Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawai‘i Enters the Global Economy

Beginning well before 1600, the North American fur trade was the earliest global economic enterprise. The North American fur trade was a response to declining populations of fur-bearing animals in Western Europe and the cost of purchasing and importing furs from Russia.

Eventually, all of the North American colonies, even the Carolinas, produced some furs for markets in Europe, and there was a lively trade in furs and deer hides out of Louisiana, but the best furs were to be obtained north of the Great Lakes.

Then, from 1775-1783, war was waging on the eastern side of the continent.  The main result was an American victory and European recognition of the independence of the United States.

When US independence closed the colonial trade routes within the British empire, the merchantmen and whalers of New England swarmed around the Horn (around southern Africa), in search of new markets and sources of supply.

Supplying Explorers and Traders

The opening of the China trade was the first and most spectacular result of this enterprise; the establishment of trading relations with Hawai‘i followed shortly.

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China.  The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska.  The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.

Needing supplies in their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; for instance any type of iron, a common nail, chisel or knife, could fetch far more fresh fruit meat and water than a large sum of money would in other ports.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England).

The Hawaiian Islands first entered the international economic scene in the latter-18th century when its ports and favorable climate made the Islands an ideal winter harbor and stopover for merchant ships, whalers and explorers’ vessels who needed to replenish food and water supplies, or make necessary repairs. (Duncan)

Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for refreshment and recreation.

Fur trading on the coast remained profitable from the 1780s into the 1820s, but the successful trade in furs depended entirely on the locale. Some parts of the coast, such as Nootka Sound and Clayoquot Sound, witnessed a complete collapse of the sea otter population after only a decade of intense hunting. (Igler)

Sandalwood

Sandalwood (ʻiliahi) has been highly prized and in great demand through the ages; its use for incense is part of the ritual of Buddhism.  Chinese used the fragrant heart wood for incense, medicinal purposes, for architectural details and carved objects.

Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick of the Lady Washington, when he instructed sailors to collect cargo of sandalwood.  From that point on, it became a source of wealth in the islands, until its supply was ultimately exhausted.

It was not until the opening years of the 19th that the sandalwood business became a recognized branch of trade.  Trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item.

Sandalwood trade was a turning point in Hawai‘i, especially related to its economic structure.  It moved Hawai‘i from a self-sufficient economy to a commercial economy.  This started a series of other economic and export activities across the islands.

In 1811, an agreement between Boston ship captains and Kamehameha I established a monopoly on sandalwood exports, with Kamehameha receiving 25% of the profits.  As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition. 

Between about 1810 and 1820, the major item of Hawaiian trade was sandalwood.  Sandalwood, geography and fresh provisions made the Islands a vital link in a closely articulated trade route between Boston, the Northwest Coast, and Canton, China.

By 1830, the trade in sandalwood had completely collapsed.  Hawaiian forests were exhausted and sandalwood from India and other areas in the Pacific drove down the price in China and made the Hawaiian trade unprofitable.

Whaling

From the 16th century through the 19th century, whale oil was used principally as lamp fuel and for producing soap. (Britannica)

The over-fishing of “on shore” New England whales in the 1700s forced local whalers to venture “offshore”, journeying further west in search of their lucrative prey.

The first New England whalers rounded Cape Horn in 1791, and fished off both the Chilean and Peruvian coasts.  Many sailed around South America and onward to Japan and the Arctic.

In 1819, the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and the Nantucket whaler Equator became the first American whalers to visit Hawai‘i. A year later, Captain Joseph Allen discovered large concentrations of sperm whales off the coast of Japan, setting off an exodus of whalers to this area.

These ships might have sought provisions in Japan, except that Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. So Hawaiian ports became the major ports of call for whalers.  (NPS)

When whaling was strong in the Pacific (starting in 1819 and running to 1859,) Hawaiʻi’s central location between America and Japan whaling grounds brought many whaling ships to the Islands.  Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. As the Northwest fur trade decreased and sandalwood supplies and values dropped, the whaling industry began to fill the economic void.

Whaling had been “an economic force of awesome proportions in these Islands for more than forty years,” enabling King Kamehameha III to finally pay off the national debts accumulated in earlier years. (NPS)

Sugar

The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands; sugar was a canoe crop.

It appears Cook was the first outsider to put sugarcane to use.  One of his tools in his fight against scurvy (severe lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in your diet) was beer.  Others later made rum from the sugarcane.

But beer and rum were not a typical sugar use.  Since it was a crop that produced a choice food product that could be shipped to distant markets, its culture on a field scale was started in about 1800.  Hawaiʻi had the basic natural resources needed to grow sugar: land, sun and water.

Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.

What encouraged the development of plantations in Hawaiʻi?  For one, the gold rush and settlement of California opened a lucrative market.  Likewise, the Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s, enabling Hawai‘i to compete with elevated prices for sugar.

In addition, the Treaty of Reciprocity-1875 between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.

For nearly a century, agriculture was the state’s leading economic activity.  It provided Hawai‘i’s major sources of employment, tax revenues and new capital through exports of raw sugar and other farm products.  The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. (However, a majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.)

As an economic entity, sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid‐19th century and became the principal industry in the islands, until it was succeeded by the visitor industry in 1960.

Pineapple

Christopher Columbus brought pineapple, native of South America, back to Europe as one of the exotic prizes of the New World.  (‘Pineapple’ was given its English name because of its resemblance to a pine cone.)

Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco, and, later, canned pineapple.

The first profitable lot of canned pineapples in Hawai‘i was produced by Dole’s Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1903 and the industry grew rapidly from there.  (Bartholomew)

The demand for canned pineapples grew exponentially in the US and in 1922, a revolutionary period in the history of Hawaiian pineapple; Dole bought the island of Lanai and established a vast 200,000-acre pineapple plantation to meet the growing demands.

Lanai throughout the entire 20th century produced more than 75% of world’s total pineapple.  More land on the island of Maui was purchased by Dole.

Then, pineapple production on O‘ahu began a steady decline. In 1991, the Dole Cannery closed.  The Dole Plantation tourist attraction, established in 1950 as a small fruit stand but greatly expanded in 1989 serves as a living museum and historical archive of Dole and pineapple in Hawai‘i.

Crossroads of the Pacific

As trade and commerce expanded across the Pacific, numerous countries were looking for faster passage and many looked to Nicaragua and Panama in Central America for possible dredging of a canal as a shorter, safer passage between the two Oceans.

Finally, in 1881, France started construction of a canal through the Panama isthmus.  By 1899, after thousands of deaths (primarily due to yellow fever) and millions of dollars, they abandoned the project and sold their interest to the United States.

After Panamanian independence from Columbia in 1903, the US restarted construction of the canal in 1905.  “The opening of the canal will increase Hawaii’s importance as a coaling and general calling station.”

“Tremendous new cargoes of supplies that will cross the Pacific, because of the canal, will need shelter and protection at a common port of supply – Honolulu.”  (Hawai‘i Historical Review)

In 1912, this strategy and declaration was claimed in an article in ‘Paradise of the Pacific’ that Hawaiʻi was truly deserving of the name, “Crossroads of the Pacific”.

Before the Panama Canal was ‘officially’ opened for commerce (the canal officially opened on August 15, 1914), “The first commercial business handled by the canal was a shipload of sugar from Hawaii.”  It was also “the first continuous ocean-to-ocean trip through the Panama Canal by any vessel.”

The first cargo ship passing westward through the Panama Canal to call at Honolulu was the American Hawaiian Steamship Company’s SS Missourian commanded by Captain Wm. Lyons, on September 16, 1914.

Visitor Industry

Hawai‘i’s first accommodations for transients were established sometime after 1810, when Don Francisco de Paula Marin “opened his home and table to visitors on a commercial basis … Closely arranged around the Marin home were the grass houses of his workers and the ‘guest houses’ of the ship captains who boarded with him while their vessels were in port.”

In the late-1890s, with additional steamships to Honolulu, the visitor arrivals to Oʻahu were increasing.  When Hawaiʻi became a US territory (June 14, 1900,) it was drawing cruise ship travelers to the islands; they needed a place to stay.

By 1918, Hawai‘i had 8,000 visitors annually, and by the 1920s Matson Navigation Company ships were bringing an increasing number of wealthy visitors.  This prompted a massive addition to the Moana.  In 1918, two floors were added along with concrete wings on each side, doubling the size of the hotel. 

Between 1950 and 1974, domestic and international visitor numbers shot up to more than 2-million from less than 50,000.  Statehood and the arrival of jet-liner air travel brought unprecedented expansion and construction, in Waikīkī and across the Islands.

On March 21, 1927, Hawai‘i’s first airport was established in Honolulu and dedicated to Rodgers.  1959 brought two significant actions that shaped the present day make-up of Hawai‘i, (1) Statehood and (2) jet-liner service between the mainland US and Honolulu (Pan American Airways Boeing 707.) The Visitor Industry remains the primary economic force in the Islands.

 A total of 10,424,995 visitors came to Hawaii in 2019 (another record number). That’s more than seven times the state’s population.  Tourism represents roughly a quarter of Hawai‘i’s economy.

Resident concerns and impacts of COVID have shifted Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s focus with more emphasis to address tourism’s impacts.  This shift recognizes the need for tourism to provide both a quality visitor experience and enhanced quality of life for Hawai‘i residents.

Plans now call for re-balancing attention from mainly marketing to greater emphasis on ‘destination management’ and support for culture, community and multicultural programs, and natural resources. (HTA Strategic Plan)

Click HERE for an expanded discussion on Hawai‘i and its role in the global economy.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Music Hall – Opera House

Opera was born circa 1600 from the desire of Renaissance Italians to recreate Greek drama, pointing to various less-elevated national theatrical traditions as important contributors to the art form.  (Abbate)

Although Hawai‘i is hardly known as an international opera powerhouse, a number of native Hawaiians have been among the art form’s stars.  Most notable was tenor Tandy Ka‘ohu MacKenzie, who was born in Hāna in 1892 and went on to become a star of the international opera stage star after he was discovered by an Irish singer who happened to drop in on a performance by MacKenzie’s Kamehameha School glee club.  (Ferrar)

In 1881, a Music Hall was built across the street from ʻIolani Palace, where Ali‘i regularly joined the audiences at performances. Queen Lili‘uokalani is even said to have written her own opera.  (Ferrar)  It was built by the Hawaiian Music Hall Association.

The Wells troupe from California opened the music hall.  “Since then many companies and individual artists from abroad have trod its boards, and given more or less delight to the inhabitants.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

The building was first called the Music Hall, but shortly after its transfer to new owners, the name was changed to the Royal Hawaiian Opera House.  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Despite its name, the Opera House was not primarily a venue for classical entertainment. Many of its bookings were melodramas and minstrel shows, two very popular forms of theater at the time.  Then, it was the first house to show moving pictures in Hawaiʻi.

The building was of brick 120 by 60 feet on the ground floor and walls forty feet high and twenty inches thick. The front door was ten feet wide, opening into a vestibule 16 by 27 feet. The seating capacity of the house was 671 persons. The stage was forty feet deep and provided with a complete set of scenery, traps and all necessary paraphernalia. (Hawaiian Star, February 12, 1895)

On July 28, 1883, the property was sold at auction to satisfy a claim. It was purchased by Mr. WG Irwin for $21,000, John D Spreckels being a partner in the deal.  (Hawaiian Star, February 12, 1895)

“Originally there were two (private) boxes. One on the right of the stage looking out was regarded as the property of the late King Kalākaua, who had subscribed liberally to the stock of the Association.  The box on the opposite side was owned by the present proprietors, Messrs. Irwin & Spreckels. About two years ago two boxes wore opened above those mentioned for letting to whomever first applied for thorn on any occasion.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

The Music Hall played a role in the Wilcox Rebellion, when it was occupied by Government sharpshooters in suppressing the insurrection of Robert Wilcox in 1889.  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

“Wilcox and I then marched towards the gate and came by Boyd’s cannon; he told us to get out of the way he wanted to fire then, because he saw some one in the Music Hall pulling down a window; Wilcox  stopped him; we walked on toward the gate when a gun fired from the Music Hall.”  (Kauhane, Hawaiian Gazette, October 29, 1889)

“Wilcox sung out to Music Hall to “stop firing! stop firing!” three or four more shots were fired from there and then Wilcox gave order to fire; cannons were then fired; think Wilcox knew that Government were gathering forces to drive us out; not my place to surrender.”  (Kauhane, Hawaiian Gazette, October 29, 1889)

It later hosted the complimentary farewell reception and ball for Captain Wiltse, commander of the USS Boston in 1893, under the auspices of the provisional Government.

The Music Hall’s “exterior was built of red brick and the facade on King street was of a modest but presentable and harmonious style. Internally it was fitted and furnished in modern fashion, with seats on a sloping floor in semi-circular rows. There were a balcony and a gallery in the second story.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Fire nearly destroyed the building.  Irwin, owner of the property, surveyed the sodden, smoking ashes from his curtained carriage. “I have had enough of music halls,” he told a questioning newsman.

He was later persuaded to rebuild, however, when it was pointed out that the only other theatrical accommodations in the city were inadequate facilities at the YMCA and the hall in Independence Park.

A commission was appointed to inquire into the strength of the walls left standing.  After a careful inspection, it was decided that three of the walls were in sound condition, and could be built upon with perfect safety.  The rear wall had to be rebuilt.  The work began.

The opening of the New Hawaiian Opera House tonight begins another epoch in the history of Honolulu and the public finds that through the action of William G. Irwin of this city and John D. and Adolph Spreckels, of San Francisco, it has a theater equal to the leading places of amusement in the United States.  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 10, 1896)

A commission was appointed to inquire into the strength of the walls left standing.  After a careful inspection, it was decided that three of the walls were in sound condition, and could be built upon with perfect safety.  The rear wall had to be rebuilt.  The work began.

The seating capacity of the New Hawaiian was about 900, but the seats were placed so far apart, in order to make it more comfortable for the patrons, that if it were necessary, two or three hundred more chairs could be placed in the auditorium without crowding. In the rear of the orchestra are two loges, each containing six chairs.  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 10, 1896)

On February 5, 1897, the Opera House displayed Edison’s Veriscope which promised to be one of the most interesting sights ever seen in Honolulu.   One of the first projections was of a fire department response to a fire.  “The crowds gather, people run hither and thither, teams pass, some block the way, the police appear, and there are seen all the usual incidents of a street lire drill.”

“It is a wonderful advance in the stereoscopic art. It projects pictures upon a white screen, in which all the figures are in motion with life-like detail. … The exhibition of the wonderful veriscope is alone worth the evening’s attendance.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 4, 1897)

The building was demolished in 1917 to make way for the Federal Building.  One of the many eulogies for the building said:  “It is historical. It is ugly. It is like a box with a few touches of ornament to make it look unlike a box. So much for the outside. On the inside, it is as cozy and comfortable as anyone could desire.”  (Gereben)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

House of Nobles

The first Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi adopted in 1840 replaced the informal council of chiefs with a formal legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom and cabinet.

The Hawaiian government was a constitutional monarchy comprised of three branches: Executive (Monarch and Cabinet), Legislative (House of Nobles and Representatives) and Judicial (Supreme Court and lower courts).

The King also had a private council – the Privy Council is distinguished from a modern cabinet of the executive; in the monarchical tradition, a Privy Council lent legislative powers to the monarch and served judicial functions.

While the first official record of the Privy Council began in July 1845, the body existed previously as the council of chiefs (the House of Nobles similarly comprised of the members of the council of chiefs.)

Under the leadership of King Kamehameha III, the Privy Council was authorized by the Act to Organize the Executive Ministries on October 29, 1845.  The Kingdom of Hawai`i’s Privy Council was a body comprised of five ministers and the four governors along with other appointed members that served to advise the King.

Kingdom of Hawai‘i Constitution of 1852, Article 49 noted, “There shall continue to be a Council of State for advising the King in the Executive part of the Government, and in directing the affairs of the Kingdom, according to the Constitution and laws of the land, to be called the King’s Privy Council of State.”

The Legislative Department of the Kingdom was composed of the House of Nobles and the House of Representatives. The King represented the vested right of the Government class, the House of Nobles were appointed by the King and the House of Representatives were elected by the people.  (puhnawaiola)

The cabinet consisted of a Privy Council (officially formed in 1845) and five powerful government ministers.  Gerrit P Judd was appointed to the most powerful post of Minister of Finance; Lawyer John Ricord was Attorney General; Robert Crichton Wyllie was Minister of Foreign Affairs; William Richards Minister of Public Instruction and Keoni Ana was Minister of the Interior.

Under the 1840 Constitution the Kuhina Nui’s (position similar to “Prime Minister” or “Premier”) approval was required before the “important business of the Kingdom” could be transacted; the king and the Kuhina Nui had veto power over each other’s acts; the Kuhina Nui was to be a special counselor to the king; and laws passed by the legislature had to be approved by both before becoming law. The Kuhina Nui was ex-officio a member of the House of Nobles and of the Supreme Court.  (Gething)

The former council of chiefs became the House of Nobles, roughly modeled on the British House of Lords. Seven elected representatives would be the start of democratic government.

(The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.  It is independent from, and complements the work of, the elected House of Commons – they share responsibility for making laws and checking government action.  Members of the House of Lords are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister.)  (parliament-uk)

The 1840 Hawaiʻi Constitution stated: “House of Nobles. At the present period, these are the persons who shall sit in the government councils, Kamehameha III, Kekāuluohi, Hoapiliwahine, Kuakini, Kekauōnohi, Kahekili, Paki, Konia, Keohokālole, Leleiōhoku, Kekūanāoʻa, Kealiʻiahonui, Kanaʻina, Keoni Ii, Keoni Ana and Haʻalilio.”

“Should any other person be received into the council, it shall be made known by law. These persons shall have part in the councils of the kingdom.”

“No law of the nation shall be passed without their assent. They shall act in the following manner: They shall assemble annually, for the purpose of seeking the welfare of the nation, and establishing laws for the kingdom. Their meetings shall commence in April, at such day and place as the King shall appoint.”

“It shall also be proper for the King to consult with the above persons respecting all the great concerns of the kingdom, in order to promote unanimity and secure the greatest good. They shall moreover transact such other business as the King shall commit to them.”

“They shall still retain their own appropriate lands, whether districts or plantations, or whatever divisions they may be, and they may conduct the business on said lands at their discretion, but not at variance with the laws of the kingdom.”

Members of its companion body, the House of Representatives, were elected by the people, with representatives from each of the major four islands. Proposed laws required majority approval from both the House of Nobles and the House of Representatives, and approval and signature by the King and the Premier.  (Punawaiola)

This body was succeeded by a unicameral legislature in 1864, which also imposed property and literacy requirements for both legislature members and voters; these requirements were repealed in 1874.  (Punawaiola)

That there even was a constitution, plus the basic outline of the government it established, clearly reflected the counsel of the American missionaries. Yet, many of the older Hawaiian traditions remained (ie the concept of the council of chiefs.)  (Gething)

The House of Nobles originally consisted of the king plus five women and ten men (women did not get the right to vote in the US until 1920).  After the overthrow and the subsequent annexation, it was renamed the Senate.

The first meeting of the House of Nobles was on April 1, 1841 in the ‘council house’ at Luaʻehu in Lāhainā.  The image shows Lāhainā at about that time.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mitchellism

World War I, also known as the Great War or the War to End All Wars, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe.

During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers).

Four years later, when Germany, facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, was forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.  (The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919.)

At the dawn of WWI, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903.  WWI was the first major conflict to use the power of planes, though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany’s U-boats.

The use of planes in WWI presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.  During WWI, there was no ‘Air Force’ as we identify it today; the aviation forces were under the US Army Air Service, created during WWI by executive order of President Woodrow Wilson after America entered the war in April 1917.

Later, Congress created the Air Corps on July 2, 1926, and it was abolished with the National Security Act of 1947, establishing the United States Air Force on September 18, 1947.

Gen. William ‘Billy’ Mitchell, a staunch advocate and visionary of air power, became regarded as the ‘Father of the United States Air Force,’ because he was instrumental in bringing to the forefront the need for air superiority.

“Mitchellism” was coined by the press to symbolize the concept that airpower was now the dominant military factor and that sea and land forces were becoming subordinate.

In the intervening years, the correctness of his thinking, the accuracy of his predictions, the risks he took, the sacrifices he so willingly made of his health and his career, and, by far the most important, the influence he had on his successors have conferred a new, higher, and entirely contemporary meaning on “Mitchellism.” (AF Mag, Boyne)

Born Dec. 29, 1879 in Nice, France, Mitchell was the eldest of John and Harriet Mitchell’s ten children. John Mitchell was a representative and a senator from Wisconsin.

Billy Mitchell grew up in Wisconsin and enlisted in the Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. He served in Cuba, the Philippines, Alaska and in Europe.  In 1913, Mitchell was promoted to captain and became the youngest officer to serve on the general staff.

In 1916, he transferred to Virginia to become interim commander of Army Aviation, which at that time was a division of the Army Signal Corps.  After the new commander arrived, Mitchell was promoted to the rank of major, and assumed the position of deputy commander of Army Aviation.

Army Aviation is where Mitchell got his first taste of flying, and where his passion for aviation began to grow, so much so that he decided to become an Army pilot; he enrolled in a civilian flying school and paid for flying lessons.

In 1917, Mitchell was already in France studying the production of military aircraft, when the US declared war on Germany. He was promoted to the war-time rank of Brigadier General and given command of all of the American aerial combat units in France.

Putting his knowledge into practice at the Battle of St. Mihiel, Mitchell commanded 1,481 American and Allied airplanes. There he demonstrated what air power could do by massing an assault that sent wave after wave of planes to attack the Germans across battle lines destroying their ground power.

His strategy proved to be successful. Mitchell was the first American Army aviator to cross enemy lines and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for valor. In 1919, Mitchell was awarded the Legion of Honor by France.

After World War I, Mitchell returned to the US and despite his achievements was reverted back to his permanent rank of colonel, due to Air Service drawdown in manpower.

Mitchell became an advocate of an independent Air Force, and promoted the small Army Air Service with border patrols, forest fire patrols, aerial mapping missions and any other activity that demonstrated the value of aviation.

Mitchell asked to do a test/demonstration to confirm that airplanes could bomb ships.  Congress and the Navy gave in and on July 20 and 21, 1921, Mitchell and the 1st Provisional Air Brigade demonstrated to the world the superiority of air power.

He and his unit sank the famous, ‘unsinkable,’ Ostfriesland, a captured German battleship. That proved that battleships were vulnerable to bombing attacks by aircraft (the enemy’s and your own).

Then, the Navy began developing aircraft carriers.

Mitchell was transferred to Fort Sam Houston, where he was assigned as the aviation officer of the Eighth Corps in 1925.  He lived on Fort Sam and resided in Quarters 14 (now designated as the Billy Mitchell House) on Staff Post Road. His office was in the Quadrangle.

He was concerned about the lack of priority to air power. Mitchell’s frustration climaxed after the Navy’s airship Shenandoah crashed due to weather in September 1925. Mitchell publicly accused the Navy and War Departments of “incompetence and criminal negligence.”

In November 1925, Mitchell was called to Washington D.C. and court-martialed on the charge of “Conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline and in a way to bring discredit upon the military service.”

Mitchell was convicted of insubordination, but rather than serve a five-year suspension, Mitchell decided to resign his commission.  During retirement in Virginia, he continued to be outspoken on the importance of air power. He wrote books, newspaper and magazine articles, and gave lecture tours until his death, Feb. 11, 1936.

Mitchell received several honors following his death including a posthumous promotion to major general by President Harry Truman.  A military aircraft bomber, the B-25 Mitchell, was named after him. In 1979, Mitchell was inducted in the International Hall of Fame.

Mitchell predicted that one day rockets would travel across continents and oceans and people would zip between New York and London in as few as six hours on fast commercial airliners.

He foresaw air forces attacking targets with unmanned aerial vehicles – he didn’t call them drones – and cruise missiles. He predicted that someday planes would be used for firefighting, evacuating the sick and wounded, photographing terrain, crop dusting and spying on enemies. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

One notable action by Mitchell was his prediction that a war between Japan and the US was inevitable.  After visiting Japan while stationed with the Army in the Philippines, Mitchell wrote in 1910, “That increasing friction between Japan and the US will take place in the future there can be little doubt, and that this will lead to war sooner or later seems quite certain.”

In 1924, Mitchell toured Hawaii and Asia to inspect America’s military assets. After touring China, Korea, Japan, Siam, Singapore, Burma, Java, the Philippines and India, Mitchell wrote a 340-page report warning that the Asia-Pacific Rim could soon rival Europe in military might and America’s security depended on its foothold in the region.

To Mitchell, Japan was the country that posed the greatest threat because of its growing military strength and its quest for external sources of oil and iron for Japanese industries.

In a report he submitted after a trip to Japan in 1924 Mitchell predicted the attack on Pearl Harbor. He discussed Japanese expansionist ambitions and his belief that a Pacific War would begin with an attack at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines.

He wrote in 1924, “The Japanese bombardment, (would be) 100 (air) ships organized into four squadrons of 25 (air) ships each.  The objectives for attack are: Ford Island, airdrome, hangers, storehouses and ammunition dumps; Navy fuel oil tanks …”

“… Water supply of Honolulu; Water supply of Schofield; Schofield Barracks airdrome and troop establishments; Naval submarine station; City and wharves of Honolulu.”

“Attack will be launched as follows: bombardment, attack to be made on Ford Island at 7:30 a.m.” “Attack to be made on Clark Field (Philippine Islands) at 10:40 a.m.”

“Japanese pursuit aviation will meet bombardment over Clark Field, proceeding by squadrons, one at 3000 feet to Clark Field from the southeast and with the sun at their back, one at 5000 feet from the north and one at 10,000 feet from the west. Should U.S. pursuit be destroyed or fail to appear, airdrome would be attacked with machineguns.” (Mitchell; City on a Hill)

On December 7th, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor at 7:55 A.M. and the Philippines’ Clark field at 12:35 P.M.

Mitchell’s claims about naval power being vulnerable to air power were ultimately proven true at Pearl Harbor when Japan sank or severely damaged nineteen U.S. warships, including eight battleships.

The minor differences include the actual number of aircraft (110 instead of 100), their launch from carriers instead of from Niihau, and the reduction of Wake Island instead of Midway.  (Billy Mitchell Court-Marshal-Mulholland)  (Information here is from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; US Army; NC Historical Marker Program; American Heritage; Air Force Museum; Air Force Magazine.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Once upon a time, only the other day …”

“Hawaii is the home of shanghaied men and women, and of the descendants of shanghaied men and women. They never intended to be here at all.” (London)

“Come with your invitations, or letters of introduction, and you will find yourself immediately instated in the high seat of abundance.”

“Or, come uninvited, without credentials, merely stay a real, decent while, and yourself be ‘good,’ and make good the good in you- but, oh, softly, and gently, and sweetly, and manly, and womanly – and you will slowly steal into the Hawaiian heart …”

“… which is all of softness, and gentleness, and sweetness, and manliness, and womanliness, and one day, to your own vast surprise, you will find yourself seated in a high place of hospitableness than which there is none higher on this earth’s surface.”

“You will have loved your way there, and you will find it the abode of love.” (Jack London)

“I remember a dear friend who resolved to come to Hawaii and make it his home forever. He packed up his wife, all his belongings including his garden hose and rake and hoe, said ‘’Goodbye, proud California,’ and departed.”

“Now he was a poet, with an eye and soul for beauty, and it was only to be expected that he would lose his heart to Hawaii as Mark Twain and Stevenson and Stoddard had before him.”

“So he came, with his wife and garden hose and rake and hoe.”

“Heaven alone knows what preconceptions he must have entertained. But the fact remains that he found naught of beauty and charm and delight.”

“His stay in Hawaii, brief as it was, was a hideous nightmare. In no time he was back in California. To this day he speaks with plaintive bitterness of his experience”.

“Otherwise was it with Mark Twain, who wrote of Hawaii long after his visit: ‘No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done.”

“Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf-beat is in my ears; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloudrack …”

“… I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes; I can hear the plash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.’”

“I doubt that not even the missionaries, windjamming around the Horn from New England a century ago, had the remotest thought of living out all their days in Hawaii. This is not the way of missionaries over the world.”

“They have always gone forth to far places with the resolve to devote their lives to the glory of God and the redemption of the heathen, but with the determination, at the end of it all, to return to spend their declining years in their own country.”

“But Hawaii can seduce missionaries just as readily as she can seduce sailor boys and bank cashiers, and this particular lot of missionaries was so enamored of her charms that they did not return when old age came upon them.”

“But to return. Hawaii is the home of shanghaied men and women, who were induced to remain, not by a blow with a club over the head or a doped bottle of whisky, but by love.”

“Hawaii and the Hawaiians are a land and a people loving and lovable. By their Ianguage may ye know them, and in what other land save this one is the commonest form of greeting, not ‘Good day,’ nor ‘How d’ye do,’ but ‘Love?’”

“That greeting is Aloha – love, I love you, my love to you.”

“Good day – what is it more than an impersonal remark about the weather? How do you do- it is personal in a merely casual interrogative sort of a way.”

“But Aloha! It is a positive affirmation of the warmth of one’s own heart-giving. My love to you ! I love you! Aloha!”

“Well, then, try to imagine a land that is as lovely and loving as such a people.”

“Hawaii is all of this.”

“Not strictly tropical, but sub-tropical, rather, in the heel of the Northeast Trades (which is a very wine of wind), with altitudes rising from palm-fronded coral beaches to snow-capped summits fourteen thousand feet in the air; there was never so much climate gathered together in one place on earth.”

“The custom of the dwellers is as it was of old time, only better, namely: to have a town house, a seaside house, and a mountain house. All three homes, by automobile, can be within half an hour’s run of one another …”

“… yet, in difference of climate and scenery, they are the equivalent of a house on Fifth Avenue or the Riverside Drive, of an Adirondack camp, and of a Florida winter bungalow, plus a twelve-months’ cycle of seasons crammed into each and every day.”

“Indeed, Hawaii is a loving land.”

“Hawaii has been most generous in her hospitality, most promiscuous in her loving. Her welcome has been impartial.” (This is Jack London’s view of the Islands.)

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