Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXV, Number 12, 17 July 1940 — AN OPEN LETTER [ARTICLE]

AN OPEN LETTER

May 27, 1940 An Open Letter to the Hawaiian People To Hawaiians throughout every island of the Territory, Aloha! All my life I have been traveling between the islands which consittute the Territory of Hawaii. As a result, I believe I know Hawaii better than most people in the Territory. Since the first of this year I have been to the Island of Hawaii four times, to Maui twice, and Molokai and Kauai once each. Morea dn more I have become intrested in the problems of the Hawaiians. With this in mind, what one sees travelling between the islands cannot help but make one sick at heart. The story everywhere is the same. The Hawaiians have moved away from their old family homes on the beaches and have gone to the city, where, lacking money, they have to live nit he slums, in the midst of squalor and filth, amidst unsanita0 ry, unheatlhy conditions. This contributes to their lack of pride, and makes it increasingly difficult for their children to have real respect for their blood and their race. Living under such conditions, which are so foreign to their life in old Hawaii, no other result could be expected. For many years the Hawaiian people have been torn apart and their lives made increasingly difficult. Churches, schools and politics, have in my opinion, unintentionally contributed to this. Let me take up these serious charges, and discuss them. For example, I call to your attention the town of Kailua, in Kona. My greatgrandfather built the first church there. It was the larges church in the islands and was filled to overflowing each Sunday and many times during the week. A few years later, the Catholic Church came to Kailua, and established itself. It drew of necessity from the congregation of Mokuaekaua Church. Where else could it seek followers? Later the Mormon Church came in and established itself. It also had to draw form the same Hawaiian residents. Not many years ago my good friend, Reverend Akana, established his own church at Kailua. He in turn had to draw for his parishioners from the other churches. And so it has gone. Each church has had to steal its members form another church to get support. It is little wonder that the Hawaiians have been pulled first one way, and then the next. I do not want any one to get the idea for a minute that I do not approve of churches, I do. They have contributed more to the welfare of the Hawaiians than any other factor, BUT there has been a continuious "hukihuki" in each island community for Hawaiian church support, for Hawaiian con gregations. It is little wonder that the Hawaiians have been left bewildered and they have been torn apart. The schools have been the means of tearin gthe Hawaiians apart. This is true. Look through our school system today and you find a very small percentage of our teachers who are Hawaiians or whohave any background of Hawaiian understanding or training. And most of them care less about the Hawaiians. They have never been taught themselves. To appreciate the Hawaiians as to take an interest in things Hawaiian. The little town of Milolii on the Kona Coast of Hawaii is a small village of around sixty Hawaiians who have kept their blood pure. No other nationalities have come into that village. Yet today their little school is run by an American of Japanese ancestry! Think of it: Out of all the school teachers available, wouldn't you hope that in this pure Hawaiian village, a teacher who herself is Hawaiian [ought to be] found. And have the Hawaiians of Milolii objected? They should but I haven't heard that they have. This is no reflection on the teacher assigned to Milolii. She probably is a good teacher or she would not have been sent there. It is however a reflection on the residents of Milolii, who pride themselves on their really Hawaiian community. The whole emphasis of education has, since long before Annexation, been along the lines of Americanism. I believe that it is @ [that] our Hawaiians, in addition to being good Americans, which most of them are by birth, should be @ and taught to become good Hawaiians. My third charge was that politics have torn the Hawaiians apart.

Can you tell me what earthy difference it makes here in Hawaii whether the average Hawaiian is a Republican or Democrat? No. Has any political party in the history of the Islands ever had as a part of its party platform, a carefully thought out continuously working plan which had as its purpose a continuing policy of trying to help the Hawaiians? No. Sure! I know its fun to take part in politics, and the Hawaiians love it. It is right that they should but I don't believe politics have ever been a constructive force among the Hawaiians for the simple reason that politics have never taken an intrest in them beyond the point of soliciting their votes. "Get their votes— then forget them until next election." A Hawaiian vote is no better than that of any other nationality. —Sure— Give them jobs on the road or in the police department — then they will vote for us again next election. — That is the extent of the average politicians interest in you Hawaiians. What should be done? I believe that on each island and in every community of each island the Hawaiians should be together and form a non-political, non-secta-rian hui, whose sole purpose would be to seriously study ways and means of getting the Hawaiians back together again. They should study ways and means of making the Hawaiian children proud of their ancestors, proud of their folklore and legends, and proud of their native blood. They should study ways and means of helping the Hawaiians make a better living in this Hawaii of today, for themselves and their families. This same organization in each communit should also find means of teaching the children as well as the parents and teachers in the schools, local stories and Hawaiian traditions which the children have a right to be proud of, and certainly should know about, from childhood. That would help to make the children proud of their ancestry, and help to draw them together. In chatting with Lahilahi Webb and Mary Pukui at the Bishop Museum, they have told me time and again one of the difficulties of collecting old Hawaiian stories and legends lay in the fact that the old people were "hila-hila" — ashamed, to tell their old stories for fear the Haoles would laugh at them. Unfortunately this is true. And yet what more ridiculous stories can anyone find than some of the fairy stories which are regularly taught to Haole children from one end of the world to the other — about the fairies, the Fairy Princess, about the giants, Jack and the Beanstalk, and countless others! The Haoles are not ashamed of their fairy stores. Why should the Hawaiians be ashamed to tell theirs? Yet they are. BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS PERMIT THEM TO BE ASHAMED. Its a reflection of their parents' attitude. In countless communities throughout the Territory of Hawaii I have asked Hawaiian children for informatoin about the olden days in their village. Not one of them has known. Why? Because their parents haven't know themselves. If they do know, they don't think it

important enough to teach their children. And their children grow up ignorant of the fine traditions of old Hawai[i]. The Kamehameha Schools have graduated many fine Hawaiian boys and girls. They have been blessed with the o[p]portunity to meet modern problems of making a living, to an extent not equalled by the graduates of many other island schools. Why shouldn't they be the nucleus of leadership which will undertake this job of again building into the children of Hawaiians, a pride in their blood and a pride in their race and its background? No organization such as I suggest should under any circumstances, be used as a political stepping-stone. Once you mix politics into such an undertaking, you immediately start working one of the very force[s] which has helped in the past to tear the Hawaiians apart. You see countless Hawaiian lodges and clubs turning out on Kamehameha's Birthday, and on the occasion of important state funerals. What do they do the rest of the time? Why couldn't their purpose be along broader and more important lines— of greater and lasting benefits to themselves and their children? I can't believe that there is a plantation manger of a leading business man in any town in the entire Territory of Hawaii, who wouldn't glady cooperate with a bonafide Territory-wide Hawaiian organization which had as its sole motive, the principles outlined above. Before this can come, however, there must be a move started along borad and carefully planned lines, by the Hawaiians themselves, which will command the respect, attention and cooperation of business men and community leaders. May I again point out that it is time we started teaching the Hawaiians to again become in fact Hawaiians, to perpetuate for all time the fine qualities which made the Hawaiian of old outstanding lovable, generous— A strong, proud people. If this work isn't started soon, it never will be. In fifty years the Hawaiian race, as such, will be pau. Perhaps sooner than that. I and others who know, admire and respect the Hawaiians can at present, only suggest. We can't do more than that until such time as the Hawaiians themselves under take this move to organize, and really show that they are desirous of helping themselves. I stand ready and willing at all times to help wherever I can. All the pay I ask is the satisfaction of seeing preserved and perpetuated those qualities which the Hawaiians used to be proud of, and which now are practically forgotten, qualities which will better enable the Hawaiians to retain an important place for themselves and their children in the land which is their only home. I wish to thank Ka Hoku for permitting me to present this message to you. As one of the last really Hawaiian papers in the Territory, it is deserving of your continuous and greater support. Sincerely yours, LOLENA KAKINA Lorrin Thurston