Jan Ken Po: The World of Hawaii’s Japanese Americans

    Japanese Hawaiians are strangers everywhere, says the author; in Japan they’re typical American tourists with foreign airs and big appetites; in continental USA, they’re bumpkins with funny grammar. It was during World War II that the Hawaiian and Californian Nisei encountered each other in the 44^th Combat Team, and the two sides got into fights. The Hawaiians thought the mainland Nisei, or “Katonks,” were snobs with fancy accents like the Haolis (Caucasians) back home. The mainland Nisei couldn’t understand (then or now) why Hawaiians like to eat Spam and canned Vienna sausages. In California, then as now, canned meat is not a delicacy, but synonymous with poverty.

    Mainland versus Continental conflict aside, Dr. Dennis Ogawa devotes a chapter, and a humorous one at that, to the intergenerational conflict. On one hand you have the reputation-obsessed parents, while on the other, you have the American-raised kids. Everything is about honor or shame to the older generation, while the kids born after 1950 have an “anything goes” attitude. The Sesei (third generation) daughter who dates a long-haired boy that her parents don’t like, or the college educated daughter who moves out before she gets married, these things will shame the parents. Dr. Ogawa attributes the low crime and divorce rates among Japanese Hawaiians to this. If you get divorced, the neighbors will think you can’t handle life.

    Geography also comes into play in this book, since Hawaii is a group of islands, and you can’t move away easily to escape shame. Close proximity means everyone has to get along. Though the author doesn’t mention it, parts of Hawaii are separated by mountains, so the towns may be isolated from each other unless you travel by water. I don’t know if rail travel came to any of the islands, and there were no little puddle-jumping planes until the 1930’s. The Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese,

    Occasionally, I find a forgotten book, and sometimes, the story isn’t outdated. Jan Ken Po is 40 years old, and it’s the kind of book that probably wasn’t read much when it came out. The author is (or more likely was) a professor of American studies at the University of Hawaii, and according to his writing, he probably wasn’t well known off-island. He drops hints here and there that Hawaii’s college graduates usually stay in the islands, so I doubt his work reached far and wide. Regardless, Dr. Ogawa’s book on Hawaii’s Japanese Americans is enlightening. I would read this in conjunction with two recent books about Hawaii; Captive Paradise, about the colonization of the islands, and Charlie Chan & Chang Apana, about Hawaiian history told through the stories of two popular characters.

    My only suggestion to the author would be an update, because Hawaiian life has definitely changed since the book was written. The media image of Hawaii is different now too, and there have been a few decent movies (like The Picture Bride) that portray the state’s history. Unfortunately, too many of us only know Hawaii from the Dog The Bounty Hunter tv series, and the image isn’t good. I’d also like to know if there’s any class conflict between the Japanese Hawaiians and the natives, Tongans, and Samoans who now live on the islands.