On Friday November 10, 2023 PBS-Hawaii President/CEO Ron Mizutani sent out his weekly newsletter advertising upcoming TV programs for the following week. As usual, he ended it with personal comments expressing his views on one or more topics in those programs. His entire focus in the November 10 newsletter was the 150-minute anti-America anti-White double-feature scheduled for broadcast on Thursday night November 16 from 7:30 to 10:00 PM. The first feature was a 60-minute "Insights" panel discussion about the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the 1898 annexation of Hawaii into the United States, where the panelists are two University of Hawaii Professors and a filmmaker who are all political activists claiming that the overthrow and annexation were illegal, immoral, contrary to international law, and should be reversed by the U.S. withdrawing from Hawaii to make Hawaii once again an independent nation, with reparations for 130 years of colonial oppression under belligerent military occupation. The second feature was a special 90-minute version of the film "Nation Within: The Story of America’s Annexation of Hawai‘i" by Tom Coffman, released in 1998, which had been shown and re-shown numerous times on PBS-Hawaii and other venues nationwide.
Ken Conklin wrote a protest letter to Ron Mizutani, and posted it on a Facebook page. He also submitted a short one-paragraph comment for the "Insights" panel discussion. Both the protest letter and comment have also been posted in numerous other places. The comment summarizes important facts refuting what the panelists were likely to say or which their diatribes usually ignore. The protest message to Mr. Mizutani agrees with two of Mizutani's main points about the importance of history and cites them as reasons why the propaganda televised on November 16 foments divisiveness and damages Hawaii -- just like the damage caused by professors who teach twisted versions of the history of Israel and Palestine which have caused thousands of naive university students throughout mainland USA to stage anti-Zionist rallies calling for the destruction of Israel and defending the tactics of anti-Semitic Hamas terrorists who butchered more than a thousand peaceful Jews at a music festival.
To: "Ron Mizutani"
From: Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.
Date: November 14, 2023
Re: PBS-Hawaii TV "Insights" program and "Nation Within" film
I'm writing to protest what will surely be an inflammatory, anti-USA, anti-haole prime-time two and a half hour programming scheduled for Thursday night November 16; and to offer a comment which I hope the moderator will read, about halfway through the "Insights" discussion. I have seen the "Nation Within" film many times, and am familiar with the views of the panelists. The entire 150-minute diatribe will be propaganda unchallenged by any contrary view -- the same tactic usually used by this TV station whenever "Native Hawaiian" topics are the focus. That's why I'm submitting a short comment of one paragraph which will probably take about one minute, and I hope the moderator will read it in its entirety. It covers all the main points which I'm sure the panelists will be presenting, and should be read about halfway through the "Insights" program after they have discussed (or avoided) these points.
I note that the title for the program is "Hawaiʻi's Annexation: Why Knowledge on the History Matters." Indeed it matters very much. That's why it's important not to allow the badly twisted and incomplete history presented by the panel and film to go unchallenged. The closing line in your newsletter said "History can be painful but information can help heal." Yes indeed. Young people in our schools have been taught false and incomplete information about the overthrow and annexation, and have therefore become angry and bitter. That's why PBS-Hawaii has a moral obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so that minds harmed by bad propaganda can be healed.
Here's my comment for the "Insights" program:
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Hawaii's revolution of 1893 led to creation of the Republic in 1894. Hawaii remained an independent nation and no U.S. troops were present. There was no martial law, and newspapers were freely published in Hawaiian and English. Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Presidents of all other nations personally signed letters to President Dole formally recognizing the Republic as the rightful successor to Hawaii's monarchy -- including the monarchy's best friend, Queen Victoria -- photos on internet. Therefore the Republic had authority under international law to speak for the nation, and offered the Treaty of Annexation in 1897. USA exercised its right to choose its own method for accepting the Treaty and did so in 1898. A minority group, like Native Hawaiians then and now, cannot make decisions for a multiracial citizenry, unless they are a dictatorship. But some of them keep demanding decisive power (like in Lahaina, Mauna Kea, and leaving USA), and should be publicly repudiated.
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President/CEO Mizutani's newsletter of November 10 ironically provides good reasons why the program will be very damaging to our ability to live together peacefully if its propaganda message is allowed to go unchallenged.
The weekly newsletter on Friday November 10 announced the upcoming Thursday night double feature, describing the overthrow and annexation as traumatic events whose annual anniversaries can arouse "disturbing feelings, memories and thoughts that reveal themselves ... in the form of sadness, depression, irritability and even anger." [The newsletter's entire contents are copied at the bottom of this email, because there appears to be no place where it is displayed on the PBS-Hawaii website!] So I guess we can expect all that again when, presumably, you will rerun these programs to rile people up into a frenzy again next January (overthrow anniversary), July (annexation anniversary), and August (Statehood Day); although why you chose to do it additionally now, in November, is weird and clearly not related to any "anniversary effect" which your newsletter heavily belabors. (Perhaps this month's chosen anniversary is "La Ku'oko'a", November 28, 1843, the historic Hawaiian "Independence Day" when Britain and France signed a pledge between the two of them, but not addressed to nor signed by Hawaii, agreeing that neither one would try to take over Hawaii)
Ironically your newsletter then closes with an attempt to do fundraising off this hate-inciting propaganda broadcast:
I hope your brazen attempt to solicit donations from viewers of these programs will backfire and cause Hawaii donors to PBS-Hawaii to follow the lead of mainland donors to universities where huge anti-semitic pro-Palestine rallies have actually been threatening Jewish students with violence while supporting genocidal slaughter committed by Hamas. The anti-Zionism, including anti-Semitism, is justified in the brainwashed minds of the students by the history lessons they have been taught which portray Palestinians as a victimized indigenous people whose land is under belligerent military occupation by an oppressive settler colonizer -- hey, isn't that what UH professors of Hawaiian Studies teach their students about the USA and the haoles? It would appear that your newsletter, and the broadcast of this unchallenged propaganda double feature, are enlisting PBS-Hawaii as an agent provocateur to foment the same sort of hostile protests we see at mainland universities directed against the existence of the nation of Israel in particular and Jews more generally.
As we have seen this past week, major donors to many prestigious universities, and businesses that would normally hire their graduates, have written to the presidents of those institutions announcing that they will no longer donate money or hire their graduates who join the campus protests, because they blame the curriculum and professors for brainwashing students with twisted history regarding Palestine and Israel which have caused huge numbers of students to support the actions of Hamas. Perhaps Hawaii donors to PBS-Hawaii will see the close similarity and take action accordingly.
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** President/CEO Ron Mizutani's official weekly newsletter sent to subscribers on Friday November 10, 2023.
Aloha from Ron Mizutani, President and CEO
INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAIʻI
Join the discussion on INSIGHTS ON PBS Hawaiʻi: Hawaiʻi's Annexation: Why Knowledge of the History Matters (Thu., Nov. 16, 7:30 pm)
INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAIʻI
PBS HAWAIʻI PRESENTS: Nation Within: The Story of America's Annexation of Hawaiʻi (Thu., Nov. 16, 8:30 pm) In 1998, a locally-made film exposed what Native Hawaiians had written, talked and sung about for a century: the true story of how and why Hawaiʻi became part of the United States.
Final Thought…
Each year, and for the past 130 years, Hawaiʻi recognizes January 17th as the day Queen Liliʻuokalani was forcibly removed from her throne in 1893, representing the collapse of Hawaiʻi’s monarchy.
On January 17, 2024, Hawaiʻi will mark the 131st year since the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. I know many people who will not call January 17, 1893, the anniversary of that infamous day, even though, that’s what is, “The date on which an event took place in a previous year.”
It's called the “Anniversary Effect”, disturbing feelings, memories and thoughts that resurface on or around a date that marks a significant event. The annual echo of a trauma can reveal itself in the form of sadness, depression, irritability and even anger.
The following remembrance by Johanna Papakaniau Wilcox, the first woman to register to vote in Hawaiʻi, describes the sadness felt after the overthrow and annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States of America.
“I was born a citizen of the Republic of Hawaiʻi in this City of Honolulu on Feb. 18, 1898. Six months later, on August 12, 1898, Hawaiʻi became a Territory of the United States by annexation, at a formal noontime ceremony held in front of ʻIolani Palace. My mother and father and most Hawaiians stayed away from that heart-breaking ceremony.
An interesting incident took place shortly before the changeover. Several members of the Royal Hawaiian Band were so disturbed and unhappy that they hurriedly left the scene crying unashamedly when it was time to lower the flag of Hawaiʻi. The sympathetic German bandmaster, Captain Henri Berger, understood their feelings and so did not attempt to stop them. So, only a part of the membership of the Royal Hawaiian Band remained to play the Hawaiʻi's national anthem “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī” when Hawaiʻi’s flag was hauled down. The “Stars and Stripes” were then raised over ʻIolani Palace; a 21-gun salute was fired, while the band from an American warship played “The Star Spangled Banner.”
An event of this magnitude would ordinarily call for gala celebrations that night. However, there were no celebrations as there was too much sadness, too much bitterness and resentment prevalent in the atmosphere and the authorities were afraid of riots by the unhappy frustrated Hawaiians...”
The “Anniversary Effect” will soon return for thousands of people across the world. Why should you care? Please join us on Thursday, November 16, as PBS Hawai‘i presents a night of meaningful discussion and powerful storytelling. It begins on INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAIʻI: Hawaiʻi's Annexation: Why Knowledge of the History Matters at 7:30 pm, followed by PBS HAWAIʻI PRESENTS: Nation Within: The Story of America’s Annexation of Hawaiʻi at 8:30 pm.
History can be painful but information can help heal.
Mahalo nui,
Ron Mizutani
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Please consider a gift to PBS Hawaiʻi. Go to pbshawaii.org or scan the QR code above to donate.
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SEE MORE WEBPAGES ABOUT HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY ISSUES IN GENERAL
President and CEO
PBS Hawaii
e-mail Ken_Conklin@yahoo.com
Website: "Hawaiian Sovereignty: Thinking Carefully About It"
http://tinyurl.com/6gkzk
Book: "Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State"
http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa
Announced for 150 minute block Thursday November 16, 7:30-10:00 PM
"Please consider a gift to PBS Hawaiʻi. Go to pbshawaii.org or scan the QR code above to donate."
Hawaiʻi's Annexation: Why Knowledge of the History Matters
Thursday, November 16, 7:30 pm
The United States annexed Hawaiʻi in 1898 despite overwhelming opposition from Native Hawaiians.
Hawaiʻi’s Annexation: Why Knowledge on the History Matters
On November 16 at 7 at 7:30 pm, INSIGHTS on PBS HAWAI‘I, presents a live discussion, Hawai‘i’s Annexation: Why Knowledge of the History Matters. As usual, viewers are encouraged to participate in the discussion by sending in questions or comments.
Air Date: Thu, Nov 16, 2023 7:30 PM
Ron
President and CEO
PBS Hawaiʻi
315 Sand Island Access Road
Honolulu, HI 96819-2295
Ken_Conklin@yahoo.com
