Hawai'i's road to statehood was long, bumpy and controversial.
Back in 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland told Congress that the overthrow of Hawai'i's monarchy was "an act of war" instigated by America's diplomatic and naval representatives "without justification." When a divided Congress couldn't agree, Hawai'i became an independent nation, ruled undemocratically by the people who overthrew the monarchy.
By 1898, the U.S. Senate was unable to rally the required two-thirds vote to approve an annexation treaty, so pro-annexation President William McKinley agreed to an unusual strategy. He approved a questionable congressional resolution that needed only a majority vote by both houses of Congress. Annexation occurred and the people of Hawai'i were not allowed to vote for or against it.
In 1903, Gov. Sanford Dole signed a joint resolution asking Congress for statehood. Sixteen years later, in 1919, Congressional Delegate Jonah Kuhio introduced the first congressional bill for Hawai'i statehood.
A year later, on Feb. 20, 1920, congressman Charles Curry, chairman of the House Territories Committee, expressed an oft-repeated concern: statehood would mean Japanese control. People of Japanese ancestry were 43 percent of Hawai'i's population, compared with only 11 percent who were Caucasian.
For most of the 1920s to early 1930s, Hawai'i's political leadership paid mere lip service to statehood because the "Big 5" companies controlled the territory with minimal Washington interference. All that changed in 1934 when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Jones-Costigan Act, which protected Mainland sugar growers and classified Hawai'i as a "foreign area." Because of that costly insult, Hawai'i's leaders decided to renew their push for statehood.
A year later, in 1935, Honolulu welcomed the first U.S. congressional hearing on Hawai'i statehood held here. The recommendation: further study was needed.
Future governor Oren Long convincingly answered "the Japanese issue" when he told a 1937 joint congressional committee holding statehood hearings that Hawai'i's Japanese were loyal to America. A favorable committee report announced: "Hawai'i has fulfilled every requirement for statehood ...," but did not recommend statehood until there was a public ballot by Hawai'i voters.
Several 'firsts'
In the 1940s, momentum moved Hawai'i very close to statehood. There were many "firsts."
Hawai'i citizens got their first opportunity to vote for statehood in 1940, and the general election vote was 2 to 1 for statehood. A half-century after the monarchy's overthrow, few voters knew about that controversy or about Hawai'i's unusual road to annexation.
The 1940 Democratic National Convention and the 1944 Republican National Convention endorsed Hawai'i statehood, in political milestones.
Four events in 1946 affected statehood. President Harry Truman used his State of the Union speech to become the first president to endorse Hawai'i statehood, and the U.S. House Committee on Territories recommended legislation for Hawai'i statehood for the first time. Gov. Ingram Stainback praised a group of returning 442nd soldiers: "By your heroic deeds you have done more to bring statehood for Hawai'i within the realm of near possibility than all the words of all the politicians during the last 40 years."
Finally, in a document that might have lasting consequences, the United Nations Charter proclaimed that nations with territories are obligated to help their territories achieve self-government or independence. In other words, any statehood vote should include an option for independence.
In 1947, the U.S. House passed a Hawai'i statehood bill for the first time, and the next year began with a U.S. Senate committee holding its first Hawai'i statehood hearings.
Communism's role
Suddenly, the drive to statehood slowed considerably. Local overreaction to growing union strength backfired when Hawai'i's political and business leaders convinced Congress there was excessive communist influence here.
For example, in 1948, Gov. Stainback declared, "As feared, the communists have taken over the so-called Democratic Party organization in Hawai'i — lock, stock and barrel. ... Hawai'i is the most fertile field for communism in the whole nation."
A year later, U.S. Sen. Hugh Butler, chairman of the U.S. Senate Interior Committee, which reviewed statehood, published a committee report that opposed statehood because "Communism has a firm grip on the economic, political and social life in the Territory."
To make matters worse, Hawai'i's newspapers took a leading role in alleging communist influence here. On May 4, 1949, the Honolulu Advertiser published the first of 50 "Dear Joe" letters on Page One — written as if an ILWU union organizer was writing to Russian dictator Joe Stalin. The letters were written by publisher Lorrin Thurston.
Statehood Achieved
On July 22, 1950, a Hawai'i Constitutional Convention approved a state constitution that would take effect when Congress approved statehood.
Three years later, President Dwight Eisenhower declared in his 1953 State of the Union speech that Hawai'i statehood "should be granted promptly."
Locally, 116,000 people took part in a dramatic pitch for statehood by signing a mile-long Statehood Honor Roll petition on Hotel and Bishop streets on Feb. 10, 1954.
The U.S. House passed several Hawai'i statehood bills over the years, but the Senate withheld its approval and the bills died. However, on April 1, 1954, the U.S. Senate passed a combined statehood bill for Alaska and Hawai'i by a 57-28 vote. But this time it was the House that did not act and that legislation died.
Eisenhower backed statehood again in 1956. "Statehood would be a shining example of the American way to the entire Earth," he said, because Hawai'i is "a unique example of a community that is a successful laboratory in human brotherhood."
For practical reasons, Alaska, not Hawai'i, became the nation's 49th state on Jan. 3, 1959. Hawai'i Congressional Delegate John Burns negotiated this bold compromise because it persuaded more senators to vote for Hawai'i statehood.
On March 11, 1959, the U.S. Senate passed a Hawai'i statehood bill, 76-15, and the U.S. House approved it March 12, 323-89.
At last, after 61 years of waiting, Hawai'i became the 50th state on Aug. 21.
To celebrate the pending statehood, the Honolulu Advertiser published its biggest newspaper on June 23, 1959, a hefty 300-page issue that weighed 4 pounds.
Today, Hawaiian sovereignty activists raise at least three objections to statehood. They contend that Hawai'i's annexation was illegal because the Senate failed to ratify a treaty with the necessary two-thirds vote; no local vote was held for annexation in 1898; and that later public votes for statehood were illegal because the local ballot did not include an option for independence, as required by the United Nations Charter.
Rich Budnick is the author of the book "Hawaii's Forgotten History, 1900-1999: The good ... the bad ... the embarrassing," which documents more than 2,000 historic Hawai'i events.
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