Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawai'i Statehood by Dean Itsuji Saranillio (review)

When thinking of Hawai'i, most people imagine beautiful beaches, palm trees, perfect waves—in short, the island state is primarily associated with a paradisiac vacation destination. Yet, when having a closer look, it becomes clear that paradise is lost—at least to its indigenous inhabitants. Mainly whitewashed by the Hawaiian tourism industry, the history of the island state is indeed very dark and tragic. Once a thriving independent kingdom, Hawai'i was significantly transformed when first American and later British missionaries arrived on the islands and not only sought to convert the supposedly heathen Kanaka 'Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) to Christianity, but further started to ban ancient cultural practices such as the hula and surfing. The missionaries were followed by numerous Asian workers as well as Western merchants and entrepreneurs who finally, in 1893, overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii in a coup d'état. Subsequently, the righteous ruler of Hawai'i, Queen Lili'iuokalani was imprisoned in her own palace. Although the queen protested vehemently and President Grover Cleveland later acknowledged in 1894 that the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom had been unjust, reinstatement never came. It is thus not too surprising that until today, several resistance movements in Hawai'i openly question, challenge, and oppose statehood.

Dean Itsuji Saranillio's book Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawai'i Statehood closely investigates this so far seldom-discussed part of Hawaiian history by closely examining different narratives concerning Hawaiian statehood, tying it to particular moments of American history. Ranging from an opinion campaign by a descendant of American missionaries in Hawai'i at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to political cartoons and narratives spread by the tourism industry, Saranillio focuses on the almost invisible and unheard perspective of Native Hawaiians as well as other ethnic groups and their opposition to statehood. While American narratives dominantly argue that Hawaiian statehood was timely and necessary for the former independent kingdom, Unsustainable Empire convincingly argues that statehood was less an expansion of U.S. democracy and a narrative of Western settlement, but rather a story of both white as well as Asian settlement. Furthermore, Saranillio claims that statehood was "a result of a weakening U.S. nation whose mode of production . . . was increasingly unsustainable without enacting a more aggressive policy of imperialism (9). He further argues that Hawai'i statehood "is understood as a liberal moral allegory about the important inclusion of nonwhite groups into the Unites States," an idea that "came at the expense of Kanaka 'Ōiwi human rights to self-determination" (6). By resurfacing and examining fascinating examples that reveal both Kanaka 'Ōiwi as well as non-Native oppositions against U.S. occupation and by referencing "white supremacy, liberal multiculturalism, settler colonialism, and imperialism" (13) the book helps to paint a more nuanced and multifarious picture of this complex socio-political issue. Within a framework of transnational and transpacific studies, this approach has been long overdue and much needed, as it does not engage in "a politics of blame and accusation but to open our worlds to a plurality of possibilities" (209) but opens a dialogue for mutual understanding.