Author Archives: Hawaiian Kingdom

King Kalakaua Visits Thomas Edison in New York City in 1881

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The Sun_Cover_1881The Sun_Cover_1881_Kalakaua_Article

The New York Sun newspaper on September 26, 1881 reported:

KalakauaKing Kalakaua was introduced to Mr. Thomas A. Edison at the latter’s headquarters, in Fifth avenue, at 9 o’clock last night. Mr. George Jones, the proprietor of the Times, met his Majesty in Vienna, and when the conversation turned upon the electric light, Mr. Jones promised to introduce the King to the electrician when met in New York. At 9 o’clock Mr. Edison was in an upper room at work. A half dozen friends and assistants were with him. The electric lights were burning throughout the building. A carriage rumbled up to the curb, and in an instant the King, Mr. Jones, Attorney General Armstrong, and one or two other entered. They were shown into a rear room, and as they stood there, looking at the chandelier, Edison came in. His hair was tousled in every direction. As he entered he ran his hand nervously through his hair, as if conscious that it was discorded, and thus made it worse. Mr. Jones introduced him to the King, and he nodded rather than bowed, at the same time extending one hand absent-mindedly, first at Mr. Jones and then at the monarch, who took it, and looked smilingly into the boyish face of the inventor.

“I have heard about you, Mr. Edison,” said his Majesty, “and I have wished to see you and your wonderful inventions.”

The King has gained a decidedly English intonation since his last visit, and the melodious voice that he possesses, in common with the people of his kingdom, renders that intonation more than usually agreeable. He was dressed in black, relieved only by his white collar, the horseshoe of brilliant diamonds on his scarf, and his white cuffs.

Thomas EdisonEdison exhibited his light, turning one burner up and down, and then putting all out at once and instantly relighting them. The King was interested. Attorney-General Armstrong says that his Majesty is especially interested in the electric light, because his capital, Honolulu, must be lighted soon by something superior to the kerosene now employed there. The monarch is undecided whether the new illuminator shall be gas or electricity, but has resolved to wait until electricity has had a full and practical trial. The King saw Edison’s representative in Paris and learned much from him. Last night there was an awkward pause after the King had complimented Edison and Edison had nodded back his thanks. Everybody felt a little uncomfortable. The King broke the spell by suddenly asking: “How do you produce those carbon arcs?”

Instantly the electrician was at home, and he launched out into a description of his lamp, couched in homely language, and illustrated with bits of wire and portions of his apparatus. He and the King were left together, and the others stood apart. Presently some ladies came in softly, and, getting behind the others, saw royalty deferring to genius. Edison was so interested that he occasionally left the King’s side to correct what he heard others saying, and once he left his Majesty all alone, holding a picture and not knowing what to do with it. The King is a good listener and appeared to be interested. He asked practical and sensible questions. He was astonished to hear that Edison was going to sell power as well as light. He said he had not heard of that before. He was amazed at Edison’s maps of the business districts, peppered all over with dots, each of which represented a gas burner wherever there is a gas burner, and at other maps covered with parallelograms of varying sizes, representing the amount of horse power in use in the same localities.

“Can you lay your wires in submarine cables?” Attorney-General Armstrong asked.

“Well, it would cost so much, that’s all,” Edison replied.

“Because you might come over to the Sandwich Islands,” the King’s advisor said, “where we have a volcano that burns a thousand million tons of coal a day, and you could put your boilers on top of the volcano and get power enough to supply the country.”

“Is that where you get your coal?” Edison asked, overlooking the joke in his thirst for information.

“No; we get our coal from Australia,” said the Attorney-General,” but we build great hopes on that volcano. When we sell out we expect to get more for that than for anything we have got.”

At this the King laughed heartily. He went through the building with Edison and watched the inventor with unaffected curiosity. He was astonished to hear that the carbon horseshoes gradually became so hard by burning that they will cut glass like a diamond. The King suggested that this information would be prized by the ladies. Up stairs, where there is a burner over a compositor’s type case, the King was show a book to illustrate the steadiness and gentleness of the light. The conversation turned upon the Hawaiian language, which the Attorney-General told Edison was extremely soft and musical. Edison said he should like to hear it, and the King was prevailed upon to say something in Hawaiian. The King proved bashful. He hesitated a moment,

“I say to you,” he said, “Ho-e ke-low-a—that means ‘How are you?’”

“I know the words ‘Mauna Loa,’” Edison said.

“The language is full of the vowel sound,” said Gen. Armstrong, “It has only thirteen letters.”

“Twelve,” said the King.

“Twelve,” said Gen. Armstrong: “all the vowels and a few consonants.”

The King went with Edison down stairs to the engine room, and Edison showed him the dynamo machine and motor. After that the King thanked the inventor, said he had been greatly interested, shook hands with him, and, with Mr. Jones and the others, quitted the building.

In the morning the King and Lord High Chamberlain Judd had been to Irvington, where they spent the day with Mr. Mason, an old resident of the Sandwich Islands. They returned to the city in the evening. The King has received many calls at the Brunswick. The visitors have been mainly persons who have been in the Sandwich Islands or people whom he met on his travels. He has declined a number of social invitations out of respect to the national distress.

U.S. Department of Justice Acknowledges War Crimes Being Committed in Hawai‘i

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Under the criminal code of the United States of America, Title 18 U.S.C. §4, provides for the reporting of felonies to federal authorities, whether civil or military, as a duty and not a choice. According to Black’s Law Dictionary (1996), a duty is defined as an obligation “to conform to legal standard of reasonable conduct in light of apparent risk.” A person who fails to report a felony as soon as possible risks being fined or face up to three years in prison, which is a felony as well. In other words, failure to report a felony is a felony.

On September 17, 2014, Professor Williamson Chang, senior law professor at the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law, reported the commission of war crimes to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. Professor Chang held a press conference on September 22, 2014 at the University of Hawai‘i in front of the William S. Richardson School of Law. Although American media in the United States and Hawai‘i were notified by press release of the press conference, none were present, and the press conference was covered by Kingdom Media Hawai‘i. The story was then picked up by ABC Australia news and radio and New Zealand’s radio The Wire. ABC Australia reported:

ABC Radio Australia War Crimes

In his letter to the Attorney General, Professor Chang stated, “Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §4—Misprision of felony, I am legally obligated to report to you the knowledge I have about multiple felonies that prima facie have been and continue to be committed here in the Hawaiian Islands. I have been made aware of these felonies through the memorandum by political scientist David Keanu Sai, Ph.D., who was contracted by the State of Hawai‘i Office of Hawaiian Affairs, entitled Memorandum for Ka Pouhana, CEO of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs regarding Hawai‘i as an Independent State and the Impacts it has on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.” Professor Chang’s letter was endorsed with the signatures of seventeen other State of Hawai‘i officials and employees.

The U.S. Attorney General received Professor Chang’s reporting of war crimes on September 19, 2014 by FedEx courier under tracking number 8061 7191 0836.

“Further, as a State of Hawai‘i employee, I and other State officials and employees receive State monies that have been implicated as being gained through the commission of felonies, namely the war crime of pillaging,” stated Professor Chang. Under 18 U.S.C. §662, receiving stolen property is a felony punishable by a fine or up to three years in prison. Receiving stolen property has four elements that need to be met in order to be considered a crime: (1) the property must be received; (2) it must have been previously stolen; (3) the person receiving the property must know it was stolen; and (4) the receiver must intend to deprive the owner of his or her property.

Professor Chang’s reporting of war crimes, being felonies under 18 U.S.C. §2441, to the DOJ effectively placed a corresponding obligation upon the U.S. Attorney General to either initiate a criminal investigation into the reported felonies, or explicitly state that felonies have not been committed thereby removing the apparent risk of a fine or up to three years in prison under both §4—misprision of felony, and §662—receiving stolen property.

Professor Chang stated, “If your office’s response in two weeks is able to refute the evidence provided for in the Memo, then assuredly the felonies—war crimes—have not been committed. But if you office is not able to refute the evidence, then this is a matter for the U.S. Pacific Command, being the occupying power, and all State of Hawai‘i officials and employees, as well as I, are compelled to comply with Hawaiian Kingdom law and the law of occupation.” The U.S. Attorney General was requested to respond by October 3, 2014.

The U.S. Department of Justice has not responded to Professor Chang’s reporting within the requested time of two weeks, which expired yesterday. The DOJ’s silence on the reporting is acquiescence or acknowledgment that war crimes have and continue to be committed in Hawai‘i. According to Black’s Law Dictionary (1996), acquiescence is “equivalent to assent inferred from silence with knowledge or from encouragement and presupposes knowledge and assent.” Bouvier’s Law Dictionary (1984) also defines acquiescence as “a silent appearance of consent.” Specifically, the silence of the DOJ admits there is evidence of the commission of war crimes and that it “is a matter for the U.S. Pacific Command, being the occupying power,” and not the DOJ.

In order to refute Professor Chang’s reporting that the State of Hawai‘i government committed war crimes of pillaging by illegally appropriating monies from the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands, would be for the DOJ to show evidence that the United States is the successor to the Hawaiian Kingdom under international law and that the State of Hawai‘i, being an extension of the United States government, is a lawful government and legally authorized to collect taxes.

In Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom arbitral award, the international tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration stated “in the nineteenth century the Hawaiian Kingdom existed as an independent State recognized as such by the United States of America, the United Kingdom and various other States, including by exchanges of diplomatic or consular representatives and the conclusion of treaties.” This acknowledgment of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s status as a State under international law by an international tribunal is called “presumptive evidence,” which Black’s Law Dictionary (1996) defines as “evidence which must be received and treated as true and sufficient until and unless rebutted by other evidence.”

According to Professor James Crawford, in his book The Creation of States in International Law (2006), p. 34, “There is a strong presumption that the State continues to exist, with its rights and obligations, despite revolutionary changes in government, or despite a period in which there is no, or no effective, government. Belligerent occupation does not affect the continuity of the State, even where there exists no government claiming to represent the occupied State.” Professor Crawford is the leading expert in State sovereignty under international and he also served as President of the Arbitral Tribunal in the Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom arbitration case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The fundamental problem for the DOJ is that there is no treaty where the Hawaiian Kingdom ceded its sovereignty and territory to the United States. The only claim the United States has over the Hawaiian Islands is that the Congress says it annexed the Hawaiian Islands in 1898 and then later created the State of Hawai‘i government in 1959. It is undisputed that Congress has no effect beyond its borders, so the U.S. Congress could no more annex Hawai‘i and create a State of Hawai‘i government by enacting statutes, than it could annex Canada and create a State of Canada government by enacting statutes. There is no treaty, which is evidence under international law that would rebut the evidence of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s continued existence as an independent and sovereign State under international law. Without extinguishing the Hawaiian Kingdom under international law, the United States presence in the Hawaiian Islands is a situation of military occupation, which is regulated by the international laws of occupation and international humanitarian law.

As a federal agency of the United States government, the DOJ is limited to investigating the violation of federal criminal laws that occur within the territory of the United States. The DOJ does not have extra-territorial authority, and nor do federal statutes, which includes §2441. Since the DOJ acquiesced to the evidence that Hawai‘i is not a part of the territory of the United States as provided in Dr. Sai’s Memo for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which Professor Chang relied on for his reporting of felonies, the investigation of war crimes now falls upon the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command who is the occupying power in Hawai‘i.

§2441 states “Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime…shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.” According to the House Report 104-698 that accompanied the War Crimes Act of 1996 under the heading Current Prosecutability Under United States Law of Individuals for “Grave Breaches” of the Geneva Conventions and the Impact of H.R. 3680, “Military tribunals—or commissions—have been used widely by the United States from the Mexican-American War to the Civil War to World War II to prosecute criminals and to provide a system of justice in lands occupied by our armed forces.”

The House Report continued to state, “Military commissions were most recently used during and immediately following World War II to prosecute German and Japanese war criminals and to provide a legal system for occupied areas,” and that “American military commissions have generally prosecuted individuals whose acts were committed in lands occupied by our military.” Since the Hawaiian Kingdom has been under an illegal and prolonged occupation by the armed forces of the United States, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command is primarily responsible for the United States presence and its compliance with international law and the law of occupation.

According to U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10, section 498, “any person, whether a member of the armed forces or a civilian, who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment. Section 449, which has a more expansive definition of war crimes than 18 U.S.C. §2441, “the term ‘war crime’ is the technical expression for a violation of the law of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. Every violation of the law of war is a war crime.” And according to section 500, “Conspiracy, direct incitement, and attempts to commit, as well as complicity in the commission of war crimes are punishable.”

UPDATE: Professor Chang receives letter from Department of Justice regarding the reporting of war crimes.

DOJ Reply Ltr to Prof Chang

New Zealand Radio Station “The Wire” Interviews Dr. Keanu Sai

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95bFM The Wire

Nick Bond of 95bFM – The Wire, an independent radio station in Auckland, New Zealand, interviewed Dr. Keanu Sai.

Most people would say that the United States of America has 50 states, and that Hawai‘i is one of them. But Hawaiian academic Dr. Keanu Sai says otherwise. Sai says that Hawai‘i was never legally annexed to the United States, and has been illegally occupied for the past 121 years. Wire producer Nick Bond asks Sai whether Hawai‘i really is a nation under occupation.

To listen to the interview of Dr. Keanu Sai click here.

State of Hawai‘i Hawaiian Homes Commissioner “Uncle Joe” Tassil Calls for Moratorium on all Evictions in Hawaiian Homes because of War Crimes

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSIONER “UNCLE JOE” TASSIL CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON ALL EVICTIONS IN HAWAIIAN HOMES

9/22/2014

RENWICK_TASSILLAt Hawaiian Homes hearing at Paukukalo 10:00 a.m. this morning, “Uncle Joe” Tassil called for a moratorium of all evictions in Hawaiian Homes until the Justice Department responds to a letter authored by Dr. Chang, Professor of Law at UH which letter was premised upon a letter and memorandum drafted by Dr. Keanu Sai, Ph.D. regarding the current existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the unlawful occupation by the United States in Hawai’i. Attorney Dexter Kaiama testified on behalf of qualified Hawaiian Beneficiaries as to Department of Hawaiian Homelands, a state agency’s, lack of jurisdiction.  Christopher Fishkin, a legal assistant to a law office in Wailuku, testified separately, to numerous violations of Federal law by DHHL and violations of the rights of qualified Hawaiian beneficiaries pursuant to the Federal law. Fishkin also encouraged the Commissioners to adopt Commissioner Tassil’s recommendation of a moratorium of evictions, to review and address the violations of Hawaiians’ rights in Hawaiian Homes which Fishkin asserted were being perpetuated against qualified Hawaiian beneficiaries under the color of state law.

Representative of Habitat for Humanity and solar energy providers to Hawaiian Homes testified as to lengthy delays in their being able to provide services to Hawaiians in Hawaiian Homes and unclear contractual obligations in order to do so.

Contact Commissioner Joe Tassil for more info. 808-664-6901

Kingdom Media Hawai‘i Live Stream of Professor Chang’s Press Conference

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Kindgom Media HI

Kingdom Media Hawai‘i will be providing a live stream of Professor Chang’s press conference at the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law. The press conference will begin at 2:00 pm in front of the Law School’s administration building across from the Law Library.

UPDATE: Due to technical difficulties the live streaming was not able to take place. Kingdom Media Hawai‘i, however, did record the press conference and will be playing it on its website.

Senior Law Professor Reports War Crimes to U.S. Attorney General

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Conference at William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Monday, September 22, 2014, at 2:00 pm

University of Hawai‘i’s senior law professor notifies U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, Jr., of war crimes committed in the Hawaiian Islands

Professor ChangHONOLULU (September 19, 2014) – Senior law professor Williamson B.C. Chang has reported to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. that war crimes have and continue to be committed in the Hawaiian Islands. Professor Chang is a faculty member of the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law and has been with the law school for the past thirty-eight years.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ (OHA) top executive, CEO Kamanaopono Crabbe, contracted political scientist, Dr. Keanu Sai, to draft a memorandum on the legal status of Hawai‘i under international law. Based on information Sai disclosed in what has become known as the OHA Memo, CEO Crabbe authored a letter to Secretary of State, John Kerry. Crabbe sought legal clarification on the status of Hawai‘i from Secretary Kerry primarily because Sai concluded that OHA is in possession of monies acquired from the “State of Hawai‘i’s” general fund through pillaging.

Pillaging is prohibited under article 33 of the 1949 Geneva Convention, IV, being a war crime under U.S. federal criminal law as well as a felony. According to 18 U.S.C. §2441 “Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime…shall be fined under the this title or imprisoned for life or any number of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.”

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has defined pillaging, which is the same as plunder, as “the fraudulent appropriation of public and private funds belonging to…the opposing party.” According to the OHA Memo, the State of Hawai‘i is not a legitimate government under international law and as a self-declared entity it has no authority to collect taxes from individuals throughout the Hawaiian Islands. This fraudulent collection of monies is a form of pillaging from public property that belongs to the Hawaiian Kingdom, not the United States.

Eric_HolderIn the letter addressed to Attorney General Holder, Professor Chang described his reporting of war crimes as being obligated under Federal criminal law and if he did not report the war crimes he could be fined or imprisoned for three years. “Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §4—Misprision of felony, I am legally obligated to report to you the knowledge I have about multiple felonies that prima facie have been and continue to be committed here in the Hawaiian Islands,” Chang said. “I have been made aware of these felonies through the memorandum by political scientist David Keanu Sai, Ph.D., who was contracted by the State of Hawai‘i Office of Hawaiian Affairs, entitled Memorandum for Ka Pouhana, CEO of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs regarding Hawai‘i as an Independent State and the Impacts it has on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.”

Chang explained the action taken was not only prompted by a legal obligation, but also because he’s a State of Hawai‘i employee. “I and other State officials and employees receive State monies that have been implicated as being gained through the commission of felonies, namely the war crime of pillaging, and we could also face prosecution under 18 U.S.C. §3—Accessory after the fact,” Chang said. “I am deeply concerned about this matter that affects all State of Hawai‘i officials and employees, including myself personally.”

Due to the urgency of the matter Chang’s letter asks for a response from the Department of Justice within two weeks. If the Department of Justice’s “response in two weeks is able to refute the evidence provided for in the Memo, then assuredly the felonies—war crimes—have not been committed,” Chang said. The letter goes on to say, “But if your office is not able to refute the evidence, then this is a matter for the U.S. Pacific Command, being the occupying power, and all State of Hawai‘i officials and employees, as well as I, are compelled to comply with Hawaiian Kingdom law and the law of occupation.”

Chang’s letter was also carbon copied to the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command headquartered at Camp Smith, Island of O‘ahu, and to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

The press conference will be located in front of the Administration building across from the Law Library. Parking is provided in the parking structure behind the law school at $5.00.

Joining Professor Chang at Monday’s press conference will be some of the 17 State of Hawaii employees from the University of Hawaii, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Public Safety, the Maui Fire Department, and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, who endorsed the letter. Dr. Sai will also be at the press conference.

Click here to download Professor Chang’s letter.
Click here to download the OHA Memo.

Hawaiian Gazette Reports Americanization Program for Schools in Hawai‘i

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Hawaiian Gazette

Patriotic_Program_Article

On April 3, 1906, the Hawaiian Gazette reported on page 6:

“As a means of inculcating patriotism in the schools, the Board of Education has agreed upon a plan of patriotic observance to be followed in the celebration of notable days in American history, this plan being a composite drawn from the several submitted by teachers in the department for the consideration of the Board. It will be remembered that at the time of the celebration of the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, an agitation was begun looking to a better observance of these notable national holidays in the schools, as tending to inculcate patriotism in a school population that needed that kind of teaching, perhaps, more than the mainland children do–although patriotism is inculcated in the schools there, also.

The matter was taken up by the school department, at once, and the teachers were asked to submit their views upon it. The result is embodied in the “patriotic program” printed herewith, which represents the best educational thought of the Territory. The program follows, and will be sent out officially in pamphlet form as a guide to teachers in the observance of national days in the schools.”

The term “inculcate” is defined as “to cause something to be learned by someone by repeating it again and again.” This is another word for “indoctrination” that is defined as “the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology (see doctrine). It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned.”

To download the full article click here.

To download the Patriotic Program pamphlet click here.

According to the U.S. Library of Congress’ “Chronicling America“:

“The Hawaiian Gazette was a fervent advocate of the sugar industry and other American economic interests in Hawai‘i. Early on, these interests were in line with those of the Hawaiian monarchy; as such, the Hawaiian Gazette became the official newspaper of the Kingdom in 1865 under King Kamehameha V and was published by James H. Black and the Hawaiian government until 1873. In the mid-1870s, the paper turned decidedly anti-monarchy when the views of King Kalākaua and those of the local oligarchy–a powerful contingent of pro-American, pro-annexation sugar interests–began to diverge. The Hawaiian Gazette attacked Kalākaua’s government for what it regarded as wasteful spending on the King’s coronation ceremony and efforts to revive public performances of Hawaiian chanting and hula. It avidly supported the call for a new government, which was achieved in 1887 when the Bayonet Constitution effectively stripped the king of his power and secured the oligarchy’s political authority. At that time, the Hawaiian Gazette resumed its place as one of the government’s biggest advocates; indeed, several high-ranking members of the oligarchy, including William R. Castle and Sanford B. Dole, would oversee the newspaper in years to come. In January 1893, the paper was among several that refused to print Queen Liliu‘okalani’s protest against the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and painted her efforts to reestablish the Kingdom’s authority as illegal and counterrevolutionary. Following the Queen’s overthrow on January 17, 1893, the Hawaiian Gazette published the proclamation and orders of the new Provisional Government and began referring to Liliu‘okalani as Hawai‘i’s ‘ex-Queen.’ Two weeks later, the paper asserted that it, together with the Pacific Commercial Advertiser , “contained the only true and extended account of the late revolution”and encouraged readers to sign the Provisional Government’s loyalty oath.”