Stealing Hawai‘i
The war machine at work

Haunani-Kay Trask

July 17 , 2002

The worst outcrop of herd life is the military system, which I abhor. ... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed.
            —Albert Einstein

    If the remarkable humanist and scientific genius, Albert Einstein, were alive today, his abhorrence of the military would galvanize him to resist its latest predations in the Hawaiian Islands. Using the pretext of defending America against terrorist attacks, this new militarization portends increased land takings, army and air force build-up, and massive construction, including roads and harbor extensions. Euphemistically called a "transformation" in military documents, it is nothing less than the largest military land grab since the Second World War. And a land grab with the approval of the majority of our pro-military congressional delegation, particularly Sen. Dan Inouye.
     Beginning in the 1980s, with the proclaimed end of the Cold War, the so-called "peace dividend" resulted in the U.S. military reluctantly downsizing its historically dominant presence in Hawai‘i. It also returned some of the land it had been occupying.
     But in recent years the Pentagon has reversed direction. In 1998, under the cover of what is euphemistically called "friendly condemnation," it grabbed 8,000 acres of land on O‘ahu (an area 10 times the size of Waikïkï) and recently announced plans to seize up to 2,000 additional acres. In terms of percentage of land controlled by the military, O‘ahu is closing in on Guam, Okinawa and other colonial military outposts.
     It is on the Big Island, however, that the greatest land theft in half a century is taking place under the guise of the Army’s claim that it needs 98,840 acres of "contiguous land" in order to carry out maneuvers. That is an area larger than the entire island of Läna‘i. Although the military already controls 109,000 contiguous acres at the Big Island’s Pöhakuloa Training Area (PTA) along the Saddle Road, it contends that all but 19,148 acres of this land is unsuitable. That means it will require at least an additional 80,000 or so acres. As a down payment, the Army recently announced its intent to buy 23,000 acres of land from Parker Ranch.1
     While the all-purpose alarm of "national security" serves as the usual excuse for these land takings, increased militarization of everyday life threatens Native cultural practices, endangered species and the environmental health and continuity of all Hawai‘i communities.

 The colony
     As early as the 1880s, President James A. Garfield’s secretary of state, James Blaine, argued that Hawai‘i was key to American dominion of the Pacific. And in the Reciprocity Treaty of 1887, King Kaläkaua was forced to cede Pearl River Lagoon to the United States in exchange for duty-free sugar. The treaty was a result of the aptly named "Bayonet Constitution," forced on Kaläkaua by American merchants and politicians. In 1893, when Queen Lili‘uokalani was overthrown by haole sugar planters, American troops provided the necessary iron fist to ensure planter success. Once Hawai‘i was annexed in 1898 — against strong Native protest — politicians in Washington began planning global American military strategy.2
     Because of its unique mid-Pacific location, Hawai‘i has always been central to American hegemony in the vast Far East. The latest military "Transformation" is but a 21st-century version of that domination.
     Today, the military controls more than 200,000 of Hawai‘i’s 4 million acres, an area more than half the size of the island of O‘ahu. If its long-term plans for Pöhakuloa are accomplished, it will have increased its control of Hawai‘i land by almost 50 percent in virtually one fell swoop.
     In the past, most of the military acreage carved out of Hawai‘i has been Hawaiian land, including stolen ("ceded") lands from the Kingdom and from the Hawaiian ali‘i land trusts. Fully 22 percent of O‘ahu lands are militarized, while the Defensive Sea Areas range from Käne‘ohe Bay to Kaua‘i. According to the 1998 U.S. Pacific Command handbook, the military currently occupies 21 installations, eight training areas, two dozen housing complexes and 19 miscellaneous bases and stations throughout the Islands. All told, military personnel and dependents account for over 16 percent of the state’s population.
     Even before its newly planned-for expansion, the Pöhakuloa Training Area was the largest military training area in Hawai‘i, and the largest live-fire training facility in the Pacific. Most of that immense area is ceded land that, by the Army’s own estimate, contains 27 endangered species of plants and animals, 50 historical sites and over 1,000 archeological features. As reported by The Honolulu Advertiser on July 9, 2002, Pöhakuloa has the highest concentration of endangered species of any Army installation in the world.
     But none of this matters since bombing and artillery training continue unabated. The military, of course, has never cared much about the environment. They simply file their Environmental Impact Statements, and take the heat at routine public hearings. Now, the Army proposes to steal another 23,000 acres at Pöhakuloa for the training of thousands more soldiers, despite the inevitable impacts on the natural biota.3
     Among the proposed projects — that will involve a large increase in the 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers who already train at Pöhakuloa — are the following: anti-armor live-fire and tracking ranges that include nearly 30 targets, control towers, tracking and service roads, loading docks, latrines, eating areas, training camp sites and maintenance yards. Entire plant and animal species, along with numerous historic sites, will simply be wiped out.
     A private road is to be built from Kawaihae Harbor to Pöhakuloa to convey new units of soldiers. Hundreds of armored vehicles, called Strykers, will be flown in by C-17 cargo planes to Bradshaw Airfield, as well as over 500 trucks and Humvees. The Army has acknowledged impacts to cultural and natural resources, air and noise quality, and general intrusion into the life and tranquility of the surrounding communities. But that’s it. An acknowledgment. No changes, no withdrawals.4
     In terms of overall military posture, the new Bush administration "cold warriors" support first-strike nuclear capability; quick response, mobile ground forces; and a kind of Dr. Strangelove fascination with high-tech training simulations for the eventual use of high-tech weapons.
     On O‘ahu, at the proposed Information Systems Facility at Schofield, for example, the Army plans a 38,000 square-foot, multistory building as "the critical central hub that would provide connectivity to support essential constructive, virtual and real information systems." This facility will be in addition to the proposed, 90,000 square-foot, state of-the-art Mission Support Training Facility to house "war-fighting simulations training and digital classroom training" for all the military services. In other words, while the military waits for real blood-and-guts combat, they can practice killing by video games.5
     Other O‘ahu support projects include the widening of a 23-mile road between the Helemano Military Reservation and the Kahuku Training Area.6
     None of us will be able to escape this increased military activity — more troops, vehicles, jets, ships and families. Beyond rabid patriotism, local support of the military, including that given by the major political parties, turns on its role as the state’s second-largest industry, just behind that other economic parasite, mass-based corporate tourism. Generating nearly $5 billion of the state’s gross product, the military is the golden goose so honored by the state’s politicians. And that goose gets fatter by the day.
     Hawai‘i’s citizens, meanwhile, can do very little to prevent the takeover, just as Native Hawaiians have never been able to stop the continuing theft of our trust lands by the state of Hawai‘i and the federal government. We are all forced to endure the massive military "transformation," despite the fact that, in the words of American Friends Service Committee Hawai‘i program director Kyle Kajihiro, "much larger installations are available on the continental U.S."7
     As guardian of empire, of the far reach of the United States into the Pacific and Asia, the military is becoming the major power in Hawai‘i. During times of war, including the misnamed "war against terrorism," the military is particularly despotic. Just how despotic is evident in the "Army transformation" proposal.

The new world order
     Social scientists and economists have predicted for years the eventual dominance of only one superpower in the world: the United States. The collapse of the Soviet Union, unification of the European states and the convenient excuse of the "war on terror" have enabled the American government to coerce both its allies and its citizens into a frightening kind of conformity. That conformity will be guaranteed by an enlarged police state for domestic purposes and a globalized military for maintaining the New World Order.
     At the close of World War II, the U.S. Army issued what it called "Orientation Fact Sheet 64," dealing with the future threat of fascism. "Fascism always camouflages its plans and purposes," the report said, adding that "any fascist attempt made to gain power in America would not use the exact Hitler pattern. It would work under the guise of ‘super-patriotism’ and ‘super-Americanism.’"
     Of course, within only a few years of that warning, the rise of McCarthyism proved its accuracy. Like President Dwight Eisenhower cautioning Americans about the rise of the "military-industrial complex," even the Army can sometimes get things right. And the warning of "Orientation Fact Sheet 64" is as relevant today as it was during the witch hunts of the 1950s.
     The recent Patriot Act is a prime example, frightening an already-fearful general public by abridging civil liberties, including rights to counsel, to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, to freedoms of movement, private telephone conversations, even visits to the local library without Big Brother harassing librarians to learn which books have been checked out by which patrons. Now, reading a library book is suspect. Just think, potential terrorists lurk in our own small-town libraries!
     As humorous as this sounds, the new FBI domestic brand of terrorizing the citizenry is as dangerous as the new militarization. The FBI now publicizes an 800 phone number to allow anonymous tips about any person believed to be "suspicious." The nature of that suspicion, its proximate cause, reliability or any other rational evidence is irrelevant. Once the call is made, the FBI will investigate. I know this to be true, because the new moderator, Shane Pale, of the ‘Ölelo TV show I’m involved in, First Friday, received a visit from the FBI as the result of an anonymous tip. They told him that all call-in tips will be investigated.
     Whatever happened to probable cause? Are all citizens automatically suspect in this time of hyper-militarism? And if so, of what are we suspected — exercising our alleged rights to public speech, to criticism of the government? Apparently, broadcasting on an alternative media outlet is itself suspect. What next? House visits by the FBI to test our patriotism? Interrogations by some version of the 1950’s House Un-American Activities Committee?
     As large and small American flags appear everywhere, and while both national and local news media jump on the patriot bandwagon, those who criticize the military, the president, the loss of both civil liberties and forums to defend those liberties, will become "suspects" — suspected of the practice of organized resistance in the defense of the human right to peace.

What needs to be done
     More public interventions are necessary, especially in Hawai‘i. We must organize against militarization, and the new U.S. military budget of $400 billion, the largest military budget in the world — reportedly greater than the defense budgets of the next 15 largest countries combined. We must not allow the process to be closed, overtaken by bureaucrats and politicians. Above all, we must not be cowed into accepting, into going along in the name of "patriotism," what Einstein called "heroism on demand" and which he believed would result in "senseless violence."
     The greatest need for public discussion is when governments move to abridge our human rights and thereby degrade our humanity. Those of us who oppose militarism must connect with groups in other parts of the world, not only in our own backyard. This includes people on Okinawa, in Europe and Canada, in the South Pacific, in the Philippines and beyond.
     Here, in Hawai‘i, we need to link the new peace movement with the fight for Hawaiian sovereignty and its core value of Mälama ‘Äina, nourishing the land. It is the Hawaiian people whose sovereignty was extinguished by the American military in the l9th century. And it is that same military which threatens the safety of the world in the 21st century.
     Now is the time to speak out and resist. And keep on resisting.

Haunani-Kay Trask is a Hawaiian nationalist and the author of four books. Her new book of poetry, Night is a Sharkskin Drum, is due out from the University of Hawai‘i Talanoa Series this fall.


Notes
     1. See the U.S. Army Land Use Requirement Study, 1997. Also see Environmental Assessments for Land Acquisitions at Pöhakuloa Training Area, and at the Kahuku Training Area, Department of the Army.
     2. Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai‘i (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, pgs. 2-20).
     3. See the List of Proposed Projects to Support Transformation of 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (L) Hawai‘i, Department of the Army.
     4. See William Cole, "Big Island residents worry about Army expansion," Honolulu Advertiser, July 9, 2002.
     5. List of Proposed Projects to Support Transformation of 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (L), Hawai‘i, pgs. 1-2.
     6. Ibid., pg. 3.
     7. Kyle Kajihiro, "Militarized Hawai‘i: Occupation, Accommodation, and Resistance," pg. 12, available from the author , program director of the American Friends Service Committee, Honolulu, HI.