Team Hawaii

[Hai_hai]

Does anyone know why Hawaii has a separate team instead of being a part of the USA team?

[Flashman]

Hawaii has its own separate federation for historical reasons.

[Nishi]

Its probably fair for all Hawiians who cant make USA try-outs as well, this means people in Hawaii get descriminated against due to location, and cannot make themselves known to USA coaches and managers....i think its a good thing they have their own team, and they looked strong as well....

But what about Alaska :(

[Alex]

On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the USA.
My guess is that as they had kendo there before it became a state, they probably received special dispensation from the IKF to have a seperate federation.

[aru-ma]

Wait, Hawaii became a U.S state in 1959? doesn't that mean they werent a U.S state in the second World War?

[srt]

That is correct. Hawaii was a U.S. Territory during World War II.

[Hongsermeier]

And prior to being a US territory it was Japanese. A bit ironi c :cross_eye

[dorkusxmaximus]

my friend told me that there were 52 states, and i told him that he was wrong because i only remember 50. umm unless the US added puerto rico and an island in the caribbean...that fool! sorry if it's off topic =).

[sminki]

Hongs,

When had Hawaii become Japanese territory?

[Hongsermeier]

I don't know when. I'm taking a guess about ww1. I do know that about 85% of Hawaii is of Japanese decent. :cross_eye

[Sir Percy]

Japanese occupied French Frigate Shoals for a short time as a seaplane station early during WWII. For a short time (3-4 days) a pilot whose plane was cripppled during the PH raid crash landed in Niihau and managed to terrorize the people on the island until some of the Native Hawaiians killed him. Other than that not sure that the Islands were occupied by Japan.

Native Hawaiians, then the U.S. Not sure why the Union Jack is in the field. ?Cook discovery of the islands.

[Hongsermeier]

After a little checking here's what I found.
300-750 polynesians came from Tahiti
1794 Placed under protectorate of Great Britian
1865 First Japanese come as plantation workers
1898 Annexed to US
1900 Becomes US territory

Apparently not Japanese at any time. Just mostly occupied by Japanese and their offspring. Little buggers multiply like rabbits. :cross_eye

[Hai_hai]

Oh, I should have gone to the Hawaii Kendo Federation site for the low down. They explained it all. Gomen nasai.

http://www.hawaiikendo.com/history.html

Interesting history though.

[sminki]

Thanks Hongs and others for the explanation.

[Danny Boy]

Why separate team Hawaii ?
Because they had the first kendo federation/association in the states which was separte from the mainland.

[Hai_hai]

Reading from the website, the Hawai'i kendo federation was an affiliate of the All Japan Kendo Federation. It broke away from that and became a separate kendo federation.
I guess it wasn't in their interests to join with the US kendo federation.