[credit_guy]

> The reason the referendum succeeded was a big decline in the native population combined with large amounts of immigration from the U.S.

Is that a fact, or just your conjecture?

All I could find was that in 1940 about 46 thousand people voted in favor of becoming a state, and 22 thousand against. Are you saying there's evidence the native population voted preponderantly against?

In any case, it took 19 years from that referendum until the Congress approved the statehood. There was a final vote in Hawaii to approve the statehood. There were 132 thousand yeses vs 8 thousand nos. Was that a fake vote, like the Russians just did in the occupied territories in Ukraine?

[1] https://guides.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/c.php?g=105252&p=687...