Hawaiʻi’s Fight Against US Militarization

So you mentioned how that they're gonna be returning the land.

Their lease will be up in 2029, and they're going to return the land.

But are there other US military bases in Hawaii that are also up for renegotiation in 2029? And perhaps, if so, what are maybe the future plans for those lands as well?

Thank you.

So I wanna start by emphasizing that a tremendous amount of military lands are actually Native Hawaiian crown and government lands under arrangements made in the 1800s.

A lot of these lands are actually under the Hawaiian government.

Before it was occupied by the United States, it was a Hawaiian monarchy with rulers.

So this is the argument that there are many arguments that the Hawaiian monarchy has not been fully dissolved, and the kingdom persists.

So it's not the state of Hawaii, it's the Kingdom of Hawaii.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs have been working really hard to return these military lands to Native Hawaiian trust.

So on the island of Oahu, in addition to Makua, there are two other military bases that are up for the lease expires on 2029.

This is Kahuku and also Kalaeloa Poamoho.

And the military announced that they will not renew their lease at Kalaeloa Poamoho, Moho.

So this is a less kind of well-known base that people have or, you know, the organizing has not been as high profile around, but people have organized largely because of a lot of advocacy.

This land is gonna be returned as well.

There's also another military base on Hawaii Island, which is the largest military base in all of Hawaii.

It's called Pohakuloa.

And this land is the most actively used by the US military for training exercises, including live fire training exercises that similarly have major environmental impacts to Makua.

So the cynical look at this is the reason that the military is returning Makua, Kalaeloa, and Poamoho is because they wanna ensure that they have continued use of Pohakuloa on Hawaii Island for their training practices.

Another cynical approach, understanding of this is all part of the federal government to increase efficiency and to trim down their land holdings, to trim down their expenses.

But I also wanna emphasize that the return of Makua and the Kalaeloa Poamoho lands is a response to decades of community organizing, as well as the military's complete and utter negligence in managing and caring for this land.

And so this goes back in particular to 2021 and the Red Hill jet fuel crisis, when a utility cart struck a PVC pipe and broke it at the Red Hill jet fuel storage facilities, spilling over four- 14,000 gallons of jet fuel into the water supply that impacted 93,000 military troops and their families, as well as civilians.

So people's tap waters were poisoned with jet fuel as well as a cocktail of other toxic ingredients.

People started having nausea, vomiting, skin issues, headaches.

And even after that happened, and people could smell the jet fuel fumes coming from their tap water and sprinklers and hoses, the Navy claimed that this water was safe for several weeks after that happened.