Our History
Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice (HPJ) is built on the legacy of the anti-war American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific Movement , the struggle to protect Kahoʻolawe and the DMZ/Aloha ʻĀina Network . HPJ founders and staff were both deeply informed by these movements and were key activists in several of these movements. On October 1, 2011, Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice transitioned from a chapter of the American Friends Service Committee and became an official organization with the clear purpose of confronting military expansion and to demand the restoration and return of military occupied lands in Hawai’i and throughout the Pacific and internationally. We oppose structural violence implicit in disparities of wealth and income, in discrimination and in other oppressive relationships between the state and the people. As we move into the 21st century, an end to the violence of militarism is all the more significant. We must collectively demand climate justice and an end to perpetual readiness for war which only produces a global police state. As one of the longest standing demilitarization justice organizations in Oceania, HPJ recognizes that none of us are free, until we are all free. Freedom is not possible until we de-occupy and demilitarize Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.
Historical Context
We recognize Hawaiʻi was illegally overthrown and occupied by the United States primarily for military and economic reasons, to expand U.S. power over the so called Indo-Pacific region. For the sovereign nation of Hawaiʻi, this has meant the loss of political governance, the alienation of Native Hawaiians from their ancestral lands causing social and cultural devastation, and ongoing widespread environmental damage. Furthermore, the militarization of Hawaiʻi has had far-reaching global consequences – endless wars, militarization and the spread of exploitative and ecologically destructive economic forces. Since Hawai‘i is the site of the oldest and largest unified military command in the world that dominates more than half the surface of the earth and a majority of the world’s population, it is imperative that we organize to eliminate unchecked militarization locally, because our failure to do so has devastating global impacts. Therefore, Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice works to foster conditions for true peace by addressing both the local impacts and global consequences of the military presence in Hawaiʻi.
We strive to live with integrity and to speak truth to power. We support social movements that seek to confront imperialism and racial global capitalism and instead strive to create a more just, humane, peaceful and sustainable world. We are one voice among many who promote peace and liberation, oppose constant military “readiness,” endless wars and global pollution caused by military exercises and the increasing gendered violence wherever the military is present . We oppose structural violence implicit in disparities of wealth and income, in displacement and other oppressive relationships between people and the state. We call for a restoration of militarily contaminated and controlled lands, reparations and self-determination for island nations throughout the Pacific whose soils and waters are filled with unexploded ordinances and depleting uranium.
