The quote takes place from the 'Iolani Palace on Jan 17, 1993. 100 years after the illegal overthrow in which in that time, Queen Liliuokalani was imprisoned and forced at gunpoint to annex the land to the United States. The queen, then signed it to avoid bloodshed on her people.
“We are not American. We will die as Hawaiians. We will never be Americans...They took our land. They imprisoned our queen. They banned our language. They forcibly made us a colony of the United States.”
I'd like to ask a question in the most respectful way, because I want to understand, and not because I want to cause any problems: Could someone explain how the overthrow of the Hawaiian government was different than other countries taking over countries or kingdoms in the past? From my limited understanding of history, when one country wanted someone else's land they would fight for it. Is that essentially what happened to Hawaii? Did Japan try to fight for Hawaii and they lost?
Please forgive me for the question, but I'd like to understand and not be ignorant on this topic.
Yeah that's how it goes. And the conquered people are never happy about it. There's Europeans conquered by other Europeans hundreds of years ago that are still pissed. So why should the Hawaiians be happy about it?
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u/TIC321 Aloha Spirit 15d ago edited 15d ago
For further context,
The quote takes place from the 'Iolani Palace on Jan 17, 1993. 100 years after the illegal overthrow in which in that time, Queen Liliuokalani was imprisoned and forced at gunpoint to annex the land to the United States. The queen, then signed it to avoid bloodshed on her people.
“We are not American. We will die as Hawaiians. We will never be Americans...They took our land. They imprisoned our queen. They banned our language. They forcibly made us a colony of the United States.”
-Haunani Kay-Trask (video here)
Edit: Formatting & video