Captive Paradise by James L. Haley ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Megalion]

We all know that Hawaiians had a culture all their own and that it was largely destroyed in the American seizure of Hawaiian territories.

It's a given.

I wanted to know more about pre-US Hawaii. And the lead up to it. James Haley delivers this and more.

In the prologue, he discusses a conversation with a mentor about his plan to write this book. He's already done extensive research and has found some surprising information that doesn't fit the above narrative.
"I was also increasingly surprised and troubled by the pervasive oppression of the common people by their own chiefs and kings before Americans ever showed up. I cited several examples; the professor nodded and allowed that this was indeed the case, but he warned me that if I wrote the book that way and did not “position” the Hawaiians as victims of American racism and exploitation, as he said, it “won’t help you get accepted back into grad school.”
I marinated in this irony for a few moments and said, “This must be what they mean by academic freedom.” Noting my shock, the professor went on to say that race, gender, and exploitation have ruled the scholarly paradigm for thirty years, and are entrenched for probably thirty more."

" Three years of research have chastened me with the sense that virtually nothing in Hawaiian history has a single cause, and virtually no one acted out of a single motivation. It is not a simple history, and it cannot be explained simply, certainly not with recourse to the easy remedies of a previous academic era—native savagery and simplicity—or of the current one—the Anglo sense of hegemony and entitlement. "

Thiss fascinating. In most cases, there are more than one sides to the story, and even if they appear to contradict each other, I believe that many times, they are all mostly true. Haley found and shares many of these "other sides" and pieces together a narrative that seems more inclusive of the various sides and how they saw things.

I think he's found the bigger picture that is closest to the 'truth' of it all that anyone could ask for given the tight control over pre-contact Hawaii history by the a'ali, the chiefs and royalty.
" one Web site promoting Hawaiian tourism writes on its history page that “it is difficult to find an objective Hawaiian history that is accurate and unemotional.”5 My goal with this book is to make that a little less difficult."

An example of startling revelations that cast events in a different light:

Cpt Cook was the British captain that "discovered" Hawaii as far as Europeans were concerned. This is the benchmark point of "contact" as referred to above.

He was aware of the need to keep his sailors from infecting the local women with STDs and also to generally not impede on the native gene pools. He blamed himself for losing control of the sexual interaction and subsequent consequences.

What he didn't know: Japanese ships had been stumbling across Hawaii long before. Via shipwrecks and etc. Syphilis had become an epidemic in Japan about 250 years before and it's likely that 2/3rds of their sailors were infected. The probability that the Hawaiian people were already infected before Cook's men came ashore? Quite high. The actual truth is unknown but clearly some hubris on Cpt Cook's part to assume that his ship was the first encounter the natives had.

Another side to this story, Hawaiians were very progressive in terms of gender roles and equality. And very much in touch with their sexuality. Cpt Cook may have tried to keep his sailors confined to the ships, but that didn't deter the women who were very determined to jump their bones and hopefully get pregnant by them.

They came on board in droves. Performed very erotic and blatantly seductive hulas. And apparently in some cases, gave the sailor no choice in the matter and dragged him into bed. Cook had to concede the matter to the natives.

We can't say for sure who brought syphilis to the islands but seems clear that any sexual predation was in the reverse.

Haley comments at one point that historians are prone to "presentism". Tendency to view the cultures and morals of people hundreds of years ago through today's morals.

It's a safe bet that this is part of what has colored the perception of the island history over the past 200 years.

Haley doesn't try to excuse the travesties that occurred. His goal is to properly identify and source the factors that affected the timeline and events that came to pass.

Another example that illustrates this:
The first time that a Hawaiian king thought about US Annexation, it was an option he was considering pursuing because Britain and France were being bullies and demanding all kinds of "reparations" from the Hawaiians for reasons never quite clear. The king was desperate for a way to back off the two imperialist nations before they tried to seize the islands outright. Proposing that the US annex the islands on a time limited basis was one possible way to do it.

So the first time the issue ever came up of the US annexing the islands, came from the islands themselves. And in direct response to Britain and France. The US was largely indifferent at the time still.

I'll share one more thing that dramatically changed the perspective for me.

The Christian missionaries.

Pre-contact, the natives waged war on each other 8 months of the year. A particularly bloody conflict ended with the survivors escaping to the mainland. They converted to Christianity and became convinced that missionaries were the answer to bringing peace to the islands.

This means that the first big waves of missionaries that came to the islands, did so at the enthusiastic invitations of at least some of the natives.

Here's the part that really got me.

They established schools and began teaching them how to read and write. Hawaiians took to it so strongly that they became the most LITERATE population in the world. And remained so for a long time.

I came away from this book realizing that at least in Hawaii, the missionaries as a whole, were genuinely well intended. Served real purpose. Overall, they did more good than harm. Directly.

Their fundamental mistake... not teaching their own vast broods of children properly. Haley wastes no opportunity to point out that many of the major players in the destruction and domination of Hawaii, were the children and grandchildren of the missionaries.

Haley fills every page with detail. There's no filler content to pad out the page count. If anything, I'm sure he had to cut out parts to keep it under 400 pages (not counting the extensive footnotes and bibliography).

The only criticism I have of this work, he would skip back and forth along the timeline of events. I would read about a monarch's death. But then a little while on, be confused because he's referenced in the present time of the narrative. I wish he would have refrained from describing the passing of key a'lai until the events in the narrative definitively reach the point of their death.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has a passing interest in Hawaii's history.

[Nicole R]

This sounds very interesting! I have limited interaction with the Hawaiian culture. I have a couple of good friends who live over there (one is Japanese Hawaiian and has lived there her whole life) and I lived with a Samoan-Hawaiian transplanted to CA several years ago. Learning about their history and culture was fascinating but we never discussed it in more than a scraping-the-surface kind of way.

I am determined to get to Hawaii by Michner this year. Have you read that one?

Also, do you live in Hawaii or are you have Hawaiian ancestry? Just wondering where the interest comes from.

[Megalion]

Neither. Just a deep attraction to tropical life. I've not read the Michener book but I've had The Hawaiians: by Steve Stelle on my TBR for some time. And in trying to find that book to link, I ended up adding more to my TBR.

I've actually never read any of Michener's books. Another weird gap.