DEPARTMENT:

January is perhaps the most turbulent month in Hawaii’s dramatic history. In 1893 the government of the kingdom, led by Queen Lili’uokalani, was forcibly overthrown by a cabal of American planters and business men, supported by a detachment of marines from the USS Boston in Honolulu harbor. The warship’s captain trained his guns on Iolani Palace.

The uprising’s proximate cause was the Queen’s attempt to roll back the so-called ‘Bayonet Constitution’ of 1887, imposed at gun point on her predecessor by the same American interests. One Cabinet member noted at the time: ‘Little was left to the imagination of the hesitating and unwilling sovereign [King David Kalakaua], as to what he might expect in the event of his refusal to comply with the demands made upon him.’ The new Constitution’s qualified-franchise provisions stripped the king of his authority and placed power effectively in the hands of white landowners.

Five years later, Lili’uokalani faced a similarly brutal threat. On January 17, 1893 she quietly stepped down, believing that the US Government would never support such blatant illegality. Her abdication statement read:

I, Lili`uokalani, by the grace of God and under the constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the constitutional government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom.

That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America, whose Minister Plenipotentiary, His Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed at Honolulu and declared that he would support the said Provisional Government.

Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps loss of life, I do, under this protest, and impelled by said forces, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representative and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.

The Provisional Government immediately declared martial law and proclaimed Hawai`i a ‘protectorate.’ Its leaders urged the US to annex the Islands: ‘The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe,’ wrote one, ‘and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it.’ Almost exactly two years later, January 16, 1895, fighting erupted between PG forces and Hawaiian nationalists. Thirty-nine, including leader Robert Wilcox, were captured at Palolo Ridge. Sanford Dole declared martial law on Oahu and a search revealed arms buried in the flower garden of Lili`uokalani’s home. She was charged with ‘treason,’ and tried by a military commission. Found guilty, she was given five years hard labor and a $5,000 fine. The sentence was never carried out, but she remained a prisoner in the palace.

In January, 1976, 30 Hawaii nationalists set out from Maui to ‘occupy’ the island of Kaho’olawe, then a US military-controlled bombing range. Only nine actually landed and by nightfall all but leaders Walter Ritte Jr. and Dr. Emmett Aluli had been removed. They were arrested two days later.

In 1993 thousands took part in an Overthrow centennial march to Iolani Palace. Governor John Waihee refused to fly the U.S. flag over the state Capitol buildings while the US Congress passed a resolution apologizing to Hawaii for its loss of independence ‘and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination.’

Other January Anniversaries:

1866: The first leprosy patients taken to Kalawao, Moloka’i.
1889: Robert Louis Stevenson arrives aboard the Casco after a month-long trip from Tahiti.
1906: 1,700 Japanese workers strike the Oahu Sugar Co. plantation at Waipahu over pay and other issues.
1988: East Honolulu and Windward Oahu mop up after a New Year’s Eve flood that caused an estimated $34 million in damage. Waimanalo got 17 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
1968: The great Hawaiian athlete and surfer Duke Kahanamoku dies at the age of 77.
1971: Jack W. Hall, leader of the ILWU for more than 30 years and a major figure in the shaping of modern Hawaii, dies in San Francisco at age 55.

back to top

© Copyright Generations Hawaii. Designed by Trade Publishing