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The American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project was a plan initiated in 1935 by the U.S. Department of Commerce to place citizens of the United States as colonists on uninhabited Howland, Baker and Jarvis islands in the central Pacific Ocean so that weather stations and landing fields could be built for military and commercial use on air routes between Australia and California. The colonists, whom became know as Hui Panala'au, were primarily young native Hawaiian men and other male students recruited from schools in Hawaii. In 1937, the project was expanded to include Canton and Enderbury in the Phoenix Islands. The project ended in early 1942 when the colonists were rescued from the islands at the start of the War in the Pacific.

Background
In the mid-1930s, Pan American Airways (PAA) began to offer passenger air service between the United States and China. To cross the Pacific Ocean the planes needed to island-hop, stopping at various points for refueling and maintenance. Fortunately, the United States had the territories of Hawaii, Midway, Wake Island, Guam and the Philippines along the preferred air route and was able to grant permissions to PAA. The United States also wanted to establish a similar air route between Australia and California for military and commercial use. Since landing fields along this air route would also be needed for refueling and maintenance, the U.S. government decided to reassert its sovereignty over three equatorial islands that it had claimed under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. After 20 years, U.S. guano mining operations were abandoned on Howland, Baker and Javis islands in 1877. Subsequently, a British company temporarily mined guano and then also abandoned the islands. Since ownership of Howland, Baker and Javis was considered to be unclear and potentially in dispute with Great Britain, the U.S. government planned to secretly colonized these islands in order for the United States to reestablish its territorial claims.

The islands themselves presented additional challenges as a servicing spot for transoceanic air travel which in the 1930s relied upon flying boats that could land in protected harbors or in the lagoon of a coral atoll. Howland, Baker and Javis islands are coral islands consisting of low-lying accumulations of reef debris deposited on top of a reef platform without a lagoon. The islands are not atolls and therefore do not have calm, protected waters suitable for landings and takeoffs by flying boats. Airplanes would need to land on and takeoff from runways built on the surface of each island.

Preparations for colonization
In Washington, Eugene Vidal, Director of Aeronautics for the Bureau of Air Commerce, appointed William T. Miller, Superintendent of Airways, to lead the colonization project. so that weather stations and landing fields could be built on air routes. Additionally, the U.S. government wanted to claim these remote islands to provide a check on eastern territorial expansion by the Empire of Japan. In the mid-19th century, the Guano Islands Act (48 U.S.C. 1411 et seq.) enabled companies from the United States to mine guano from a number of islands in the Equatorial Pacific. After several decades, when the guano was depleted, the companies abandoned mining activities, and the control of the islands by the United States diminished and left the islands vulnerable to exploitation by other nations.

The Far East during the late 19th century and early 20th century was characterized by colonial conflicts and Japanese expansionism. The 1930s marked the apex of the sphere of influence of Imperial Japan in the Far East.

In March, 1935, William T. Miller, superintendent of airways for the Bureau of Air Commerce, instituted for" the Bureau an expedition to certain South Sea islands and established colonists on Jarvis, Howland and Baker Islands to study surface meteorological conditions as applied to air transport in the Pacific. Kamehameha Schools and its students became involved...in 1935 when William T. Miller of the Bureau of Air Commerce and Lieutenant Harold A. Meyer made an appointment to talk to Albert Judd. Mr. Judd was a trustee of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate,which supported the Kamehameha Schools and the Bishop Museum; at the time, the Estate and the Museum shared trustees.

In addition, Mr. Judd's father had been in charge of recruiting Hawaiian laborers for American guano mining operations on the same islands in the late 1800s....he would have Homer Barnes, Principal...select six suitable young men...They were Henry Ahia, Daniel Toomey, James Kamakaiwi, Killarney Opiopio, William Kaina and Abraham Piianaia.

Military and commercial interest in Central Pacific air routes between Australia and California led to a desire by the United States to claim the islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis, although the ownership of the islands was unclear. In 1935, a secret Department of Commerce colonization plan was instituted, aimed at placing citizens of the United States as colonists on the remote islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis. To avoid conflicts with international law, which prevented colonization by active military personnel, the United States sought the participation of furloughed military personnel and Native Hawaiian civilians in the colonization project.

Transoceanic air travel in the 1930s relied upon flying boats. Flying boats needed calm, protected water and all of the South Pacific atolls known to feature lagoons suitable for landings and takeoffs already belonged to His Majesty or, at least, such was the opinion of His Majesty’s Government. Forced for the time being to settle for the crumbs, the U.S. undertook to establish an American presence on three small, desolate, lagoon-less islands near the equator.

Recruiting Hawaiian students as colonists
William T. Miller, Superintendent of Airways at the Department of Commerce, was appointed to lead the colonization project, traveled to Hawaii in February 1935, met with Albert F. Judd, Trustee of Kamehameha Schools and the Bishop Museum, and agreed that recent graduates and students of the Kamehameha School for Boys would make ideal colonists for the project. The ideal Hawaiian candidates were candidates who could “fish in the native manner, swim excellently, handle a boat, be disciplined, friendly, and unattached”.

A young Bureau of Air Commerce employee by the name of William T. Miller was selected to head the project by which Jarvis, Baker and Howland Islands were to be “colonized” using young native Hawaiian graduates of Honolulu’s Kamehameha vocational school. Four men would live on each island for nine months at a time, re-supplied with food and water at three month intervals. According to the Army lieutenant tasked with selecting the colonists:

Panala’au Memoirs by E. H. Bryan, Jr. Pacific Scientific Information Center, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii (1974) pp. 1-12.

The requirements were that they must be grown up, that they be able to fish in the native manner, to swim excellently, and to handle a boat; that they be boys who were disciplined, boys who were friendly and unattached, and who had proven themselves of the type of disposition that could stand the rigors that might have to be undergone, who it was believed would be able to ‘take it’, no matter what might come. Their pay, at three dollars per day, would be better than the average factory worker’s, and they would have no expenses. They were to keep logs of daily tidal and weather observations, but their primary function was to just be there. The Coast Guard, at that time an arm of the Treasury Department, would provide transportation to and from the islands but the boys would be well advised to try not to get sick or injured, because they would be literally marooned on desert islands with no means of communication. The Navy supplied fuel for the Coast Guard ships and drums of drinking water for the colonists. The Army provided engineers and materials for the construction of rudimentary accommodations.

Colonists settle on the islands
In March of 1935, the first colonization expedition to the American Equatorial Islands set out from Honolulu aboard Itasca. On March 20, 1935, the United States Coast Guard Cutter Itasca departed from Honolulu Harbor in great secrecy with 6 young Hawaiian men aboard, all recent graduates of Kamehameha Schools, and 12 furloughed Army personnel, whose purpose was to occupy the barren islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis in teams of 5 for 3 months. Kamehameha Schools alumni and 12 soldiers were aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Itasca when it left Honolulu...March 20, 1935. Two...alumni and three soldiers were left on each island with supplies and the promise that the Itasca would return in three months with personnel replacements and fresh supplies.... In a letter dated October 12, 1936 written...by now Captain Henry Meyer, he said of these...and replacement undergraduates: 'The duties performed by these men are severe. Isolated on a desert island...of only a few acres is per se, a strain. Under such conditions to be faithful in recording weather observations, keeping detailed daily logs, collecting scientific specimens, cleaning landing fields, establishing effective camps, preserving food supplies and keeping up morale are real accomplishments...

Despite some early setbacks the program was a success with William Miller supervising three replenishment missions by Itasca over the next year. In February 1936, Secretary of State Cordell Hull sent a memorandum to President Roosevelt recommending that American ownership of the islands be cemented with an Executive Order placing the islands “under the administration of one of the Departments of the Government, possibly the Interior Department.” Legal authority was found in the American Guano Act of 1856, a relic of the days when accumulations of guano (bird dung) on Pacific islands were a valuable source of fertilizer. The law provided for the acquisition of uninhabited islands that were deemed vital to American commercial interests. The suggestion was favorably received, but when the Bureau of Air Commerce learned that its project was about to be handed to the Interior Department, the Bureau – either out of confusion or pique – took its ball and went home. In March all of the colonists and supplies were abruptly removed from the islands.

In June 1935, after a successful first tour, the furloughed Army personnel were ordered off the islands and replaced with additional Kamehameha Schools alumni, thus leaving the islands under the exclusive occupation of the 4 Native Hawaiians on each island.

The duties of the colonists while on the island were to record weather conditions, cultivate plants, maintain a daily log, record the types of fish that were caught, observe bird life, and collect specimens for the Bishop Museum.

The successful year-long occupation by the colonists directly enabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 7368 on May 13, 1936, which established that the islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis were under the jurisdiction of the United States.

Multiple Federal agencies vied for the right to administer the colonization project, including the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interior, and the Navy Department, but jurisdiction was ultimately granted to the Department of the Interior. Under the Department of the Interior, the colonization project emphasized weather data and radio communication, which brought about the recruitment of a number of Asian radiomen and aerologists. Under the Department of the Interior, the colonization project also expanded beyond the Kamehameha Schools to include Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians from other schools in Hawaii.

Interior Department takes control
On May 13, 1936, the President signed the order annexing the three islands and in June the colonists were re-installed by the Department of the Interior. Better accommodations were constructed, communications equipment was installed, and young Chinese-American men in Hawaii who held amateur (ham) licenses were recruited to operate the radios. To replace the Bureau of Air Commerce’s William Miller as the administrator of the Equatorial Islands the Interior Department selected Richard B. Black. A tall, sturdily built, 34 year-old civil engineer from North Dakota, Richard Black was a seasoned explorer who had been a member of Admiral Byrd’s 1933-35 Antarctic Expedition. The transition seems to have gone smoothly with Miller and Black both making the first reprovisioning voyage to the islands following the reinstatement of the colonists. Miller then returned to the States while Black settled into his new job in Hawaii.

Colonists on Howland Island prepare for Ameilia Earhart's arrival
Surveys of the islands conducted by William Miller early in the project indicated that Jarvis Island was the best candidate for construction of an airfield, but land planes capable of carrying meaningful payloads on transoceanic flights were still years away. Nonetheless, on November 16, 1936 Black received a cable from his supervisor at the Interior Department’s Division of Territories and Island Possessions in Washington asking him to look into the availability of tractor equipment in Hawaii for a January expedition to the Equatorial Islands. “Desire to have landing field prepared on Jarvis Island earliest date practicable.” The next day, Black replied asking where the money was going to come from and was told that there was no money. He’d need to borrow a tractor from the Army or the Navy or somebody. “Fully appreciate difficulties and urge your best efforts for their solution.”

Colonization project expanded to the Phoenix Islands
In March of 1938 the United States also claimed and colonized the islands of Canton and Enderbury, maintaining that the colonization was in furtherance of commercial aviation and not for military purposes.

Hardships and war come to the islands
The risk of living on the remote islands meant that emergency medical care was not less than 5 days away, and the distance proved fatal for Carl Kahalewai, who died on October 8, 1938, en route to Honolulu after his appendix ruptured on Jarvis island. Other life-threatening injuries occurred, including in 1939, when Manuel Pires had appendicitis, and in 1941, when an explosion severely burned Henry Knell and Dominic Zagara;

In 1940, when the issue of discontinuing the colonization project was raised, the Navy acknowledged that the islands were “probably worthless to commercial aviation” but advocated for “continued occupation” because the islands could serve as “bases from a military standpoint”. Although military interests justified continued occupation of the islands, the colonists were never informed of the true nature of the project, nor were the colonists provided with weapons or any other means of self-defense. In June of 1941, when much of Europe was engaged in World War II and Imperial Japan was establishing itself in the Pacific, the Commandant of the 14th Naval District recognized the “tension in the Western Pacific” and recommended the evacuation of the colonists, but his request was denied.

On December 8, 1941, Howland Island was attacked by a fleet of Japanese twin-engine bombers, and the attack killed Hawaiian colonists Joseph Keliihananui and Richard Whaley. In the ensuing weeks, Japanese submarine and military aircraft continued to target the islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis, jeopardizing the lives of the remaining colonists. The United States Government was unaware of the attacks on the islands, and was otherwise focused on the entry of the United States into World War II. The colonists demonstrated great valor while awaiting retrieval.

The 4 colonists from Baker and the 2 remaining colonists from Howland were rescued on January 31, 1942, and the 8 colonists from Enderbury and Jarvis were rescued on February 7 to 9, 1942, 2 months after the initial attacks on Howland Island. On March 20, 1942, Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, sent letters of condolence to the Keliihananui and Whaley families stating that “[i]n your bereavement it must be considerable satisfaction to know that your brother died in the service of his country”.

After colonization
During the 7 years of colonization, more than 130 young men participated in the project, the majority of whom were Hawaiian, and all of whom made numerous sacrifices, endured hardships, and risked their lives to secure and maintain the islands of Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Canton, and Enderbury on behalf of the United States, and 3 young Hawaiian men made the ultimate sacrifice.

None of the islands, except for Canton, were ever used for commercial aviation, but the islands were used for military purposes. In July 1943, a military base was established on Baker Island, and its forces, which numbered over 2,000 members, participated in the Tarawa-Makin operation.

In 1956, participants of the colonization project established an organization called “Hui Panala'au”, which was established to preserve the fellowship of the group, to provide scholarship assistance, and “to honor and esteem those who died as colonists of the Equatorial Islands”.

In 1979, Canton and Enderbury became part of the Republic of Kiribati, but the islands of Jarvis, Howland, and Baker remain possessions of the United States, having been designated as National Wildlife Refuges in 1974. The islands of Jarvis, Howland, and Baker are now part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.