Battle At Nu’Uanu Pali by Herb Kāne
Uhm, that's a terrible way to go....
I first encountered this painting on a more senior Marine’s office wall at the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps base on Oahu. Cumulatively, I must have stared at this painting for hours, trying to stay awake during planning conferences, non-judicial punishment hearings or admin meetings.
“That is a terrible way to go”, I thought, over and over and over again. “The guys are losing the battle, being jabbed with spears, and then, boom, they find nothing but air behind them and they fall hundreds of feet to their deaths…”
The weirdness was that I could turn my eyes slightly from the painting, glance out the window, and see the magnificent Koolau mountain range where the Battle of Nu’uana took place, miles in the distance, so it was all pretty memorable.
Herb Kane painted this picture of the May 1795 battle (the exact date of the battle is unknown) in 1976, showing the apex of Kamehameha the Great’s conquest of Oahu, the last stage of his campaign to unite the Hawaiian islands.
Kane, who passed in 2011, was a remarkable creator who helped drive the renaissance in Hawaiian culture in the 1970’s - from Polynesain voyaging to the Merrie Monarch Festival. He grew up between Minnesota and the Big Island, went to the Art Institute of Chicago, and then worked as an advertising illustrator for many years before finding his passion for Hawaiian canoes and Polynesian art.
Before I get any further, visit Herb Kane’s website at the HerbKaneHawaii.com to purchase his artwork.
“The more you learn about the history, the deeper you want to go,” Kane once said about his work. “It pulls you in.”
Indeed, sir…
Kane painted the Battle At Nu’Uanu Pali in 1976, showing Kamehameha’s victory over Kalanikupule, the chief of Oahu at the Pali lookout in 1795. In 1898, excavators discovered over 800 skulls from the warriors who fell to their death during the battle.
For my first article, I had hoped to answer a bunch of tactical questions about this painting. Is the canvas accurate? Who is in the picture? Which one is Kamemeha? Are the American and English sailors who helped him pictured? How did the Hawaiians fight? What were their tactics?
Frankly, I was over ambitious and will have to address these questions later. My understanding of the battle is that until roughly this point, Hawaiians had fought with traditional, non-metal weapons, such as shark tooth swords and spears.
However, the period of unification saw the introduction of western weapons, starting with Cook’s voyages in 1778. Both Kamehameha and Kalanikupule, the enemy chief, had these weapons, though the former seemed to have them in greater abundance.
My guess is that most Hawaiians present on the losing side showed up expecting a traditional battle — bloody but also performative and ritualistic.
What they faced, instead, was western cannons, muskets, pistols and edged weapons. Panicked, they were herded backwards until the rear ranks found themselves at cliff’s edge, which they were then pushed off of by the men in front of them.
Which brings up the question that pinged in my brain many times all those years ago when I started at herb Kane’s painting - what is it like to fall 1000 feet to your death?
What I told myself and what I had read or heard somewhere, is that you pass out from lack of oxygen or just general fright. Maybe that happens, but it probably did not for the Hawaiian warriors at Nu’Uanu Pali.
Instead, they feel for a probably 15 seconds through the air, which is how long it takes a 150 pound man to drop 1000 feet, only to have their bodies shattered in the impact. The impact force is the same as being hit by a car moving at rough four times the speed of sound.
“Hmm, yeah, that looks like a terrible death…”
But it is a very impactful and memorable painting!
Again, visit Herb Kane’s website at the HerbKaneHawaii.com to purchase his artwork.