Me personally, I’ve observed hundreds of photo’s from the reign of Kalakaua and into the 1900s, regarding the house of kalakaua
hawai’i digital archives consist of a large collection relating to the queens funeral. the queens funeral has a wikipedia page which list the procession of the funeral, and after the pallbearers are the bearers of decorations. now usually, it’s two people carrying all of that persons orders and decorations BUT, there was something different about the queens funeral: the japanese were invited.
during the reign of Lili’u’s brother, kalakaua, he set up strong relationships with the japanese imperial family, and even proposed a political marriage. He also established a labor negotiation, allowing for the first japanese immigrants into hawai’i.
why only the japanese came to the queens funeral is never actually specified, as far as I’ve seen. when I look at photos, the queens private secretary and a former diplomat, Curtis iaukea wears a japanese royal order, The Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. while not the bearer of Hawaiian decorations, I did find photo’s of him side by side with the bearer of japanese decorations. it was curtis iaukea who was responsible for announcing the queens death, and it was also his responsibility to plan the queens funeral. thankfully governor pinkham allowed for a state funeral for the queen. one of four royal state funerals to happen in hawai’i while being a territory or state (David kawananakoa, Queen Lili’uokalani, Jonah Kuhio, Abigail Kekaulike Kawananakoa).
if you’d like to explore photos from the queens funeral . , here are the Hawai’i digital archive’s:Â [liliuokalani funeral records and photos](https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/searchResults?query=liliuokalani+funeral)
reference #:Â **PNM-25-09298**Â shows the japanese bearer of decorations in the background as the queen was buried.
if you press on photos to zoom in, don’t crash yourc computer. learned that the hard way before, hahaha
being curtis iaukea’s experience as a diplomat, there was most likely a strong reason for him inviting the japanese; he personally organized diplomatic arrangements with the japanese emperor. again, his reasons are never specified, but photo’s reveal his intentions to portray a strong relationship between hawai’i and japan’s government ties.
whatever the reasons, it continues to leave me to wonder what hawai’i’s relationships with japan would possibly look like if hawai’i had stayed independent longer
Total-Major2533 on
Yes pre 1945 Japan would never of thought of taking Hawaii … or Manchuria… or Thailand… or well you see my point.
KenseiHimura on
Honestly, could have been a number of reasons. Japan was imperialistic at the time, yes, there might have been the matter that many Japanese people immigrated to Hawaii (and other parts of the U.S.) for work, especially because I believe Southern Honshu was suffering from a drought (this is where my Great Grandfather came from), and perhaps Japan felt sympathy for Hawaii as an island monarchy getting subsumed by Western influences or even odd fellow relationships (see: Japan and Poland).
All in all, some mix of answers wouldn’t be surprising either.
thecrgm on
Is this the dude who posts a million bitter Hawaii posts a day
Trialbyfuego on
Haha i feel called out. I still gotta read more about this. It seems very interesting. Hawaii was pivotal in ww2 and so it’s interesting to think about what would’ve happened if Hawaii was independent or under another nation’s control at the beginning of the war.
das_slash on
Early 1900s Japan taking an interest in you is a very, very bad thing.
Even at their friendliest “we are all one big asian family, throwing off the yoke of colonialism”, non-japanese were inferior races to enslave, torture and murder.
6 Comments
context:
Me personally, I’ve observed hundreds of photo’s from the reign of Kalakaua and into the 1900s, regarding the house of kalakaua
hawai’i digital archives consist of a large collection relating to the queens funeral. the queens funeral has a wikipedia page which list the procession of the funeral, and after the pallbearers are the bearers of decorations. now usually, it’s two people carrying all of that persons orders and decorations BUT, there was something different about the queens funeral: the japanese were invited.
during the reign of Lili’u’s brother, kalakaua, he set up strong relationships with the japanese imperial family, and even proposed a political marriage. He also established a labor negotiation, allowing for the first japanese immigrants into hawai’i.
why only the japanese came to the queens funeral is never actually specified, as far as I’ve seen. when I look at photos, the queens private secretary and a former diplomat, Curtis iaukea wears a japanese royal order, The Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. while not the bearer of Hawaiian decorations, I did find photo’s of him side by side with the bearer of japanese decorations. it was curtis iaukea who was responsible for announcing the queens death, and it was also his responsibility to plan the queens funeral. thankfully governor pinkham allowed for a state funeral for the queen. one of four royal state funerals to happen in hawai’i while being a territory or state (David kawananakoa, Queen Lili’uokalani, Jonah Kuhio, Abigail Kekaulike Kawananakoa).
if you’d like to explore photos from the queens funeral . , here are the Hawai’i digital archive’s:Â [liliuokalani funeral records and photos](https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/searchResults?query=liliuokalani+funeral)
reference #:Â **PNM-25-09298**Â shows the japanese bearer of decorations in the background as the queen was buried.
if you press on photos to zoom in, don’t crash yourc computer. learned that the hard way before, hahaha
being curtis iaukea’s experience as a diplomat, there was most likely a strong reason for him inviting the japanese; he personally organized diplomatic arrangements with the japanese emperor. again, his reasons are never specified, but photo’s reveal his intentions to portray a strong relationship between hawai’i and japan’s government ties.
whatever the reasons, it continues to leave me to wonder what hawai’i’s relationships with japan would possibly look like if hawai’i had stayed independent longer
Yes pre 1945 Japan would never of thought of taking Hawaii … or Manchuria… or Thailand… or well you see my point.
Honestly, could have been a number of reasons. Japan was imperialistic at the time, yes, there might have been the matter that many Japanese people immigrated to Hawaii (and other parts of the U.S.) for work, especially because I believe Southern Honshu was suffering from a drought (this is where my Great Grandfather came from), and perhaps Japan felt sympathy for Hawaii as an island monarchy getting subsumed by Western influences or even odd fellow relationships (see: Japan and Poland).
All in all, some mix of answers wouldn’t be surprising either.
Is this the dude who posts a million bitter Hawaii posts a day
Haha i feel called out. I still gotta read more about this. It seems very interesting. Hawaii was pivotal in ww2 and so it’s interesting to think about what would’ve happened if Hawaii was independent or under another nation’s control at the beginning of the war.
Early 1900s Japan taking an interest in you is a very, very bad thing.
Even at their friendliest “we are all one big asian family, throwing off the yoke of colonialism”, non-japanese were inferior races to enslave, torture and murder.