The Mystery of Hawaiian History

Correcting historical revisionism and misconceptions promoted by the Akaka Bill

“Pacific Gibraltar” — important new book on Hawaiian history

Apr 4

Posted by Ken Conklin in Commentary, Reference, Reviews, Uncategorized | No Comments

In 2011 a major book was published by a highly respected historian who analyzed the Hawaiian revolution and annexation.

William M. Morgan Ph.D., PACIFIC GIBRALTAR: U.S. – JAPANESE RIVALRY OVER THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII, 1885-1898 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011). It is available at “Bookends” in Kailua, and amazon.com. Sixteen copies are scattered around various branches of the Hawaii Public Library. A detailed book review, with many lengthy quotes from each chapter, is at
http://tinyurl.com/8y2s6o5

Most Hawaii readers will be surprised by details about Grover Cleveland’s attempt to overthrow President Dole and restore the Hawaiian monarchy through a combination of diplomatic and military intimidation in mid to late 1893; and by the fact that Congress considered it perfectly proper to use joint resolution in 1898 as the method of ratifying Hawaii’s five-year-long eager request for annexation.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the book is the seriousness of Japan’s diplomatic maneuvering — and deployment of multiple warships in Honolulu as a show of force — to block annexation and to demand voting rights for Japanese living in Hawaii. The U.S., Hawaii, and Britain were worried Japan could gain political control of Hawaii through demographic conquest, and/or an imminent Japanese military occupation of Hawaii. The U.S. and Britain counteracted Japan’s multiple warships by their own deployments of warships in Honolulu harbor.

The author, William Michael Morgan (no relation to Senator James T. Morgan of the 1894 Morgan Report), has a Ph.D. in History from Claremont Graduate University. According to information about his book at amazon.com, Dr. Morgan was a Foreign Service officer in the Department of State for more than 30 years, and lived in Japan for 13 years, first as a Marine lieutenant in 1971-72 and then three assignments in the Foreign Service. His State Department domestic jobs included Director of the Japan-Korea desk of the old U.S. Information Agency, Acting Director of the International Visitor Leadership Program, and Director of Analysis for East Asia and the Pacific in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. During 2007-09, he taught U.S.-Japan relations and National Security and Public Diplomacy at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service while on “detail” from the State Department.

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Corboy lawsuit regarding racial discrimination in Hawaii property tax rates reaches the U.S. Supreme Court

Dec 27

Posted by Ken Conklin in Uncategorized | No Comments

Dr. John M. Corboy, President of the Hawaiian Eye Foundation, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against racial discrimination in Hawaii’s property tax rates. The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act passed by Congress in 1921 was incorporated into the State of Hawaii Constitution under terms of the act whereby Hawaii was admitted to full statehood in 1959. Under terms of HHCA, continuing to today, nobody can receive a new lease for a house on the homesteads unless he/she has at least 50% Hawaiian native blood quantum; and nobody can inherit such a lease without at least 25% native blood quantum.

HHCA act requires that every house on Hawaiian homelands must pay zero property tax for its first seven years. Thereafter, every county in Hawaii has passed ordinances setting the annual property tax for the homesteads at various flat rates between $25 to $150. Other houses of comparable size but not on a homestead must pay property taxes that are far higher. Thus there is racial discrimination by state and county governments in setting property taxes. This discrimination violates the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause.

The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled 5-0 that plaintiffs lack standing because they failed to apply for a homestead lease (even though the could never get a lease because they have no native ancestry and thus lack the 50% native blood quantum). Plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On December 12 the Court issued an order requesting a brief from the U.S. Solicitor General on behalf of the Attorney General. Thus the Court is actively considering whether to hear the case, even while hundreds of other requests for hearings in other lawsuits have been summarily rejected without explanation.

A webpage is compiling news reports and commentaries about this lawsuit, some of which include links to legal documents. See
http://tinyurl.com/7nsoou8

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Let’s use the budget crisis to kill racial entitlement programs.

Sep 11

Posted by Ken Conklin in Uncategorized | No Comments

Our government’s fiscal crisis offers a rare opportunity to make deep budget cuts while also eliminating harmful social programs. As Rahm Emanuel famously said: “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.”[1] Racial entitlements have wasted billions of dollars. But what’s worse is that they have established powerful bureaucracies devoted to racial separatism, tearing apart our society and even threatening to rip the 50th star off the flag.

A new webpage discusses Hawaii’s plethora of racial entitlement programs, and provides links to other webpages where hundreds of them are listed and described. The final paragraph asks people to contact members of Congress asking them to abolish the racial entitlement programs as part of the massive budget cutting that must be done to save America from bankruptcy.

Ten years ago on September 11, 2001 some very brave and patriotic passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 stormed the cockpit to fight back against terrorists who had hijacked their airplane as a weapon to destroy the Capitol or White House. Today Hawaii citizens, state legislators, and all 535 members of Congress should fight back against those who have hijacked government money as a weapon to push for racial separatism. In the words of heroic passenger Todd Beamer when rallying his fellow passengers to attack the cockpit: “Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll!” Send this essay to House and Senate Republicans, members of the Democrat “Blue Dog” caucus, and all members of the special super-committee of 12 responsible for making deep budget cuts. Tell them there are detailed lists of Hawaii’s racial entitlement programs linked through footnotes in the extended essay at
http://tinyurl.com/3vyecvf

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Debunking Keanu Sai’s new “Executive Agreements” scam

Sep 11

Posted by Ken Conklin in Uncategorized | No Comments

David Keanu Sai has produced three major scams in Hawaii during a period of about 20 years. Each one provided fuel to feed the next. Each one was founded on a comprehensive but badly twisted view of Hawaiian history. Each one gave the appearance of intellectual insight and rigor, which dazzled hundreds of gullible people into spending thousands of dollars apiece on bogus legal documents and donations to “the cause” of Hawaiian sovereignty. Some people relied on Sai’s theories to stop paying the mortgages on their homes, and eventually lost them. Innocent homeowners found that they were unable to sell their homes or refinance them because bogus documents had been filed at the Bureau of Conveyances which specifically targeted their property and placed a “cloud” on their titles.

The first scam became known as “Perfect Title” because it was based on Sai’s claim that his historical research and his authority as self-proclaimed Acting Regent of the Kingdom of Hawaii could bring to perfection a property deed that would otherwise lack validity. According to Sai, transfers of land title after the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy were not valid because the overthrow was illegal and there were no lawfully constituted government authorities to certify such transfers throughout all the years from then to now.

The second scam became known as “World Court” because Sai and his zealous followers claimed that Keanu Sai and Lance Larsen had taken a case to the World Court at the Hague, which resulted in that Court confirming the continued existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii as an independent nation under a century-long belligerent military occupation by the United States.

The most recent, third scam, is becoming known as “Executive Agreements” because it is based on Sai’s claim that there were a pair of executive agreements between Queen Liliuokalani and President Grover Cleveland whereby Liliuokalani turned over her governing authority temporarily to President Cleveland, and then a few months later Cleveland promised to put her back on the throne in return for her promise to give amnesty to the revolutionaries who had overthrown her. According to Sai, an executive agreement between two heads of state has the same force and effect as a treaty, and remains binding on all successors of those heads of state. Thus President Obama is obligated to fulfill President Cleveland’s end of the bargain with Liliuokalani by restoring the Kingdom of Hawaii to the powers it has always had, and continues to have, as an independent nation. Sai filed a lawsuit in federal court as a publicity stunt, comparable to the way he and Lance Larsen went to the “World Court.”

Sai is now making a publicity lecture tour pushing his new book hyping the “executive agreements”, and is working in a close business relationship with a real estate firm which takes large fees from clients who file paperwork in court based on Sai’s theories.

An analysis debunking the Executive Agreements theory can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/3vdttyp

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HCR107 — A secessionist resolution in the Hawaii legislature that is both ridiculous and dangerous.

Mar 22

Posted by Ken Conklin in Commentary, News | No Comments

House Concurrent Resolution 107 (HCR107) in the Hawaii legislature would establish “a joint legislative investigating committee to investigate the status of two executive agreements entered into in 1893 between United States President Grover Cleveland and Queen Liliuokalani of the Hawaiian Kingdom, called the Liliuokalani assignment and the agreement of restoration.”

The investigating committee would be empowered to “Issue subpoenas requiring the attendance and testimony of the witnesses and subpoenas duces tecum requiring the production of books, documents, records, papers, or other evidence in any matter pending before the joint investigating
committee; … Administer oaths and affirmations to witnesses at hearings of the joint investigating committee; Report or certify instances of contempt as
provided in section 21—14, Hawaii Revised Statutes …”

This resolution is both ridiculous and dangerous. My own testimony explains why, and is on a webpage at
http://tinyurl.com/4t5pecj

The purpose of such an investigation is not merely to do academic research on an obscure historical question from 118 years ago. The purposes are to claim that the U.S. had an obligation to restore Liliuokalani to the throne; and to claim that the obligation of the President of the United States continues to this day to restore the Kingdom of Hawaii to its former status as an independent nation.

Three of the many harms that would result by passing HCR107 are briefly identified here and discussed in detail in the testimony.

1. A resolution such as HCR107 brings ridicule and disrespect upon those who support it, and upon the legislature as a whole — as shown by recalling what happened in connection with another Hawaiian sovereignty resolution passed in 2007. Many current members of the legislature, including members of this committee, participated in that debacle. The 2007 resolution established a permanent annual Hawaiian Restoration Day holiday for April 30. Reverend Kaleo Patterson knowingly used a fake Grover Cleveland proclamation from 1894, cited it as fact, and used it as the basis for a media blitz in 2006 in Hawaii and on the mainland calling for a national day of prayer for restoration of Native Hawaiians and repentance for the overthrow of the monarchy. He repeated his local and mainland propaganda campaign in 2007 and pushed a resolution HCR82 through the Hawaii legislature citing the joke proclamation as real and “proclaiming April 30 of every year as Hawaiian Restoration Day.” A 4-page flyer pokes fun at the legislature for passing that ridiculous resolution despite testimony proving the Cleveland proclamation was a joke.
http://tinyurl.com/2tj5jl

2. Such a resolution as HCR107 provides a platform whereby certain perpetrators of historical malpractice bring fame and fortune to themselves while spreading false information far and wide, using the legislature as an accomplice. Keanu Sai is the man behind this resolution. He is now revving up his third big scam based on twisted historical allegations which the resolution describes as fact. His convoluted lawsuit against U.S. government officials including President Obama, based on the allegations in HCR107, was dismissed on summary judgment in the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on March 9.

3. HCR107 contains numerous false or misleading statements, some of which are refuted in my testimony. For example: There was no “executive agreement” between President Grover Cleveland and ex-queen Liliuokalani. One reason is that Liliuokalani was overthrown by the Hawaiian revolution on January 17, 1893 and no longer held executive authority after that, but Grover Cleveland was not installed as President until March. Also, President Cleveland had no power or authority to put Liliuokalani back on the throne, which is what Keanu Sai’s theory says is the core of the “executive agreement.”

For my entire testimony, see
http://tinyurl.com/4t5pecj

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Office of Hawaiian Affairs: Rant vs. Reason on Race (A Debate)

Jan 25

Posted by Ken Conklin in Uncategorized | No Comments

On January 24, 2011 Hawaii Reporter published an analysis and full text of an e-mail dialog between OHA Trustee Rowena Akana and Grassroot Institute member Jere Krischel regarding the Akaka bill. The dialog began  with Akana’s published diatribe in the OHA monthly newspaper (circulation 60,000) in which Akana accused Krischel of being a racist. Krischel then engaged in an e-mail dialog with Akana for several rounds, clearly and patiently explaining what’s wrong with the Akaka bill and defending his right to say it without being called a racist. He demanded an apology but never got one.

See “Office of Hawaiian Affairs: Rant vs. Reason on Race (A Debate)” at

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/office-of-hawaiian-affairs-rant-vs-reason-on-race-a-debate

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Governor Abercrombie’s scurrilous and unnecessary lie about Hawaiian language in his “State of the State” speech

Jan 25

Posted by Ken Conklin in Uncategorized | No Comments

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie said something false in his “State of the State” speech on January 24, 2011.

It was not a mistake, and not a normal political lie. His statement was scurrilous because it serves to promote racial hostility. It’s always bad to stir up resentment and anger by one race against another, especially when the grievance has no basis in fact. Following the Tucson political massacre, our President has urged us all to speak with greater civility.

In the written press release of his speech, his falsehood was “In 1896 it was made illegal to teach in the Hawaiian language.” The sentence he actually spoke was even worse: “In 1896 it was made illegal to teach the Hawaiian language.” These are variations of a commonly told lie, which says that In 1896 Hawaiian language was made illegal.

Any of these sentences is usually mentioned in the middle of a long diatribe listing alleged historical grievances to show that Caucasians oppressed and abused ethnic Hawaiians, and Hawaiians are therefore entitled to apologies, repentance, and reparations from Caucasians.

A webpage provides full text of Abercrombie’s written speech, an audio podcast and a video of the speech (with timeline and closed captioning), and further analysis. See

http://tinyurl.com/4l5hdlv

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Hawaiian Language as a Political Weapon

Jan 20

Posted by Ken Conklin in Uncategorized | No Comments

Hawaiian language is a great treasure for Hawaii and the world. But it is also used as a political weapon in ways unlike any other language. The worthy goal of preserving Hawaiian language and helping it thrive has been hijacked by using tax dollars to pay for programs whose hidden intention and practical effect is to foster racial pride, racial separatism, and ethnic nationalism, thereby undermining the sovereignty of the State of Hawaii and of the United States.

A large and heavily documented new webpage explores the following topics, at

http://tinyurl.com/668vqyz

(1) Demanding that the names of places and streets must be Hawaiian — historical background and 4 case studies: Thurston Ave. (Kamakaeha), Barbers Point (Kalaeloa), Dillingham Military Reservation (Kawaihapai), Fort Barrette Road (Kualakai).

(2) Demands that Hawaiian language as an “official language” of Hawaii be taken seriously by requiring that it must be used in government documents and that people must be allowed to use it when filing court documents or giving testimony before boards and commissions, or in court.

(3) How Hawaiian language, and the ancient Hawaiian religion, are used as political weapons in government hearings and political performances.

(4) The essential role of Hawaiian language in Hawaiian religion

(5) Sprinkling Hawaiian words occasionally throughout a speech or essay, to create an appearance of authentic Hawaiian-ness.

(6) The insistence on using Hawaiian grammar or spelling when speaking or writing English. Examples of pluralizing nouns and using ‘okinas.

(7) Hawaiian culture and language are used for political indoctrination in the tax-supported public schools — the Hawaiian Studies component of the general curriculum; the Hawaiian-focus charter schools; the Hawaiian language immersion schools; how Kamehameha Schools has infiltrated the public schools.

(8) Why are there no automated translation programs for Hawaiian, when such programs are easily available for other languages? It appears that Hawaiian language experts want to keep control of the language so it can be used only for “politically correct” purposes, and also to provide job security for a growing cadre of instructors and independent-contractor translators who must be politically correct to keep their jobs.

(9) There are political and emotional implications of using Hawaiian language rather than English, and sometimes those implications depend on the race of the speaker.

(10) How Hawaiian language, culture, and sovereignty are interconnected

(11) The role of the Christian missionaries and their native partners in creating a written Hawaiian language.

(12) A brief history of the dominance of English language in Hawaii — How English became almost exclusively the outside language whose words were incorporated into Hawaiian, and how English gradually replaced Hawaiian as the dominant language among foreigners and natives alike.

(13) The false claim that Hawaiian language was made illegal by the Republic of Hawaii after the monarchy was overthrown, and that this was done for the purpose of destroying Hawaiian culture. How this false claim is used for political purposes, to evoke anger and solidarity among ethnic Hawaiians and sympathy among non-ethnic Hawaiians to support demands for sovereignty.

(14) The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (and its predecessor the Honolulu Star-Bulletin) publishes a column every Saturday in Hawaiian language with no English translation. Often the topics are twisted versions of Hawaiian history intended to stir up anti-American or anti-Caucasian hostility.

For details on all these topics please see

http://tinyurl.com/668vqyz

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New law prohibits ethnic studies courses from inflaming racial hatred and anti-Americanism

Jan 9

Posted by Ken Conklin in Uncategorized | No Comments

A new law took effect in January 2011 which prohibits ethnic studies courses in the public schools and charter schools from being used as propaganda factories to build racial solidarity and anti-Americanism. The law targets courses which attract primarily students of any particular ethnicity, where the curriculum fosters hatred toward other racial groups by portraying them as oppressors — courses that promote anti-American, secessionist attitudes by describing America as invader and occupier of the ethnic homeland.

What? Did local media last year fail to report a law enacted by the Hawaii legislature or Congress? Will we now see a major cleanup of racial hate-mongering and anti-Americanism in the “Hawaiian-focus” charter schools, Hawaiian language immersion schools, the “Hawaiian studies” curriculum throughout all the public schools and perhaps even the University of Hawaii and community colleges?

No. The law was passed by the Arizona legislature because of concerns over the “La Raza” curriculum in that state’s ethnic studies courses. The La Raza curriculum is dangerous because it fuels Mexican nationalist hatred toward America, and racial hatred toward Anglos (Caucasians), in the hearts and minds of Mexican-American teenagers; using taxpayer dollars.

A new webpage describes the Arizona law in detail, and analyzes a Hawaiian-language weekly column in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser to show how the column would be prohibited in a Hawaiian studies course if the Arizona law were applied in Hawaii.

For further details, including footnotes with internet links to the Arizona law, the newspaper articles, more analysis of the Star-Advertiser column and the Hawaiian Studies system in Hawaii, go to

http://tinyurl.com/2vas5tm

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The Akaka Industry

Jan 2

Posted by Malia Hill in Office of Hawaiian Affairs | No Comments

Conventional wisdom says that (despite the boasts of our newest Governor) with the new Republican Congress in place, the Akaka Bill is effectively dead for the time being.  The theory is that the Bill never had much support among Republicans in Congress, and no Democrats will be willing to expend large amounts of political capital in order to push for it.  How true this is remains to be seen, but there are some groups in Hawaii who have way too much invested in the Akaka Bill to let a mere detail like political deep-freeze derail their efforts to promote it.

Like (brace yourselves for the surprise) OHA.

In a rather irregular move, OHA Trustee Haunani Apoliona called for OHA to continue its efforts to enroll Native Hawaiians for a possible Native Hawaiian government as called for by the now-defunct Akaka Bill. The reasons given by Apoliona and OHA CEO Clyde Namuo are fairly predictable–and they take care to note that they are looking to enroll Hawaiians living outside of Hawaii.  The reason for this effort is fairly obvious–OHA clearly believes that it will be easier to pass the Bill in the future if there is an established roll of “qualified” Native Hawaiians to be recognized by such a bill.  So a future version of the Akaka Bill will simply be able to reference the OHA-headed group as the Native Hawaiian government without the accompanying concerns about who should be included and how registration should proceed.  In addition, OHA clearly has a lot invested in being the preeminent Native Hawaiian organization in any Native Hawaiian government.  Sovereignty groups and other Native Hawaiian organizations that question OHA’s actions and motives can be absorbed and disarmed by OHA preemptive organization, thereby shutting down or minimizing any Native Hawaiian opposition to a future Akaka Bill.

There is, after all, a great deal of money and political power at stake.  It would be asking too much to think that OHA could just let that go.

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