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Princess Kaiulani, Emperor Meiji

By Shibuya246 · · 1 min read · 8 comments

I have always been interested in the Japan and Hawaii connection. Hawaii is such a beautiful place to visit and has a fascinating history. This video talks about how history could have been so very different for the two countries.

hawaii-newsThis footage is from YouTube by sigall

In 1880, Hawaii King David Kalakaua visited Emperor Meiji of Japan. He proposed an alliance, sealed with the proposed marriage of Princess Kaiulani to Prince Komatsu Akihito. They declined. But if it had happened, would Japan have attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, when members of the Imperial Family were part Hawaiian? It's possible the US might never have entered World War II. Story by Bob Sigall, author of "The Companies We Keep" books. Air date: July 16, 2009.

I visit Hawaii about twice a year and enjoy the tropical environment in a friendly and safe place that has a mix of many cultures including Japanese.

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8 comments

Comments are closed. These are from readers when the post was first published.

  1. moichispa

    interesting video I didn never heared about this before

  2. Jamaipanese

    interesting history lesson

  3. Shibuya246

    yes, I tweeted about it before, but because it was so interesting I decided to make a 'video discovery' post about it on the site. That way later I can go back and find it again :)

  4. Shibuya246

    I had read quite a bit of Hawaii history, but I didn't know this either. The story presentation is nicely done

  5. whipcracker

    Thanks for the clarification. It is an interesting article. After listening to it again, I also wonder would Pearl Harbor have been bombed if the marriage proposal would have gone through. Never thought of it that way, interesting piece of history. Btw, I now have TweetDeck:)

  6. Shibuya246

    Tweetdeck is a very handy tool. I am going to be putting up some more of these video discoveries in the future

  7. Bob Sigall

    Aloha, all. I'm the person interviewed in the video. I thought you might want to know the background on it. I've written two book about Hawaii people, places and companies. Our top TV station interviewed me 2 weeks ago for a special celebrating Hawaii's 50th anniversary of Statehood, to air in August. One of the topics they asked me about was Pearl Harbor, but I began with the history of contact between Hawaii and Japan. By chance, the Emperor and Empress were in Hawaii last week, and the reporter decided to use some of the interview early, and that's the piece you see.

  8. Shibuya246

    Thank you Bob for stopping by. It's great to get a further insight into this interesting piece of history. Hawaii's history is so diverse for a relatively small place. Would you like to introduce to us the 2 books you have written. Some readers may have an interest in those also. Again, thanks. This is a great piece of history for Japan and Hawaii. :) Hope it was ok to show the video here?