who tried her best to help her people who wanted their own constitution rather than what the businessmen had written up, taking away the rights of the Hawaiian people.
There was a rebellion and the Queen was accused of treason and held prisoner in the Iolani Palace.
She was told that if she did not abdicate, her supporters would be killed.
The businessmen (Provisional Government) then asked the United States to annex Hawaii (they wanted a sugar farm subsidy which they couldn't get if Hawaii was not part of the U.S.) but President Grover Cleveland refused and sent representatives to Hawaii to discover those who were responsible for the illegal overthrow which he considered "an act of war."
The businessmen realized that they'd better withdraw their request for the annexation. In 1896, the Hawaiian language is banned in schools.
The Hawaii Provisional Government now asked President McKinley for the annexation.
In 1898, the Spanish American war began and the U.S. needed a base for military purposes.
On August 12, 1898 Hawaii is annexed to the U.S.
There was this actor portraying a Japanese plantation worker. Like many other immigrant workers, they supported the monarchy who tried to protect them. Here Mr. Suzuki tells of white plantation owners who brought them over promising good living conditions and wages. Instead, they were often worked to death and had to live in terrible conditions. When one plantation owner heard about a worker who died, he was reported as saying it's a good thing it wasn't his mule because the mule was more valuable.
When Queen Liliuokalani heard about all these injustices, she forced the plantation owners to abide by the contracts they'd written. Because of this, immigrant workers supported the Queen.
I hope I'm being accurate here. There are too many details for me to record in this post.
I learned so much that I didn't know. It was just all so much worse than I thought.
It is a terrible, shameful part of Hawaiian and U.S. history.
This all happened only 119 years ago.
I don't know what you can do to redress a wrong of such magnitude except that I hope we can all learn from it by bringing it out into the open so it doesn't happen again.
