WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.860 Imagine making just the biggest military blunder 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:08.000 of the 20th century. I mean, imagine ignoring 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.000 these blatant, screaming war warnings, totally 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.179 misunderstanding the nature of modern combat, 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:16.379 and basically leaving your entire Pacific fleet 00:00:16.379 --> 00:00:18.579 trapped like sitting ducks in a shallow harbor. 00:00:18.660 --> 00:00:20.839 It's a terrifying thought, yeah. Right, but now 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:23.039 imagine that terrible career -ending mistake 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:26.179 is, like the exact specific reason your country 00:00:26.179 --> 00:00:29.120 actually survived to fight another day. It completely 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:31.690 flips the script. you know, on how we usually 00:00:31.690 --> 00:00:34.609 view monumental historical events. It really 00:00:34.609 --> 00:00:36.950 does. Because usually when we look at historical 00:00:36.950 --> 00:00:39.409 sites, especially the really famous ones, there 00:00:39.409 --> 00:00:43.130 is this expectation of inevitability. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:44.909 Like it was always meant to be. Yeah, like reading 00:00:44.909 --> 00:00:46.950 a map where the destination is already circled 00:00:46.950 --> 00:00:50.039 in bright red ink. You see a massive world -famous 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:52.799 military base today, and you just assume it was 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:55.460 always destined to be this grand fortress, you 00:00:55.460 --> 00:00:58.140 know, meticulously planned by generals in war 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:00.579 rooms from day one. But that's almost never the 00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:03.579 reality. Exactly. But if you're joining us today, 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:05.780 you are probably someone who wants to understand 00:01:05.780 --> 00:01:09.739 the real messy layered history behind the places 00:01:09.739 --> 00:01:12.900 we all think we know without getting, you know... 00:01:12.890 --> 00:01:15.950 completely bogged down in dry textbooks. And 00:01:15.950 --> 00:01:18.989 that is exactly our mission for this. deep dive. 00:01:19.250 --> 00:01:21.109 We are going to trace the chronological history 00:01:21.109 --> 00:01:23.829 of Pearl Harbor, and we're relying entirely on 00:01:23.829 --> 00:01:26.650 a really fascinating, comprehensive Wikipedia 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:29.230 overview of the site's history. Which is a great 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:33.109 resource for this. It really is a fantastic source 00:01:33.109 --> 00:01:35.189 because it strips away a lot of the later myth 00:01:35.189 --> 00:01:38.590 making and forces us to look at the raw timeline. 00:01:38.829 --> 00:01:40.329 And we're going to look at that timeline through 00:01:40.329 --> 00:01:43.069 a very specific lens today. We want to understand 00:01:43.069 --> 00:01:45.989 how early American commercial interests, so we 00:01:45.989 --> 00:01:49.079 are talking about whaling, trade logistics and 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:51.900 most importantly sugar. Oh sugar is huge in this 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:53.840 story. Right we want to see how those financial 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:56.920 interests fundamentally drove the push for a 00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:59.599 military naval base long long before the events 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:02.140 of World War two even like registered as a possibility. 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:04.700 Yeah we're covering a lot of ground today. We 00:02:04.700 --> 00:02:06.859 really are. We're starting with ancient Hawaiian 00:02:06.859 --> 00:02:09.479 legends, bringing it through the gritty commercial 00:02:09.479 --> 00:02:12.879 realities of the 19th century, diving into the 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:15.580 literal engineering nightmares of the 20th century 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:18.620 and bringing it all the way up to, well, 21st 00:02:18.620 --> 00:02:21.340 century environmental crises. My goal today is 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:23.780 to help us look past just the dates on the page. 00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:26.699 We really need to understand the why. We want 00:02:26.699 --> 00:02:29.419 to look at how money, geography and military 00:02:29.419 --> 00:02:32.740 strategy are so deeply intertwined that you almost 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:35.539 cannot separate them. So let's jump right in 00:02:35.539 --> 00:02:37.819 at the very beginning. Long before the battleships 00:02:37.819 --> 00:02:39.639 arrived, long before the concrete was poured, 00:02:39.819 --> 00:02:41.819 the original Hawaiian names for this incredible 00:02:41.819 --> 00:02:45.060 lagoon harbor were Waimomi, which translates 00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:49.180 to Waters of Pearl, and Puloa, which means Long 00:02:49.180 --> 00:02:51.680 Hill. Those names are incredibly evocative, aren't 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:53.800 they? They really paint a picture. They do. They 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:55.860 immediately paint a picture of a place defined 00:02:55.860 --> 00:02:58.439 by natural wealth and a very distinct photography. 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:02.479 The pearls in Waimomi actually refer to the pearl 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:05.300 oysters that were once abundant in the pristine 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:07.639 ecologically balanced waters of the estuary. 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:09.620 Oh wow, I didn't even realize there were actual 00:03:09.620 --> 00:03:12.830 pearls there. Yeah. And in Hawaiian tradition, 00:03:13.069 --> 00:03:15.650 Pulo wasn't just a geographic feature. It was 00:03:15.650 --> 00:03:19.349 a highly sacred, guarded space. It was regarded 00:03:19.349 --> 00:03:22.069 as the home of the shark goddess Kahupahau and 00:03:22.069 --> 00:03:25.090 her brother, or in some versions of the oral 00:03:25.090 --> 00:03:27.689 tradition, her son Kahuka. OK, let's unpack this. 00:03:27.909 --> 00:03:30.430 We have a location literally guarded by mythological 00:03:30.430 --> 00:03:33.870 sharks. But then right alongside the myth, our 00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:36.129 source material presents this really interesting 00:03:36.129 --> 00:03:39.210 early engineering story. Right. The story of 00:03:39.210 --> 00:03:42.039 Keonui. Yes, there's a powerful head of the Iwa 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:45.439 chiefs named Kionui. And he is credited in the 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:48.180 tradition with doing something incredibly significant, 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:50.680 cutting a navigable channel near the Puolo salt 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.360 works. He essentially created the estuary that 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:55.960 became known as the Pearl River, making it accessible 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:59.419 to local navigation. Yes, but the text is very 00:03:59.419 --> 00:04:01.439 careful to distinguish between the cultural legend 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:04.759 and, you know... the likely geological reality. 00:04:05.060 --> 00:04:08.039 It is. The source notes that making due allowance 00:04:08.039 --> 00:04:10.680 for legendary amplification, the estuary almost 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:12.900 certainly already had an outlet for its waters 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:14.780 right where the present gap is. Mother Nature 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:17.519 had already created the drain, essentially. Hang 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:19.139 on, let me stop you there. Are you saying Keonui 00:04:19.139 --> 00:04:21.620 didn't actually big the channel? Like the text 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:23.920 is essentially calling it a myth. Well, not entirely 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:26.240 a myth, but an amplification. Okay, what does 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:28.920 that mean in this context? If you are a powerful 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:31.379 chief and you manage to organize your people 00:04:31.379 --> 00:04:35.620 to widen or, say, clear debris from an existing 00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:37.779 natural channel to improve the infrastructure 00:04:37.779 --> 00:04:41.360 of your territory, well, over generations of 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:45.120 oral storytelling, you get the credit for creating 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:48.730 the channel itself. Ah, I see. The human desire 00:04:48.730 --> 00:04:52.149 to mold the specific piece of geography starts 00:04:52.149 --> 00:04:54.149 right here with him. That makes perfect sense. 00:04:54.189 --> 00:04:56.490 He was like the first public works director of 00:04:56.490 --> 00:04:59.730 Pearl Harbor. Basically, yeah. But here is the 00:04:59.730 --> 00:05:02.470 most crucial geographical fact that is going 00:05:02.470 --> 00:05:04.949 to shape literally everything we talk about for 00:05:04.949 --> 00:05:07.089 the rest of this deep dive. Despite this channel, 00:05:07.470 --> 00:05:10.069 despite Keanu's efforts to widen it, the harbor 00:05:10.069 --> 00:05:13.339 had a distinctly shallow entrance. That shallow 00:05:13.339 --> 00:05:15.639 entrance is the silent main character of this 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:18.439 entire history. I mean, it is the defining feature 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:20.720 of the location. Think of it like this, for you 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.339 listening. Think of Pearl Harbor's shallow entrance 00:05:23.339 --> 00:05:26.800 as a natural VIP velvet rope. I love that analogy. 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:29.759 Right. If you were a small local outrigger canoe, 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:32.199 you could glide right over the reef and into 00:05:32.199 --> 00:05:35.519 the club, into this beautiful, expansive, protected 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:38.720 inner harbor. Smooth sailing. Exactly. But if 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:41.449 you were a massive heavy draft international 00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:44.610 ship, you were stuck outside. That velvet rope 00:05:44.610 --> 00:05:47.370 kept you out. It really did. It preserved the 00:05:47.370 --> 00:05:49.170 inner harbor for decades, keeping those pearl 00:05:49.170 --> 00:05:51.810 oysters safe, while simultaneously making it 00:05:51.810 --> 00:05:55.250 this incredibly tantalizing, frustrating prize 00:05:55.250 --> 00:05:57.449 for later engineers and naval commanders who 00:05:57.449 --> 00:06:00.279 could look at it, but just couldn't use it. It's 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:02.560 vital to understand the broader context of what 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:05.019 that meant. That shallow entrance wasn't just 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.860 a geographical quirk. It fundamentally delayed 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.600 the militarization of the harbor by global powers. 00:06:10.740 --> 00:06:13.500 Wow. So geology literally dictated geopolitics 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:16.180 there. Exactly. The land dictates what humans 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:19.060 can do, and humans spend centuries trying to 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:20.920 overcome the land. I want you to just imagine 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:22.839 this for a second. Imagine standing at the edge 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:26.540 of this shallow, beautiful lagoon in, say, the 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:29.389 early 1800s. Okay. Picturing it. You are a ship 00:06:29.389 --> 00:06:32.509 captain or a merchant. You look past the shallow 00:06:32.509 --> 00:06:36.029 reef and you see this vast deep water inner harbor 00:06:36.029 --> 00:06:38.810 perfectly shielded from the ocean storms. You 00:06:38.810 --> 00:06:40.870 know it holds immense strategic and economic 00:06:40.870 --> 00:06:43.430 potential. But you can't get to it. Right. You 00:06:43.430 --> 00:06:46.350 simply lack the technology or the manpower to 00:06:46.350 --> 00:06:49.230 dredge it, to unlock it. How often does natural 00:06:49.230 --> 00:06:51.629 geography completely dictate the timeline of 00:06:51.629 --> 00:06:54.509 human history? It's a literal physical barrier 00:06:54.509 --> 00:06:58.479 to the march of empire. It forces patience. And 00:06:58.479 --> 00:07:01.699 it forces alternative strategies. Because in 00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:03.459 the early 19th century, as our source points 00:07:03.459 --> 00:07:06.199 out, Pearl Harbor simply was not used for large 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:09.060 ships. The shallow entrance absolutely forbade 00:07:09.060 --> 00:07:10.680 it. So they had to go somewhere else. Right. 00:07:10.980 --> 00:07:13.279 So global powers had to find other ways to exert 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:15.060 their influence in the Hawaiian Islands. And 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:17.180 exert influence they did. Yeah. Let's move into 00:07:17.180 --> 00:07:21.160 the 1820s to 1840s. This is the era of whalers, 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:23.699 missionaries, and the absolute dawn of American 00:07:23.699 --> 00:07:25.920 influence in Hawaii. The velvet rope is still 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:28.269 up at Pearl Harbor. Exactly. The shallow entrance 00:07:28.269 --> 00:07:30.910 is still keeping the big ships out, meaning the 00:07:30.910 --> 00:07:32.750 neighboring port of Honolulu is where all the 00:07:32.750 --> 00:07:36.269 action is. And the action is heavily, heavily 00:07:36.269 --> 00:07:39.110 American. Very American. Our source highlights 00:07:39.110 --> 00:07:41.550 a growing United States interest in the Hawaiian 00:07:41.550 --> 00:07:46.050 Islands, driven by three specific things, whaling, 00:07:46.470 --> 00:07:49.769 shipping, and Pacific trading activity. Notice 00:07:49.769 --> 00:07:52.149 the complete absence of the word military in 00:07:52.149 --> 00:07:54.550 that initial list of interests. It is all about 00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:57.189 commerce. That's true. It's all business. Entirely. 00:07:57.430 --> 00:07:59.670 Whale oil was essentially the petroleum of the 00:07:59.670 --> 00:08:01.810 early 19th century. I mean, it lit the lamps 00:08:01.810 --> 00:08:04.509 of American cities. It lubricated the machinery 00:08:04.509 --> 00:08:06.709 of the early industrial revolution. It was a 00:08:06.709 --> 00:08:09.129 massive industry. The Pacific whaling fleet was 00:08:09.129 --> 00:08:12.230 an absolute economic juggernaut, and they desperately 00:08:12.230 --> 00:08:14.790 needed a safe harbor to resupply and repair. 00:08:15.209 --> 00:08:18.500 Exactly. And the scale of this was huge. Which 00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:21.680 explains why, as early as 1820, the U .S. officially 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:24.220 gets involved at a government level. They appoint 00:08:24.220 --> 00:08:26.699 an agent of the United States for Commerce and 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:28.980 Seamen to look after American business in the 00:08:28.980 --> 00:08:31.319 Port of Honolulu. And right alongside the merchants 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:34.159 came the missionaries. Yeah, the religious aspect 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:37.139 is fascinating here. It is. The commercial ties 00:08:37.139 --> 00:08:39.240 to the American continent were accompanied by 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:41.259 the work of the American Board of Commissioners 00:08:41.259 --> 00:08:44.340 for Foreign Missions. And these American missionaries, 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:46.860 along with their families, didn't just visit. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:50.080 They stood. They did. The text explicitly states 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:52.480 they became an integral part of the Hawaiian 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:54.600 political body. This is where I really want to 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:57.200 push back on the traditional narrative of how 00:08:57.200 --> 00:09:00.009 a country gains control over a territory. How 00:09:00.009 --> 00:09:02.070 do you mean? Well, we usually think of military 00:09:02.070 --> 00:09:04.570 conquest, right? The army marches in, plants 00:09:04.570 --> 00:09:07.370 a flag, claims the land. But that is not what 00:09:07.370 --> 00:09:09.710 happened here. It wasn't soldiers who first planted 00:09:09.710 --> 00:09:13.129 the flag. It was whalers and missionaries. That's 00:09:13.129 --> 00:09:15.090 a very good point. Think of it like a modern 00:09:15.090 --> 00:09:17.870 corporate takeover. You don't send the hostile 00:09:17.870 --> 00:09:20.470 lawyers first. You send the consultants and the 00:09:20.470 --> 00:09:23.889 regional sales managers. That is the 1820 commerce 00:09:23.889 --> 00:09:26.860 agent. Oh, I see the analogy. Then... You integrate 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:29.340 your people into the target company's culture. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:31.700 That is, the missionaries becoming part of the 00:09:31.700 --> 00:09:35.279 local political body. You slowly, quietly become 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:38.460 part of their board of directors. That is a very 00:09:38.460 --> 00:09:40.419 accurate way to look at it, because what's fascinating 00:09:40.419 --> 00:09:43.500 here is we see an incredibly symbiotic relationship 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:47.200 between commerce, religion, and eventually military 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:49.720 power. Because the military did eventually show 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:53.059 up. They did, but not to conquer. Throughout 00:09:53.059 --> 00:09:56.299 the 1820s and 1830s, many American warships visited 00:09:56.299 --> 00:09:58.899 Honolulu, but look at what they were actually 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:01.700 doing. They weren't fighting? No. The commanding 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:03.799 officers carried letters from the US government 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:05.700 giving, and this is a direct quote from the source, 00:10:06.340 --> 00:10:09.399 advice on governmental affairs and of the relations 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:12.539 of the island nation with foreign powers. Wait, 00:10:12.659 --> 00:10:14.600 wait, I'm struggling to see the logic here. So 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:17.220 the US Navy just parks heavily armed warships 00:10:17.220 --> 00:10:20.779 in the harbor and the captains walk ashore to 00:10:20.779 --> 00:10:23.700 hand deliver a letter that basically says, here's 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:25.399 some friendly tips on how to run your country. 00:10:25.740 --> 00:10:28.460 Yes, that's exactly it. It is a textbook definition 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:31.679 of soft power and gunboat diplomacy. It's so 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:34.509 brazen. A heavily armed warship sails into your 00:10:34.509 --> 00:10:37.590 harbor, not to fire its cannons, but to deliver 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:40.350 advice about who you should be friends with and 00:10:40.350 --> 00:10:43.110 how you should structure your laws to favor American 00:10:43.110 --> 00:10:47.210 business. The threat is entirely unspoken, but 00:10:47.210 --> 00:10:49.909 completely overwhelmingly visible. It is the 00:10:49.909 --> 00:10:52.269 ultimate passive aggressive delivery system. 00:10:52.549 --> 00:10:55.210 Here are some helpful tips on governance brought 00:10:55.210 --> 00:10:58.250 to you by 80Canons. Right. And you kind of have 00:10:58.250 --> 00:11:00.889 to listen to the advice. You do. And, you know, 00:11:00.909 --> 00:11:02.970 I also want to seed something here for later 00:11:02.970 --> 00:11:05.990 in our deep dive. We are talking about dozens, 00:11:06.269 --> 00:11:08.590 eventually hundreds of whaling ships and early 00:11:08.590 --> 00:11:11.639 warships crowding into Honolulu, right? dumping 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:14.240 their waste, their bilge water, their coal ash. 00:11:14.259 --> 00:11:16.659 Oh, yeah, the environmental impact. The pristine 00:11:16.659 --> 00:11:18.799 ecological balance of the islands, those waters 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:21.320 of Pearl, is already starting to take a hit just 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:24.039 from the commercial presence. Absolutely. The 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:26.960 environmental cost of commerce begins long, long 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:29.299 before the concrete is poured. And this combination 00:11:29.299 --> 00:11:32.100 of commerce, religious influence, and naval presence 00:11:32.100 --> 00:11:34.759 creates a massive shift in public sentiment among 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:36.740 the Americans living there. Which leads to a 00:11:36.740 --> 00:11:39.750 pretty bold demand, right? It does. By 1841, 00:11:39.889 --> 00:11:42.070 there is a newspaper printed in Honolulu called 00:11:42.070 --> 00:11:45.590 the Polynesian. And the Polynesian openly advocates 00:11:45.590 --> 00:11:48.029 for the United States to establish a naval base 00:11:48.029 --> 00:11:51.629 in Hawaii. Openly asking for a base? Yes. But 00:11:51.629 --> 00:11:54.090 again, look at the justification. They don't 00:11:54.090 --> 00:11:56.490 say it is for national defense. They don't say 00:11:56.490 --> 00:11:59.070 it is to project an American empire. The text 00:11:59.070 --> 00:12:01.970 explicitly says they wanted a naval base for 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:04.149 the protection of American citizens engaged in 00:12:04.149 --> 00:12:06.269 the whaling industry. Everything comes back to 00:12:06.269 --> 00:12:10.000 the money. The military is viewed merely as a 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:12.759 necessary security guard for the commercial enterprise. 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:15.700 The corporate security force. Yes. To use our 00:12:15.700 --> 00:12:18.100 corporate takeover analogy, the board of directors 00:12:18.100 --> 00:12:20.600 is now asking for a dedicated corporate security 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:23.200 force. And this writing was on the wall for anyone 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:25.080 paying attention. People were definitely noticing. 00:12:25.299 --> 00:12:27.320 Our source notes that the British -Hawaiian Minister 00:12:27.320 --> 00:12:30.080 of Foreign Affairs, a man named Robert Crichton 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:33.679 Wiley, remarked as early as 1840, so before that 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:35.639 newspaper editorial even came out, that in his 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:38.799 opinion, The tide of events rushes on to annexation 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:41.259 to the United States. Wiley was a very astute 00:12:41.259 --> 00:12:44.419 observer. He saw the economic and cultural gravity 00:12:44.419 --> 00:12:47.740 pulling Hawaii inextricably toward America. It 00:12:47.740 --> 00:12:50.399 wasn't really a matter of if, but when. It makes 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.080 you think, doesn't it? I want you, the listener, 00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:56.860 to consider how modern infrastructure operates 00:12:56.860 --> 00:12:59.879 today. Think about undersea internet cables or 00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:02.799 global shipping lanes or even the push into commercial 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.470 space exploration. It's a very similar pattern. 00:13:05.669 --> 00:13:08.409 These massive expansions are almost always driven 00:13:08.409 --> 00:13:11.610 by commercial needs. First, telecommunications 00:13:11.610 --> 00:13:14.129 companies, international logistics firms. And 00:13:14.129 --> 00:13:16.450 then once the commercial assets are in place 00:13:16.450 --> 00:13:19.649 and are too big to fail, government protection 00:13:19.649 --> 00:13:21.850 and military presence follow close behind to 00:13:21.850 --> 00:13:23.909 secure them. The mechanics of expansion haven't 00:13:23.909 --> 00:13:26.769 changed since 1840, only the technology has. 00:13:26.909 --> 00:13:29.169 The flag follows commerce. It is a historical 00:13:29.169 --> 00:13:31.490 constant. And as we move past the American Civil 00:13:31.490 --> 00:13:34.269 War, that commercial imperative goes into absolute 00:13:34.269 --> 00:13:36.769 overdrive and the stakes get much, much higher. 00:13:36.970 --> 00:13:38.669 Right. Let's talk about that post -Civil War 00:13:38.669 --> 00:13:40.950 shift. We are now looking at the period roughly 00:13:40.950 --> 00:13:44.309 between 1865 and 1868. A lot is changing in the 00:13:44.309 --> 00:13:47.370 U .S. at this time. A ton. The U .S. has just 00:13:47.370 --> 00:13:50.549 survived a massive internal conflict. They purchased 00:13:50.549 --> 00:13:53.470 Alaska. The Pacific states, like California, 00:13:53.590 --> 00:13:56.649 are growing exponentially in importance in population. 00:13:56.830 --> 00:13:59.590 And crucially, the economic driver shifts in 00:13:59.590 --> 00:14:02.350 Hawaii. Exactly. It's no longer just whale oil. 00:14:02.730 --> 00:14:05.350 Exporters are desperately seeking a duty -free 00:14:05.350 --> 00:14:08.070 market for Hawaiian staples in Asian countries. 00:14:08.730 --> 00:14:11.429 Hawaiian trade is expanding rapidly. And the 00:14:11.429 --> 00:14:12.950 military has to keep up with that expansion. 00:14:13.149 --> 00:14:16.090 They do. To manage this vast growing Pacific 00:14:16.090 --> 00:14:18.830 sphere, the U .S. forms the North Pacific Squadron 00:14:18.830 --> 00:14:22.529 in 1865. Its explicit purpose is to embrace the 00:14:22.529 --> 00:14:25.149 western coast and Hawaii. And they send ships 00:14:25.149 --> 00:14:27.970 out to actively survey the area. Yes. The next 00:14:27.970 --> 00:14:30.190 year, a vessel called the Lackawanna is assigned 00:14:30.190 --> 00:14:32.470 to cruise among the islands, which the Navy officially 00:14:32.470 --> 00:14:35.350 describes as a locality of great and increasing 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:37.750 interest and importance. And the Lackawanna doesn't 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:40.070 just sail around looking at the scenery. It conducts 00:14:40.070 --> 00:14:42.710 deep surveys of the northwestern Hawaiian islands 00:14:42.710 --> 00:14:45.149 pushing out toward Japan. And that leads to a 00:14:45.149 --> 00:14:47.759 surprising claim. It really does. As a direct 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:50.419 result of these surveys, the United States claims 00:14:50.419 --> 00:14:53.440 Midway Island. Now this creates a really interesting 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:55.600 momentary distraction in our story that I want 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:58.100 to dig into. It does, because suddenly, Midway 00:14:58.100 --> 00:15:00.440 through the 1860s, it looks like Midway might 00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:03.279 be the prize, not Pearl Harbor. Exactly, because 00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:06.080 back in Honolulu, American dominance is already 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.200 practically absolute. Our source gives us this 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:11.759 incredible statistic. Oh this number is wild. 00:15:12.179 --> 00:15:14.159 The Secretary of the Navy writes in his annual 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:18.409 report that in November 1867 There were 42 American 00:15:18.409 --> 00:15:20.889 flags flying over wheel ships and merchant vessels 00:15:20.889 --> 00:15:23.850 in Honolulu. 42 flags. Now compare that to the 00:15:23.850 --> 00:15:25.710 rest of the world. There were only six flags 00:15:25.710 --> 00:15:28.509 from all other nations combined. 42 to 6. That 00:15:28.509 --> 00:15:30.929 ratio is staggering. I mean, it illustrates a 00:15:30.929 --> 00:15:33.529 complete undeniable economic monopolization of 00:15:33.529 --> 00:15:36.210 the harbor. But despite this dominance in Honolulu, 00:15:36.549 --> 00:15:38.830 the Navy report actually praises Midway Island. 00:15:39.169 --> 00:15:41.490 It says Midway possesses a harbor surpassing 00:15:41.490 --> 00:15:44.350 Honolulu's, and Congress acts on this. But they 00:15:44.350 --> 00:15:47.279 actually put money behind it. On March 1st, 1869, 00:15:47.940 --> 00:15:51.059 they approve an appropriation of $50 ,000 to 00:15:51.059 --> 00:15:52.960 deepen the approaches to the harbor at Midway. 00:15:53.259 --> 00:15:57.919 Which, in 1869 dollars, is a highly significant 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:00.700 investment in infrastructure. They are actively 00:16:00.700 --> 00:16:03.419 trying to build an alternative hub. Okay, I am 00:16:03.419 --> 00:16:06.039 completely confused here. You just told me... 00:16:05.629 --> 00:16:08.730 They dominate Honolulu, 42 ships to six. They 00:16:08.730 --> 00:16:11.570 basically own the local economy. The missionaries 00:16:11.570 --> 00:16:14.129 are embedded in the local government. Why on 00:16:14.129 --> 00:16:17.110 earth would Congress throw 50 grand at a completely 00:16:17.110 --> 00:16:19.990 empty, undeveloped island out in the middle of 00:16:19.990 --> 00:16:22.610 nowhere? It seems counterintuitive, I know. That 00:16:22.610 --> 00:16:24.389 makes no business sense. It makes sense when 00:16:24.389 --> 00:16:26.190 you understand the difference between dominance 00:16:26.190 --> 00:16:29.379 and absolute control. Yes, the U .S. dominated 00:16:29.379 --> 00:16:31.580 Honolulu commercially, but they didn't own it. 00:16:31.580 --> 00:16:34.019 Ah, the sovereignty issue. Exactly. They still 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:35.600 had to deal with the Hawaiian monarchy. They 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:37.580 still had to deal with British and French influence, 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:40.799 however small it was. Midway offered a blank 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:43.139 slate. Total control. If they built a harbor 00:16:43.139 --> 00:16:45.460 at Midway, it would be a hundred percent American 00:16:45.460 --> 00:16:49.019 territory, a purely American military and commercial 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:51.799 asset without the messy politics of a sovereign 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:54.590 kingdom. So what does this all mean? It's like 00:16:54.590 --> 00:16:57.090 a massive corporation looking for a new global 00:16:57.090 --> 00:16:59.389 headquarters. They have their current offices 00:16:59.389 --> 00:17:02.230 in Honolulu, which they completely dominate, 00:17:02.570 --> 00:17:05.190 but the building is crowded, and the local zoning 00:17:05.190 --> 00:17:07.589 laws are complicated. Right. There's a lot of 00:17:07.589 --> 00:17:09.809 red tape. So they look out at Midway, an empty 00:17:09.809 --> 00:17:12.130 lot. They think, hey, we can build exactly what 00:17:12.130 --> 00:17:14.970 we want here with zero oversight. They throw 00:17:14.970 --> 00:17:19.970 $50 ,000 at it to lay down a driveway. But ultimately, 00:17:20.269 --> 00:17:22.559 it doesn't work out. No, it fails because of 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:25.079 the economics. Right. The sheer volume of their 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:27.799 fleet, the infrastructure, the merchants, the 00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:30.900 economy, that from a two to six ratio, it creates 00:17:30.900 --> 00:17:33.160 a gravitational pull that is simply too strong. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:35.420 You can't just uproot that. You can't just pick 00:17:35.420 --> 00:17:37.599 up an entire booming commercial ecosystem and 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.160 move it to a barren atoll. The money keeps pulling 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:42.819 them back to Honolulu and the main Hawaiian islands. 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:44.759 And because that economic gravity pulled them 00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:47.920 back, the role of the US Navy fundamentally shifted. 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:50.910 Oh, so? After 1868, the commander of the Pacific 00:17:50.910 --> 00:17:53.430 Fleet visits the islands specifically to look 00:17:53.430 --> 00:17:56.029 after American interests. But look at what the 00:17:56.029 --> 00:17:58.170 naval officers are actually doing on a day -to 00:17:58.170 --> 00:18:00.369 -day basis. They aren't doing typical Navy stuff. 00:18:00.549 --> 00:18:02.890 Not at all. The text tells us they served as 00:18:02.890 --> 00:18:05.190 arbitrators in business disputes. They acted 00:18:05.190 --> 00:18:07.710 as negotiators of trade agreements. They were 00:18:07.710 --> 00:18:10.970 defenders of law and order. And my absolute favorite 00:18:10.970 --> 00:18:13.849 detail from the source. They arranged periodic 00:18:13.849 --> 00:18:16.190 voyages among the islands and to the mainland 00:18:16.190 --> 00:18:19.190 aboard U .S. warships. for members of the Hawaiian 00:18:19.190 --> 00:18:21.809 Royal Family and important island government 00:18:21.809 --> 00:18:24.990 officials. It is an astonishing blurring of lines 00:18:24.990 --> 00:18:28.089 between military, commercial, and diplomatic 00:18:28.089 --> 00:18:31.829 duties. It blows my mind. The United States Navy, 00:18:32.730 --> 00:18:35.349 these are heavily armed vessels of war, were 00:18:35.349 --> 00:18:37.849 essentially acting as corporate lawyers, settling 00:18:37.849 --> 00:18:40.130 business disputes, and functioning as heavily 00:18:40.130 --> 00:18:43.029 armored Uber drivers for Hawaiian royalty. It's 00:18:43.029 --> 00:18:45.430 a great image. But it shows you that the Navy 00:18:45.430 --> 00:18:47.930 was no longer just a fighting force. No, it had 00:18:47.930 --> 00:18:50.890 evolved completely. The Navy became the administrative, 00:18:51.210 --> 00:18:53.849 diplomatic, and logistical arm of American commercial 00:18:53.849 --> 00:18:56.130 enterprise in the Pacific. They were providing 00:18:56.130 --> 00:18:59.049 the civic infrastructure that a purely commercial 00:18:59.049 --> 00:19:02.190 entity couldn't provide for itself. It is a profound 00:19:02.190 --> 00:19:06.150 lesson in how power actually works. I want you 00:19:06.150 --> 00:19:09.170 to reflect on this dynamic for a moment. We often 00:19:09.170 --> 00:19:11.710 think that a country needs formal political control. 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:14.930 like official colonization or statehood to dominate 00:19:14.930 --> 00:19:16.950 a region. That's the assumption, yeah. But this 00:19:16.950 --> 00:19:19.549 history proves that economic dominance almost 00:19:19.549 --> 00:19:22.970 always precedes political control. When your 00:19:22.970 --> 00:19:26.049 ships outnumber everyone else's 42 to 6, when 00:19:26.049 --> 00:19:28.410 your military is settling local business disputes, 00:19:28.589 --> 00:19:30.630 and when you control the transportation of the 00:19:30.630 --> 00:19:32.910 local leaders, you don't need to firmly own the 00:19:32.910 --> 00:19:35.549 land yet. You already own all the business happening 00:19:35.549 --> 00:19:38.940 on it. And that economic leverage sets the stage 00:19:38.940 --> 00:19:42.019 for the intense, incredibly transactional political 00:19:42.019 --> 00:19:44.579 maneuvering of the 1870s and 1880s. Things get 00:19:44.579 --> 00:19:47.099 a lot more direct now. Very direct. This is when 00:19:47.099 --> 00:19:49.700 the focus snaps back sharply to Pearl Harbor 00:19:49.700 --> 00:19:52.319 itself and the negotiations become explicitly 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:54.920 about trading geography for commerce. This is 00:19:54.920 --> 00:19:57.039 where the story stops being a slow corporate 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:00.140 takeover and turns into a high stakes ruthless 00:20:00.140 --> 00:20:03.700 boardroom negotiation. The cash crop has definitively 00:20:03.700 --> 00:20:06.279 shifted from whale oil to sugar. Sugar is king 00:20:06.279 --> 00:20:10.380 now. In 1873, King Lunalilo of Hawaii is in power, 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:13.039 and the text notes that negotiations were actually 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:15.319 underway for the cession of Pearl Harbor to the 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:17.160 United States. Hey, we're ready to give it up. 00:20:17.460 --> 00:20:20.579 But what was the asking price? It wasn't a military 00:20:20.579 --> 00:20:23.839 alliance. It wasn't a large cash payment. The 00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:26.160 negotiations were to trade Pearl Harbor as a 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:29.220 port in exchange for the duty -free export of 00:20:29.220 --> 00:20:31.980 Hawaiian sugar to the U .S. Which tells you everything 00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:33.980 you need to know about who was really driving 00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:36.180 Hawaiian politics at this point. The plantation 00:20:36.180 --> 00:20:39.079 owners. Exactly. The wealthy plantation earners, 00:20:39.140 --> 00:20:40.980 many of whom were descendants of those early 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:43.720 American missionaries, desperately needed access 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:46.119 to the American market without paying crippling 00:20:46.119 --> 00:20:48.279 tariffs. It would ruin their profit margins. 00:20:48.380 --> 00:20:50.519 Right. So they were perfectly willing to carve 00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:53.009 off the most strategic piece of GR... in the 00:20:53.009 --> 00:20:55.750 Pacific just to get their sugar sold cheaply 00:20:55.750 --> 00:20:58.369 in California. Unfortunately for those negotiations, 00:20:58.630 --> 00:21:01.630 King Lunalilo died in 1873 before it could be 00:21:01.630 --> 00:21:04.990 finalized. And what follows his death illustrates 00:21:04.990 --> 00:21:07.789 just how fragile the political situation was 00:21:07.789 --> 00:21:10.910 and how willing the foreign powers were to intervene 00:21:10.910 --> 00:21:13.390 to maintain stability for their commercial interests. 00:21:13.809 --> 00:21:17.150 Right. March 1874 rolls around and there is a 00:21:17.150 --> 00:21:19.569 highly contested election for the new monarch. 00:21:20.029 --> 00:21:23.369 The legislature elects King Kalakoa over the 00:21:23.369 --> 00:21:26.470 popular dowager Queen Emma. I want to pause here 00:21:26.470 --> 00:21:28.710 because this seems like a massive escalation. 00:21:29.349 --> 00:21:33.369 The text says this election sparks a riot. Who 00:21:33.369 --> 00:21:36.049 exactly is rioting and why does it immediately 00:21:36.049 --> 00:21:39.200 involve four navies? Well, the supporters of 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:41.539 Queen Emma were furious at the legislature's 00:21:41.539 --> 00:21:44.440 decision. They viewed Kalakaua as being way too 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:46.900 closely aligned with foreign, particularly American, 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:49.519 business interests. So they pushed back. Violently. 00:21:49.859 --> 00:21:51.779 The rioters actually attacked the courthouse 00:21:51.779 --> 00:21:54.059 where the legislature is meeting. The Hawaiian 00:21:54.059 --> 00:21:56.200 government's own forces couldn't contain it. 00:21:56.440 --> 00:21:58.359 And this is where the commercial imperative kicks 00:21:58.359 --> 00:22:00.880 in. Because you cannot run a profitable sugar 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.519 export business if the capital is burning down. 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:06.200 Exactly. Chaos is bad for business. So how is 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:08.289 the riot quelled? Sailors are landed from the 00:22:08.289 --> 00:22:11.009 USS Tuscarora and the USS Portsmouth. American 00:22:11.009 --> 00:22:12.930 troops on the ground. And just to make sure they 00:22:12.930 --> 00:22:15.109 weren't left out of the geopolitical maneuvering, 00:22:15.390 --> 00:22:18.670 the British warship HMS Tanatos also lands a 00:22:18.670 --> 00:22:21.369 token force. If we connect this to the bigger 00:22:21.369 --> 00:22:24.390 picture, it is crucial to understand why those 00:22:24.390 --> 00:22:27.650 sailors landed. Yes, the official line was to 00:22:27.650 --> 00:22:31.609 restore order, but order is a prerequisite for 00:22:31.609 --> 00:22:34.269 commerce. The primary goal was stabilization. 00:22:34.569 --> 00:22:36.609 The military presence was utilized to stabilize 00:22:36.609 --> 00:22:39.910 the government specifically to ensure a favorable, 00:22:40.210 --> 00:22:42.849 predictable business environment. And King Kalakawa 00:22:42.849 --> 00:22:45.710 clearly understood the debt he owed to this intervention. 00:22:46.210 --> 00:22:48.289 He knew his throne was secured by American and 00:22:48.289 --> 00:22:50.950 British guns. He makes a concession. A huge one. 00:22:51.289 --> 00:22:53.529 During his reign, the United States has finally 00:22:53.529 --> 00:22:56.049 granted exclusive rights to enter Pearl Harbor 00:22:56.049 --> 00:22:58.890 and to establish a coaling and repair station. 00:22:59.230 --> 00:23:01.569 This leads to the famous Reciprocity Treaty of 00:23:01.569 --> 00:23:04.170 1875. Let's track the timeline of this treaty 00:23:04.170 --> 00:23:06.930 because it is agonizingly slow. It is drafted 00:23:06.930 --> 00:23:10.369 in 1875, supplemented by a convention in 1884, 00:23:10.789 --> 00:23:13.769 and formally ratified in 1887. It took 12 years. 00:23:13.970 --> 00:23:16.890 Finally, on January 20, 1887, the United States 00:23:16.890 --> 00:23:19.289 Senate allows the Navy the exclusive right to 00:23:19.289 --> 00:23:21.710 maintain that coaling and repair station. The 00:23:21.710 --> 00:23:23.750 U .S. officially takes possession later that 00:23:23.750 --> 00:23:26.210 year on November 9. But here is the most telling 00:23:26.210 --> 00:23:29.029 detail of this entire era, and it goes back to 00:23:29.029 --> 00:23:32.390 our silent main character, the Velvet Rope. Ah, 00:23:32.470 --> 00:23:35.799 the shallow entrance. Yes. Despite having the 00:23:35.799 --> 00:23:38.740 treaty, despite having exclusive rights, despite 00:23:38.740 --> 00:23:41.819 the Senate's approval, the text explicitly states 00:23:41.819 --> 00:23:45.160 that the U .S. did not fortify Pearl Harbor as 00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:47.500 a naval base at that time. They just left it 00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:51.980 as is. They did. Why? Because as it had for 60 00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:55.539 years, the shallow entrance constituted a formidable 00:23:55.539 --> 00:23:58.140 barrier against the use of the deep protected 00:23:58.140 --> 00:24:00.819 waters of the Inner Harbor. I'm just marveling 00:24:00.819 --> 00:24:03.279 at the explicit transactional nature of this 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:05.839 whole sequence. They were literally trying to 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:09.319 trade what would become a legendary world altering 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:11.759 military base for duty free sugar tariffs. It's 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:14.059 all about the tariffs. It's exactly like a high 00:24:14.059 --> 00:24:17.059 stakes real estate negotiation. Hawaii had this 00:24:17.059 --> 00:24:19.539 prime undeveloped property behind a velvet rope. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:22.140 The U .S. wanted the property to protect its 00:24:22.140 --> 00:24:24.240 massive agricultural and shipping investments. 00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:26.819 They used tariffs as the currency to buy the 00:24:26.819 --> 00:24:28.779 exclusive rights. And the fact that they didn't 00:24:28.779 --> 00:24:30.839 immediately dredge the channel and build the 00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:33.579 fort proves something vital about strategic thinking. 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:35.900 What's that? Acquiring the rights to Pearl Harbor 00:24:35.900 --> 00:24:39.440 in 1887 wasn't about immediate practical use. 00:24:39.740 --> 00:24:42.240 It was an act of strategic denial. Keeping others 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:45.599 out. Exactly. It was about making sure that other 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:48.980 expanded empires specifically the British, who 00:24:48.980 --> 00:24:52.240 had landed that token force in 1874, couldn't 00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:55.119 have it. It is the geopolitical equivalent of 00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:58.880 calling dibs. Have you ever secured an option 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:02.119 on something, maybe a piece of land, or even 00:25:02.119 --> 00:25:04.519 just bought a domain name for a business idea, 00:25:04.619 --> 00:25:06.599 knowing full well you couldn't use it yet? Oh, 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:07.960 absolutely. You didn't have the money to build 00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:09.819 the house or start the business, but you just 00:25:09.819 --> 00:25:11.940 wanted to make sure absolutely no one else got 00:25:11.940 --> 00:25:14.319 it before you were ready. That is exactly what 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:16.180 the United States did with Pearl Harbor for over 00:25:16.180 --> 00:25:18.609 a decade. They put a legal lock on the gate, 00:25:18.809 --> 00:25:20.190 even though they physically couldn't get their 00:25:20.190 --> 00:25:23.549 own ships inside. It is a brilliant long -term 00:25:23.549 --> 00:25:26.410 strategic play. To use your corporate takeover 00:25:26.410 --> 00:25:29.549 analogy again, if the 1820s was sending the consultants, 00:25:30.210 --> 00:25:32.549 1887 was the hostile board takeover. I just forced 00:25:32.549 --> 00:25:34.930 the issue. They forced the reciprocity treaty 00:25:34.930 --> 00:25:37.390 to secure their shares, locking out the rival 00:25:37.390 --> 00:25:39.589 corporations, even if they couldn't build the 00:25:39.589 --> 00:25:42.900 factory yet. But eventually the world changes, 00:25:43.099 --> 00:25:46.019 and the need for a functional fortified base 00:25:46.019 --> 00:25:48.779 becomes impossible to ignore. Right, and that 00:25:48.779 --> 00:25:50.839 brings us to the massive tipping point at the 00:25:50.839 --> 00:25:53.480 dawn of the 20th century. The end of the 19th 00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:55.920 century completely rewrites the map of the world. 00:25:56.440 --> 00:25:58.400 We have the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom 00:25:58.400 --> 00:26:01.720 in 1893, led largely by those American business 00:26:01.720 --> 00:26:04.400 interests, which clears away the old sovereign 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:06.920 political structures entirely. The monarchy is 00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:10.640 gone. And then the true catalyst. The Spanish 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:14.359 -American War of 1898. Suddenly, the United States 00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:16.420 isn't just a commercial power in the Pacific, 00:26:16.859 --> 00:26:19.700 it is fighting a multi -theater naval war across 00:26:19.700 --> 00:26:22.299 the ocean. The Philippines becomes a massive 00:26:22.299 --> 00:26:24.440 focal point. And that changes the math completely. 00:26:24.839 --> 00:26:27.059 The desire for a permanent, heavily fortified 00:26:27.059 --> 00:26:29.299 Pacific preference to support this new global 00:26:29.299 --> 00:26:32.460 posture tips the scales. The velvet rope is finally 00:26:32.460 --> 00:26:35.150 coming down. It's time to build. Following the 00:26:35.150 --> 00:26:37.109 overthrow and subsequent annexation, the United 00:26:37.109 --> 00:26:39.250 States Navy officially establishes a base on 00:26:39.250 --> 00:26:42.890 the island in 1899. And this is where the story 00:26:42.890 --> 00:26:46.390 shifts from political maneuvering to brutal massive 00:26:46.390 --> 00:26:48.990 engineering. Because remember, that shallow entrance 00:26:48.990 --> 00:26:52.890 is still there. From 1899 onward, the harbor 00:26:52.890 --> 00:26:55.940 undergoes a radical violent transformation. The 00:26:55.940 --> 00:26:58.559 dredging required to finally again the channel 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:01.460 was monumental. I mean they had to carve through 00:27:01.460 --> 00:27:04.720 solid coral roof to create a channel deep enough 00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:06.599 for battleships. It must have been incredibly 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:09.920 difficult. The text notes the sheer difficulty 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:12.339 of building the infrastructure. The construction 00:27:12.339 --> 00:27:15.019 of the first dry dock, dry dock number one, was 00:27:15.019 --> 00:27:17.019 an absolute nightmare. I'm so glad you brought 00:27:17.019 --> 00:27:19.460 that up because the human and financial cost 00:27:19.460 --> 00:27:22.059 of this construction is wild. They start building 00:27:22.059 --> 00:27:25.039 the dry dock around 1909, right? Great. And it 00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:28.299 takes years. And then in 1913, just as they're 00:27:28.299 --> 00:27:30.200 getting close to finishing the concrete basin, 00:27:30.859 --> 00:27:32.900 the immense hydrostatic pressure from the surrounding 00:27:32.900 --> 00:27:36.039 water causes the entire structure to catastrophically 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:38.519 collapse. It blew out completely. All that work 00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:40.819 was destroyed. And what is fascinating is the 00:27:40.819 --> 00:27:42.900 local response to that collapse. Oh, this connects 00:27:42.900 --> 00:27:45.559 back to the beginning. It does. Native Hawaiians 00:27:45.559 --> 00:27:47.339 had warned the engineers that they were building 00:27:47.339 --> 00:27:50.240 the dry dock directly over the legendary cavern 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:52.750 of the shark goddess Kahuka. The protector of 00:27:52.750 --> 00:27:56.089 the harbor. Yes. When the dock collapsed in 1913, 00:27:56.509 --> 00:27:58.910 many locals attributed it directly to the anger 00:27:58.910 --> 00:28:01.329 of the shark goddess defending her home. Which 00:28:01.329 --> 00:28:03.630 brings us right back to our first segment, the 00:28:03.630 --> 00:28:06.009 myth and the engineering colliding head on. It's 00:28:06.009 --> 00:28:08.710 a powerful narrative. The military had to completely 00:28:08.710 --> 00:28:11.430 redesign the dock, spending millions more, and 00:28:11.430 --> 00:28:14.809 it wasn't finally completed until 1919. And this 00:28:14.809 --> 00:28:18.950 period, the 1920s and 1930s, sees a massive influx 00:28:18.950 --> 00:28:21.910 of mainland workers, huge injections of federal 00:28:21.910 --> 00:28:24.650 money, and a rapid militarization of the island. 00:28:24.950 --> 00:28:26.869 Because the geopolitical tensions in the Pacific 00:28:26.869 --> 00:28:29.670 were rising rapidly. Japan was expanding its 00:28:29.670 --> 00:28:32.170 empire, and the U .S. saw Pearl Harbor as the 00:28:32.170 --> 00:28:34.450 ultimate deterrent. It transformed completely. 00:28:34.529 --> 00:28:37.049 It went from a shallow mythological lagoon to 00:28:37.049 --> 00:28:39.750 a sprawling mechanized engine of American naval 00:28:39.750 --> 00:28:42.549 power. Millions of gallons of fuel tanks were 00:28:42.549 --> 00:28:46.319 built. were paved, the pristine Waimomi was fully 00:28:46.319 --> 00:28:49.119 industrialized. Which sets the stage for the 00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:51.799 event that forever etched Pearl Harbor into global 00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:56.359 consciousness. December 7th, 1941. The attack. 00:28:56.559 --> 00:28:59.279 The base is attacked by Imperial Japanese Navy 00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:02.660 airplanes and midget submarines, causing the 00:29:02.660 --> 00:29:05.039 devastating American entry into World War II. 00:29:05.859 --> 00:29:08.000 Now most people know the basic facts of the attack. 00:29:08.099 --> 00:29:11.519 Sure, it's widely taught. But our source... highlights 00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:14.119 the specific systemic failures that allowed it 00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:17.019 to be so deadly. It wasn't just a surprise attack. 00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:19.920 It was a profound failure of imagination. The 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:22.599 text is very clear on this. There was no meaningful 00:29:22.599 --> 00:29:25.380 plan for the air defense of Hawaii. The American 00:29:25.380 --> 00:29:27.599 commander, specifically Lieutenant General Walter 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:30.519 Short and Admiral Husband Kimmel, were operating 00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:32.640 under entirely incorrect assumptions. Hold on. 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:34.480 I want to dig into those assumptions. How do 00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:37.200 you command the most important Pacific base and 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:40.660 not have an air defense plan in 1941? Aircraft 00:29:40.660 --> 00:29:43.359 carriers existed. Planes existed. They existed, 00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:45.559 but naval doctrine hadn't fully caught up to 00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:48.000 them. Short and Kimmel thought the Japanese would 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:49.819 attack either Wake Island or the Philippines, 00:29:50.140 --> 00:29:52.059 which were much closer to Japanese territories. 00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:54.200 So they were looking the wrong way. More critically, 00:29:54.660 --> 00:29:57.119 the source explicitly states they had no understanding 00:29:57.119 --> 00:29:59.279 of the capabilities and proper employment of 00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:01.920 air power. They thought a carrier -based strike 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:04.579 across thousands of miles of ocean was logistically 00:30:04.579 --> 00:30:06.619 impossible. They were fighting the last war. 00:30:06.799 --> 00:30:09.579 They were preparing for a traditional naval surface 00:30:09.579 --> 00:30:12.440 engagement, battleships lining up and shooting 00:30:12.440 --> 00:30:15.420 at each other, not a devastating multi -wave 00:30:15.420 --> 00:30:17.859 strike from the sky. And that misunderstanding 00:30:17.859 --> 00:30:20.380 led to catastrophic decisions on the ground. 00:30:20.819 --> 00:30:22.660 Yeah, let's talk about General Short's decision 00:30:22.660 --> 00:30:25.109 with the planes. Because General Short was worried 00:30:25.109 --> 00:30:27.369 about local sabotage from the Japanese -American 00:30:27.369 --> 00:30:29.950 population on the island, he actually ordered 00:30:29.950 --> 00:30:32.849 aircraft to be bunched tightly together wingtip 00:30:32.849 --> 00:30:35.309 to wingtip on the runways to make them easier 00:30:35.309 --> 00:30:37.970 to guard. Which made them perfect, undefended 00:30:37.970 --> 00:30:41.069 targets for the incoming bombers. Exactly. One 00:30:41.069 --> 00:30:43.910 bomb could take out multiple planes. The human 00:30:43.910 --> 00:30:47.269 cost of that cognitive bias was immense. Over 00:30:47.269 --> 00:30:50.599 2 ,400 Americans died. The battleship row was 00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:52.740 decimated. And the fallout for the commanders 00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:55.500 was severe. Both Short and Kimmel were demoted 00:30:55.500 --> 00:30:58.079 from their full ranks shortly after the attack. 00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:01.440 The text notes that they spent years later seeking 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:03.700 to restore their reputations and their ranks, 00:31:04.180 --> 00:31:06.720 which really underscores the heavy, enduring 00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:10.480 personal cost of leadership failures. When your 00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:12.839 biases prevent you from seeing the real threat, 00:31:13.539 --> 00:31:16.319 the fallout is devastating and permanent. It 00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:18.680 is. But here's where it gets really interesting. 00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:21.019 And I mean, this is one of those facts that makes 00:31:21.019 --> 00:31:22.960 you stop in your tracks and rethink everything 00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:24.720 you thought you knew about history. The irony 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:28.380 of the attack. Yes. Our source presents a massive, 00:31:28.920 --> 00:31:31.619 counterintuitive, historical irony about the 00:31:31.619 --> 00:31:33.640 attack. Are you ready for this? Lay it out. The 00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:36.299 text says, had the Pacific fleet acted on the 00:31:36.299 --> 00:31:38.839 war warnings, it undoubtedly would have sortied 00:31:38.839 --> 00:31:41.440 and been at sea on December 7, where the major 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:43.839 ships would have been sunk in deep water, making 00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:46.920 salvage impossible. It is a breathtaking realization 00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:49.460 when you really sit with it. Let's really think 00:31:49.460 --> 00:31:51.880 about the mechanics of this. The commanders were 00:31:51.880 --> 00:31:54.680 blamed, and rightly so, for ignoring warnings 00:31:54.680 --> 00:31:57.059 and leaving the fleet bottled up in the harbor. 00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:00.460 They did the wrong thing, according to all standard 00:32:00.460 --> 00:32:03.039 doctrine. But because they did the wrong thing, 00:32:03.460 --> 00:32:05.440 because the massive battleships were trapped 00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:08.859 in the relatively shallow confines of Pearl Harbor 00:32:08.859 --> 00:32:11.839 when they were sunk, remember, they only dredged 00:32:11.839 --> 00:32:14.839 it to be about 40 feet deep. The ship simply 00:32:14.839 --> 00:32:17.079 settled into the mud. They didn't sink into an 00:32:17.079 --> 00:32:20.480 abyss. Exactly. Their superstructures were still 00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:23.000 above water. Because of that, the United States 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:25.940 was able to raise them, repair them, and send 00:32:25.940 --> 00:32:28.279 almost all of them back into the war. If they 00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:30.299 had done the right thing, if they had heeded 00:32:30.299 --> 00:32:33.279 the vague warnings, sounded the alarm, and steamed 00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:35.640 out into the deep open ocean of the Pacific to 00:32:35.640 --> 00:32:38.180 meet the threat, they would have been caught 00:32:38.180 --> 00:32:40.980 by the Japanese aircraft carriers in deep water 00:32:40.980 --> 00:32:44.779 without their own adequate air cover. Those battleships 00:32:44.779 --> 00:32:46.779 would have gone down to the bottom of the Pacific 00:32:46.779 --> 00:32:50.240 Ocean three miles down. The loss of the ships 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:53.259 and likely tens of thousands more men would have 00:32:53.259 --> 00:32:56.680 been absolute permanent and entirely unsalvageable. 00:32:56.910 --> 00:32:59.089 The U .S. Pacific fleet would have ceased to 00:32:59.089 --> 00:33:01.789 exist as a fighting force for years. It completely 00:33:01.789 --> 00:33:04.750 inverts the narrative of failure. The very thing 00:33:04.750 --> 00:33:07.809 that made the attack so visually and immediately 00:33:07.809 --> 00:33:09.789 devastating, the fleet being bunched together, 00:33:10.190 --> 00:33:12.069 trapped in the harbor like fish in a barrel, 00:33:12.410 --> 00:33:15.369 is the exact same geographical factor that allowed 00:33:15.369 --> 00:33:18.170 the U .S. to miraculously recover from the blow. 00:33:18.289 --> 00:33:20.970 It's stunning paradox. If they had followed standard 00:33:20.970 --> 00:33:23.990 operating procedure and gone to sea, the loss 00:33:23.990 --> 00:33:25.950 would have crippled the Navy far beyond what 00:33:25.950 --> 00:33:29.349 actually happened. The shallow velvet rope, even 00:33:29.349 --> 00:33:32.369 after it was dredged, still saved them. It speaks 00:33:32.369 --> 00:33:35.390 to the chaotic, almost terrifying unpredictability 00:33:35.390 --> 00:33:37.630 of history. You can make the wrong decision, 00:33:37.730 --> 00:33:40.670 a decision born of bias, ignorance, and misunderstanding, 00:33:40.710 --> 00:33:43.490 and it accidentally saves your long -term capability. 00:33:43.750 --> 00:33:45.710 Well, the right choice would have destroyed you. 00:33:45.849 --> 00:33:48.369 You can make the strategically correct decision 00:33:48.369 --> 00:33:51.210 to deploy to open water, and it results in total 00:33:51.210 --> 00:33:53.369 annihilation. I really encourage you to think 00:33:53.369 --> 00:33:55.750 about that in the context of your own life. Have 00:33:55.750 --> 00:33:57.750 you ever had a moment in your career or your 00:33:57.750 --> 00:34:00.750 personal life where doing the conventional accepted 00:34:00.750 --> 00:34:03.400 right might have actually led to a much worse 00:34:03.400 --> 00:34:06.380 outcome. It happens more than we think. Or a 00:34:06.380 --> 00:34:09.179 time when a massive mistake, a true failure of 00:34:09.179 --> 00:34:11.699 judgment on your part, accidentally positioned 00:34:11.699 --> 00:34:14.079 you to survive a disaster you didn't even see 00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:17.739 coming. History isn't a neat morality play where 00:34:17.739 --> 00:34:20.199 doing the right thing guarantees success. It 00:34:20.199 --> 00:34:22.900 is messy, and sometimes shallow water is the 00:34:22.900 --> 00:34:24.840 only thing standing between temporary defeat 00:34:24.840 --> 00:34:27.670 and absolute destruction. And the legacy of that 00:34:27.670 --> 00:34:30.550 destruction and the massive industrial and military 00:34:30.550 --> 00:34:32.730 buildup that followed it through the Cold War 00:34:32.730 --> 00:34:35.050 brings us to the final chapter of our timeline. 00:34:35.590 --> 00:34:38.510 The modern era of Pearl Harbor is a highly complex 00:34:38.510 --> 00:34:41.969 mix of reconciliation, continuing tragedy, and 00:34:41.969 --> 00:34:44.329 hidden costs. Let's talk about how the base evolved 00:34:44.329 --> 00:34:47.090 after the war. Following World War II, Pearl 00:34:47.090 --> 00:34:49.369 Harbor remained a main base for the U .S. Pacific 00:34:49.369 --> 00:34:51.429 Fleet, sharing that duty with Naval Base San 00:34:51.429 --> 00:34:53.670 Diego. It's a massive footprint in the Pacific. 00:34:53.730 --> 00:34:56.159 And the military footprint only grew. integrating 00:34:56.159 --> 00:34:58.099 more and more into the island's infrastructure. 00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:01.179 In 2010, the Navy and the Air Force recognized 00:35:01.179 --> 00:35:03.659 their overlapping infrastructure and merged their 00:35:03.659 --> 00:35:06.659 two nearby bases. Pearl Harbor officially joined 00:35:06.659 --> 00:35:08.880 with Hickam Air Force Base to create what is 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:11.539 now known as Joint Base Pearl Harbor -Hickam. 00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:15.039 It is a massive modern military complex, but 00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:17.679 it is also a site of profound historical weight, 00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:19.960 which makes diplomatic events there incredibly 00:35:19.960 --> 00:35:23.070 resonant. Like the visit in 2016? Yes. In December 00:35:23.070 --> 00:35:25.929 2016, there was a major milestone that the source 00:35:25.929 --> 00:35:29.070 highlights. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 00:35:29.070 --> 00:35:31.630 made a joint visit to Pearl Harbor with U .S. 00:35:31.929 --> 00:35:34.050 President Barack Obama. The text notes this trip 00:35:34.050 --> 00:35:36.769 marked the 75th anniversary of the attack, and 00:35:36.769 --> 00:35:39.730 it was the very first official visit by a sitting 00:35:39.730 --> 00:35:42.719 Japanese leader. to the harbor. It's a very poignant 00:35:42.719 --> 00:35:44.699 moment. You just think about the sheer weight 00:35:44.699 --> 00:35:47.719 of history this single lagoon carries from a 00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:50.260 mythological shark goddess to sugar terrorist 00:35:50.260 --> 00:35:53.219 negotiations to the grueling collapse of a dry 00:35:53.219 --> 00:35:56.780 dock to a devastating surprise attack. And now, 00:35:56.820 --> 00:36:00.000 75 years later, serving as a global stage for 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:02.980 international reconciliation between former bitter 00:36:02.980 --> 00:36:05.139 enemies. It is a testament to the capacity for 00:36:05.139 --> 00:36:07.260 political healing and moving forward. But it's 00:36:07.260 --> 00:36:09.679 not just a memorial, right? No, the modern reality 00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:13.019 of the Bay isn't just ceremonial it is a functioning 00:36:13.019 --> 00:36:15.119 high -stress industrial environment and that 00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:18.280 comes with modern incredibly sad tragedies. The 00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:21.159 source mentions a very dark day in 2019. The 00:36:21.159 --> 00:36:23.920 text briefly but starkly notes an event on December 00:36:23.920 --> 00:36:27.940 4 2019 where a US Navy sailor shot and killed 00:36:27.940 --> 00:36:30.260 two civilian workers and wounded another before 00:36:30.260 --> 00:36:32.420 taking his own life at the Pearl Harbor Naval 00:36:32.420 --> 00:36:35.130 Shipyard. It is a horrific reminder that behind 00:36:35.130 --> 00:36:38.510 the grand sweep of geopolitics, behind the treaties 00:36:38.510 --> 00:36:41.510 and the historical milestones, these are real 00:36:41.510 --> 00:36:44.389 workplaces filled with intense human pressures. 00:36:45.309 --> 00:36:47.369 The mental health and safety of the people maintaining 00:36:47.369 --> 00:36:50.909 this massive military apparatus is a constant, 00:36:51.409 --> 00:36:53.829 urgent reality that doesn't make it into the 00:36:53.829 --> 00:36:56.090 history books as often as the admirals do. It's 00:36:56.090 --> 00:36:59.050 a sobering reality. And that brings us to another 00:36:59.050 --> 00:37:02.429 dark often overlooked reality of the modern era, 00:37:02.590 --> 00:37:04.570 one that we seeded at the very beginning of this 00:37:04.570 --> 00:37:06.869 deep dive. The environmental impact. This raises 00:37:06.869 --> 00:37:09.130 an important question about the hidden long -term 00:37:09.130 --> 00:37:11.429 costs of the 19th and 20th centuries relentless 00:37:11.429 --> 00:37:14.110 industrial and military expansion. The source 00:37:14.110 --> 00:37:17.530 reveals that on October 14th, 1992, the U .S. 00:37:17.929 --> 00:37:19.829 Environmental Protection Agency added the Pearl 00:37:19.829 --> 00:37:21.989 Harbor Naval Complex to the national priorities 00:37:21.989 --> 00:37:24.630 list. Meaning it was designated as a superfund 00:37:24.630 --> 00:37:26.949 site. Yes. A superfund site. That's intense. 00:37:27.190 --> 00:37:30.070 That designation is reserved for the most contaminated, 00:37:30.329 --> 00:37:34.269 toxic land in the entire country, requiring extensive, 00:37:34.570 --> 00:37:37.730 long -term federal cleanup. It serves as a stark, 00:37:38.090 --> 00:37:40.630 undeniable reminder that military and commercial 00:37:40.630 --> 00:37:44.230 expansion leaves physical, deeply toxic scars 00:37:44.230 --> 00:37:46.969 on the geography itself. Think about the journey 00:37:46.969 --> 00:37:49.539 of this water. The harbor that was once fiercely 00:37:49.539 --> 00:37:52.420 protected by a shallow entrance, known reverently 00:37:52.420 --> 00:37:55.420 by the Hawaiians as Waimomi, the pristine waters 00:37:55.420 --> 00:37:58.320 of Pearl. Completely transformed over time. Then 00:37:58.320 --> 00:38:00.699 came the whaling ships dumping their bilge water. 00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:04.079 Then the coal ash from the 1880s cruisers. Then 00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:05.940 the massive dredging, the millions of gallons 00:38:05.940 --> 00:38:08.139 of fuel storage, the solvents, the heavy metals. 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:10.440 The buildup is staggering. The harbor is now 00:38:10.440 --> 00:38:12.659 grappling with the deep chemical contamination 00:38:12.659 --> 00:38:15.559 of over a century of heavy industrial military 00:38:15.559 --> 00:38:18.289 use. The byproduct of building and maintaining 00:38:18.289 --> 00:38:20.789 a global empire has seeped into the very land 00:38:20.789 --> 00:38:23.110 that Keone once supposedly carved a channel for. 00:38:23.269 --> 00:38:25.429 It is the ultimate price of the velvet rope coming 00:38:25.429 --> 00:38:28.110 down. When you finally unlock the geography for 00:38:28.110 --> 00:38:30.630 industrial scale military use to protect the 00:38:30.630 --> 00:38:32.889 sugar in the trade, you inevitably poison the 00:38:32.889 --> 00:38:35.650 geography. The corporate takeover analogy reaches 00:38:35.650 --> 00:38:38.489 its final stage. The corporation extracts the 00:38:38.489 --> 00:38:41.309 value, builds the factory, and leaves a massive 00:38:41.309 --> 00:38:43.489 environmental cleanup bill. It is a heavy thing 00:38:43.489 --> 00:38:46.679 to process. How do we balance it? How do we balance 00:38:46.679 --> 00:38:49.380 the deep historical reverence we hold for places 00:38:49.380 --> 00:38:51.639 like Pearl Harbor, the heroism of the sailors, 00:38:51.780 --> 00:38:55.280 the staggering tragedy of 1941, the diplomatic 00:38:55.280 --> 00:38:58.820 triumphs of 2016, with the very modern, very 00:38:58.820 --> 00:39:01.099 practical realities of environmental cleanup, 00:39:01.480 --> 00:39:04.159 toxic sludge, and mental health tragedies occurring 00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:06.940 within those exact same spaces today? It demands 00:39:06.940 --> 00:39:09.380 that we look at the site not just as a static 00:39:09.380 --> 00:39:12.119 frozen memorial to a single morning in 1941. 00:39:12.539 --> 00:39:15.219 We have to see it as a living, breathing, and 00:39:15.219 --> 00:39:18.119 sometimes suffering piece of geography that continues 00:39:18.119 --> 00:39:20.360 to bear the immense weight of American history 00:39:20.360 --> 00:39:23.559 every single day. Well said. As we wrap up this 00:39:23.559 --> 00:39:25.619 deep dive, let's take a breath and look back 00:39:25.619 --> 00:39:27.380 at the incredible journey we've taken today, 00:39:27.900 --> 00:39:29.800 guided purely by the chronological facts laid 00:39:29.800 --> 00:39:31.840 out in our source. We've covered a lot of ground. 00:39:32.219 --> 00:39:34.579 We started in the pristine waters of Waimomi, 00:39:34.900 --> 00:39:37.059 protected from the outside world by a shallow, 00:39:37.280 --> 00:39:39.800 sandy entrance and watched over by mythological 00:39:39.800 --> 00:39:42.579 guardians. We watched as that shallow entrance 00:39:42.579 --> 00:39:45.699 frustrated the ambitions of empires, while American 00:39:45.699 --> 00:39:48.840 whalers, missionaries, and commerce agents slowly, 00:39:49.199 --> 00:39:51.880 methodically integrated themselves into the Hawaiian 00:39:51.880 --> 00:39:54.519 political body. We traced how the gravitational 00:39:54.519 --> 00:39:57.780 pull of money, specifically whale oil, duty -free 00:39:57.780 --> 00:40:00.820 sugar markets and Pacific trade, drove the United 00:40:00.820 --> 00:40:03.400 States to secure exclusive rights to a harbor 00:40:03.400 --> 00:40:05.400 they couldn't even physically use yet. They called 00:40:05.400 --> 00:40:08.340 dibs. They did. We saw how the military acted 00:40:08.340 --> 00:40:10.699 as the logistical arm of that commercial dominance, 00:40:11.159 --> 00:40:13.579 putting down riots to ensure a favorable business 00:40:13.579 --> 00:40:16.239 climate and locking out foreign rivals. We witnessed 00:40:16.239 --> 00:40:18.920 the tipping point of the 1898 Spanish -American 00:40:18.920 --> 00:40:21.800 War, the grueling, myth -shattering dredging 00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:25.179 of the and the devastating world -changing attack 00:40:25.179 --> 00:40:28.920 of December 7, 1941 fuels by cognitive bias and 00:40:28.920 --> 00:40:31.260 a failure to understand new technology. And we 00:40:31.260 --> 00:40:33.059 brought it all the way to the complex, heavily 00:40:33.059 --> 00:40:35.000 industrialized, and environmentally challenged 00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:37.800 joint base of the 21st century. It is a story 00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:42.219 of geography, money, and the deeply unintended 00:40:42.219 --> 00:40:45.619 consequences of human ambition. And as we leave 00:40:45.619 --> 00:40:47.860 you today, I want to offer one final thought 00:40:47.860 --> 00:40:50.420 to ponder, drawing directly on the central irony 00:40:50.420 --> 00:40:53.559 we uncovered in the text. Lay it on us. For over 00:40:53.559 --> 00:40:56.159 60 years of the 19th century, the shallow entrance 00:40:56.159 --> 00:40:58.940 of Pearl Harbor was viewed universally as a negative. 00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:02.300 It was a formidable barrier. It was an obstacle 00:41:02.300 --> 00:41:04.860 that frustrated American naval ambitions, delayed 00:41:04.860 --> 00:41:08.000 fortification, and forced ships to anchor outside. 00:41:08.460 --> 00:41:10.800 The military engineers absolutely hated it. It 00:41:10.800 --> 00:41:12.619 was the problem that desperately needed solving. 00:41:12.809 --> 00:41:15.530 Exactly. But it was precisely those shallow waters, 00:41:15.769 --> 00:41:17.889 the very geography that delayed the military's 00:41:17.889 --> 00:41:19.690 arrival and frustrated the commercial empires 00:41:19.690 --> 00:41:22.210 for decades, that ultimately allowed the United 00:41:22.210 --> 00:41:24.070 States to salvage its fleet from the bottom of 00:41:24.070 --> 00:41:26.710 the harbor after the devastating attack in 1941. 00:41:26.929 --> 00:41:29.769 The barrier became the savior. The obstacle prevented 00:41:29.769 --> 00:41:32.829 absolute annihilation. I invite you to consider 00:41:32.829 --> 00:41:35.550 that in the broader context of history, and perhaps 00:41:35.550 --> 00:41:39.269 in your own life. How often do our greatest frustrations, 00:41:39.590 --> 00:41:41.389 the barriers that keep us from getting exactly 00:41:41.389 --> 00:41:43.989 what we want when we want it, eventually reveal 00:41:43.989 --> 00:41:46.989 themselves to be our ultimate saving grace? That 00:41:46.989 --> 00:41:48.949 is a powerful thought to leave on. Thank you 00:41:48.949 --> 00:41:51.329 so much for joining us on this deep dive. We 00:41:51.329 --> 00:41:53.349 started by looking at a map, trying to understand 00:41:53.349 --> 00:41:56.030 the jagged lines in the deep waters. But as always, 00:41:56.150 --> 00:41:57.989 we found that the real story isn't just in the 00:41:57.989 --> 00:42:01.369 geography, it's in the murky, complex, and fascinating 00:42:01.369 --> 00:42:03.989 depths of human intention. Until next time.