Thomas Square’s new Kamehameha III bronze statue marks Sovereignty Restoration Day

Tuesday’s dedication of a 12-foot-tall statue of King Kamehameha III in the middle of Thomas Square celebrated Hawaiian pride, provided a lesson in island history and honored a king who gave up his monarchy in the belief that justice would prevail.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell told those gathered that Tuesday’s event at Thomas Square represented “our ongoing story of our people — all of our people, whether you’ve got the koko of the Hawaiian blood or whether you showed up last week or you’re one of the immigrant groups that came to work the plantations. We’re all part of that story today.”

The day marked the 175th anniversary of La Hoihoi Ea, or Sovereignty Restoration Day. The event honored the day that Hawaiian rule was restored under Kamehameha III in a modern-day ceremony that re-created the lowering of the British flag and the raising of the Hawaiian flag once again — and for the foreseeable future — over Thomas Square.

A newly unveiled $250,000 bronze statue by artist Thomas Jay Warren depicts Kamehameha III with “one foot planted firmly on the ground, perhaps in the past, and one foot raised in the direction of the future,” Caldwell said. “His arm is raised to the flag, the Hawaiian flag, the only flag that will fly here 24 hours a day, seven days a week forever, by herself with no others.”

The ceremony was timed to coincide with the exact hour that five months of British rule under Capt. Lord George Paulet was ended by Paulet’s boss, Rear Adm. Richard Thomas of the British Royal Navy, said Puakea Nogelmeier, a retired professor from the University of Hawaii’s School of Hawaiian Knowledge.

Months before, Paulet had threatened to attack Honolulu. In response, Nogelmeier said, Kamehameha III “decided to peacefully surrender the government to the British crown until Britain could review the setting. It was a hard yet brilliant political move relying on a higher level of justice.”

In the interim Paulet appointed himself head of the Hawaiian government and destroyed Hawaiian flags, replacing them with the Union Jack in preparation to make Hawaii a British territory, Nogelmeier said.

But when Thomas arrived July 26, he decided “Paulet’s actions were inappropriate and the occupation must end,” Nogelmeier said.

And Thomas decided on a public ceremony to “document the restoration of the nation’s independence and self-rule.”

The event was held July 31, 1843, on a dusty patch of land between Honolulu town and Waikiki — on what is now called Thomas Square.

“This is Kamehameha III’s place at Thomas Square, and it’s fitting that it have a statue of Kamehameha III, not Adm. Thomas,” Caldwell said. “He gets the name but he doesn’t get the statue.”

As modern-day Honolulu firefighters dressed in period uniforms stood guard with gleaming axes next to the towering statue, Caldwell spoke admiringly of a king who formed the first fire department west of the Mississippi River, created the Royal Hawaiian Band and shared power with three branches of government when he did not need to.

Caldwell called Kamehameha III “our Ben Franklin” and “the generous king.”

Kamehameha III “created a land system where he shared the lands with others,” Caldwell said, and oversaw “the most literate group of people in any kingdom anywhere. There were hundreds of newspapers, not just one today.”

Caldwell welcomed debate about the $250,000 cost for the statue of Kamehameha III. He noted the appearance of some Hawaiian flags in the crowd that flew upside down. And he admired the speed that an ahu — or stone altar — mysteriously appeared in the park Monday night near the Thomas Square flagpole.

“That is part of the story, too,” Caldwell said. “Kids will ask, What is this man about? And the stories will be told, and we’ll continue to thrive as a people through these intertwined stories.”