Posted in book reviews

I read this book a few weeks ago and have been meaning to blog about it.  It's called Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People by Sharon Linnea.  It was really fascinating.  I knew nothing about Hawaii AT ALL.  I've never had any desire to go there.  Something about being on a small dot in the middle of a vast ocean, in a place that experiences every possible natural disaster: earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, oh maybe they don't have tornados there.  In fact, my reasons for not wanting to go to Hawaii are very similar to my reasons for not wanting to sail anywhere out of the sight of land.  I once watched a very forgettable movie that had a great line, "My uncle hated boats, he said it was like being in prison with a chance of drowning."  That sums it up pretty well for me.  Also, I don't really like swimming or any kind of water sport.  So, Hawaii has never been high on my list of places to learn about.

So, I was totally uninformed about how Hawaii became part of our country, in other words, how it was stolen from the Hawaiian people.  Princess Ka'iulani was the next in line to the throne when the queen was deposed and the island taken by the grandsons of the Christian missionaries.

"On Sunday, January 15 [1893] while loyal Hawaiians filled the palace square,  the Reformers had an incendiary meeting only a block away. [Queen] Lili'uokalani had been warned to send for her cabinet and military advisors; instead she summoned Hawaiian Christian pastors, and they spent the morning in prayer.  So the savage queen prayed while the sons of Christian missionaries loaded their rifles" (page 110).  What a dramatic sentence!

I always enjoy reading biographies, and this was no exception.  Ka'iulani grew up a princess, pretty much the only hope for the royal family, as they seemed to suffer a lot of infertility.  She was educated in Europe, and really shocked the US by traveling there after the queen was deposed to argue on behalf of her country, at the age of 17!

Her mother had died when she was eleven, and on her deathbed told her, "I have seen your future very plainly.  You will go far away for a very long time.  You will never marry. And you will never be queen" (page 52-53).  Her nanny tried to explain it away by saying it was part of her illness but "Ka'iulani was shaken to the core.  A mother's death is a profound loss for any child.  But if Likelike's vision was true, Ka'iulani would lose not only her mother but also her home, her future family, and her life's purpose in one harsh blow.  In fact, Ka'iulani would deal with the effects of her mother's pronouncement - spiritual, emotional, and actual - for the rest of her life" (page 54).

I have to wonder if her mother's prophecy wasn't really God preparing her. After she got the telegram telling her the queen had been deposed, the shock of it was so great that she never really was healthy again.  If she hadn't been in some small way prepared, she might have died from that shock.

She was stranded in Europe by the events in Hawaii and unable to return home for years.  Although she had several suitors, she did never marry.  And she was never queen.  But she was a very good example of a Christian princess.  She had a lovely, fun-loving personality and was a beautiful girl.