You’ve probably heard of King Kamehameha (kah-MAY-ha-MAY-ha), also called Kamehameha the Great. He founded the Kingdom of Hawaii and is the most famous figure in Hawaiian history. He was a chief from the Big Island, born around 1758, and died in 1819. Over about 15 years of warfare and diplomacy, he united all the Hawaiian Islands into one kingdom by 1810. His dynasty ruled until 1872, and the kingdom itself lasted until it was overthrown in 1893. He conquered O’ahu in 1795 at the Battle of Nuʻuanu. Many of the defenders were driven over the cliffs at what is now the Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout, a short drive from Waikiki and a place we visited on our final day tour of the SE part of the island. His famous gold-and-black statue stands downtown in front of Aliʻiōlani Hale, averse from the Iolani Palace, which we also visited at the end of the day. By the end of the day, I had learned a great deal about King Kamehameha, perhaps more than what I had imagined.
This is really my first trip to Hawaii (technically, I was here once in 1997, but only on the Big Island and only for 36 hours). I specifically wanted to come to O’ahu rather than any of the other seven islands that make up this archipelago in the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean, to experience the traditional aspects of a Hawaiian vacation, and by traditional I mean that 1960s sense I got as a child of the Baby Boom. It’s the Hawaii of Pearl Harbor and Elvis, mixed with the Hawaii of James Michener’s historical perspective if that’s possible. Our first day was dedicated to Pearl Harbor and the memory of that fateful day that still lives in infamy that launched the American era that gave us our greatest moments of valor and bread our greatest prosperity and influence as a nation. Our second day was about seeing the natural beauty of the real Hawaii, the tranquility and spirituality of the Byodo-In Temple, nestled beneath the towering and majestic volcanic cliffs, the crashing surf of the North Shore, and then the lushness of the Waimea Valley and the “Beach Blanket Bingo” luau complete with hulas, mai-tais and fire-eaters.
And our third day was spent understanding the history of the islands, both geological and cultural. It started with a tour of the Diamond Head volcanic crater, the lava fields it spawned and the wave breaks and blowholes it created. We started at Kapiʻolani Park in the midst of the crater. We hadn’t reserved a time for the privilege of a two-hour hike, so we moved on to the Diamond Head Lighthouse, a coastal landmark of a bygone era. We passed by the Amelia Earhart / Diamond Head Lookout pine that commemorates this great adventuress that launched herself into the unknown from that spot, one of the many spots that our tour-mates, Quynh and Gordan launch themselves on their regular parasailing adventures. After stopping to marvel at the natural wonder of the Hālona Blowhole, we gave homage to Eternity Beach and could conjure up images of Burt Lancaster rolling in the sand. We stopped at Diamond Head Beach Park to watch some surfers and also watch an elderly bather get hauled out of the thundering and unforgiving surf. The next stop was in Makapuʻu Lookout with its dramatic cliffs, turquoise ocean and view of Rabbit Island, offshore of Waimānalo Beach with its beautiful white sand contrasting with the green, green mountains. We stopped for a Vietnamese Pho lunch in Kailua before heading up the steep and dramatic hillside to the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout along Highway 61 over the Koʻolau Mountains heading back toward Honolulu. This stop had both spectacular mountain and coastline views, famously strong winds that were hard to press forward against, and was a historic place of origin for the Hawaiian Kingdom. It’s where in 1795, the Battle of Nuʻuanu Pali took place and where the Hawaiians of Maui, under the leadership of Kamehameha, defeated the men of O’ahu, who were forced off the steep cliffs at the lookout. It was that battle which made him King of the islands and unifier of the peoples of the eight islands of Hawaii. We think of Hawaiians as spiritual people, but in their day, they were fierce warriors.
This caused me to wonder…why and how did these people of Hawaii create a nation/state as developed as any on earth while their genetic brethren across Polynesia and Oceania live in thatched huts and serve the sun-seeking tourists of the world, seeking a small slice of their natural paradise? Today would serve to address that question. It’s a story of mostly geography, then strength with honor, global politics, and finally…forsaking much of the Hawaiian heritage in favor of first British and then American culture and ultimately adopting the highest economic platform of the modern era, that of becoming a U.S. state in 1959. Hawaii started with the benefit of both location and a fine harbor (the very Harbor of Pearl that Kamehameha chose to trade-up for). Hawaii sits in the middle of the North Pacific, on the route between North America and Asia. Honolulu and Pearl Harbor are rare sheltered deep-water harbors, as good as any in the world (New York, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Sydney, Rio). Through the 1800s that made Hawaii the main stop for the sandalwood trade, then whaling fleets, then steamships. Most other South Pacific islands were far off those routes and lacked the harbors. Kamehameha I had united the islands by about 1810. Hawaii became a single kingdom that other countries recognized, with treaties, a constitution and, after missionaries arrived in 1820 (the Michener era), very high literacy. Much of Polynesia and Melanesia stayed divided among chiefdoms, or was split up among European colonial powers. The high volcanic islands have fertile soil, heavy rainfall and real rivers. That topography supported large-scale sugar and pineapple plantations backed by American money rather than colonial patrimony. Many South Pacific islands are low coral atolls with little soil or fresh water. Being American is what probably mattered most. The US annexed Hawaii in 1898 after the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy by local commercial families. After that the islands got huge military spending, especially after World War II, and full US investment and infrastructure. Places like Samoa, Tonga and Fiji stayed small colonies or became small independent nations without that money or market access. Of course, the cost of all of that is also part of the story. Native Hawaiians lost their land and their kingdom, and their population fell sharply from disease. That growth largely benefited outsiders, but has left he islands a model of prosperity.
Our last stop of the day was the Iolani Palace, the only official royal palace in the USA, built in 1882 by King Kamehameha I, intended to westernize and impress the world with the islands’ potential. Kamehameha installed electric lighting in the Palace two years earlier that the White House. It’s a regal vestige of the greatness of the Hawaiian Kingdom, one that correctly displays its forward-thinking, but also its subserviance to Western cultural norms. In fact, that’s more a British heritage than American one and the fact that the Union Jack is part of the flag of the state of Hawaii pays respect to that. Kamehameha was, as Marcus Aurelius once declared himself, “not a man of the people, but a man for the people.” He gave all the local chieftains the lands of Hawaii rather than keep it for himself, and while Kamehameha’s dynasty prevailed for five generations, eventually, like the Holy Roman Empire of Marcus Aurelius, it elected its next monarchs, Lunalilo in 1873 and Kalākaua in 1874. We learned that, and the proper pronunciation of the name of the island of O’ahu during our one-hour tour of the Palace that ran a full two-hours. We ended our visit being fully Kamehamehamehamehad.