Cover Story

[Right], Staff Sgt. Tomas Aguilera removes a rope at Pyramid Rock Beach, April 24, while participating in MCB Hawaii’s Malama Ka Aina.

Image: Kristen Wong

Fortress Oahu

by Joan Conrow | May 23, 2012

Cover

With roots planted in the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and a presence that extends through the entire archipelago, the military’s influence in Hawaii is surpassed only by tourism.

The military controls some 236,000 acres throughout the state, including 25 percent of the land mass of Oahu, and thousands of square miles of surrounding airspace and sea. Yet as a branch of the federal government, the Department of Defense (DoD) operates in the Islands with little public oversight and virtual impunity, except when national environmental laws come into play.

Notwithstanding, it’s burned up native forests, dumped hazardous materials into the ocean and killed protected native species. It’s rendered land unusable with its unexploded ordinance, disrupted neighborhoods with its noise, dropped nearly every bomb known to man on the island of Kahoolawe. It’s unearthed ancient burials, launched rockets from sacred dunes, shut off public access mauka and makai. And in the course of a century, it’s transformed Waimomi, once the food basket for Oahu, into Pearl Harbor, a giant Superfund complex comprising at least 749 contaminated sites.

So why do our people, and politicians, allow the militarly to stay, aside from the fact that it is well-armed and deeply entrenched here?

Money is the answer most often given. DoD expenditures in Hawaii totaled some $6.5 billion in 2009 — about 9 percent of the state’s gross domestic product.

“Yes, some people get paid, but who’s paying the price of that?” counters Kyle Kajihiro of Hawaii Peace and Justice, a non-profit organization. “There are losers in this, and unfortunately, it’s often native people,” he adds, citing damage to ecology and cultural sites, and Hawaii’s being perceived as “am accessory to the militarization that extends from our shores.”

About 65 percent of the military spending, or $4.2 billion, covers the salaries of 48,000 active duty personnel, 18,000 DoD civilian workers and 9,000 National Guard and Reserve members, as well as the benefits of 16,088 retirees.

The work tends to pay well, averaging $74,000 per year for military employees and $69,800 for DoD civilians, compared to an annual median income of $40,000 for Hawaii residents, according to a RAND National Defense Research Institute study commissioned last year by the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs and Chamber of Commerce.

The remaining $2.3 billion in federal defense spending goes to procurements, which encompass everything from basic supplies to multi-million-dollar construction contracts. But while 94 percent of that total goes to Oahu, only 58 percent of it went to companies with a Hawaii address. But RAND estimates that $6.5 billion in defense expenditures could generate as much as $12.2 billion, and create an additional 26,000 jobs, as it moves through the local economy.

Another plus: military spending is relatively consistent, according to Leroy Laney, a Hawaiii Pacific University professor of economics and finance.

And when you have a powerful representative in Washington, namely Sen. Daniel Inouye, the military’s presence can be leveraged to secure funding for other projects, particularly infrastructure. “You certainly cannot discount the role [Inouye] has played in bringing money to the state,” Laney says, noting that one of the primary justifications for the federal money that financed the H-3 freeway was moving marines from windward Oahu to Pearl Harbor. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Inouye was instrumental in securing some $490 million for Hawaii this year to finance initiatives ranging from military construction and highway projects to native Hawaiian healthcare and disaster preparedness.“Tourism will slow in its rate of growth, but the military will remain fairly stable. It is an infusion of money from the outside.”

Earthjustice attorney David Henkin views that “infusion” a little differently. “As for the money they’re spending in the state, it’s our money, it’s federal tax dollars. It’s not like they’re some third party that is investing in our community.”

The state has also sweetened the pot to keep the military happy, such as exempting the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard from the general excise tax — although this perk was recently suspended for several years as lawmakers scrambled to make up the budget shortfall.

Furthermore, Henkin says, “the nature of the enterprise is one that brings lots of temporary residents through who strain our infrastructure, compete for housing, and often have dependents who compete for civilian jobs. It’s not like a private company coming in and hiring local workers.”

Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the positions attributed to the military are held by its own personnel, who otherwise wouldn’t be in the Islands. And some 25,000 military spouses work full or part-time, according to the RAND study. Still, as Laney points out, “the troops that are garrisoned here spend money like everyone else, on housing, retail spending, entertainment.” The RAND study also showed that active duty personal, DoD civilian employees and reservists paid some $113 million in state taxes and spent $72 million on local healthcare providers between 2007-09 .

“If we suddenly took the military out of the economy, obviously Central Oahu would be hurt, but also the windward side,” Laney says. Marine Corps Base Hawaii, with 1,400 non-military workers, is the largest civilian employer on the windward side of Oahu, according to Lt. Diann M. Olson, the base’s media officer.

When it comes to creating jobs, however, a recent study by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst determined that defense expenditures are an inefficient way to do it. The study found that $1 billion in government spending creates 11,200 jobs in the defense industry, compared to 16,800 jobs in clean energy, 17,200 in healthcare and 26,700 in the education sector.

“The San Francisco Bay Area created more jobs per acre when its [military] bases closed,” Kajihiro says. “Unfortunately, our leaders in Hawaii never look at how inefficient military spending is.”

That’s because money is only one factor in the equation.

“Hawaii is blessed, or cursed if you will, by our geography,” Kajihiro says. “We’re seen as a critical strategic location for U.S. imperialistic interests. We’re a place they’ll fight very hard to hold on to, unfortunately.”

With President Obama talking about shifting America’s focus away from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region, all signs point to an expanding military presence in Hawaii. The Marine Corps recently announced plans to base Osprey aircraft and Cobra and Huey attack/utility helicopters at Kaneohe starting this year, a move that would add some 2,100 persons to that facility and greatly increase noise from flyovers and training exercises. Inouye secured funding to base F-22 Raptor fighter jets at Hickham Air Force Base and build a new Coast Guard command and control center on Sand Island.

In February, the Senator announced his goal of bringing an interisland ferry back to Hawaii, by securing DoD funding to help support a state-run operation. The Navy recently purchased both vessels built for Hawaii Superferry (and currently stationed elsehwere) after the company went bankrupt. Elsewhere in the Islands, the Big Island’s Pohakuloa facility is poised to become the Army’s training center for the Pacific, And with Guam resistant to accepting the marines due to be relocated from Okinawa, it’s likely some will be transferred here: Gov. Abercrombie has floated the idea of building military housing for them in West Hawaii.

Despite the planned buildup, Kajihiro thinks Hawaii will see less military money “in a post-Inouye situation.” Though the Senator has announced his plans to run for a tenth term in 2016, it is questionable whether the 87-year-old will be able to fulfill that dream. His spokesman, Peter Boylan, did not respond to questions on how the Islands would fare economically without the clout of the Senate’s most senior member.

“Let’s start looking at alternatives now,” Kajihiro urges. “What is a different economic model for our islands, one that is more sustainable?”

Such a review also demands a closer look at tourism, which serves to “sugar-coat the violence and repressive history” of militarism in the Pacific region, Kajihiro says. But it’s not easy, he adds, to get folks talking about economic alternatives, or scrutinizing the true costs of the military’s presence, including its occupation of former kingdom lands that remain key to Hawaiian sovereignty and self-determination efforts.

“Whenever people raise these issues about the military impacts, they’re very quickly tainted as anti-military or anti-American, but it’s important to do an objective analysis,” Henkin says.

Kajihiro concurs that he would like to see a “freer climate to speak. I think there’s too much deference to the military by the business and political leadership, even among progressives, because so much funding comes attached. It makes it hard to have an honest discussion with this elephant in the room.”

Eco Military

From bombing Kahoolawe and strafing Kaula rock to dumping chemical munitions in the sea and testing weapons containing depleted uranium, all branches of the U.S. armed services have trod heavily on Hawaii’s fragile tropical environment. “It’s been an ecological disaster,” says Kyle Kajihiro of Hawaii Peace and Justice. While Earthjustice attorney David Henkin doesn’t dispute that the military’s presence bolsters the local economy, he questions whether it’s “the highest and best use of the limited land we have. If you’re using it to blow it up, you can’t use it for other purposes.”

But lawsuits filed by Earthjustice have forced the Army to halt live fire training exercises at Makua and prepare an Environmental Impact Statement before basing the Stryker Brigade in the Islands. And in recent years, prodded by court orders and community activism, the Department of Defense has begun cleaning up its act. “It took over a decade to get the Army to admit training on the Big Island was an alternative to live fire training at Makua, and then another two years for them to say it was probably a better idea,” Henkin notes. At MCBH, for example, the Marines use amphibious vehicles to plow under invasive plants that choke wetlands and prevent them from retaining and filtering storm water, says Dr. Diane Drigot. “The endangered water birds get better habitat, erosion is controlled, which results in better water quality, and the marines get the side benefit of training. There’s no way, without gobs of money, that you could do the same thing with a private contractor,” Drigot adds.

Drigot says MCBH has been commended by the Outdoor Circle for its sustainable landscaping, and by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA for its environmental stewardship. MCBH also hosts the Hawaii Youth Conservation Corps and visiting scholars, and partners with local businesses and groups, including the Sierra Club, on service projects. The Marine Corps is also starting to clean up decades-old ordnance from Waikane Valley, so the public may once again be able to use the area, Henkin says, adding, “That came through years of community opposition and pressure.”

The Army, meanwhile, “manages more than 100 threatened and endangered species in Hawaii–basically one-third [of te total] and more endangered species than any other federal agency in Hawaii,” Army Garrison-Hawaii spokeswoman Stefanie Gardin wrote in an email. “The Army manages, and spends an average of $11 million per year doing so. The Cultural Resources program manages more than 1,100 archaeological sites on Oahu and the Big Island, spending between $3-5 million per year.”

As part of that effort, the Army has also surveyed rare plants and animal populations, inventoried cultural sites, built fences to keep goats, pigs and sheep out of sensitive areas, planted native species, participated in a number of research projects and reared endangered tree snails for reintroduction into the wild, Gardin wrote.

“The military is doing restoration and endangered species work, and it’s good work, especially on Oahu,” says Marjorie Ziegler, director of Conservation Council for Hawaii. “But it’s all required as mitigation for the destruction the military has caused. It’s hard to reconstruct a forest or bring back a species that’s on the brink. I don’t think it can ever make up for the damage.”

While some progress has been made,it’s not easy for citizens to take on the military. Ziegler says. “It does pretty much what it wants because people just don’t challenge it,” she says. “Probably more people would sue to challenge its destructive actions in the Islands, but there are only so many attorneys who can do these cases.”

Meanwhile, the danger of new damage remains. Ziegler worries about the prospect of increased military traffic from Guam because it heightens the likelihood that the bird-killing brown tree snake could end up here. And some Big Island residents fear their health could be harmed by depleted uranium particles that may become airborne during live fire training at Pohakuloa. –J.C.

Military volunteers

While the big picture many be complicated, at the community level many service members are good neighbors. “Marine Corps Hawaii prides itself in its continuous effort to support the local community,” writes Lt. Diann M. Olson, in an email. “Throughout the year marines and sailors individually volunteer for countless hours supporting charities and other nonprofit organizations across the island.” Individual marines spent more than 85,000 hours in volunteer service last year. .

Soldiers and their families are also active, donating at least 115,274 community service hours in 2011, says Stefanie Gardin, Army Garrison-Hawaii spokeswoman. They’ve participated in beach, reef and stream cleanups, supported Cub Scouts and Special Olympics, and assisted community events like the Great Aloha Run and Wahiawa Pineapple Festival. They volunteered another 6,682 hours at 50 local schools, tutoring and helping to repair and beautify campuses.

Personnel at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua’i coach youth sports, contribute to the food bank and support the Adopt-A-School program.

In conclusion, “Numbers tell only part of the story,” says Dr. Diane Drigot, senior natural resources management specialist for MCBH. “The community is also reaching out to us and helping with some of our projects, which is a sign we’re being accepted and contributing to a greater good.”

–J.C.

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This week

2013 Summer Books

On a breezy May evening, in the courtyard of the state library, local publishers, writers and book designers gathered to celebrate the 2013 Ka Palapala Pookela Awards, sponsored by the Hawaii Book Publishers Association. The place was packed, and I was struck by such a healthy showing for an industry whose demise has been predicted since before the advent of Amazon.

Unlikely Pairings

I was intrigued recently to channel surf upon a deft interview of Susanna Moore on PBS Hawaii. Moore is the nationally acclaimed author of nine books, perhaps best known for her luminous My Old Sweetheart and other Hawaii novels, as well as the rough-sex 2004 noir In the Cut.

A Long Lost Era

Kabuki Boy, a novel, reads almost like an autobiography filled with vivid details that transport us to 19th-century Japan during the “Tokugawa Era.” Fast-paced and humorous, it aptly dramatizes an ancient dramatic art. The hierarchy between the social classes of samurai, geisha, peasants and monks comes alive from the page, seen through the eyes of Myo, a young boy aspiring to become a kabuki actor.

Panek Point

Calling this big fat novel Hawaii was bound to raise eyebrows. Hey, come run to the schoolyard to watch Mark Panek throw down!

Inward Journey

Beautifully designed, with outstanding photography of India and Tibet by Linda Connor, the newest edition of Manoa is especially ambitious in its choice of subject/theme. It attempts to present diverse interpretations of the meanings and implications of the term “freedom,” doing so in the forms of fiction, essays, poetry, memoir and drama.

Gardens

This new book of poetry is easy to read, yet I had all kinds of strange dreams after reading it. The poems are short but poignant–a lot of thought and crafting went into every well-placed word.

Brotherly Tears

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Community

In a poetry class I teach at Windward Community College, a student recently did a presentation on coming-out poems and presented her own. One of her peers asked a thoughtful question: “If you are a gay, are you automatically part of the gay community?” It’s a question I’ve had about being Asian American–and a poet.

Cruelty

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Wit

“We are selves in a world because we have words,” writes the late poet Tony Quagliano in the preface of his book, Language Matters. In this masterful collection, every line absorbs the reader into the writer’s world, revealing his intimate thoughts on politics, writing, Hawaii and life.

The Romance of Sunset

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Love Lore

In Huna Magic: The Hawaiian Odyssey, Dawn Star puts on a modern spin on Hawaiian mythology and folklore. Set in ancient Hawaii, the book starts off with the classic forbidden love story between a young woman, Kuulei ke Anuenue and a handsome man, Kai, who happens to be the chiefess’s love slave.

Reassembling

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Green Noir

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Navigating Selves

Leilani Holmes’s richly chronicled journey toward a reconnection with her Kanaka Maoli culture opens with the epigraph: “For those who came before us. In hopes that we act on behalf of your bones.” Ancestry of Experience is a thoroughly researched and deeply genealogical journey.

Think Pink

There’s something foreboding about the cover of Pink Globalization. It’s a dark, monochromatic picture of an enormous grey Hello Kitty gazing ominously into the night in front of a corporate-looking building. The picture is certainly intriguing and symbolic–Hello Kitty is taking over the world.

Hardships, Loneliness, Triumphs

A deeply researched and careful weaving of previously unheard voices can be found in Mai Lepera, adding another layer about leprosy patients exiled to settlements at Makanalua peninsula in the 19th century. Keri A.

Transcending Prejudice

If resiliency spoke of a group of people, the Japanese population of the then-Territory of Hawaii during World War II claims the description. With one specific attack on December 7, 1941, an island-wide prejudice against all immigrant Japanese was born, painting a picture of angry nationals who plotted Hawaii’s demise.

Mano

An ambitious, immensely rewarding product of nearly five decades’ research and teaching (beginning when the author was l3 years old), Patrick Vinton Kirch’s A Shark Going Inland is my Chief bids fair to be a definitive, almost exhaustive look at “the island civilization of ancient Hawaii.” Divided into three major parts, Shark starts with Cook’s arrival when Hawaii was four major kingdoms in the midst of creating stratified societies.Kirch deals with religion, evolving social structures and belief systems to make ancient Hawaii come alive. Especially noteworthy are beautiful descriptions of the making of canoes, particularly the vaka moana, capable of transporting families.

Charts for the Band

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Racism of Record

Compiled by Christopher LaVoie, Annexation! presents the imperialist agendas of the U.S.

Charting Our Ancestral Past

Hawaiki Rising by Sam Low tells the epic saga of voyaging on the Hokulea, which, as every Island schoolchild should know, is a traditionally constructed Hawaiian sailing vessel that is steered by observing natural elements, without instruments or maps. Low, a part-Hawaiian anthropologist who participated in three voyages, follows the Hokulea through conception, construction, and navigation.

From the Outside

The feeling of being an outsider in one’s beloved homeland is the theme underpinning Pamela Frierson’s fluid and honest nature writing. In her books, The Last Atoll: Exploring Hawaii’s Endangered Ecosystems and The Burning Island: Myth and History in Volcano Country, Hawaii, Frierson explores Hawaii’s unique ecosystems, while also searching for personal relevance where she grew up very aware of being merely a “second-generation colonist.” The shadows of a world unknown drive the writer, teacher and homesteader to attach to the landscape, pursuing a deeper understanding of Hawaii’s natural order, and, through those experiences, a sense of belonging.

Bearded beauties

Donald Hodel’s Loulu: The Hawaiian Palm is winner of this year’s Ka Palapala Award for Excellence in Natural Science. Loulu the Hawaiian Palm Donald R.

Missed Connections

Charlotte A. Tomaino, neuropsychologist and former nun, started with the intriguing concept of explaining how grace and spirituality can “awaken” the brain to a fuller potential through expanded consciousness.

The Naked Truth

Sharon Hicks’ How Do You Grab a Naked Lady recounts the relationship between Hicks, her mentally ill mother and idealist father. We meet Hicks at age 16 as she witnesses her mother parading around a mall in the buff, yelling and cursing–one of many manic episodes we’ll see during the book.

Last Train to Ho’opili?

One paradox of TheLast Train to Zona Verde, Paul Theroux’s 46th book and his latest about Africa, is that it’s also one of the best meditations on Hawaii you’ll ever read. But first, why Africa?

Every Reader for Himself

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Island Girl

Last weekend, Susanna Moore was in town to read from her new novel, The Life of Objects. A striking beauty–high cheekbones, fine features, long white hair with an inky streak that matches her brilliant black eyes–she wore a sleeveless blouse, full cotton skirt and rubber slippers.

A Traveling Light

We were out at Tongg’s surf break when the world’s best-traveled writer paddled past in a kayak. I said, “Paul Theroux?” Mindy nodded.

CIVIX

KAKAAKO MEETINGS The HCDA will host a series of meetings to discuss the Kakaako redevelopment plan and how rail will fit in with those plans. The meetings are open to the public.

Make Our Day

On May 13, Common Cause Hawaii assembled a panel, titled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” to deconstruct lessons from the recently ended 2013 Legislative Session. Commentators included Rep.

Homeless Plan

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Pacific Pivot

During a 2011 speech to the Australian Parliament, President Obama declared: “The United States will play a larger and long term role in shaping [the Pacific] region and its future.” On May 10, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Pacific Forum hosted a panel discussion that sought to determine what a U.S. “pivot” toward the region would look like and what the reaction to increased U.S.

The homeless experience

I picked up your May 15 issue with great anticipation because on the cover was a photo of a person experiencing homelessness who I have had numerous interactions with (“Derelict Downtown,” May 15). He is someone I have always found to be articulate and friendly–an ideal person to talk to if one wishes to learn about experiencing homelessness.

Hawaiian rights

The puppetmasters controlling the creation of the Hawaiian Nation have manipulated Hawaiians who have signed up for any Hawaiian registry to become captive members of Kanaiolowalu, the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission. Those bills were heard this session and were passed by the Senate in the Tourism and Hawaiian Affairs Committee chaired by Brickwood Galuteria and the Judiciary and Labor Committe chaired by Clayton Hee, although the forced enrollment is unconstitutional.

Money over land

The Land Use Commission, the Honolulu Planning Commission, the Zoning Variance Commissions and all the other BS commissions are hijacked by big business (“Hoopili Miss,” May 15). Judge Rhonda Nishimura’s head is buried in the sand if she doesn’t recognize the votes were bought.