The history books say Hawaiians and everyone else living in Hawai`i at the time voted overwhelmingly to become the fiftieth US state on August 21, 1959, fifty-five years ago today.
Yet nothing is further from the truth.
Actually only thirty-six percent of all eligible voters voted in the 1959 statehood vote. And yes, ninety-four percent of that thirty-six percent did vote for statehood.
But who were those voters? They were overwhelmingly Americans who had settled in Hawai`i to live, along with the US military and their family members.
The truth is, sixty-four percent of all eligible voters never voted at all.
And the vast majority of Hawaiians boycotted the vote entirely.
So a small minority voted for statehood, and those voters overwhelmingly were foreign settlers and the US military.
So the anniversary of US Hawai`i Statehood is actually a celebration of theft and stolen property.
