National Affairs: Whites, Greens?Yellows

Hide and seek in the Pacific, Whites against the Greens, dummy torpedoes speeding at dreadnaughts, airplanes hovering aloft directing gun fire, spotting mine fields, destroyers spreading smoke screens, submarines diving and popping up from the deep; battle, murder and sudden death—these were the scenes, last week, as two divisions of the U. S. fleet played their war games off Hawaii like a school of sea-lions. In the wake of the fleet, with headquarters on the Islands, were Senators, Congressmen, newspaper correspondents. Much of the games between the Greens and the Whites they could not see. But, on land, they were confronted, not by another “war game”—not by strife but by maneuvers which many feared might be the prelude to eventual strife, an opposition, not of fleets, but of races— the Yellows against the Whites. Their observations of Hawaii’s race problem began to trickle back to the U. S. More of it will doubtless be heard when the official visitors come back and Congress assembles next fall, for then a commission appointed by the Hawaiian Legislature will come over to the mainland. What the racial problem of Hawaii amounts to is evident from the following table, which gives the various elements which make up the population of this polyglot archipelago: Japanese 125,368 Filipinos 39,608 Americans, British, Germans, Russians 34,272— Portuguese 26,791 Chinese 24,522 Hawaiians 21,271 Caucasian-Hawaiians 13,134 Asiatic-Hawaiians 7,816 Porto Ricans 6,347 Coreans 5,817 Spanish 1,939 Others 215 Total 307,100

The problems which arise may be divided into several categories. Social and Governmental. The 18,000 or 20,000 civilian Xanthochroic (“fair white”) Caucasians are the dominant class. The Latins and Orientals are mostly laborers imported to work the plantations. The native Hawaiians appear to be slowly dying out. Their numbers decreased 20% in the last 15 years, although the increase of “fair whites” and Asiatic-Hawaiian half-breeds more than made up for the decrease. But, in the same period, the Japanese population grew more than 50%—an increase that alone is twice as much as the entire native population. At the present rate of increase, the Japanese will soon number more than half the population of the Islands, yet they are not being assimilated—at least, not rapidly. They speak their own tongue, have their own newspapers, retain many of their customs. They apparently have an inferiority complex, for their newspapers shout: ”We are your equals. . . . We are as good as you or better.” Yet there is remarkably little friction and much greater racial social equality than in continental U. S. Citizenship. Already there are 66,647 of the Japanese who are U. S. citizens—by virtue of having been born on the Islands. In some cases they keep their Japanese citizenship as well— a thing allowable under Japanese law. By 1940, when the present younger generation of Jappo-Americans grow up, they will constitute a majority of the voters on the island. On this account, such old inhabitants as Judge Sanford B. Dole—now an octogenarian living in peace at Hawaii, but one who has been in turn Justice of the Supreme Court of the principality during the rule of Queen Liluokalani, President of the Hawaiian Republic, Territorial Governor, Judge of the Federal District Court—such men as Judge Dole earnestly hope that Hawaii will remain a territory, for if she became a state a Japanese Governor might be elected. Schools. There are 142 Japanese schools on the Islands, with an attendance of about 18,000 pupils. Formerly (since attendance at the public schools is compulsory) these schools taught for an hour before and several hours after the public school session. Many of the teachers were recommended by the Japanese Department of Education, many are Buddhist priests. The books used referred to the Japanese Army and Navy as “our Army,” “our Navy,” contained pictures of the Mikado, none of the U. S. President. Recently, an effort has been made to Americanize the young Joppo-Americans. A law was passed confining the Japanese schools to teaching one hour a day, after the public schools closed, providing for censorship of pro-Japanese text books and for a $ 1 a year per pupil tax on the Japanese schools. This law is being tested in the courts, and temporarily about half of the Japanese schools have closed rather than comply. But Hawaiians are thinking of 1940, 15 years hence, when the Japanese will be a majority of the electorate and will control the school system. Immigration. A problem that strikes nearer home to the continental U. S. is the fact that already there are 66,000 or more Japanese born in Hawaii who are American citizens. They are entitled to all privileges that go therewith—including entrance to California or anywhere else they are not wanted. Immigration authorities have imposed barriers to migration— severe tests of American citizenship being demanded before any Hawaiian-born Japanese are admitted to the U. S. These in time are sure to become more and more easy to pass, and the barrier is likely to be overridden. Coffee herries, mangoes, alligator pears from Hawaii are rigidly excluded from entrance to the continental U. S.—for fear of importing the Mediterranean fruit fly. Seme Californians wish that Jappo-Americans from Hawaii could be excluded in the same way.

*Some 15,000 of this number are Army andNavy personnel stationed at the islands.