 Welcome to Think Tech on OC16, Hawaii's weekly newscast on things that matter to tech, and to Hawaii. I'm Elise Anderson. And I'm Kauai Lucas. In our show this time, we'll take a tour of the King Kamehameha the Fifth Judiciary History Center with our guide, Keahi Davis. The center is a treasure of Hawaiian history, and you can learn things about Hawaii that you never knew before. The center is in elite Iolani Halle, on King Street behind the King Kamehameha statue, and across the street from Iolani Palace. It was built by and named for Lotakapuaiva, that is, Kamehameha the Fifth, who ascended the throne in 1863. Iolani Halle opened in 1874. It served as Hawaii's first government building, housing the legislature, the treasury, the Board of Health, the Board of Education, and the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Hawaii. After all these years, elite Iolani Halle is still the home of the Hawaii Supreme Court. It is now also the home of the Judiciary History Center, which is a part of the Hawaii Judiciary. The center was established in 1986. What makes the center interesting is that it is a small, young, energetic, and absolutely charming museum, focused on researching and displaying knowledge about the dynamic evolution of our state, from traditional Hawaiian legal concepts to the development of a Western judicial system. The center, as part of the Judiciary of Hawaii, serves as a bridge between the judiciary and the local community, enlightening school children and visitors alike about Hawaii's history and the importance of the judiciary to our society. The judicial history of Hawaii is at the center of the history of Hawaii in general, and of Hawaii's evolution to a Western legal system, including the legality or illegality of the overthrow. Those were tumultuous times, and everyone in Hawaii ought to know about them. The center is a great place to learn about this. We had the pleasure of taking a tour of the center with Keahi Davis, an education specialist there. As you will see, he is very knowledgeable about the center and Hawaiian judicial history. Aloha. My name is Keahi Davis. I'm the Education Specialist for the King Kamehameha, the Fifth Judiciary History Center, based here at Alieo Lanihale in Honolulu, Hawaii. So our building, as I said, the name is Alieo Lanihale. That name means heavenly chief, or chief unto the heavens, and it is one of the names of Lotakapua'iwa, known better as Kamehameha the Fifth. The building is named in honor of him because he is responsible for the construction. The story goes basically back in the 1860s, of course, Eolani Palace was then across the street there. There was a much smaller home over there, originally referred to as the Halei Li'i, or the home of the chief. The name was changed to Eolani by Kamehameha the Fifth, and of course, he was living across the street there in that smaller Eolani house, though it was time for a much larger home to reflect the scepter of the silent kingdom. There were no trained architects they take on the monumental task at that time. And Kamehameha the Fifth did have some other building projects going on around town, some other smaller projects, places like Maunaulah were being built. And some of the workers doing that construction were Australian. Kamehameha the Fifth liked the work they were doing. He also knew that down in Sydney, Australia, there was an architectural society. And of course, the climate in Sydney, particularly during their summer months, very similar to the climate here you're around. So he figured if he could get word out down there, he could find a good match. So the word got out there was an international design competition for the building of a new Eolani palace in the Kingdom of Hawaii. And the gentleman that won the competition was an Australian architect by the name of Thomas Rowe. Its design was going to be used in the building of the palace. And at the time here, the government had set aside money for the building of the palace, and they'd also set aside money for the building of a new government house, or a capital building. But financially, they couldn't take on both tasks at the same time. So the government decided to prioritize things. So they wanted to build the government house first, worry about the palace later. The only problem with that plan is that they didn't have a design for the new government building. So what the decision was made to borrow the design that had been submitted for the new Eolani palace. And basically, this is what you see here. So they started construction in March of 1872. Later on that year in December, Kamehameha the Fifth died. So he never saw the completion of this building. The Mo'i, or the king who did see the completion, was King Klaw Kowa. And he officiated the opening ceremonies here in April of 1874. And when this building opened, this was the capital building for the Kingdom of Hawaii. So the legislature was housed here, the departments of Interior, Treasury, Health, Education, the National Museum was housed here, as well as the Supreme Court for the Kingdom of Hawaii. Today, this is the home of the Supreme Court for the state of Hawaii. So basically, this is a seat of the judicial branch of government in the state of Hawaii. The rooms and exhibits at the center took us through hundreds of years of judicial history, from the Kapu system of ancient Hawaii to the laws and courts of a modern Western state. There was the orientation theater where they show movies about Hawaii's history. Tracing, for example, the changes in Hawaii land tenure and land use rights, the privatization of water, and the nature of democracy under martial law. We walked through the Monarchy Gallery to learn about the transition of our legal system away from the Kapu system in the 19th century. So we are now standing in one of the galleries inside Alit Iolani Halle in the Judiciary History Center, or the King Kamehameha, the Fifth Judiciary History Center. This is the Monarchy Gallery. The Monarchy Gallery has been in existence since about 1989. What we're attempting to do here is to try and tell a little bit of the story of law here in Hawaii, both pre-contact and post-contact. And to do that, we try and put it in a little bit of context. In this gallery in particular, since we're talking about the Monarchy period, we talk about the transition from strictly Hawaiian sense of law to this hybrid system that we would more recognize today that incorporates both Western and Hawaiian tenets of law. So we start out in the gallery as we walk around. We talk a little about pre-contact law here in Hawaii. And to give a little background on that, we talk about the societal structure in Hawaii pre-contact. So we look at the role of the Elii, the Makai Nanna, the Kohuna, and the like. And how that fits in with the concepts of law in Hawaii. So as we come this way, we talk a little bit about the kapu system that was in existence pre-contact, and how that kapu system consisted of two types of kapu, which were the kapua kua, the religious laws, and the kapua Elii, the laws put forth by the Elii to manage our day-to-day lives. Okay, so as I said, Kahuman was a favorite of Kamehameha the first, very powerful woman from the Maui line of chiefs. And she, as I said, is a key player in this transition from strictly Hawaiian way of thinking about law to this more hybrid system. Now, Kamehameha the first, very powerful ruler, he dies in 1819. And it's shortly thereafter that the traditional kapu system begins to make way for a different type of system that's going to involve some Western tenets. Succeeded by his son, Iolani Liholiho, Kamehameha the second. There at this period of time, there are many people that are looking at some of the changes that are going on in Hawaii, some of the rapid changes that are going on. Particularly with regard to population and culture. If we say that sustained contact with foreigners begins in 1778 with Cook. When we get to the point at the death of Kamehameha the first, in that roughly 40 year period of time, a large percentage of the population has died off from exposure to diseases and the like that have been introduced. So that is a rapid decline in the population. But at the same time, more foreigners are coming in to the islands. So that starts to affect what is happening here. And so it's probably affecting the way that some people are thinking. I mean, traditionally if you're brought up to think, if you're following the kapu system then things should be in balance. But here you are following that kapu and so many people that you know, entire areas are being wiped out, what's going on? How have we offended the gods? What do we need to do to make some changes or to put us on the right path? And one of the people thinking that way is Kahumanu and she sees the opportunity at the death of Kamehameha the first to start to make some of those changes. And so what she does, she gets together with probably the most sacred person alive at the time. Keopu Alani, the sacred wife of Kamehameha the first, who is the mother of Kamehameha the second. She gets together with this very sacred woman and they decide what they're going to do to start to shake up some things. Is that they decide they're going to, I don't know if you say play with the couple a little bit. But what they do is they invite Kamehameha the second to dine with them in public. Now, today we might think that something would be very courteous or normal. Back then, that would have been a major violation of a kapua kua, a religious law. The aikapu, the eating law, men and women did not eat together. And so if Kamehameha the second does go ahead and go along with this, they're basically kind of saying that law really isn't that important anymore. And it doesn't matter as much. Initially Kamehameha the second is advised to not accept that invitation. But he finally does. And so that basically begins a process of the kapu falling. And things kind of rapidly start to change from that point on. Kamehameha the second, I guess maybe realizing that he wants to make some changes. But he wants to increase his mana. He wants to get some advice or actually make some connections with the chief that he's heard about that has a lot of mana. So under the reign of Kamehameha the third, we see some major changes going on. Kamehameha the third, looking at the rest of the Pacific, he really kind of understands what's happening in places like Tahiti or down in the Marquesas where these foreign powers are coming in and taking over. Kamehameha the third wants Hawaii to remain independent or sovereign. And in order to do that, especially with these major players coming in from Europe and America, he understands that they need to recognize the system of governance in order to kind of treat you on an equal footing. So he says, well, we need to model our institutions or change them so that these foreign powers would recognize them. So immediately he goes about trying to incorporate some of these Western legal traditions here in Hawaii. Now we know a written language is adopted in 1823 or so. By 1839, we basically have a bill of rights that is introduced. What is happening is that we only have one trained Western lawyer in Hawaii at the time, a name by the name of John Rekord. But we have some people who have some Western law training, people like William Richards, former missionary and the like. And they're helping with this new system. So initially what happens is in 1839, a bill of rights is issued. And it mirrors basically the bill of rights in the United States. But that's followed within a year's period of time with the first constitution here in Hawaii of 1840 detailing the laws of the land. And so now you have this framework for this new system of governance. And immediately, Kamehameha III is sending out emissaries to get other countries around the world, these major players, Britain, France, the United States, Sweden, Denmark. He wants to get these countries to recognize Hawaii as an independent country. Not as a group of islands that can be taken over, but as an independent country on the world stage. And he's actually starting to have success with that. If you think about Hawaii being one of the first non-Western entities recognized by treaty from countries in Europe. So he's doing pretty good with that. But, shortly thereafter, this is happening. There began to be some other strains with some of these Western leanings here in Hawaii, particularly with the idea of the ownership of property. This goes back to one of these Lockean things. You know, we talk about today, you're looking at American history and the like. And you're talking about these ideas of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. One thing that goes right along with that is ownership of property. We consider it a natural right. We get into the 1850s, 1860s, we have this new types of dealings with the land and property in particular, and more and more changes are going into place. As I said, the native population is still declining. Former missionaries who are now through the mahele, particularly after 1850, are able to start to get the title to areas of land. And what they want to do with that land is they want you to start to develop plantations. Now, in order for you to have a successful plantation, you need to have a lot of people who are working on your plantation. The native population is still declining. So there is a decision made to start to import laborers into Hawaii. Initially, you have a large group of Chinese that are brought in to work on the plantations, and that goes on for several years. And then they are followed by groups of Japanese, and then after that, other ethnic groups are being brought in. So it's almost a social experiment that is going on. And there are some racial overtones to it in terms of how you get a group of people in who are going to work very hard labor for not a lot of money and some pretty brutal conditions. But as these groups come in and they're eventually here, then they start to assert that they want more rights here. The powers that be, the Royal Agricultural Society and the like, they start to look for new groups to come in to replace them. So as I said, initially the Chinese that's followed by the Japanese, then you have other groups that are coming in. Koreans, you have Filipinos, you have Portuguese, you have Puerto Ricans, you have Swedes, you have Germans. All these people are being brought in to work as laborers, most of them contract labor on these plantations. So that is the beginnings of what we would say is in our local culture, this intermingling of all these various ethnicities here in Hawaii. That is the beginnings of what we would say is our Creole language pigeon. We saw a model of a classic 1913 courtroom with authentic courtroom furniture and furnishings. This room is now used for lectures, dramatizations, mock trials and other public programs. So immediately after the overthrow, there is a push by this new provisional government in Hawaii. Basically consisting of 13 businessmen that have overthrown the monarchy. They want to get the United States to annex Hawaii and there's an effort to get that to happen. It doesn't happen initially because you have these things which are called treaties that were in place at the time. And so there are debates going on across the United States on college campuses as to about what is to be done here in this situation. We have people who are saying this overthrow was illegal, but you're seeing others that are saying this is an opportunity for United States to exercise manifest destiny. And so those debates are going on in the United States. Eventually what happens is that the decision is made to attempt to annex. They actually aren't enough votes in the United States legislature to get that pass. So what happens is a joint resolution is used as the means for annexing the islands. That happens basically in 1898, so that by 1900, April 30th, 1900 with the Organic Act, Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States. So this courtroom here is called the 1913 courtroom from that, this is the way this courtroom looked during the territorial period. Originally four courtrooms on this first floor of the building. One of them would have been the scene of one of the most famous cases. In Hawaii, the Massey cases took place in this building here. We took a look at the exhibit called Martial Law in Hawaii 1941 to 1944, telling the story of life in Hawaii following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Seeing how government and daily life changed and showing how fragile democracy became through Hawaii's three years of martial law. And going beyond this 1913 courtroom we have another gallery that is set up to tell the story of the imposition of martial law here in Hawaii during World War II. This is the only place in the United States where martial law was declared. It was actually only the third time in US history that it had ever happened. The first time the war of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814, Andrew Jackson did it. The second time the outbreak of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln did it. The third time December 7th, 1941, here in Hawaii. So what happened is the territorial governor handed over his power to a military officer who assumed complete and total control of these islands. So civilian life was drastically changed and martial law was in effect from December 7th of 1941 until October of 1944. So here in the martial law gallery, on the wall here we have some of the general orders that were put into place by the military governor. Laws such as the curfew and the blackout. The curfew initially was from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning. There was a blackout every night. And then you had people who were responsible within citizens within areas that would report anyone who had a light emanating from their homes or the like at night. They could get a fine of maybe $15 or so on that. You also had laws against job absenteeism. You could actually be arrested for that. For people of Japanese ancestry who may be working at ports where were deemed important installations, they had to wear number three on their clothing so they could be designated or they could be recognized by anyone with the government. There was a wage freeze. There was a job freeze. There were also notices put out to people of Japanese ancestry about the ownership of firearms, of weapons, of shortwave radios, things like that. Everyone over the age of six in Hawaii had to be fingerprinted by the government. There was news censorship. The government was allowed to listen in on your phone conversations. Your mail was censored by the government. So there was some major inroads to your civil liberties were happening during martial law here in Hawaii. We learned about the Kamehameha statue out in front of Aliyo Lanihale, the unforgettable story of the trial of Queen Aliyo Kalani, and about the architectural influences in the building itself. You can visit the Judiciary History Center at Aliyo Lanihale weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are also guided tours for groups and students. It's free to the public. The center is supported by the Friends of the Judiciary History Center, the non-profit that first organized its restoration. The Center and the Friends publish booklets about Hawaiian judiciary history. One really interesting book is about the infamous trial of Queen Aliyo Kalani in 1895. The other is about Hawaii under martial law. Like the center itself, these books will open your mind to things about Hawaiian history you never knew before. If you want to know more about the Judiciary History Center, you can visit JHCHawaii.net. Or better yet, go there and take your own tour. The King Kamehameha, the Judiciary History Center is open to the public. There are regular operating hours here at Aliyo Lanihale. Generally speaking, between 8 in the morning and 4 30 in the afternoon and that is Monday through Friday. And now let's take a look at our ThinkTech calendar events going forward. There's so much happening in Hawaii. Sometimes things happen under the radar and we don't hear much about them. But ThinkTech will take you there. Remember, you can watch ThinkTech on OC-16 several times every week to stay current on what's happening in government, industry, academia, and communities around the islands and the world. ThinkTech broadcasts its daily talk shows live on the Internet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. And then we broadcast our earlier shows all night long and on the weekends. If you missed a show or if you want to replay or share any of our shows, they're all archived on demand on ThinkTechHawaii.com and YouTube. The audio is on ThinkTechHawaii.com slash radio. And good news, we are now posting podcasts of all our shows on iTunes. See our website for links. Visit ThinkTechHawaii.com for our weekly calendar and live stream and YouTube links. Or sign up on our email list and get the daily docket of our upcoming shows. ThinkTech has a high-tech Green Screen First Amendment studio at Pioneer Plaza. If you want to join our live audience or participate in our shows, write to Think at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Give us a thumbs up on YouTube or send us a tweet at ThinkTechHI. We'd like to know how you feel about the issues and events that affect our lives together in these islands. We want to stay in touch with you and we'd like you to stay in touch with us. Let's think together. You can call in to our talk shows live. While you're watching any of our shows, you can call in to 415-871-2474 and pose a question or participate in the discussion. We'll be right back to wrap up this week's edition of ThinkTech. But first, we want to thank our underwriters. That wraps up this week's edition of ThinkTech. Remember, you can watch ThinkTech on OC-16 several times every week. Can't get enough of it just like Kaui does. For additional times, check out oc16.tv. For lots more ThinkTech videos and for underwriting and sponsorship opportunities on ThinkTech, visit ThinkTechHawaii.com. Be a guest or a host, a producer or an intern. And help us reach and have an impact on Hawaii. Thanks so much for being part of our ThinkTech family and for supporting our open discussion of tech, energy, diversification and global awareness in Hawaii. You can watch this show throughout the week and tune in next Sunday evening for our next important weekly episode. I'm Elise Anderson. And I'm Kaui Lucas. Aloha everyone.