Kahoʻolawe
Kahoolawe is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands of the Hawaiian Islands. Unpopulated, it lies about southwest of Maui. The island is long by wide, with a total land area of. Its highest point is the crater of Lua Makika, at the summit of Puʻu Moaulanui, about above sea level.
Kahoolawe is relatively dry, with an average annual rainfall of less than resulting from a combination of being too low to generate much orographic precipitation from the northeastern trade winds and lying in the rain shadow of eastern Maui's volcano, Haleakalā. More than one quarter of Kahoolawe has been eroded down to saprolitic hardpan soil, largely on exposed surfaces near the summit.
Historically, Kahoolawe was always sparsely populated, due to its lack of fresh water. During World War II and the following decades, it was used as a training ground and bombing range by the Armed Forces of the United States. After decades of protests, the U.S. Navy ended live-fire training exercises on Kahoolawe in 1990, and the whole island was transferred to the jurisdiction of the state of Hawaii in 1994. The Hawaii State Legislature established the Kahoolawe Island Reserve to restore and to oversee the island and its surrounding waters. Today Kahoolawe can be used only for native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and subsistence purposes, fishing, environmental restoration, historic preservation, and education. It has no permanent residents.
Geology
Kahoʻolawe is an extinct shield volcano, which formed during the Pleistocene epoch. It was once connected to the island of Maui Nui before splitting off about 300,000 years ago. Most of the island is covered by basaltic lava flows. A caldera is located in the eastern part of the island. The last confirmed volcanic activity on the island occurred about one million years ago, though eruptions could have occurred about 10,000 years ago.Climate
Kahoʻolawe experiences a semi-arid climate.History
Settlement
Sometime around the year 1000, Kahoʻolawe was settled by Polynesians, and small, temporary fishing communities were established along the coast. Some inland areas were cultivated. Puʻu Moiwi, a remnant cinder cone, is the location of the second-largest basalt quarry in Hawaiʻi, and this was mined for use in stone tools such as koʻi. Originally a dry forest environment with intermittent streams, the land changed to an open savanna of grassland and trees when inhabitants cleared vegetation for firewood and agriculture. Hawaiians built stone platforms for religious ceremonies, set rocks upright as shrines for successful fishing trips, and carved petroglyphs, or drawings, into the flat surfaces of rocks; these indicators of an earlier time can still be found on Kahoʻolawe. The island itself is venerated as a kinolau or body form of the sea god Kanaloa.While it is not known how many people inhabited Kahoʻolawe, the lack of freshwater probably limited the population to a few hundred people. As many as 120 people might have once lived at Hakioawa, the largest settlement, which was located at the northeastern end of the island—facing Maui.
The U.S. Census Bureau defines Kahoʻolawe as Block Group 9, Census Tract 303.02 of Maui County, Hawaii.
Warfare
Violent wars among competing aliʻi laid waste to the land and led to a decline in the population. During the 18th century War of Kamokuhi, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruler of the Island of Hawaiʻi, raided and pillaged Kahoʻolawe in an unsuccessful attempt to take Maui from Kahekili II, the King of Maui.Preservation and restoration efforts
Over the years, significant efforts have been made to restore Kahoʻolawe's natural environment, which was severely affected by military training and other activities. Today, the island is a part of the Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve, and its restoration is managed by the state of Hawaii in partnership with local organizations. These efforts include the removal of unexploded ordnance and the replanting of native vegetation that was lost during the island's use as a bombing range. The island’s cultural significance to Native Hawaiians is also a key focus, as they have worked to reclaim the land for traditional uses, including cultural and ceremonial purposes.Post-contact
From 1778 to the early 19th century, observers on passing ships reported that Kahoʻolawe was uninhabited and barren, destitute of both water and wood.After the arrival of missionaries from New England, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi under the rule of King Kamehameha III replaced the death penalty with exile, and Kahoʻolawe became a men's penal colony sometime around 1830. Food and water were scarce, some prisoners reportedly starved, and some of them swam across the channel to Maui to find food. The law making the island a penal colony was repealed in 1853.
A survey of Kahoʻolawe in 1857 reported about 50 residents there, about of land covered with shrubs, and a patch of sugarcane growth. Along the shore, tobacco, pineapple, gourds, pili grass, and scrub trees grew. Beginning in 1858, the Hawaiian government leased Kahoʻolawe to a series of ranching ventures. Some of these proved to be more successful than others, but the lack of freshwater was an unrelenting hindrance. Through the next 80 years, the landscape changed dramatically, with drought and uncontrolled overgrazing denuding much of the island. Strong trade winds blew away most of the topsoil, leaving behind red hardpan dirt.
20th century
From 1910 to 1918, the Territory of Hawaii designated Kahoʻolawe as a forest reserve in the hope of restoring the island through a revegetation and livestock removal program. This program failed, and leases again became available. In 1918, the rancher Angus MacPhee of Wyoming, later with the help of the landowner Harry Baldwin of Maui, leased the island for 21 years, intending to build a cattle ranch there. By 1932, the ranching operation was enjoying moderate success despite accidental deaths and infrastructure failures. In 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor pushed MacPhee to sublet part of the island to the United States military. While MacPhee and Baldwin held rights to the island until 1953, the U.S. Navy retained control of the island, claiming the island was needed for military preparedness. MacPhee filed a $80,000 suit against the U.S. Navy in 1946 for reclamation of property and financial losses, but passed in 1948 before it could be resolved.Training grounds
On December 7, 1941, after the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor and Oahu, the U.S. Army declared martial law throughout Hawaii, and it used Kahoʻolawe as a place to train American soldiers and Marines headed west to engage in the War in the Pacific. The use of Kahoʻolawe as a bombing range was believed to be critical, since the United States was executing a new type of war in the Pacific Islands. Their success depended on accurate naval gunfire support that suppressed or destroyed enemy positions as U.S. Marines and soldiers struggled to get ashore. Thousands of soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and coastguardsmen prepared on Kahoʻolawe for the brutal and costly assaults on islands such as the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, the Marianas and Pelileu, New Guinea in the Western Pacific.Military and naval training on Kahoʻolawe continued following World War II. During the Korean War, warplanes from aircraft carriers played a critical role in attacking enemy airfields, convoys, and troop staging areas. Mock-ups of airfields, military camps, and vehicles were constructed on Kahoʻolawe, and while pilots were preparing for war at Barbers Point Naval Air Station on Oʻahu, they practiced spotting and hitting the mock-ups at Kahoʻolawe. Similar training took place throughout the Cold War and during the War in Vietnam, with mock-ups of aircraft, radar installations, gun mounts, and surface-to-air missile sites being placed across this island for pilots and bombardiers to use in their training.
In early 1965, the U.S. Navy conducted Operation Sailor Hat to determine the blast resistance of ships. Three onshore tests on the eastern shore of Kahoʻolawe near Smuggler Cove subjected the island and a target ship to massive explosions, with 500 tons of conventional TNT detonated on the island near the target ship. This warship was damaged, but she was not sunk. The blasts created a crater on the island known as "Sailor Man's Cap" and are speculated to have cracked the island's caprock, causing some groundwater to be lost into the ocean.
Operation Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO)
In 1976, a group called the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana filed suit in U.S. Federal Court to stop the Navy's use of Kahoʻolawe for bombardment training, to require compliance with a number of new environmental laws and to ensure protection of cultural resources on the island. In 1977, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii allowed the Navy's use of this island to continue, but the Court directed the Navy to prepare an environmental impact statement and to complete an inventory of historic sites on the island.The effort to regain Kaho‘olawe from the U.S. Navy began as a new wave of political awareness and activism was inspired within the Hawaiian community. Charles Maxwell and other community leaders began to plan a coordinated effort to land on the island, which was still under Navy control. The effort for the "first landing" began in Waikapu, on Maui, on January 5, 1976. Over 50 people from across the Hawaiian islands, including a range of cultural leaders, gathered on Maui with the goal of "invading" Kahoʻolawe on January 6, 1976. The date was selected because of its association with the United States' bicentennial anniversary.
As the group headed towards the island, they were intercepted by military craft. One boat, occupied by the so-called "Kahoʻolawe Nine", continued and successfully landed on the island. This group comprised Walter Ritte, Emmett Aluli, George Helm, Gail Kawaipuna Prejean, Stephen K. Morse, Kimo Aluli, Ellen Miles, Ian Lind, and Karla Villalba.
On the way back to Maui, George Helm and Kimo Mitchell ran into severe weather and were unable to reach land. Despite extensive rescue and recovery efforts, they were never recovered.
Ritte became a leader in the Hawaiian community, coordinating community efforts including for water rights, opposition to land development, and the protection of marine animals and ocean resources.