Adam Keawe Manalo-Camp

From the UN Special Committee on Decolonization: A depiction from 1945 showing areas that needed to be decolonized and be enabled towards self-determination. Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands are both shown along with all of Polynesia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Its a huge mistake to think that non-self-governing territories were simply “colonies”. Territories, nations, national groups, and peoples were added to the list of non-self-governing territories by the General Assembly not the colonial or governing power itself nor by the Security Council . Indonesia was already declared itself independent in 1945 and was recognized as such by Japan but due to Dutch aggression to reclaim Indonesia, the General Assembly of the United Nations added Indonesia to its list. In 1945, the general understanding was that any distinct peoples and countries that was detached from its administrating or “metropolitan” power and was being prevented from exercising full self-determination (including by force as the Dutch were doing in Indonesia) or had questionable relations with a distant foreign power (as in the case of Sarawak, which was a recognized independent kingdom but ruled by a British national under a protectorate type relationship) was a non-self-governing territory. That also included Malaysia, Sarawak, and North Borneo (Sabah) which all still had precolonial political structures intact but they all were likewise included on the list of non-self-governing territories.

The Baltic Republics were not added because the Baltic countries still had recognized governments in exile, foreign embassies and formal diplomatic ties with countries throughout their occupation. When the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics annexed the Baltic Republics, most of Europe and Asia–some 70 countries in total–protested annexation and refused to cut political ties–something that did not happen in Hawai’i’s case where all of Hawaiian Kingdom’s treaties with foreign powers were superseded by US treaties in 1900 sadly due to the international recognition of the Republic of Hawai’i that came as a result of two events: the inauguration of a constitution in 1894 and the Republic’s suppression of the 1895 Hawaiian nationalist uprising. It also should be noted that Hawai’i was added as a non-self-governing-territory (NST) not by the US but the United Nations General Aseembly (GA). The GA is the only authority that can add or remove NST and not the United Nations Security Council.  A recent example is the re-enlistment of French Polynesia as a NST by the GA over the objections of France, which has a seat on the Security Council.

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(http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/nonselfgov.shtml)

This is the entire list in 1945: 

Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories (1945-1999)

The following Territories have been subject to United Nations Trusteeship Agreements or were listed by the General Assembly as Non-Self-Governing. Dates show the year of independence or other change in a Territory’s status, after which information was no longer submitted to the United Nations. 

– Administering States –