Speaker 1: Guess what, mengo, what's that? Well, so, you, of course
Speaker 1: remember back in our Mental Floss days, and actually this
Speaker 1: was our very early Mental Floss days, we did this
Speaker 1: issue called the Most Important Questions in the History of
Speaker 1: the Universe. I mean, how can I forget Like, we
Speaker 1: answered some of the biggest, most important, most life changing
Speaker 1: questions in the history of the universe, like uh, can
Speaker 1: a pregnant women drive in a carpool lane? Or is
Speaker 1: there most effective move in Rock paper scissors? It was
Speaker 1: really important. Yeah, honestly, I don't know how the world
Speaker 1: lived without knowing these answers. But one of the other
Speaker 1: reader questions that we answered was why does Hawaii have
Speaker 1: interstate highways? Because you know, as cool as it may
Speaker 1: sound to be able to drive across the ocean to
Speaker 1: one of the Hawaiian islands, that's not possible obviously. As
Speaker 1: it turns out, this goes back to the Eisenhower days
Speaker 1: and specifically the Dwight D. Eisenhower system of interstate and
Speaker 1: National Defense highways, and this is when the funding came
Speaker 1: to build Hawaii's interstates H one, H two, and H three,
Speaker 1: and they were largely built as a way to move
Speaker 1: supplies between military bases more easily, so the interstate designation
Speaker 1: was really just a way to recognize that the roads
Speaker 1: had been built from federal funding. I mean, Hawaii is
Speaker 1: such an interesting history, and I've had so many other questions.
Speaker 1: I've really been looking forward to this episode. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: definitely is, and it's one of those places we think
Speaker 1: we know more about than we actually do. So in
Speaker 1: today's episode, we're gonna talk about some of why he's
Speaker 1: fascinating history. We'll talk about some of the origins of
Speaker 1: several things we associate with Hawaii, and share some facts
Speaker 1: about the islands beyond just the beautiful beaches. So let's
Speaker 1: dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend Manes Ticketer and on the other side of
Speaker 1: the soundproof blast. It is actually kind of hard to
Speaker 1: look at rocking the loudest Hawaiian shirt I think I
Speaker 1: have ever seen. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1: It is truly a stunning amount of parents for a
Speaker 1: single shirt, and for everybody listening, I do want to
Speaker 1: point out that Will did use air quotes just now
Speaker 1: when he said Hawaiian shirt, just so you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: trust me, I'm well aware that most people in Hawaii
Speaker 1: tend to wear way fewer parrot shirts than Tristan does.
Speaker 1: But this actually goes back to something I noticed while
Speaker 1: doing research for today's show, and that's how so many
Speaker 1: of the things people associate with Hawaii, you know, the
Speaker 1: tropical shirts, ukulele music, pineapples. I mean, He's really have
Speaker 1: more to do with the foreign influence of the colonialists
Speaker 1: and other outsiders than they do with native Hawaiian culture.
Speaker 1: And that's what got me thinking it'd be fun to
Speaker 1: take a closer look at some of the most iconic
Speaker 1: aspects of Hawaiian really try to get a sense of
Speaker 1: where they came from. Now, that way we can get
Speaker 1: past the touristy conceptions of Hawaii is this dream vacation
Speaker 1: spot or real life garden of Eden, and and learn
Speaker 1: more about what life on these islands is really like. Definitely, So,
Speaker 1: so to start, I think we should give a quick
Speaker 1: look on terms for how we'll be talking about the
Speaker 1: people who live in Hawaii, because it's actually a little
Speaker 1: trickier than it is for other states. Like I'm a
Speaker 1: Georgian and you're an Alabamian, and that's just because of
Speaker 1: where we live. But in Hawaii, the term Hawaiian is
Speaker 1: generally reserved for people of native Hawaiian ancestry. In other words,
Speaker 1: it's those people who descended from the indigenous people who
Speaker 1: migrated to the islands from Polynesia over a thousand years ago.
Speaker 1: And today people in Hawaii who don't share that ancestry
Speaker 1: they go by a different name. So even if they
Speaker 1: were born and raised in the state, they're known as
Speaker 1: Hawaii residents or else simply as locals. And that's something
Speaker 1: we'll try to keep in mind today, right And that
Speaker 1: just thinks you will actually come in handy for this
Speaker 1: next part, because I do want to circle back to
Speaker 1: these Hawaiian shirts for for just a minute. You know,
Speaker 1: despite Tristan's best effort, there's no denying that colorful Hawaiian
Speaker 1: shirts were Aloha shirts as they're sometimes called there, widely
Speaker 1: viewed by many as tacky, and I mean, they've even
Speaker 1: kind of become this visual shorthand for the stereotype of,
Speaker 1: you know, the crass, clueless tourists. But I was looking
Speaker 1: into the history of these wearable postcards as one marketer
Speaker 1: call them, and it turns out the shirts do have
Speaker 1: some connections to the long standing cultural traditions. It's just
Speaker 1: not quite Hawaii's. Yeah, I was gonna say it didn't.
Speaker 1: Most Polynesian voyagers skip the whole shirt thing entirely, Like
Speaker 1: it'd be hard to imagine them wearing long flowing shirts
Speaker 1: while hopping from island to island. Yeah. So the real
Speaker 1: story is that back in the eight eighties, American plantation
Speaker 1: owners had already settled into the still sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii,
Speaker 1: and as their grip on the local economy extended, these
Speaker 1: plantation owners started recruiting low wage laborers, mostly from Asian countries,
Speaker 1: and the majority of this influx was made up of
Speaker 1: Japanese immigrants, and the brightly colored kimonos that they brought
Speaker 1: with them actually served as the foundation for what would
Speaker 1: later become the Hawaiian shirt. But actually, the Japanese culture
Speaker 1: isn't the only influence. You've got the Chinese immigrants that
Speaker 1: we're bringing these colorful silks. You had the Filipino families
Speaker 1: that were adding a more relaxed look to the mix
Speaker 1: by introducing to the islands these kind of these long
Speaker 1: tunics that are traditionally worn untucked. So do the shirts
Speaker 1: actually have any native Hawaiian influence at all? Like, what
Speaker 1: about those patterns? So, as the islands became more and
Speaker 1: more dominated by sugar and pineapple plantation, native fashion really
Speaker 1: had to adapt to life in the fields. So while
Speaker 1: most Hawaiians had still worn clothes made from lightweight tappa
Speaker 1: cloth prior to the eighteen hundreds, now they needed something
Speaker 1: more durable, and so the solution was a new kind
Speaker 1: of fabric that had been introduced by the British and
Speaker 1: American soldiers. And it was this kind of this blue
Speaker 1: and white checker denim that the natives took to calling polaca,
Speaker 1: and that's the Hawaiian word for frock. The natives put
Speaker 1: their own spin on it as well. I mean they
Speaker 1: cut off the shirt tails and gave the polacca a
Speaker 1: straight hymn so it could be worn outside the pants. Okay,
Speaker 1: So now I guess we have most the characteristics in place, right, Like,
Speaker 1: like we've got these loose fitting shirts, they're worn on tucked,
Speaker 1: and they're also made out of bright, silky, colorful fabrics.
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, that's right. And so the only thing
Speaker 1: left to do was shorten the sleeves and liven up
Speaker 1: the patterns. And that's exactly what a University of Hawaiian
Speaker 1: student named Gordon Young did back in the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what his mother's dressmaker did. Apparently
Speaker 1: she worked with Gordon to develop specially tailored shirts from
Speaker 1: out of cotton Yukota cloth, and that's the fabric typically
Speaker 1: used to make kimonos. Now. These custom shirts were mostly
Speaker 1: white with black or blue patterns depicting bamboo stalks or
Speaker 1: geometric patterns. So you know, think of these as the
Speaker 1: forerunner of the prototype for the gaudier Hawaiian shirts that
Speaker 1: we know today. And so from their Hawaii resident Taylor's
Speaker 1: picked up on the new fashion in the thirties and
Speaker 1: it really began to popularize these Hawaiian shirts or aloha
Speaker 1: sports where and they were using the same kimono material
Speaker 1: that Gordon had used. But you're skipping the important parts,
Speaker 1: like what about pineapple prints. Well, you know, for those
Speaker 1: brighter colors and tropical prints, we have to look to
Speaker 1: artists like Elsie Das And in nineteen thirty six, she
Speaker 1: was commissioned by a local store to create these fifteen
Speaker 1: original Hawaiian prints to be used on a new batch
Speaker 1: of Aloha shirts. And then you had other artists that
Speaker 1: followed her lead and also started drawing inspiration from the
Speaker 1: islands where they lived, and so pretty soon Hawaiian shirts
Speaker 1: started to look a lot more tropical. Actually, I found
Speaker 1: this great article on the subject by an author named
Speaker 1: Dale Hope, and as he explained, Elsie and others started
Speaker 1: to create their own designs, substituting what had traditionally been
Speaker 1: Japanese style motifs and prints on the imported fabrics. Diamond
Speaker 1: head was substituted for Mount Fuji, Japanese pine trees changed
Speaker 1: to coconut trees, and thatched huts with ocean scenes and surfers,
Speaker 1: fish and flowers replaced bamboo. Well, I mean that description
Speaker 1: definitely makes the whole wearable postcards thing ring true, right,
Speaker 1: and since tourists are the buying postcards, it does make
Speaker 1: sense that the shirts would play best in that crowd.
Speaker 1: I am curious, though, what do natives and locals think
Speaker 1: about them, because I imagine there's some mixed feelings over
Speaker 1: something that, on the one hand, has very little to
Speaker 1: do with Hawaiian culture, but on the other still brings
Speaker 1: in tons of revenue for the islands. Yeah, it definitely does.
Speaker 1: And and for the most part, I think you're right
Speaker 1: about those mixed feelings. I mean, the kind of you know,
Speaker 1: making lemons into lemonade mindset. It is really something that
Speaker 1: pops up throughout Hawaiian history, and part of that's the
Speaker 1: nature of colonization in general. But it's also just being
Speaker 1: an island civilization. You know, the visitors are constantly coming
Speaker 1: and going and kind of shaping and reshaping bits of
Speaker 1: culture along the way. So when it comes to the
Speaker 1: Hawaiian shirt, there was some pushback eventually. Actually, at one
Speaker 1: point the shirts were completely banned for employees of Hawaii City, state,
Speaker 1: and federal offices, and even from banks and a lot
Speaker 1: of corporate offices. And the thing was that the laid
Speaker 1: back shirts would promote sloppiness at work. So I'm guessing
Speaker 1: casual fridays on a thing in hawai It's funny that
Speaker 1: you mentioned that, because I actually read about this big
Speaker 1: push in the sixties from Honolulu's fashion industry, and it
Speaker 1: was called Operation Liberation. It was basically a campaign to
Speaker 1: overturn the ban and and get office workers in Hawaii
Speaker 1: to start wearing lighter, more comfortable clothing, especially when you
Speaker 1: think about that humid climate that they have there. And
Speaker 1: so part of this centered on the Aloha shirts, and
Speaker 1: in fact, some manufacturers even promoted the movement by giving
Speaker 1: out two free shirts to every member of the state
Speaker 1: Senate and House of Representatives. I like that. How did
Speaker 1: this bribe actually work? It kind of did. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: by nineteen sixty six, the government had relaxed its stance
Speaker 1: and even began encouraging employees to wear the colorful shirts
Speaker 1: on the last day of the work week, and these
Speaker 1: were dubbed Aloha Fridays. Then, once word of the practice
Speaker 1: spread to the rest of the States, it was given
Speaker 1: a more continental name and casual Fridays were born. Oh
Speaker 1: that's really amazing. So uh, if you don't mind, I
Speaker 1: actually want to switch gears now and talk about a
Speaker 1: product of the islands whose Hawaiian ru are a lot
Speaker 1: more clear cut, and that's surfing. So the sport went
Speaker 1: mainstream thanks largely to early twentieth century athletes like Duke
Speaker 1: Khano Moku and he was a five time Olympic swimming
Speaker 1: medalists who later became a surfing ambassador and that's when
Speaker 1: he started giving surfing demonstrations along the Southern coast in
Speaker 1: the nineteen tents. But while Duke is widely known as
Speaker 1: the father of surfing today, his ancient ancestors in the
Speaker 1: Polynesian Islands actually practiced the sport long before him, and
Speaker 1: to them it was much more than just a sport.
Speaker 1: In the Hawaiian Islands, riding waves came to carry this
Speaker 1: social and even religious importance. For example, when Hawaiian's found
Speaker 1: a tree that they thought would make for good surfboards,
Speaker 1: they would leave offerings that it's based before carving it up,
Speaker 1: and surfers also sought the help of special priests called kahunas,
Speaker 1: who would help them pray for choice waves and even
Speaker 1: give thanks after surviving and especially nasty wipeout. That's pretty interesting,
Speaker 1: but it was still a sport then, too, right, definitely,
Speaker 1: so ancient wavesliders would compete against each other over stuff
Speaker 1: like who could ride the fastest or farthest, or who
Speaker 1: could catch the biggest wave, and everybody got in on it,
Speaker 1: like all Hawaiians were free to surf, regardless of age, gender,
Speaker 1: or even social class. But to be fair that there
Speaker 1: was a little classes m when it came to the
Speaker 1: kind of board you could ride, so most people wrote
Speaker 1: these alia boards, which were pretty thin, they weren't too big,
Speaker 1: and somewhat comparable to modern short boards. But then there
Speaker 1: were also these ones called olo boards, and they were
Speaker 1: these like humongous planks that only chieftains were allowed to use.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I have no idea how they wrote these
Speaker 1: things because olo boards were about twice as long as
Speaker 1: today's long boards, which means, you know, um, they were
Speaker 1: like eighteen to twenty feet on average. It's crazy. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, just trying to imagine standing on something that's
Speaker 1: eighteen feet long in the ocean. It's a I don't know,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine doing that. But all right, So did
Speaker 1: you get any sense for how old surfing is, because
Speaker 1: it sounds like several centuries at least, right, So, nobody
Speaker 1: knows for sure when this wave sledding got its start,
Speaker 1: but the first written account of it goes back to
Speaker 1: the seventeen seventies. Then it was clear even then that
Speaker 1: the practice had already been around for a very long time.
Speaker 1: In fact, I've read about this discovery a couple of
Speaker 1: years back, where archaeologists uncovered a series of petroglyphs that
Speaker 1: supposedly depict people's surfing, and the figures were carved into
Speaker 1: sandstone along the coast of the island of Oahu, and
Speaker 1: experts believe the markings are about four hundred years older,
Speaker 1: so which is about two hundred years before Europeans first
Speaker 1: made contact with Hawaii. All right, so there's no doubt
Speaker 1: about it then. I mean, surfing is a true part
Speaker 1: of native Hawaiian culture. And just to bring this full circle,
Speaker 1: I actually learned while reading up on these aloha shirts
Speaker 1: that they share the same point of origin with board shorts,
Speaker 1: which is that polacca cotton stuff I mentioned earlier. And
Speaker 1: in the early days of surf culture in the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: the serious surfers would go to these specialty Japanese tailor
Speaker 1: shops in Hawaii and they'd order these custom fitted shorts
Speaker 1: made from polacca cotton. So, just like with the field
Speaker 1: workers of old Hawaii, these surfers needed something comfortable yet durable,
Speaker 1: and once again, paloca fit the bill. That's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: and I know that a native Hawaiian would have their
Speaker 1: own thoughts about this, but as an outsider, I do
Speaker 1: really love how aspects of these different times in Hawaii's
Speaker 1: history tend to overlap and blur in places. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a testament to the people of why vote, to
Speaker 1: their endurance and to their ability to sort of roll
Speaker 1: with the punches in order to preserve what matters to them. Oh. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I think another interesting example of that overlap is
Speaker 1: in the folklore surrounding the islands themselves. Like take Pelee
Speaker 1: for instance, as the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, is the
Speaker 1: subject of all sorts of legends. Some of them connect
Speaker 1: with native Hawaiian mythology, and some of them are completely
Speaker 1: made up just for the tourists. Well, I definitely want
Speaker 1: to spend a few minutes dissecting which is wished. But
Speaker 1: before we do, let's take a quick break. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the colorful,
Speaker 1: the complicated history of Hawaii. So well, I, I know
Speaker 1: you've got a bizarre modern legend about Pale that you're
Speaker 1: itching to talk about, but first I did want to
Speaker 1: share some of the real traditional folklore she's connected with.
Speaker 1: For instance, did you know Pale can't stand pork products?
Speaker 1: I can't say that I knew she had feelings for
Speaker 1: them one way or other. But but what's the story here,
Speaker 1: why does she not like pork? Well, this comes from
Speaker 1: an old myth where Pale had a falling out with
Speaker 1: one of her one time boyfriends. This guy come up
Speaker 1: Poa and you know Kamapua right like, he's the Hawaiian
Speaker 1: demigod who's half man half pig. Oh that kma Pa.
Speaker 1: Sure of course I know, Okay, So appairly, when the
Speaker 1: pair of split, Pale chased her old bow with a
Speaker 1: lava flow until he's cornered on the windward side of Honolulu.
Speaker 1: And then as the lava creeps closer, Kamapua lie down
Speaker 1: on the ground and began to chant, and this causes
Speaker 1: the earth and the trees to rise up and hold
Speaker 1: back the lava until suddenly it rains and cools everything own.
Speaker 1: So then Paley is like, all right, I guess I
Speaker 1: can't kill you, So how about we just agree to
Speaker 1: stay on separate sides of the island. And this sounds
Speaker 1: great to come up Pua, So he settles into lush,
Speaker 1: green windward side and Paley takes the dry, arid leeward
Speaker 1: side fair enough. So so you're saying Pale is still
Speaker 1: holding a grudge against swine because of this, so to
Speaker 1: this day, like visitors are warned not to bring pork
Speaker 1: over the Polly highway that connects the leeward side to
Speaker 1: the windward side. And since Kamapua was part pig, hauling
Speaker 1: pork is a symbolic way of bringing him back to
Speaker 1: Paley's turf. And if you try to do that, Pale
Speaker 1: will do her best to stop you, Like you might
Speaker 1: be called away on some emergency, or your car could
Speaker 1: break down along the way, or if an old woman
Speaker 1: with a dog should appear during your journey. That's actually
Speaker 1: Pale offering you an easy way to dispose of your
Speaker 1: forbidden pork. You could just feed it to the hungry
Speaker 1: pop and be on your way and then do kind
Speaker 1: of like that. With all her fiery wrath, Plee still
Speaker 1: can't stand the thought of people wasting pork. I mean, beyond,
Speaker 1: she's a pretty considerate raffle deity in a way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing. So if you're looking to get on
Speaker 1: her good side, Pale apparently loves gin or any quality whiskey,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what one longtime Hawaii resident said,
Speaker 1: because for nearly forty years, this woman named Leatris tried
Speaker 1: to keep the Mauna Loa volcano from erupting by routinely
Speaker 1: tossing bottles of gin into it while flying in a
Speaker 1: small charter plane. So this is what Leetrice told reporter
Speaker 1: in the eighties. She said, quote, I've come to respect
Speaker 1: Madam Pale. I have a feeling that she wants to drink.
Speaker 1: I can't say my blame or given some of the
Speaker 1: rumors people have spread about her. And actually, for instance
Speaker 1: one of these, have you heard of Paley's curse? It's
Speaker 1: this idea that the goddess will inflict bad luck on
Speaker 1: any visitor who takes rock, sand, or other natural artifacts
Speaker 1: from the Hawaiian islands. But while you're pale pork legend
Speaker 1: got it start as a native Hawaiian tall tale. Pale's
Speaker 1: curse is actually just this modern myth that was likely
Speaker 1: started by a resentful park ranger. So and now that
Speaker 1: you explained that, I actually do you remember reading something
Speaker 1: about this for our park Ranger episode? Like it was
Speaker 1: a warning they gave tourists to try and keep them
Speaker 1: from taking home all these volcanic rocks as keepsakes, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the theory, although some people maintain it was actually
Speaker 1: something that tour guides told visitors so they wouldn't drag
Speaker 1: a bunch of rocks and sand onto their busses and
Speaker 1: places like that. But regardless, the curse has been propagated
Speaker 1: by guide books and travel websites, and this has gone
Speaker 1: on for decades now, so so that hundreds of visitors
Speaker 1: now send thousands of pounds of rocks back to Hawaii
Speaker 1: every single year, just in an attempt to ease their
Speaker 1: guilty consciences and reverse their bad fortune. I like that
Speaker 1: once again, there's like an easy way to break the curse.
Speaker 1: I feel like ple is just a big softie. Maybe so,
Speaker 1: But you know, when the legend first started circulating in
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen forties, there was no mention of returning
Speaker 1: what you stole as a way to change your fortune.
Speaker 1: And all that bit of wishful thinking was actually added
Speaker 1: later by tourists who were just desperate for a way
Speaker 1: to explain and and maybe fix the problems in their lives.
Speaker 1: So now all these packages are frantically sent to Hawaiian
Speaker 1: post offices and town halls, even directly to the Hawaii volcanoes.
Speaker 1: National Park and a lot of the time the bits
Speaker 1: of rock or sand. They're accompanied by these heartfelt letters
Speaker 1: and they describe the bad luck that the senders hope
Speaker 1: to undo. And some of the stuff is really heavy,
Speaker 1: like you can find people writing about bounce of cancer
Speaker 1: or divorce or jail time. And then you get these
Speaker 1: other letters which are just hard not to laugh at,
Speaker 1: Like I came across this one that reads, we won
Speaker 1: the six hundred thousand dollar lottery. We would have won
Speaker 1: the two million dollar lottery if it wasn't for this,
Speaker 1: Please take the rocks back before more bad luck. I mean,
Speaker 1: it does sound a bit like a double edged swords right, like,
Speaker 1: on on one hand, some letters are probably gonna be
Speaker 1: pretty entertaining or maybe even inspiring, But on the other hand, like,
Speaker 1: how frustrating must it be to have to deal with
Speaker 1: this endless dream of stolen rocks and apology letters from
Speaker 1: guilty touris just coming your way? Oh totally it. But
Speaker 1: you know, I do want to mention that even though
Speaker 1: Pale's curses a modern invention it it does have some
Speaker 1: roots in real Hawaiian mythology. I read this great piece
Speaker 1: in Pacific Standard where they talked to the director of
Speaker 1: the University of Hawaii at Manoahs Center for Hawaiian Studies,
Speaker 1: and she helps trace some of the connections in this way.
Speaker 1: She says, rocks in Hawaii have their own personalities, male
Speaker 1: and female. They don't like to be disturbed. Rocks in
Speaker 1: the volcano are made by Pele and they are kapu.
Speaker 1: That is, they have a kind of sanctity, and it's
Speaker 1: definitely bad luck to take them away from the volcano.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's interesting. But in this case, if returning
Speaker 1: the items doesn't break the curse, does that mean people
Speaker 1: are just stuck with their bad luck of missing winning
Speaker 1: the lottery by millions forever? But I wanted about that too,
Speaker 1: and I actually found some pretty sage advice on the subject.
Speaker 1: And this was from a retired historian at the University
Speaker 1: of Hawaii, and she says, if you took a stone,
Speaker 1: perhaps unknowingly or without meaning disrespect, I would recommend a
Speaker 1: ceremony rather than sending the rocks back, just say release
Speaker 1: me from this kapu. Just let it go. Well, that's
Speaker 1: definitely a better option and a cheaper one than mailing
Speaker 1: rocks to park rangers. But you know, given the way
Speaker 1: Hawaii became a state in the first place. There is
Speaker 1: something sort of ironic about sending back the stolen pieces
Speaker 1: of Hawaii back to you know, this island that was
Speaker 1: taken away from the people. Yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 1: And without getting to dour, I do think we should
Speaker 1: address the elephant in the room and and talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Hawaii became part of the US to
Speaker 1: begin with, because this year actually marks the hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty fifth anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Now,
Speaker 1: prior to that time, Hawaii was recognized internationally as a
Speaker 1: sovereign nation, and it was under the rule of Queen
Speaker 1: Lily Okolani, and she had inherited the throne from her
Speaker 1: brother just two years earlier. But Hawaii's fertile volcanic soil
Speaker 1: and close proximity of the States had long made at
Speaker 1: this tempting target for a coup. Still, the Hawaiian Kingdom
Speaker 1: might have been able to maintain its sovereignty if not
Speaker 1: for interference from Sanford Dole and his fellow American businessmen.
Speaker 1: I know this is crazy to think about it because
Speaker 1: for anyone wondering, yes, this is Sanford Dol as in
Speaker 1: the Dole Food Company, or you might know him as
Speaker 1: the world famous pineapple producers. But he and other American
Speaker 1: plantation owners were making a killing in Hawaii already, and
Speaker 1: that was thanks to their enormous crops of sugar and
Speaker 1: coffee and pineapples there. But as a way to exert
Speaker 1: even more control of the kingdom, Dole partnered with these
Speaker 1: other businessmen and lawyers to form what they called the
Speaker 1: Hawaiian League, and in seven the group sent this armed
Speaker 1: militia to David Kalakaua, the king of Hawaii at the time,
Speaker 1: and this was at gunpoint. The king was actually forced
Speaker 1: to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which transferred most of the
Speaker 1: monarchy's power to the legislature, which is a ruling body
Speaker 1: whose elections were already being rigged to favor non Hawaiians.
Speaker 1: And a few years later, when Lilio Kulani took the throne,
Speaker 1: she actually refused to honor the Bayonet agreement and instead
Speaker 1: tried to build support for a new constitution, one that
Speaker 1: we returned power to the monarchy, which you know, of course,
Speaker 1: as thing Dole and the other American businessmen were not
Speaker 1: happy about. And so that's why in January of eightee,
Speaker 1: this so called Committee of Safety. It was led by Dole,
Speaker 1: and they gathered and wait near the Queen's palace. Soon
Speaker 1: they were joined by three hundred marines from the USS
Speaker 1: Boston and they've been called in to protect Dole's committee
Speaker 1: by the U S Minister of Hawaii. And it was
Speaker 1: a really pivotal move. So the action provided this tacit
Speaker 1: approval for the coup from the US government, and it
Speaker 1: also left Queen Lily Okolani with no choice but to
Speaker 1: surrender in order to avoid outright war. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: part that always gets me is that she never gave
Speaker 1: up hope that the US government would come to its
Speaker 1: senses and recognize her as Hawaii's constitutional monarch, but of
Speaker 1: course that never happened. So the president at the time
Speaker 1: was Benjamin Harrison, and he was all for annexing the
Speaker 1: Hawaiian Islands after the coup, and although Grover Cleveland objected
Speaker 1: to the whole affair, once he took office, he actually
Speaker 1: failed to stop this takeover of Hawaii. He did recommend
Speaker 1: the queen be restored to her throne, but congres US
Speaker 1: ultimately rejected the proposal and instead Sanford dol took control
Speaker 1: of the illegal provisional government that he helped install in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: He even declared himself the de facto president of what
Speaker 1: he started to call the Republic of Hawaii. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: whole thing is really bizarre, and especially when you consider
Speaker 1: the rest of the world was watching as this unfolded,
Speaker 1: and you know, even our own president admitted that the
Speaker 1: takeover had been illegal. I mean, listen to these lines
Speaker 1: from an account President Cleveland later wrote of this whole ordeal.
Speaker 1: He said, the provisional government owes its existence to an
Speaker 1: armed invasion by the United States by an act of war.
Speaker 1: A substantial wrong has been done. It is wild to
Speaker 1: hear that and to know that nothing was ever done
Speaker 1: to fix it, and in fact, just the opposite, because
Speaker 1: it was the administration right after Cleveland that declared Hawaii
Speaker 1: US territory, and of course, about sixty years later it
Speaker 1: officially became the fiftieth state. But before we get into
Speaker 1: any of that or the amazing ways Hawaii and the
Speaker 1: US have influenced each other, let's take a quick break. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: so give us the bad news. Who else is colonized
Speaker 1: Hawaii besides of the Americans? All right, Well, it's not
Speaker 1: so much who else as it is what else, Because
Speaker 1: despite the fact that the islands are over two thousand
Speaker 1: miles from the nearest continent, they've actually been colonized over
Speaker 1: and over throughout history. It's just that most of the
Speaker 1: time it's far flung plants and animals doing the colonizing
Speaker 1: and not humans. And so the net result of this
Speaker 1: is bio diversity beyond your wildest dreams, but sometimes at
Speaker 1: the sad cost of the island's own indigenous species. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember hearing some stats about how many indangered species
Speaker 1: there are in Hawaiian The numbers were pretty insane, Like
Speaker 1: when you added up all the plants and animals and
Speaker 1: insects on the list, it was something like five d
Speaker 1: different endangered species just in Hawaii. Yeah. I was looking
Speaker 1: at some of those numbers on Hawaii dot gov, and
Speaker 1: according to the state's Forestry on Wildlife Division, the islands
Speaker 1: contain roughly forty of our entire countries endangered and threatened
Speaker 1: plant species. And that's despite the fact that Hawaii accounts
Speaker 1: for less than one percent of the total land mass
Speaker 1: in the US. I mean, it really points to just
Speaker 1: how frequently foreign species have muscled their way into the
Speaker 1: Hawaiian ecosystem, not to mention the domino effect damage that
Speaker 1: sometimes causes for other species. It's it's really a pretty
Speaker 1: tricky problem, no kidding. Like, did you hear about this
Speaker 1: invasive species of tiny frogs called the cookie? Apparently the
Speaker 1: little guys are wreaking havoc on Hawaii's Big Island. I
Speaker 1: guess their native to Puerto Rico, but scientists think a
Speaker 1: few found their way over in the nineteen eighties, probably
Speaker 1: by hiding out in some potted plants. Anyway, they've just
Speaker 1: exploded ever since because there aren't any natural predators to
Speaker 1: help control of the population. And in fact, one study
Speaker 1: reported that the cokey population in Hawaii is now three
Speaker 1: times greater than the one in Puerto Rico, which means
Speaker 1: there are now between ten thousand and fifty thousand frogs
Speaker 1: per acre on the Big Island. Good lord, I mean
Speaker 1: that's like plague level amount of frogs. All right. So,
Speaker 1: just to play Devil's advocate on this, like, let's assume
Speaker 1: that I love the idea of having frogs absolutely everywhere,
Speaker 1: So is there another downside of this? Well, for one thing,
Speaker 1: the thriving frogs and put a serious damp around the
Speaker 1: islands once plentiful bug population, including a few of those
Speaker 1: endangered species we've been talking about, And some biologists are
Speaker 1: even worried that the lack of bugs could cause native
Speaker 1: bird species to starve. And of course there's also the
Speaker 1: fact that the frogs are driving down property values, which
Speaker 1: is always a nuisance for humans. Bit it sounds like
Speaker 1: these things are pretty much everywhere. Like are they decreasing
Speaker 1: property values all over the island? I mean, because remember
Speaker 1: I love frogs everywhere, so condos on the coast are
Speaker 1: going for super cheap prices. I actually might need to
Speaker 1: look into this well before you sign any das you
Speaker 1: should probably know one other thing about cookie frogs, and
Speaker 1: that's that, despite the fact that they're only about the
Speaker 1: size of a quarter, they constantly emit this high pitched
Speaker 1: i that can reach up to ninety decibels, which is
Speaker 1: about the volume of a lawnmower or a motorcycle that's
Speaker 1: a few yards away. Yeah, and it's actually where the
Speaker 1: frogs get their name cookie. Like the annoying sound that
Speaker 1: they make sounds a lot like cocyte. So in areas
Speaker 1: that are overrun with frogs, the property values are taking
Speaker 1: a big hit, and it's because everybody knows that whoever
Speaker 1: winds up living there is never going to get a
Speaker 1: good night's sleep. Again, you did such a great impression
Speaker 1: of their noise. It sounds just like cokeye, except higher pitch.
Speaker 1: I think, right, right, that does sound like a nightmare,
Speaker 1: Like are the locals doing anything to combat the problem
Speaker 1: or if they just kind of thrown the towel in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean people used to hunt them back when the
Speaker 1: problem first started to kind of try to control it,
Speaker 1: and this was around the mid two thousand's, but it
Speaker 1: quickly became clear that that was never going to work,
Speaker 1: and nowadays most people concentrate on containing the frogs to
Speaker 1: certain areas and try to prevent them from expanding deeper
Speaker 1: into the rainforest. And apparently there's also a contingent of
Speaker 1: folks who try to catch the cokie and ship them
Speaker 1: back to Puerto Rico, but again it's kind of a
Speaker 1: losing battle. Yeah, you might be right about that, because
Speaker 1: you know, the frog troubles actually sound a lot like
Speaker 1: another case I read about. This is over on the
Speaker 1: island of Kauai. Apparently the whole place is just loaded
Speaker 1: with these feral chickens, and scientists say it's probably because
Speaker 1: of Hurricane and Nikki. The storm tore through Kauai, and
Speaker 1: in the process it also released a ton of chickens
Speaker 1: from people's backyard coops, and these domestic birds fled to
Speaker 1: the islands dense forest, and they reverted back to this
Speaker 1: wild state and began mating with remnants of Kawai's Polynesian
Speaker 1: jungle foul population. And again, due to the lack of
Speaker 1: natural predators, the chickens thrive to the point that there
Speaker 1: were thousands and thousands of them spread all over the island. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm delighted by the idea of a chicken island, But
Speaker 1: how do their residents feel about this? Well, they were
Speaker 1: more than a little bit annoyed at first, and especially
Speaker 1: when they realized that the chickens seemed to lack all
Speaker 1: sense of time and which just randomly crow at all
Speaker 1: hours of the day, though not at the ninety deciples, thankfully.
Speaker 1: But you know, just like with the frogs, people eventually
Speaker 1: grew to accept them as a fact of life. It's
Speaker 1: actually kind of that same lemonade from Lemon's mentality that
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier with the Hawaiian shirts and other things,
Speaker 1: but like, having chickens all over the place isn't ideal.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're loud and they're dirty, but on the
Speaker 1: bright side, they keep harmful pest in line and the
Speaker 1: tourists are completely charmed by these wildfowl running around, So
Speaker 1: you know, the locals will describe the chickens is everything
Speaker 1: from beautiful birds to these god awful rats with wings,
Speaker 1: and everybody can at least agree that they're great for
Speaker 1: moving merchandise. Though, can I just say that, while I
Speaker 1: totally get how annoying it would be to have some
Speaker 1: island hopping animal running buck your ecosystem, like I do
Speaker 1: like the idea that these different islands of different animals
Speaker 1: associated with them, Yeah, I mean annoyances aside. I think
Speaker 1: it is fun that certain islands are just completely stocked
Speaker 1: with their own signature animals, Like the Big Island is
Speaker 1: the Frog Kingdom, Kauai is the Chicken Coast, and there's
Speaker 1: also Lena, which is this tiny Hawaiian island that boasts
Speaker 1: a population of I think it's only about three thousand people,
Speaker 1: but it's also home to four or five hundred feral cats.
Speaker 1: You know, while being stranded on a tiny island teeming
Speaker 1: with feral cats sounds like pretty much the worst thing
Speaker 1: imaginable to me. I can still appreciate the fact that
Speaker 1: it exists, you know, as long as I'm far far
Speaker 1: away from it. So, you know, we we've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about colonizing species that have made themselves at home
Speaker 1: on the islands, but I do want to shift the
Speaker 1: focus back to the native side of things and talk
Speaker 1: just a little bit about the Hawaiian parrot fish. You mean,
Speaker 1: these are the creepy fish with the beaks, right, So
Speaker 1: maybe it's not the best poster boy for the islands,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, those islands wouldn't be the same
Speaker 1: without the parrot fish, and more specifically, their prized beaches
Speaker 1: would be little more than bare volcanic rock without parrot fish.
Speaker 1: So why why is this the case? Okay, so this
Speaker 1: probably won't win you over on parrot fish. But you
Speaker 1: know those beak like teeth that you find off putting,
Speaker 1: Well those are actually used in Norway at algae that
Speaker 1: grow on coral, which happens to be the parrot fish's
Speaker 1: favorite snack. And the problem is sometimes the fish accidentally
Speaker 1: nibble off a piece of coral and wind up ingesting
Speaker 1: its calcium carbonate by mistake, and because the parrot fish
Speaker 1: can't digest the bulk of the substance, it eventually excretes
Speaker 1: it as sand. Wait, so you're saying that's the sand
Speaker 1: that winds up on Hawaii's beaches like that? There's no way,
Speaker 1: I mean, how much sand could have fish possibly poop out?
Speaker 1: So it's somewhere around eight pounds per fish per year
Speaker 1: according to this. Yeah, this is according to a marine
Speaker 1: biologist named lingong And in an interview for Why And,
Speaker 1: she pointed out that quote. In places like Hawaii, where
Speaker 1: we have very little terrestrial input of sand, almost all
Speaker 1: of our sand is of biological origin. So I like
Speaker 1: to tell people that sand you're standing on in Hawaii
Speaker 1: has probably gone to the gut of something. It'll have
Speaker 1: gone through the gut of a parrot fish, a sea urchin,
Speaker 1: or some kind of worm. Well, I mean, strangely enough,
Speaker 1: turning fish poop into beautiful sandy beaches. It does seem
Speaker 1: like a pretty fitting metaphor for the Hawaiian approach to
Speaker 1: all of its problems. Really, because while Native Hawaiians and
Speaker 1: residents of Hawaii face their share of injustices and hardships
Speaker 1: over the years, they've always managed to foster some of
Speaker 1: the most vibrant cultures amidst some of the most stunning
Speaker 1: environments in the world. And that alone makes me proud
Speaker 1: that Hawaii is part of my country, even if you
Speaker 1: know I'm not always thrilled about how it wound up
Speaker 1: that way. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And also, don't forget,
Speaker 1: Hawaii is the state that gave the world POGs, so
Speaker 1: that alone makes it worthy of praise. So I'm not
Speaker 1: so sure about your love of stackable cardboard circles, but um,
Speaker 1: who knows, Maybe you can win me over with some
Speaker 1: facts in the day's fact off. H alright, mango, So
Speaker 1: I remember you were a big fan of the TV
Speaker 1: show Hawaii five oh, or at least I like to
Speaker 1: tell people that you were a fan of Hawaii five oh.
Speaker 1: And many of our listeners may know this is where
Speaker 1: referring to police as five oh comes from. But actually
Speaker 1: didn't realize that the show was called Hawaii five oh
Speaker 1: simply because Hawaii was the fiftieth state to join the country.
Speaker 1: I don't know how this never occurred to me. I
Speaker 1: know me either, So this is my fact. The seventh
Speaker 1: largest island in Hawaii is owned by two guys and
Speaker 1: they're actually brothers. They inherited it from their grandmother who
Speaker 1: had purchased it from the Kingdom of Hawaii. And this
Speaker 1: was way back in eighteen sixty four, around ten thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in gold. Obviously that's a ton of money. But
Speaker 1: these brothers still own it. And speaking of a ton
Speaker 1: of money, the US has reportedly tried to buy back
Speaker 1: the island from the brothers for about a billion dollars
Speaker 1: and they've turned it down. God, that is a ton
Speaker 1: of money. I think I would accept a billion dollars
Speaker 1: if I owned an island, So I forget. Are you
Speaker 1: a fan of Hawaiian pizza? Me too? Well, we've mentioned
Speaker 1: this before, but it was invented in Canada by a
Speaker 1: couple of Greek guys. But I feel like we need
Speaker 1: to add a fact to that, and because you can
Speaker 1: really never have enough good facts about Hawaiian pizza, and
Speaker 1: that's the fact that it's the most popular style of
Speaker 1: pizza in Australia that actually accounts for around of all
Speaker 1: their pizza sales. So have you heard about the time
Speaker 1: the US government burned two hundred million dollars in Hawaiian cash.
Speaker 1: This was way back in the nineties, not long after
Speaker 1: the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the US government started
Speaker 1: worrying about what happened if Japan invaded Hawaii, and one
Speaker 1: of the things they thought about was the money on
Speaker 1: the islands. If Japan invade the island and then took
Speaker 1: all the cash there, how would the government know where
Speaker 1: the cash had come from when they decided to use it.
Speaker 1: So to protect against this, the US actually recalled all
Speaker 1: paper money in Hawaii and asked everyone to trade their
Speaker 1: bills in for others that had the word Hawaii stamped
Speaker 1: on it. So then what to do with that two
Speaker 1: million dollars they've managed to collect from the people. They
Speaker 1: actually decided to burn it, and they did this in
Speaker 1: crematoriums and furnaces around the island, And only a tiny
Speaker 1: number of the bills are still in circulation. But if
Speaker 1: you manage to get your hands on a twenty dollar
Speaker 1: Hawaii overprint bill from that time, it's actually worth about
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars today. Wow, I've never heard that story before.
Speaker 1: All right, so quick one here. Hawaii is the only U.
Speaker 1: S state to have two official languages. You've got English
Speaker 1: and Hawaii. Interestingly, the language only has thirteen letters and
Speaker 1: every word ends with one of five vowels. So despite
Speaker 1: consuming the most spam per capita, Hawaii has the longest
Speaker 1: life expectancy of the fifty states at eighty one point
Speaker 1: three years, and that edges Minnesota, which I guess makes
Speaker 1: sense since they also invented spam. Oh wow, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: good connection there. What's amazing to me that the state
Speaker 1: known as maybe having the most desirable weather is also
Speaker 1: the state where the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation
Speaker 1: Program decided to keep a crew in a bubble for
Speaker 1: an entire year. Back in two thousand and sixteen, a
Speaker 1: group of six crew members walked out of the Mars
Speaker 1: simulator mission in Hawaii after a twelve month stay on
Speaker 1: the slopes of Mount a Looa, the famous volcano. The
Speaker 1: habitat is supposedly pretty martian like, or at least this
Speaker 1: martian like as you can find in the States. And
Speaker 1: I don't know, though, I feel like after a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks there, I'd be like, I don't know, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm headed out to the beach too much. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: me too. But speaking of Hawaiian volcanoes, one of the
Speaker 1: crazy geological features there that most people don't know about
Speaker 1: is the icy underworld inside some of the volcanoes. So
Speaker 1: these lava tubes can actually be found on Mauna Loa.
Speaker 1: Because of their high elevation and the way the air circulates,
Speaker 1: the perfect conditions for permanent ice are formed there. It's
Speaker 1: just crazy to think about the hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 1: people visiting each year to see the world's largest act
Speaker 1: of volcano and having zero idea that under all that
Speaker 1: rock you'd find ice tunnels. It's pretty cool, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Mango, just you using the phrase Earth's
Speaker 1: pretty cool, you know. I feel like that. Uh, I
Speaker 1: feel like that earns you the fact off. No matter
Speaker 1: what you said, even though that is a really cool
Speaker 1: facts I'm gonna give you today's fact off trophy. I
Speaker 1: knew that would seal the deal. But thank you, well,
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for listening. I'm sure there
Speaker 1: are some great facts about Hawaii that we didn't get
Speaker 1: to include in today's episode. We'd love to hear those from.
Speaker 1: You can always email as part time genius at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. You can always call us on
Speaker 1: our seven fact hotline one eight four four pt Genius
Speaker 1: or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't
Speaker 1: be possible without several brilliant people who do the important
Speaker 1: things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does
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Speaker 1: Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to
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Speaker 1: for us. Do we do we forget you? Jason who