The geographical location of Hawai‘i as a gateway to Asia and the Pacific has made it a valuable centerpiece in terms of U.S. military enterprise in the Islands. Indeed, today Hawai‘i is the most densely militarized state in the United States. During the nineteenth century as the key powers in Europe began carving up the Pacific for strategic and commercial purposes, the United States was making its own expansionist overtures in the region—with special focus on the Hawaiian Islands—using the guise of protection as an excuse for diplomatic encroachment. For instance, in his 1842 address to
Congress, President John Tyler asserted America’s claim to Hawai‘i as a territory within the U.S. sphere of economic and political influence, citing the need to protect the Islands from unscrupulous powers who would otherwise no doubt try to take possession of it. As history bears witness, such acts of imperial benevolence were rooted in an American ideology of Manifest Destiny that saw indigenous peoples and lands as fodder for the fledgling nation’s own protection and advancement.22
20 Kauanui, Hawaiian Blood, 9. 21 Merry, Colonizing Hawai‘i, 23.
22 To read the full transcript of the speech, see John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, “John Tyler: Special Message,” The American Presidency Project, December 30, 1842,
Although, as Osorio argues, the U.S. colonization of Hawai‘i transpired as a
gradual process of systematic and structural changes that ultimately culminated in a loss of power for Kānaka Maoli, it is equally true that the military was, at key moments in Hawai‘i’s colonial history, mobilized as the coercive arm of the United States. For instance, on the day the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown,23 160 marines from the warship USS Boston marched on Honolulu and mounted artillery weapons in strategic areas throughout the city. The move was tactical: the presence of a cadre of armed military personnel was designed to intimidate the Kanaka Maoli population and to pressure Queen Lili‘uokalani to acquiesce to the conspirators’ demands. The military was also highly visible during the formal ratification of Hawai‘i’s illegal annexation to the United States. On the morning of August 12, 1898, troops from the USS
Philadelphia assembled to preside over the annexation ceremony held at ‘Iolani Palace, the seat of power for the Hawaiian monarchs. One photograph taken on the day shows the grounds of the palace occupied by hundreds of American troops (Fig 1.1). Oriented in orderly lines, in some parts five or six rows deep, teams of uniformed men stand at attention in front of the central dais. Their presence is at once a visible declaration of U.S. military prowess as well as a threatening deterrent against any thought of Native reprisal.
Less than a week after the annexation ceremony, 1,300 U.S. troops descended on Honolulu to establish the first permanent garrison in Hawai‘i.24 Two years later, in 1900, the body of water known to Hawaiians as Ka Awalau o Pu‘uloa (translated as The Many Harbors of Pu‘uloa) was appropriated and over the next several years was
transformed into what is today known as Pearl Harbor, the most strategically important naval base in the United States. In the years following annexation, a string of military installations emerged across the Islands, including Fort Shafter, Fort Weaver, Schofield Barracks, Fort Ruger, Fort Armstrong, Fort DeRussy, and Fort Kamehameha, Kāne‘ohe Marine Corps Station, Wheeler Air Force Base—all on O‘ahu alone. They remain in operation today. Installations on neighboring islands include the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands on Kaua‘i and Pōhakuloa Training Area on Hawai‘i Island. As the principal hub of U.S. national military defense, Hawai‘i serves as headquarters to the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM)—located at Camp Smith on the island of O‘ahu. Subsumed under the authority of USPACOM, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the U.S.
23 This was done at the request of John L. Stevens.
24 Adria L. Imada,“The Army Learns to Luau: Imperial Hospitality and Military Photography in Hawai‘i.” The Contemporary Pacific. 20, no. 2 (2008): 332.
Pacific Air Forces, the U.S. Army Pacific, and the U.S. Marine Forces are all based in Hawai‘i.
The militarization of Hawai‘i has necessitated the accumulation of tens of
thousands of acres of land to support military infrastructure. In the wake of Hawai‘i’s annexation to the United States, 1.8 million acres of national and Crown lands were seized by the military.25At statehood, these “ceded lands” were transferred to the fledgling State of Hawai‘i, of which the military retained 180,000 acres. A further 30,000 acres was leased back to the military by the state, in some cases for the nominal fee of just one dollar for the entire term of the lease.26 As of 2006 the military was in control of 5 percent of Hawai‘i’s total land mass.27
Military buildup has also involved the influx of tens of thousands of military personnel and their dependents to the Islands. In 2005 there were 32,629 military (i.e., army, navy, marine corps, and air force) personnel stationed in Hawai‘i along with 53,264 military dependents, amounting to 6 percent of Hawai‘i’s population at that time (i.e., 1,275,194).28 The most recent figures available indicate that in 2010 the number of military personnel increased to 38,755.29 As of 2012, veterans make up an estimated 10 percent of Hawai‘i’s total population.30 In this sense, the transformation of Hawai‘i from Native homeland to “militarized outpost of empire” is as much about the persistent population transfer of military people and their families to the Islands as it is about the consolidation and display of national military assets.31
In Oh, Say, Can You See? The Semiotics of the Military in Hawai‘i (1999), Kathy Ferguson and Phyllis Turnbull observe that despite the pervasive presence of the U.S. military in Hawai‘i, a “series of narratives of naturalization and reassurance” help
25 Ibid., 333.
26 Kyle Kajihiro, “The Militarizing of Hawai‘i: Occupation, Accommodation, and Resistance,” in Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawai‘i (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008), 176. The duration of military leases is 65 years.
27 Imada, “The Army Learns to Luau,” 333.
28 Hawai‘i StateDepartment of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism(DBEDT), “National Defense.” Accessed June 20, 2013. http://dbedt.hawaii.gov/economic/databook/2010- individual/_10/.
29 Hawai‘i StateDepartment of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism(DBEDT), “National Defense.” Accessed June 20, 2013. http://dbedt.hawaii.gov/economic/databook/2010- individual/_10/. 2010 figures enumerating military dependants are not available.
30 Chad Blair, “Abercrombie: 10 Percent of Hawaii Are Veterans,” Civil Beat, February 6, 2013, http://www.civilbeat.com/fact_checks/2013/02/06/18245-fact-check-abercrombie-10- percent-of-hawaii-residents-are-veterans/. 2012 Census data puts Hawai‘i’s population at 1, 392, 313.
mitigate public perceptions.32 One such narrative—Military Appreciation Month—is of particular interest because it entails an annual statewide acknowledgment of the U.S. military in the Islands. Inaugurated in 1985 by the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai‘i, during the entire month of May each year the State of Hawai‘i honors military
personnel and their families with parades, concerts, and other celebratory events. On a recent Hawai‘i Army Weekly website posting, an invitation was extended to Hawai‘i residents:
Please join us as we celebrate the military’s presence in the islands and extend our deepest appreciation for its vital contributions to the social, cultural, and economic well-being of our Ohana, along with a heartfelt
Mahalo for protecting our nation, Islands and families.33
Such acts of recognition on a collective level serve as consciousness-shaping touchstones that affirm in the public mind the military as righteous and good. In
addition, allusions to the military as ‘ohana (family) deploys Kanaka Maoli traditions of kinship connection, thereby further naturalizing military belonging in the Islands. Military Appreciation Month is just one brief example of how such powers of persuasion operate to direct in very narrow but predetermined ways people’s
understandings of militarism in Hawai‘i. As Cynthia Enloe notes, it is difficult to get a handle on militarism and uproot it because “in its everyday forms it scarcely looks life threatening.”34
Of course the militarization of Hawai‘i has been and will continue to be a constant and present threat, particularly in relation to the devastating impact it has on the land and, by extension, on Kānaka Maoli. Kyle Kajihiro states that the military “has left a trail of environmental disasters” through its ceaseless use of the land for military
training activities (such as live-fire bombing and artillery exercises), waste disposal, and large-scale construction of facilities.35 Places like Kaho‘olawe Island, Mākua Valley, and Hālawa Valley on the island of O‘ahu, and Pōhakuloa on Hawai‘i Island—all of them rich in terms of the Islands’ diverse cultural and natural heritage—bear deep scars of destruction as a result of being bombed, shot at, poisoned with toxic waste, and
32 Kathy E. Ferguson and Phyllis Turnbull, Oh, Say, Can You See? The Semiotics of the Military
in Hawai‘i (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), xiii.
33 Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, “Hawaii Military Appreciation Month,” Military Affairs, accessed May 21, 2013, http://cochawaii.com/hawaiimilitaryappreciationmonth_new.asp. 34 Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000), 3.
burned.36 Incredibly, these ruinous activities are neatly concealed by the numerous and very public environmental awards the military receives from the State each year and the many philanthropic projects it sponsors, such as beach cleanups. The status of twenty- first century world politics and the realignment of the strategic focus of the U.S. toward Asia and the Pacific in response to global shifts only serve to foreshadow what will likely entail intensified militarization in Hawai‘i in particular, and the Pacific region in general, in the near future.37