Column: Hawaiians pay dearly for military presence

American warships first began visiting Hawaii in the 1820s and the U.S. Navy’s efforts to secure a naval base in the islands began shortly thereafter. Along with the warships came many foreign diseases. This resulted in a great loss of life, and Hawaii’s native population entered a steep decline shortly after the British, U.S. and other foreign ships entered our shores.

Agreements between the U.S. and the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1887 allowed the U.S. Navy the exclusive use of Pearl Harbor. Just five years later, armed U.S. naval forces invaded Honolulu and with guns aimed at Hawaiian government buildings, including Iolani Palace, a coup d’état ensued resulting in the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian government and the loss of our country.

Subsequently, in 1898 nearly 1.8 million acres of land that belonged to the Hawaiian government, the Hawaiian crown and its people, were seized by the United States government. Native Hawaiians who once had access to these national lands for farming, gathering, fishing and cultural practices experienced another great loss.

In the early 1900s, with the U.S. government’s takeover of the country and the military’s dominance in Hawaii, our culture significantly eroded. Some of our most significant institutions became instruments for the U.S. military. Kamehameha Schools became a military school instituting mandatory ROTC training for all boys starting in the 1920s and lasting until the 1990s.

The U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor was the target of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, and Hawaii along with the rest of the United States was then pulled into World War II. Many Hawaiians and sons of Hawaii, including those who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion, lost their lives defending the United States of America.

War training then led the U.S. military to train hundreds of thousands of soldiers using live ammunition across the mountains and valleys on every island, leaving hundreds and thousands of acres of our precious lands and oceans riddled with unexploded ordnance.

For decades, the entire island of Kahoolawe was bombed by the U.S. Navy and its allies. Even though the bombing was stopped, hundreds of millions were spent on restoration, and amazing efforts of natural and cultural revitalization have been accomplished, the island’s aquifer and only source of fresh water remains destroyed due to the bombing. Today most of the island remains unusable due to unexploded ordnance and is devoid of any vegetation or water.

Still, the U.S. military continues to control many of Hawaii’s most culturally significant lands including Pearl Harbor, Fort DeRussy Military Reservation in Waikiki, Bellows Air Force Station in Waimanalo, Kaneohe Marine Corps Base, Makua Military Reservation, Pohakuloa Training Area, and the list goes on.

These special places linked to our ancestors remain inaccessible for most of our people. Hawaii is now one of most militarized island chains on the planet.

Now, after this 200-year history of loss of life, loss of country, loss of land and loss of culture, the U.S. Navy is threatening our very ability to live in our island home.

The U.S. Navy’s lack of regard for Hawaii and its people by its continued operation of an outdated bulk fuel storage facility at Red Hill — holding more than 100 million gallons of fuel in degraded fuel tanks with a long history of leakage just 100 feet above our island’s source of fresh water — is just another sad chapter in the long history of the U.S. military’s reign of destruction for us and our islands.

National defense is of major importance, but who is defending us?

Kealiimahiai Burgess is a Native Hawaiian and resident of Hoaeae, Oahu.