Letter: Movie distorts history of leprosy in Hawaii

The movie, “The Wind and the Reckoning,” now showing in Honolulu, is breathtaking in its scenery and captivating in that it is spoken almost entirely in the Hawaiian language. It suffers, however, from a lack of historical accuracy.

The film purports to depict the haunting story of Kaluaikoolau — known to history as “Koolau the Leper” — who in 1893 battled the army of Hawaii from the cliffs of Kauai’s Kalalau Valley to resist separation from his family and resettlement at Molokai’s Kalaupapa Peninsula.

The film suggests that the motive for the resettlement was the desire of the new Hawaiian government to control the Native Hawaiian population in the wake of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, a mere six months before. In truth, the effort to halt the spread of leprosy by isolating those afflicted with Hansen’s disease at Kalaupapa began decades earlier— in 1865 — during the reign of King Kamehameha V.

The film’s unfortunate narrative of haole-oppressors victimizing Native Hawaiian people is divisive and inflammatory, and eclipses the powerful human drama that is the true story of Kaluaikoolau and his beloved family.

Wray Jose

Manoa

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