NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 7, 2025

HONOLULU, Hawaiian Kingdom—Press release from the office of Edward Halealoha Ayau. On July 7, 2025, Ayau, on behalf of his client Maui Police Detective Kamuela Lanakila Mawae, sent a letter to Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Michael Rosner of the Hawai‘i Army National Guard explaining the circumstances of his client’s concern that he may be criminally culpable for war crimes.

To download Ayau’s letter to LTC Rosner go to this link.

In the letter Ayau stated, “On June 3, 2025, I personally went to Attorney General Anne Lopez’s office in Honolulu to deliver a letter, on behalf of my client, explaining the circumstances of my client’s concern that he may be criminally culpable for war crimes by enforcing American laws in the County of Maui, which I am attaching.” He requested for the Attorney General “to make public a legal opinion that was formally requested by Senator Cross Makani Crabbe by letter dated September 19, 2024, pursuant HRS §28-3,” by June 11, 2025.

Ayau stated, “June 11th has passed, and the Attorney General has yet to make public that legal opinion providing rebuttable evidence that the Hawaiian Kingdom does not exist and that war crimes are not being committed. For you and all officials and employees of the State of Hawai‘i and the Counties, the significance of her failure to provide a legal opinion is an acknowledgment that Hawai‘i is an occupied State and not the State of Hawai‘i, and that war crimes are being committed. The Attorney General is the highest-ranking law officer of the State of Hawai‘i and her failure to provide a legal opinion that the State of Hawai‘i is within the territory of the United States and not within the territory of the Hawaiian Kingdom is a dereliction of her duty she owes to all officials and employees of the State of Hawai‘i and the Counties.”

Ayau goes on to state, “This is very concerning for my client because he is not only a law enforcement officer and employee of the County of Maui, but he is also the Vice-Chair of the Maui Chapter of the State of Hawai‘i Organization of Police Officers Union (SHOPO). Also affected by the dereliction of the Attorney General are SHOPO’s collective bargaining agreements. Because collective bargaining agreements are governed by Federal and State of Hawai‘i statutes, administrative agency regulations, and American judicial decisions, which all constitutes the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty, the silence by the Attorney General is a recognition that our collective agreements are void because they are a product of war crimes.”

Ayau apprised LTC Rosner of the work of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that was established in 2019 to investigate war crimes in the occupied Hawaiian Kingdom. Ayau stated, “The Royal Commission of Inquiry has already published 26 War Criminal Reports since 2002 of State of Hawai‘i officials. Of significance, these officials include Governors David Ige and Josh Green, Mayors Derek Kawakami, Mitchell Roth, and Michael Victorino, and Supreme Court Justices Mark Recktenwald, Paula Nakayama, Sabrina McKenna, Richard Pollack, Michael Wilson and Todd Eddins. The Attorney General is also the subject of a war criminal report.”

Ayau also cited a very favorable book review, by Professor Anita Budziszewska from the University of Warsaw, of the Commission’s 2020 eBook “The Royal Commission of Inquiry: Investigating War Crimes and Human Rights Violations Committed in the Hawaiian Kingdom” that was published in the Polish Journal of Political Science in 2022. He stated, “It would clearly appear that the authority of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, established by the Council of Regency in 2019 with its mandate to investigate war crimes and human rights violations, is a legitimate commission of inquiry and whose reports, that have been published on its website, would serve as the evidential basis for prosecution of war criminals.” Ayau then states, “The Attorney General is up against a wall of law and evidence that renders the State of Hawai‘i and its Counties, established by American law, as unlawful and the product of the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty during military occupation.”

Ayau then cites Dr. Keanu Sai, who is head of the RCI, that sent LTC Rosner a letter explaining the circumstances that led to his military duty to transform the State of Hawai‘i into a Military Government. Dr. Sai wrote, “It is now over a year since the Hawai‘i Army National Guard’s leadership became aware that the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty during military occupation is being committed and that its their duty to put a stop to it by establishing a military government in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense Directive 5100.1, U.S. Army Field Manual 6-27—chapter 6, and the law of occupation. Major General Kenneth Hara’s willful failure to obey Army regulations, and resulting his dereliction of duty, has led to war criminal reports for the war crime by omission on himself, Brigadier General Stephen Logan, Colonel Wesley Kawakami, Lieutenant Colonel Fredrick Werner, Bingham Tuisamatatele, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Jacobs, and Lieutenant Colonel Dale Balsis. As a result, you are, now, the most senior officer in the Army National Guard.”

Ayau refers to the Council of Regency’s 2023 Operational Plan for Transitioning the State of Hawai‘i into a Military Government that would guide LTC Rosner in his performance of his military duty. On the Military Government of Hawai‘i, Ayau states, “It is my understanding of the Operational Plan that by transforming the State of Hawai‘i into a Military Government, you, as the American Theater Commander, will be replacing Governor Josh Green with yourself as Military Governor just as General Douglas MacArthur replaced the head of the Japanese civilian government as Military Governor of the Occupied State of Japan in 1945. Like Japan, all officials and employees would continue to exist except for the State of Hawai‘i Legislature and the County Councils, which have been enacting American laws in violation of the law of occupation.”

“When you perform your duty,” Ayau states, “law enforcement officers, especially those of Hawaiian ancestry, would greatly benefit from their rights under Hawaiian Kingdom laws.” Ayau then refers to Dr. Sai’s statement of some of those benefits.”

Section 67. The following persons shall be exempt from all internal taxes: His Majesty the King; the Diplomatic Agents of Foreign Countries and their Attaches duly made know to the Department of Foreign Affairs. The following persons shall be exempt from personal taxes: All clergymen of any Christian denomination regularly engaged in their vocation; all teachers of youth employed in public or private schools for more than six months of the year; all soldiers in actual service and all volunteer soldiers duly enrolled and actually doing duty. Act to Consolidate and Amend the Law Relating to Internal Taxes (1883); 1884 Compiled Laws, p. 131.

4. That a certain portion of the government lands in each island shall be set apart, and placed in the hands of special agents, to be disposed of in lots of from one to fifty acres, in fee-simple, to such natives as may not be otherwise furnished with sufficient land, at a minimum price of fifty cents per acre. An Act Confirming Certain Resolutions of the King and Privy Council, passed on the 21st day of December, A.D. 1849, Granting to the Common People Allodial Titles for Their Own Lands and House Lots, and Certain Other Privileges (1850), also known as the Kuleana Act. According to the inflation calculator, $.50 in 1893 is equivalent in purchasing power to $17.77 in 2025.

Queen’s Hospital was established “for relief of indigent, sick, and disabled people of the Hawaiian Kingdom; as well as of such foreigners, and others, as may desire to avail themselves of the same.” Charter of Queen’s Hospital (1859) established by virtue of An Act to Provide Hospitals for the Relief of Hawaiians in the City of Honolulu and other Localities (1859).

“The Queen’s Hospital is, from the nature of its character, a quasi-public institution. When it was chartered it was provided that all Hawaiians, of native birth, should be treated free of charge. Foreigners were to be treated by payment of fees.” George W. Smith, a Trustee of the Queen’s Hospital wrote in an editorial, Honolulu Advertiser (1900a:2).

The 1886 budget provided $12,000 for the Queen’s Hospital. According to the Charter, the Queen’s Hospital would match those funds. According to the inflation calculator, $12,000.00 in 1886 is equivalent in purchasing power to $408,254.04 in 2025. Queen’s Hospital’s annual budget in 1886 was $816,508.08.

There is no right to bear arms in the Hawaiian Kingdom, which has similar gun laws like Japan. “2. The following persons are hereby declared to be authorized to bear arms, viz: All persons holding official, military or naval rank, either under this government, or that of any nation at peace with this kingdom, when worn for legitimate purposes. Penal Code, Chapter LIV—To Prevent the Carrying of Deadly Weapons (1869). Hawaiian law also provides for yearly licensing of firearms for hunting. Assault weapons are not hunting weapons.

Free trade with foreign countries not impeded by the American Jones Act, formally known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. Under the Jones Act, foreign goods and products destined for Hawai‘i had to offload from foreign ships at designated American ports on the west coast, and then reloaded on ships destined for Hawai‘i. Under free trade, as the Hawaiian Kingdom had before American invasion and occupation, Hawaiian ports would be open for foreign goods and products to be off loaded directly and then continue to ports of the United States.

According to customary international law, the Hawaiian Kingdom not only has treaties with Austria, Belgium, Bremen, Denmark, France, Germany, Hamburg, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, but also with their successor States. Of the 193 Member States of the United Nations, the Hawaiian Kingdom has treaties with 154 of its Member States.

The Hawaiian Kingdom is also a recognized neutral State like Switzerland. As a neutral State, international laws protects its territorial integrity and independence. The territory of states whose neutrality is permanent is inviolable and gives rise to its neutral rights that its territory cannot be violated by belligerents. This neutral right proscribes belligerents from moving their troops across neutral territory or using neutral territory for belligerent purposes. These prohibitions have been codified under articles 2 through 4 of the 1907 Hague Convention V.

Under the provisional laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom taxes for the State of Hawai‘i and the Counties would continue so that government service can be maintained. Tax collection by the Internal Revenue Service, however, would cease to be collected in Hawai‘i because these taxes are for American government services.

“The Attorney General’s dereliction of her duty to protect all officials and employees of the State of Hawai‘i and the Counties, to include my client,” Ayau states, “has now compelled him to not only continue to perform his duties as a police officer under the laws of 1893 and the provisional laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom, but to also call for the lawful transformation of the State of Hawai‘i into a Military Government according to the Council of Regency’s Operational Plan. It is your military duty, as the most senior commander in the Hawai‘i Army National Guard, to immediately transform the State of Hawai‘i into a Military Government in accordance with international humanitarian law, the law of occupation, U.S. Department of Defense Directive 5100.01, and Army regulations, so that the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty during military occupation would cease and that Hawaiian Kingdom laws, together with the provisional laws, will be administered.”

Ayau closes his letter by citing a Hawaiian Kingdom Supreme Court case in 1847, Shillaber v. Waldo, on the court’s view of the rule of law and its tie to the Hawaiian Kingdom’s coat of arms. The Supreme Court stated, “For I trust that the maxim of this Court ever has been, and ever will be, that which is so beautifully expressed in the Hawaiian coat of arms, namely, ‘The life of the land is preserved by righteousness.’ We know of no other rule to guide us in the decision of questions of this kind, than the supreme law of the land, and to this we bow with reverence and veneration, even though the stroke fall on our own head. In the language of another, ‘Let justice be done though the heavens fall.’ Let the laws be obeyed, though it ruin every judicial and executive officer in the Kingdom. Courts may err. Clerks may err. Marshals may err—they do err in every land daily; but when they err let them correct their errors without consulting pride, expediency, or any other consequence.”

In his email to LTC Rosner, Ayau wrote, “I strongly yet respectfully urge a careful read and discussions with Lt Col Lloyd Phelps, the Staff Judge Advocate of the U.S. Army National Guard in Hawai‘i.”

Contact: Edward Halealoha Ayau, Esq.
Attorney for Maui Detective Kamuela Lanakila Mawae
(808) 646-9015
halealohahapai64@gmail.com

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