The Hawaii state legislature thanks the people of Kalaupapa, past and present, for making the ultimate sacrifice

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Finally. After 140 years, and 8,000 lives surrendered. A thank you. And an apology.

The kingdom of Hawaii began its quarantine of Hansen’s disease patients to Kalaupapa, Molokai, in 1866. The state of Hawaii ended it in 1969. In those hundred years, 8,000 island residents were ordered to give up their families, their children, their homes and their futures for the sake of the rest of Hawaii’s citizens.

Last month, the Hawaii state legislature passed a resolution thanking the residents of Kalaupapa for the “great sacrifices and hardships” caused by their forced isolation and apologizing for “undue pain” caused by severe former government policies.

As their number has dwindled to 28, this expression of appreciation and contrition comes not a moment too soon.

Much of the credit for the resolution goes to Paul Harada, who lived at Kalaupapa for 63 years.

Paul Harada

While grateful that the Hawaii government had provided him a home and medical care, Harada was nevertheless troubled that neither he nor anyone sent to Kalaupapa had ever been officially thanked for surrendering everything for the wellbeing of the rest of Hawaii. For years he repeated this concern to visitors, friends and reporters.

“The State of Hawaii should thank all those people that were sent to Kalaupapa for giving up all that they had … their families, their belongings, etc. to be isolated and to keep the disease from spreading,” he said two years ago in testimony in favor of a monument for the patients of Kalaupapa. “The people (of Kalaupapa) died for them (the people of Hawaii).”

Paul Harada died on Jan. 4 at age 81.

Last December, his younger brother Glenn Harada suggested to members of the Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa, a group of Kalaupapa residents and others who support the interests of the patients, that a resolution in the state legislature would be the way to express the long overdue appreciation.

The Ohana moved ahead, drafting a resolution and presenting it to the Kalaupapa community for approval.

“There were tears and great emotion as the resolution was read aloud,” remembers Ohana secretary Valerie Monson.

The reading exposed “painful memories of separation from their families and being sent away at a time when they believed there was little hope of ever going home,” she said.

The original resolution was only an expression of gratitude. Later, at the request of some community members, an apology was added.

After a review by the State Department of Health, state attorney general Mark Bennett and the Governor’s Advisory Committee, State Sen. J. Kalani English, who represents Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and parts of Maui, introduced the resolution to the legislature. Fellow Senator Roz Baker co-sponsored it. The resolution was adopted by the state senate on April 11 and the house on April 25.

“The Legislature recognizes, acknowledges, and expresses gratitude to the people of Kalaupapa and their families for their sacrifices, for thinking more of the public than of themselves, for giving up freedoms and opportunities the rest of society takes for granted,” the resolution states.

It “apologizes for the past actions against, and treatment of, past and current residents of Kalaupapa,” while not conferring “any legal cause of action or any legal rights, remedies, relief, restitution, or reparations.”

Monson said the resolution acknowledges the people of Kalaupapa and their families as “the true heroes that they are, people who were asked to give up more for the sake of the public than most of the rest of us will ever be asked to do.”

Kuulei Bell, president of the Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa and a Kalaupapa resident since 1950, is happy the resolution has passed.

“It is wonderful,” she told the Hawaii Catholic Herald in a phone interview.

Bell contracted the disease at age six while growing up near Fort Street in Honolulu. She was taken from her family and first sent to Kalihi Hospital, then to Hale Mohalu in Pearl City and finally to Kalaupapa.

“It was very hard for my mother who had to catch the bus to see me at Hale Mohalu,” said Bell. Even then, they had to meet separated by a glass wall.

She said the resolution should help the people of Hawaii gain a “better understanding of the sacrifices that many of the families had to suffer.”

It has been a “long time coming,” Bell said.

Sen. English described the resolution as “significant.”

“In my search of the record I have never seen where the Hawaiian government has apologized to the people,” he said. “People don’t [yet] realize how important this is.”

The senator acknowledged that isolation may have been a reasonable response when Hansen’s disease had no cure. But after a cure was found in 1948, the forced segregation of the patients continued for another 20 years.

“The really hurtful part was from 1948 to 1969 when there was no need for isolation,” Sen. English said. “These people remaining [in Kalaupapa] were the ones who lived through this. They absolutely deserve an apology.”

To the government’s credit, the senator said, “when the isolationist policy was abolished, the government did make a promise to take care of them for the rest of their lives, and the government has lived up to that.”

Sen. English said he is looking forward to presenting the resolution formally in Kalaupapa to the residents, an event tentatively scheduled for Aug. 12.