IE2 Essay

Attraction of Hawaii

What is the image of Hawaii? Many people may imagine the beach, shopping and
hot weathers… Hawaii is one of the most popular sightseeing places in the world. About seven million people visit Hawaii each year, and twenty-four percent of the state tax comes from a sightseeing industry. What is it that attracts people so much?
Hawaii has a long history. Hawaii Island was born by a volcanic activity. It was shaped by lava which means erupting from hot spots, magma. The Hawaiians were a people without writing, who preserved their history in chants and legends. Much of the early history has disappeared with the death of the kahunas, the original inhabitants, and other learned men whose function it was to pass on this knowledge by means of chants and legends, to succeeding generations. It was BC 500 to 700 when man first settled in Hawaii as a desert island. It is said that Polynesian came from Marquesas Island first. In Hawaii, which was under the influence of the Polynesian culture, the idea to think that god inhabits everything was penetrated. They regarded food, herb, even earth as blessing. Therefore, the idea of ecology has been ingrained naturally.
Modern Hawaiian history began on January 20, 1778, when Captain James Cook made its first contact with the Hawaiian people. He was not the first man to “discover” the Hawaiian Islands, but he was the first European to arrive there. When he first landed on Hawaii, he couldn’t stay for a long time because of the research of Alaska. When he visited it again, there were festivals of crops and he was welcomed as a second coming of god. However, they gradually began to doubt him and he was finally killed by people. It was the wrong time for him to visit. There were many heads until Cook came. They ruled the islands fighting each other. However, when the King Kamehameha inclined to unify all islands of Hawaii, the Hawaii dynasty was born. The King began to accept foreigners as immigrants, because in those days, they were lack of labor force of sugar cane plantation, which is now a big industry in Hawaii. After that, Hawaii made complicated country mixed by various races. Hawaii formed unique culture in food, shopping, art and so on by assimilating the thing which got from these races and which was traditional of Hawaii.
The relationship between Hawaii and Japan has also long history. Two hundred years ago, a Japanese ship was shipwrecked and an American ship helped the Japanese crew and passengers. After that, Japanese people who were on the ship spent seven years in Hawaii. This is the encounter and the beginning of familiarity between Hawaii and Japan. Therefore, Hawaii also took in Japanese culture like shrines, sumo, the Bon dancing or Japanese food, so Hawaii is the country which Japanese people can　 get accustomed to easily.
After the Hawaii dynasty ended, Hawaii was unified by America and became the fiftieth state of America in 1959. While Hawaii has the sides of sightseeing places like marine sports or shopping, it has also the side of reviewing traditional culture. What’s more, remarkably, Japan and Hawaii has a long relationships. Hawaii is not only just a “resort place” but also has deep attraction as a “traditional island” which has proper culture. For these reasons, Hawaii has been attracting so many people for a long time.