The Next Generation of Hawaiian Diplomats
Na Sanoe Burgess (Doctoral Student, Communication & Information Science)
ʻAuhea ʻoukou e nā hoa makamaka o Hawaiʻi,
As members of the Native Hawaiian Student Services Hawaiian Youths Abroad Program, in commemoration and pride of Kalākaua and the Hawaiian Kingdom’s impressive program by that same name, we walk in the footsteps of our kūpuna who have dared to venture to foreign lands in the name of our great nation. Curtis Piʻehu ʻIaukea and Henry French Poor were my age when they arrived in Japan (ʻIaukea & Watson, 1988). ʻIaukea, along with this secretary, Poor, was commissioned as “His Majesty’s special Envoy, avowedly for Japan,” (ʻIaukea, 1883) but with several stops along the way. Their huakaʻi included business with monarchs and heads of states in London, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Singapore, China, and finally Japan. Thus, becoming the second and third Hawaiians to circumnavigate the globe, after Kalākaua’s 1881 world-wide voyage.
Curtis Piʻehu ʻIaukea served the crown in a multitude of capacities, including, but not limited to, serving as a kāhili bearer and steward at the palace for Kamehameha IV, a personal aid of Kalākaua’s younger brother Prince William Pitt Leleiohoku, captain of the Prince’s Own Artillery Corps, and Kalākaua’s personal military staff as colonel, and secretary of the Foreign Office. His wife, Charlotte Kahaloipua Hanks, also served the crown as a lady in waiting for Queen Kapiʻolani. All of which led to Kalākaua’s choice to commission ʻIaukea as the head of a diplomatic trip around the world (ʻIaukea & Watson, 1988).
After almost a year abroad, ʻIaukea and Poor arrived in Yokohama Bay by steamship on April 9th, 1884, about 141 years prior to our visit to that same dock yesterday (see image above). On their first night in Japan, they very likely stayed at the Yokohama Grand Hotel which is now where Hotel New Grand now stands. On the next morning, they made their way to Tokyo.
As we roam the streets of Tokyo, hearing the bustling of the city, seeing the tall skyscrapers, busy market streets, I try to imagine what they saw, and how they felt as they walked these same streets. No doubt time has drastically changed the layout, sounds, and pace of this city, however, there may be pieces of their experience here that remain. I wonder if they saw these cherry blossoms, felt this same chill in the air, or tasted the same world renowned strawberries (though probably not candy coated). I wonder if they, like us, experienced any stark cultural differences, or got excited about the similarities between the Japanese and Hawaiian culture.
On April 10th, 1884, ʻIaukea and Poor were welcomed at the Rokumeikan hotel in Hibiya, Tokyo, where they stayed during their time here. The hotel had just completed construction the year prior, in 1883. At the time, it was a controversial symbol of Westernization in Japan during the Meiji period, as it was built by a British architect, Josiah Condor, based on French Renaissance architecture, and made for the purpose of hosting and entertaining primarily foreign guests (Watanabe, 1996). Tomorrow, we will visit the Imperial Palace, which is a few blocks away from where that hotel once stood.
On April 15th, 1884, ‘Iaukea was warmly welcomed by Prince Nabeshima, Japan’s Grand Master of Ceremonies, and presented to Emperor Meiji and his entire court (ʻIaukea & Poor, 1884). In a letter from ‘Iaukea, addressed to Walter Gibson, Hawaiʻi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emperor Meiji had “expressed the hope that [his] ‘mission to the Imperial Government would be so conducted as to be mutually agreeable.’” The cordial relations between the Japanese officials and the Hawaiian representatives was largely due to Kalākaua’s prior visit to Japan in 1881, in which “the Hawaiian king made a most favorable impression upon the Japanese officials and others with whom he came in contact, and that there was established between him and the emperor of Japan a bond of personal friendship…” (Kuykendall, 1967, p. 156).
‘Iaukea wrote a letter to Inouye Kaoru, Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, on April 14th, 1884, in which he proposed the emigration of Japanese agricultural laborers and their families to Hawaiʻi, and establishment of a consistent line of transport between China, Japan, Hawaiʻi and San Francisco through the Oceanic Steamship Company (ʻIaukea, 1884). The proposal included free transport of the Japanese agricultural laborers and their families through the Oceanic Steamship Company to Hawaiʻi, assistance in procuring a labor job on a plantation, and “food and lodging for the immigrants on their arrival until they have had a reasonable opportunity to find employment or until they initiate that they prefer to take care of themselves, rather than take service” (ʻIaukea, 1884). A followup conversation between the two took place on April 25th, 1884, in which “His excellency expressed his cordial interest in the relations with Hawaiʻi” (ʻIaukea & Poor, 1884). As a result of these diplomatic arrangements, the first group of 943 Japanese labor immigrants arrived in Hawaiʻi on February 8th, 1885.
Another important part of their time in Japan included the exchange of royal orders. ʻIaukea presented to Minister Inouye the, “insignias and diplomas of the Order of the Crown of Hawaiʻi,” and promised that “more would be forwarded at an early opportunity” (ʻIaukea & Poor, 1884). Unfortunately, it is unclear who was to receive all of these insignias and diplomas, but we can assume that Minister Inouye would be one major recipient due to his significant impact on the successful immigration agreement with Hawaiʻi. In response, on the day before their departure, “His Imperial Majesty conferred upon [ʻIaukea] the 2nd class Order of the Rising Sun. And on his secretary [Henry Poor], the 6th class” (ʻIaukea & Poor, 1884). Before our trip to Japan, we visited ʻIolani Palace, and were able to see the order received by ʻIaukea (pictured below).
The cordial relations between Hawaiʻi and Japan can still be felt to this day. Everywhere we go we have been received with the warmest welcomes and enthusiasm. We mahalo Curtis Piʻehu ʻIaukea and Henry French Poor for their service to the Hawaiian government and the lāhui. Their mission inspires the next generation of Hawaiian diplomats to carry themselves with the same esteem and pride as these two gentlemen did, and to continue to work towards the betterment of our people through our academic and future endeavors.
References
‘Iaukea, C. (n.d., 1883). [A Memorandum Regarding the Proposed Mission to be undertaken by Mr. C. P. Iaukea]. Retrieved from Hawaiʻi State Archives, (404, 60, 926). Honolulu, HI.
‘Iaukea, C. (April 14, 1884). [Letter to Minister Inouye regarding proposal for Japanese labor immigrants to Hawaiʻi and Oceanic Steamship Company]. Retrieved from Hawaiʻi State Archives, (404, 60, 930). Honolulu, HI.
‘Iaukea, C. & Poor, H. (May 22, 1884). [Letter to Walter Gibson regarding completion of successful mission to Japan including meeting about laborer immigration agreement and exchange of decorations]. Retrieved from Hawaiʻi State Archives, (404, 60, 930). Honolulu, HI.
ʻIaukea, C., & Watson, L. K. I. (1988). By Royal Command: The Official Life and Personal Reminiscences of Colonel Curtis Piʼehu Iaukea at the Court of Hawaii’s Rulers. Hui Hanai.
Kuykendall, R. S. (1967). The Hawaiian Kingdom Volume 3: The Kalakaua Dynasty, 1874–1893. University of Hawaii Press.
Watanabe, T. (1996). Josiah Conder’s Rokumeikan: Architecture and National Representation in Meiji Japan. Art Journal (New York. 1960), 55(3), 21–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1996.10791766
1871 Hawaiian Kingdom | Japan Treaty of Amity & Commerce
Na ʻĀnela Akiu (Undergraduate Student, Sociology, Hawaiian Studies & Hawaiian Language)
‘Auhea ‘oukou e nā pulapula Hawai‘i ‘imi loa e hahai ana i nā meheu o nā kūpuna, waipuna lau ke aloha kākou. ‘Oiai mākou ma kēia huaka‘i nui i Iāpana, e kau ana nā hali‘a i nā kūpuna a me ko lākou aloha i ka ‘āina, make‘e i ka ‘ōlelo makuahine, a me ke kūpa‘a i Ko Hawai‘i Pae ‘Āina. Na lākou i noi‘i noelo aku, a ua pau nā pali pa‘a i ka ‘ike ‘ia.
On August 19, 1871 in the city of Yedo, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between “His Majesty the King, and His Imperial Majesty the Tenno of Japan,” was concluded and ratified. Signed on September 27, 1871 by C.E. De Long, Sawa Iusanme Kiyowara Noluyoshe, and Terachima Jusee Fugiwarra Munemori for Japan, and Chas. C. Harris, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
In Chapters on the Principles of International Law, Professor of International Law, John Westlake, lists the different states that were members of the Family of Nations in 1894. The first two groups of states to be acknowledged were states from Europe and the United States of America, the final group of states acknowledged were “a few Christian states in other parts of the world, as the Hawaiian Islands, Liberia and the Orange Free State.”
As a part of the Family of Nations, Ko Hawai‘i Pae ‘Āina was able to enter into unequal treaties with other nations, such as Japan. The 1871 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Hawaiian Kingdom and Japan allowed Hawaiian Kingdom Subjects consular jurisdiction while in Japan. Article III of the treaty reads:
The Diplomatic Agents and Consuls of each of the high contracting parties shall exercise all the authority and jurisdiction, and shall enjoy within the territories of the other all the rights and privileges, exemptions and immunities which now appertain, or may hereafter appertain to Agents of the same rank of the most favored nations.
Article IV of the treaty allows for the Hawaiian Government and its subjects to be given “free and equal participation in all privileges, immunities and advantages that may have been or may hereafter be granted by His Majesty the Tenno of Japan, to the Government, citizens or subjects of any other nation.” While Article V prevents the Japanese Government from placing restrictions upon the employment of Hawaiian subjects.
In the early 19th century, Hawai‘i had been “the only non-Western country to be recognized as a fully independent state with which Western nations had equal treaty relations.” Common history places Japan as the next non-Western state in which all extraterritorial privileges of Western powers ended in the year 1899.
As we continue to unearth our mo‘olelo and understand our own history, we see the different intersections of time and place within both Hawai‘i and the world. On January 18, 1893 under Lili‘uokalani, Hawaiian Minister to Japan, Robert Walker Irwin delivered an executive agreement in which it is written:
It therefore becomes my agreeable duty to announce to your Excellency, in pursuance of instructions from Her Majesty’s Government, and I now have the honour formally to announce, that the Hawaiian Government do fully, completely, and finally abandon and relinquish the jurisdiction acquired by them in respect of Hawaiian subjects and property in Japan, under the Treaty of the 19th August, 1871.
There are at present from fifteen to twenty Hawaiian subjects residing in this Empire, and in addition about twenty-five subjects of Her Majesty visit Japan annually…
It was this series of notes exchanged in 1893-1894 between Hawai‘i and Japan that ended extraterritorial privileges within Japan– contrasting the popular narrative of extraterritorial privileges ending with the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of the year 1899. The Treaty under both Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani is just one display of the understanding that our ali‘i had of the political and diplomatic world stage that the Hawaiian Kingdom had been a part of. As just one of the many that Ko Hawai‘i Pae ‘Āina had secured, the Treaty between Hawai‘i and Japan remains a testimony to the strength, agency, and brilliance of our kūpuna and our Kingdom.
He wahi leo mahalo kēia i nā ali‘i a me nā kūpuna i kīpaepae aku i kēia mau meheu a kākou e hahai nei. Eia au ke ho‘omana‘o a‘e nei i nā lālani mele no Kalākaua, ‘o ia ho‘i ‘o kēia:
Hōʻike aʻe ʻoe i kou nani ʻeā
I ka mālamalama, i ka mālamalama ʻoi kelakela
Iā mākou e mākaʻikaʻi aku ana i ka nani o ka ʻāina malihini, e ʻuhola aku ana i ka mālamalama o ka ʻike i nā kūʻono o kēia honua poepoe. ʻAʻole kākou e poina i ka huliāmahi o nā aliʻi, ma o ko lākou mālamalama, i ke kau kekeha ʻana aʻe iā Hawaiʻi ma nā kūlana kiʻekiʻe o nā mana o ke ao.
References
“Kuikahi ma waena o Hawaii nei a me Iapana,” Ka Nupepa Kuokoa (‘Okakopa, 7, 1871): 2.
John Westlake, Chapters on the Principles of International Law, (Cambridge: The University Press, 1894).
Lorenz Gonshor, A Power in the World, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2019).
“Treaty of Amity and Commerce,” conclusion date: August 19, 1871, Hawai‘i State Archives, Foreign Office and Executive Chronological files 1850-1900, Treaties, Box No. 57, Japan 1871-1880.
https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/Hawaiian_Japanese_Exec_Agmt.pdf