With snapping flags, a rifle salute and a solemn bugle call, U.S. government leaders paid tribute Sunday to a group of Hawaii men who volunteered to colonize remote, barren islands in the central Pacific Ocean as part of a secret mission in the 1930s and ’40s.
George Kahanu was 19 when he volunteered for the mission to help U.S. military and commercial interests claim the islands at a time when air routes were starting up between Australia and California and weather stations were needed along the routes. The colonization later allowed President Franklin Roosevelt to claim jurisdiction over the isles, which provided an important base during World War II.
Kahanu, 98, and the group of colonists he belonged to were honored at a ceremony remembering Pacific-American veterans and their service to the country.
The ceremony — the Roll Call of Honor in Remembrance — is held every year the day before Memorial Day at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, organized by the Pacific American Foundation, a nonprofit for improving the lives of Pacific Americans.
Kahanu was one of 130 young men from Hawaii, sent by the U.S. from 1935 to 1942, to occupy five islands — Jarvis, Howland, Baker, Canton and Enderbury — in an archipelago known as the Line Islands. Most of the men were Native Hawaiian, and many were recent graduates of Kamehameha School for Boys and Roosevelt and McKinley high schools.
They became known as the Hui Panala‘au, or band of colonizers. Three died during the mission: one when his appendix ruptured on Jarvis island in 1938 and two from injuries after a Japanese bomber attacked Howland island on Dec. 8, 1941.
The program quietly ended after the attack, and the last colonizers were rescued in February 1942.
Kahanu was a junior at Kamehameha Schools when he spent three months on Jarvis island with three other men during the summer of 1936.
"On an island like that … you had a lot of time," Kahanu said. "I spent a lot of time fishing. Us local boys, we ate a lot of fish and that supplemented our diet."
He added, "At that time, we lived in tents. We were not too sure why we were there. We knew we had to get there, colonize the island and make sure that nobody took over. If somebody came with rifles, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything because we had nothing to defend ourselves."
Only three of the hui are known to be living. Besides Kahanu, the others are Paul Phillips and Manuel Sproat.
In March, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz introduced a resolution to recognize the Hui Panala‘au for enabling the country to "establish and maintain jurisdiction in remote equatorial islands as prolonged conflict in the Pacific led to World War II."
The resolution said the U.S. sought civilian colonists because international law prevented colonization by active military personnel.
The Senate passed the resolution last week, honoring the group on the 80th anniversary of their first mission.
"We recognize a unique band of brothers nearly forgotten by history, but now secure in history and doubly secure in our hearts — the Hui Panala‘au," Schatz said at the ceremony on Sunday.
He said the U.S. Department of the Interior led the program and considered the ideal candidate to be a Hawaiian who "could fish in the native manner, swim excellently, handle a boat and be disciplined and friendly."
He said the success of the colonists made it possible for President Roosevelt to claim jurisdiction of the islands, and Baker island became an airfield during World War II.
"If they had failed, who knows how history could have been affected," he said. "What they did for America is remembered, and we are grateful."
Some of the islands are U.S. territories today, while others are part of Kiribati.
Phillips, 92, a retired Hawaii Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, was one of the last colonists on the islands.
He spent about eight months on Jarvis island, about 1,500 miles south of Hawaii, in 1941 and 1942. He said the toughest challenge was not being able to take a freshwater bath because water was reserved for drinking. The colonists even cooked their rice in ocean water.
He recalled that the colonists were expected to take daily weather reports and secretly report any air or surface activities by radio for a salary of $3 a day.
About every three months, a ship would come with new colonists or fresh supplies.
Phillips said that after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the colonists were ordered to stay off the radio.
"We spent two months without any knowledge or any contact with the outside world," he said. "We were worried not knowing what happened to our families. It was quite traumatic."
