“Ken Conklin Image”
In December 2004 I read two books during a period
of about ten days, when both became available at my
local branch library. What a lucky coincidence. One
book was the best-selling novel “The Da Vinci Code.”
The other was the subject of this review: “Aloha
Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American
Colonialism” by University of Hawaii Associate
Professor Noenoe Silva.
It was quite a jolt reading the two books
back-to-back, because that made me realize how similar
they are. Both books are biased pieces of revisionist
history. Both books provide selected historical
facts, together with dubious interpretations,
half-truths, and falsehoods; carefully choreographed
and narrated to support radical historical conspiracy
theories. Upon returning the books I suggested the
librarian shelve them both in the “fiction” section.
Dr. Silva reminds us on page 4 that the slogan of
the 1998 centennial protest commemoration of
annexation was