HAWAIIAN PARADISE?

                                             HAWAIIAN PARADISE?

Hawaii's predominant image is as a tropical paradise, "the loveliest chain of islands anchored in any sea," islands blessed by warm, sunny weather, sandy beaches, and colorful foliage in bloom nearly all year. These attractions are basically still there.

My own childhood began just steps from Waikiki beach, at a time when only three hotels marred the view of Honolulu's beaches--the Royal Hawaiian, the Halekalani, and the Moana. The tourist industry had not yet jinned up to its full frenzy' seeking to attract visitors from around the globe.

Today Hawai'i is a very different place from my idyllic childhood home. The influx of tourists has led to nearly every foot of shoreline being covered by high rises and enormous McMansions, so that in many parts of the Islands the ocean is barely visible. Though initially by law all beach front was public access, today estate owners often limit public beach access if they can get away with it. Traffic on Oahu and Maui is so congested that residents try to avoid the roads in the afternoon if they possibly can.

Real estate and food prices are so high that few can now afford to move there. In some areas the ocean is now so polluted that if you venture into the water with a cut on your finger, it will become infected. No longer do you see tiny crabs running in the sand, as was true thirty years ago, and corals are rapidy dying, turning white. A few years go I moved to Maui in search of my Hawaiian childhood roots. I was so shocked at food prices that for the first two weeks I ate nothing but canned mackerel probably meant for cats.

I encountered ethnic tensions that had never affected me as a child, though no doubt they were there but less on the surface.In Honolulu  I was stunned to be twice verbally abused in public spaces in Honolulu by Japanese-Americans, this especially since many of my closest friends are Japanese-American. As a child my main concern was getting to the beach on Saturday, and I had no awareness of tensions that might have festered beneath the surface.

One major exception to the relative absence of ethnic tension in pre-war Hawai'i was the Massie affair of 1933.  Navy officers beat up local kids and in one case killed a Hawaiian boy whose only crime was to take to the hospital a Navy wife who lay raped and beaten on the ground (by a Nvy officer). Clarence Darrow defended the Navy culprits, who were further protected by Hawaii's governor, then by the U.S. government, and the Navy criminals were never prosecuted.

Whatever visitors may encounter today, for the years following the arrival of missionaries, sailors, and others in the 1820s and '30s and subsequently, Hawaiian language, hula, and culture generally were systematically
suppressed by the missionary onslaught. Following the arrival of sailors and others, diseases for which Hawaiians had no immunity wiped out a large percentage of the Hawaiian population.

Blowback from the Massie case and from the suppresion of Hawaiian culture, added to the appropriation of land by missionaries and their children on a large scale, added to Hawaiian grievances. The result was the
Hawaaiian Renaissance in the 1970's and earlier. Hawaiian immersion schools today are flourishing, and the Renaiissance has led to a resurgence of Hawaiian culture generally. On Maui the Maui Arts and Cultural Center features programs highlighting Hawaiian music, hula, and other cultural treasures.

On the Big Island in public schools, haole kids are regularly beaten up. Some haole parents choose to home school their children rather than have them exposed to abuse. In addition, one in six adults are  forty percent rate of functional illiteracy. Missionary children and other early haole residents chose to send theirf children to the mainland for college after graduating from private schools, and the public school system therefore lacked support. Today one in six adults in Hawai'i are functionally illiterate.

The Hawaiian term for caucasions is 'haole', literally 'without spirit or the breath of life.' The Hawaiian political movement seeks to recover the language, hula and culture that were repressed by the onslaught of missionaries, sailors, and all who followed in the 1820's and '30's. After the Great Mahele law of 1854, designed by missionary Dr. Judd, which for the first time permitted sale and purchase of land, (all of which had belonged to the king,) missionaries and their children appropriated land on a large scale, mostly the best land on each island. This in turn was followed by the plantation economy, based on sugar and pineapple cultivation. These colonial plantations were in most cases owned by missionary descendants, the so-called Big Five.

A particular focus of the political movement in the 1970's was Navy bombing practice on the island of Kaho'olawe, bombing that continued from the end of World War II until 1991, destroying sacred sites and all human habitation there. Today Hawaiians control access to the island and are cleaning up munitions on one corner of the island, using the space for cultural education of Hawaiian children. Some groups in the political movement advocate sovereignty, revival of the monarchy, or even independence.

In 1991 the Congregational Church sent its leader to Honolulu and Maui Hawaiian churches to apologize for its role in suppressions of Hawaiian culture. This apology recognized the church's responsibility but did little to assuage Hawaiian grievances. Be it noted that although the U.S. government issued an apology for internment of Japanese Americans and authorized compensation of $20,000 for each internee, the government has never apologized to Hawaiians or to other Native Americans for genocide, massacres, and taking children from their parents.

It is regrettable that tourists seldom take the time or effort to learn about Hawaiian culture and history.
Despite some negative features of life in Hawai'i, tourists still come, and I still hope to re-visit my Hawaiian home. If you would like to read further about things that happen there that go unreported in the media,
take a look at my e-book novel, Cane Fires, or its earlier version, Sugar and Smoke, under a pen name, Napua Chapman. (available on Amazon).