Missile scare motivates activists who fear military’s presence

Dr. Kalama Niheu is a physician and Native Hawaiian who lives in east Honolulu. She’s been speaking, writing and organizing on issues related to Hawaiian independence and a nuclear-free Pacific for years.

She said given how expensive it is to live in Hawaiʻi and how much people struggle to afford basic necessities, it’s hard for people to think about bigger issues like imperialism.

“On Saturday that changed for a lot of people,” Niheu said. “A lot of people are realizing that there’s a very real possibility of some type of nuclear aggression.”

“We are seeing this rising tide of folks who up to this point have not been involved in social movements and justice work who are now jumping and realizing that they … have to take this on in whatever way that they can.”

Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua, a University of Hawaii professor, said the missile scare underscores why it’s important to spread awareness of the islands’ history.

Some have already taken action. Will Caron, an activist and writer, said that as soon as he found out the missile threat was a false alarm Saturday morning he jumped on a Facebook message thread.

“Someone said, ‘Should we protest?’ Everyone was kind of like, ‘Hell yeah we should,'” he said. He quickly created a Facebook event, “No Nukes, No Excuse.” Within hours, dozens of people were holding signs along Ala Moana Boulevard.

While Caron is an experienced organizer, Yokooji isn’t. Still, the day after the missile scare, she emailed her professor, Goodyear–Kaʻōpua, about organizing a sit-in to protest the military’s presence in Hawaiʻi and show solidarity with Hawaiians.

“I just felt really motivated to reach out and see if something can be done,” she said. “We are the next generation. We are going to inherit this problem.”