#214 in the Moʻolelo series
Have you ever wondered why we have a holiday for a Prince – Prince Kuhio, but not for Queen Liliʻuokalani? It is often said that the “winners” write history, but they also make the holidays! Kūhiō day was established in 1949 by the legislature of the Territory of Hawaiʻi. Immediately after World War II, 1949 may have been the low point for theHawaiian “consciousness,” the seemed to spring to life in the 1970s. As Tom Coffman has stated, “it was sometime after World War II that the Hawaiian story reached a new low ebb.” Noel Kent critiques Kūhiō as arguing passionately in Congress for the interests of sugar plantations for 20 years before lobbying effectively for the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, finally benefitting his Native Hawaiian voters. So Kūhiō got a holiday because those in power saw him as their ally – they didnʻt feel this way about Liliʻu.
Despite these critiques, Iʻve long felt that Prince Kūhiō is one of the most misunderstood figures in all of Hawaiian history. The name “Prince Cupid,” used even in Kalakaua’s will, belies perhaps the most formidable figure of the turn of the twentieth century. First of all, Kūhiō was a fighter. He was one of the last seven students of Lua in the Kalākaua School. He used this skill on a rude German in a hotel in Europe once, dropping the racist tourist with one punch. Second, Kūhiō was a warrior. He was trained militarily at a military academy in San Mateo California, where he also introduced surfing to the US West Coast. He used this skill to fight on the side of Britain in the Boer War in South Africa. All this defies the image of him as a playboy who didnʻt have to work and lived off his wealth. Third, Kūhiō was historically minded. He reintroduced all the Royal Orders, including the Royal Order of Kamehameha, in 1918. Finally, Kūhiō was a loyalist. He participated in the Wilcox rebellion in 1895 to restore Liliʻuokalani and went to jail for it. These facts contradict the popular image of Kūhiō as a Hawaiian friendly to the establishment and should cause us to rethink such popular images of historical figures who we think we know.
the umiverse 