Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 12, 1 December 1993 — U.S. apologizes to Hawaiians [ARTICLE]

U.S. apologizes to Hawaiians

from page 1 introducing the concept of private property and representative democracy to Hawaiians. "We ought to be clear," he pointed out, "that we are not apologizing for democracy or the eon- - cept of private property." Those in the Akaka eamp felt that this year's debate was more productive than last year's because of the informative discussion on Hawaiian issues, discussions that helped educate senators about the situation in Hawai'i. Sen. Akaka's director of eommunications, Bob Ogawa, said, "It was a lot more meaningful this time round. There was more debate, more opposition, more of a sense of real accomplishment. ... If you start to educate people in Washington about the situation in Hawai'i, by and large they start coming around." When the resolution moved to the House, Representatives Patsy Mink and Neil Abercrombie picked up the fight in support of

» the apology. Rep. Mink said in her floor statement that, "In spite of the passage of 100 years, the fact that Hawai'i is now an integral part of the United States, and the argument that the illegal 1893 takeover of the Kingdom of Hawai'i provided citizens of Hawai'i with full citizenship in the world's inost enduring democracy, none of this erases the fact that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i was an illegal act whieh transformed native Hawaiians into strangers in their own land." Rep. Abercrombie added that the "the resolution lays out in graphic detail what happened to Hawaiians and sounds a eompelling eall for justice. ... Native Hawaiians are acutely conscious of their history and today's action is an important step towards healing a wound that has festered for far too long." The resolution was passed without opposition in the House.