For distribution at the Navy EIS public meeting  on their bombing and sonar plans in Hawaiian waters and waters off San Diego.  The meeting is Thursday, Nov. 9th from 4-8PM at Waiakea High School cafeteria. If you can, come at 5PM and join in a protest.

US Navy – Clean Up Your Mess!

End U.S. Occupation of Hawaii,  and Stop Provoking War!

    The US Navy has been shelling and bombing Hawaii for over 100 years  What greater desecration can there be than to bomb the land and sea for which we depend for life?

    Hawaiʻi is the most militarized group of islands in the world.  The Bayonet Constitution and the Reciprocity Treaty of 1887 resulted in the US Navy getting exclusive use of Pearl Harbor. Six years later in 1893 the Navy ship, USS Boston, landed military troops in Honolulu to assist sugar planters in the illegal removal of Hawaiʻi’s Queen. An illegal US military occupation of Hawaiʻi has continued ever since.

    In the past 100 years the U.S. Navy has turned once pristine Pu’uloa  (Pearl Harbor), the fish breeding center of Hawaiʻi, into a Superfund toxic waste dump.  Millions of gallons of radioactive liquid waste has been discharged into Pearl Harbor along with other military toxins. Navy leaking 250 million gallon fuel tanks at Red Hill threaten safe drinking water on Oʻahu.  More than 2000 fifty-five gallon drums of radioactive solid waste from refueling Navy submarine nuclear reactors have been dumped to the ocean floor off Oʻahu’s southern shores.  The island of Kaho’olawe was used as a target island for more than 50 years. An EIS done on the island in the 80s said there were tens of thousands of unexploded bombs on the island, some as deep as 20 feet into the ‘āina.  $400,000,000 was spent on clean up of Kaho’olawe but the island and surrounding waters are still a mess.  68% of Kaho’olawe’s surface has been cleared; only 9% of the island has been cleared to a depth of 4 feet so putting a shovel in the ground to plant a tree can be life threatening experience.  Zero percent of the surrounding waters has been cleared.

    Military ordnance litters Hawaiʻi Island and surrounding waters. Live ordnance has been found off Hapuna Beach, in Hilo Bay, on residential and school grounds, and people have been killed and injured by exploding ordnance, some which can be set off by cell phones.  57 known military sites totaling more than 250,000 acres (nine Kaho’olawes in size) on Hawaiʻi Island are in need of clean up.  I’ll mention just a few of the sites: Navy Rocket Range in Hawi, Navy Bombing Range, Kawaihae, Big island Bombing targets Mahukona range,  Puakō, Mano Point, Makolea Point, Pakini Bombing Range, Kaʻū bombing range, Kapoho Target area, Cape Kumukahi, Kaloli Point, Leleiwi. The list goes on. This is what we know.  But there is likely much more that we don’t know.

    The Navy’s claim about being good stewards of the land and sea is a lie.  The US military (Navy included) is the greatest polluter on the planet. The US Navy needs to learn the lesson that all of our mothers teach.  “Don’t even think about creating a new mess until you have cleaned up your old mess.”  Mālama ‘āina, Mālama kai, Mālama honua.   Today the US Navy has 3 aircraft carrier groups with multiple combat ships from Pearl Harbor now in waters surrounding Korea.  This is provocative action toward war that can occur by accident or design, just like the two navy ships recently involved in collisions with civilian transport vessels in the the western Pacific.  Also let us not forget the phony U.S. claims that started past wars: “Remember the Maine” in the Spanish American war and the “Tonkin Gulf incident” in Vietnam.

    In short, Stop your war games and provoking war. No more bombs, sonar experiments, etc. in and around Hawaii.  We’ve had enough.  The U.S. Navy has plenty of work to do in cleaning up its existing mess in Hawaii and around the world.  Whatever we do to the land, the sea, the marine life, etc. we do to ourselves. Peace must come through peaceful means, not through war and the training for war.

Contact: Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O. Box 489 Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760 Phone (808) 966-7622. Email: ja@malu-aina.org

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