How the US Stole Hawaii

How a group of Jesus-loving sugar warriors took over an island nation.

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Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist. He currently is based in Washington, DC, reporting on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe. Johnny's visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways. He holds a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University.

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[Jimmy_Widders_Hunt]

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”-- Desmond Tutu.

[anunaykumar]

" They came to our lands and had bibles in their hands and when they went we had the bibles and they had the land "

[kidatanakafan]

"Jesus Sugar Americans" is probably the best term ever

[Autumnisms]

Thank you so much for making this video, as a Hawaiian… we’re happy to see that people are trying to properly educate what really happened to Hawaii and our people.

[dobresambrat]

The censoring of how Hawaii was really taken is a perfect example of "History is written by the victor"

[aerophy]

You can really tell that the US inherited some british traits...





Edit: Call me CIA, cus I be starting conflicts in the comment section.

[wihlke]

The almost complete loss of the Hawaiian language is one of the biggest losses (to me as a language lover). It would be interesting to hear more about the system of government Hawaii had in place before the Americans came.

[wego]

As a native Hawaiian, Mahalo for telling our story. We are still fighting to be recognized like Native Americans.

Yes we voted to become a state but talking with people from that time they said they had to make a choice between being slaves or becoming a state. We took the lesser of the evil.

[shangerdanger]

Great video. It's crazy how few people know about this. They see Hawai'i as just a place to vacation. The exploitation continues from 100s of years ago to today

[gmunz]

US: *colonizes entire country*
US 100 years later: "sorry we stole your country"
US immediately after: "it's still ours tho."

[skyval]

Queen Liliuokalani was a gifted composer and every once in awhile I hear a beautiful little melody on the classical music station and it usually melts my heart, they are so sweet and beautiful . Aloha Oe is her composition too and it will make you cry . Love her .

[alexhando]

No-one:
America:
Looks like you need sum *freedom* son!
Hawaii:
But we are already a *democratic nation*
America:
*DID I ASK FOR YOU OPINION?!*


(Edit: I've checked and during the time of the coup d'etat, the Kingdom of Hawaii was a constitutional monarchy, similar to that of post-WW2 Japan as its constitution was a written one, unlike that of the UK. It's Prime Minister was elected by the people and he held the ultimate power rather than the monarch, who was head of state, but acted as a ceremonial figurehead of the country.)

[rohan]

Indigenous peoples all over the world have struggled a lot against imperialism. It is painful.

[xcrazyghostx]

You should do a video about Puerto Rico. The Us government tried “Americanizing” the people here and they put Gag laws and many horrible things.

[ForTheOmnissiah]

Being a born and raised southern American, Hawaiians fighting to keep their culture alive and continuing the fight is absolute awesome to see. NEVER give up, and fight the state! You have a beautiful heritage, and it must live on.

[Ambigious]

Bill Clinton: Sorry we stole your land

Native hawaii: Oh so we are getting it back, or atleast protection for our sacred locations?

Bill Clinton: Oh lol, no

[elay]

Most of American formation can be chopped up to “We were friends until we realized they had LAND”

[cambrondavis]

I love how there’s a lot of British ppl in here talking shit about America’s history acting like there so innocent 🙈

[julianhendrix]

As someone born in Hawaii and raised there for a period of my life, I think that this was a perfect description and also this is the reason why my family does not buy dole pineapples

[alyssiatucker]

As someone who has lived in Hawai'i their whole life, I can tell you that the culture is one of the most amazing parts of living here. If you have ever been to Hawai'i (and I mean really been, like full Johnny style, immersing yourself in the culture and not just staying at a resort) then you know how loving and kind and incredible the people here are. My family used to run a Bed and Breakfast before the recent lava flow took out our home, and this was by far the most common reason people stated for wanting to return someday. With the recent protests on the Mauna, and ongoing struggle to keep sacred lands safe on Kaho'olawe, Pōhakuloa, and many many more places, it has created a way for the entire world to see how hurt and outraged Native Hawaiians are by everything the US has done to them. While they are some of the most resilient people I have ever known, it is hard. It is really really hard to see how the government doesn't care much about giving the people what they want. In a way, it is similar to what is happening in the BLM protests right now, as higher ups are giving people supplemental things, but not really what they want. A great example is the state that Kaho'olawe was left in when it was returned to the Hawaiian people. The island was supposed to be completely cleared of ordnance left by the US Navy. They were given 10 years, and get this, 400 million dollars. They only cleared 75% of the island, and many parts are still left highly dangerous to this day. Not to mention, the water table was literally broken. There is no fresh water on Kaho'olawe because the Navy put enough TNT on it to simulate an atomic bomb. That's not a joke, that was actually their intention. So after some ranting, I hope you learned something. The Hawaiian people are over being stomped on by the US. Period.
P.S. this was written by a 15 year old so don't say "but I'm too young to worry about things like this" because you aren't!! Learn about the world and the place that you live! Also sorry for making this comment so long there is a lot to say about this topic.