RACIAL HATRED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 42, 19 February 1932, Page 12

RACIAL HATRED

MENACE OF HONOLULU * RISING TIDE OF COLOUR Recently the cables told how Honolulu was aflame with the racial passions stirred by the criminal outrage by natives upon an American woman, the consequent murder of a Hawaiian, and the assault upon a Japanese. The tumultuous bitterness of the whole raceconscious Pacific is centred in this lovely island of Hawaii, and waits like tinder for a spark to set ablaze this front line which America holds against the Orient. Can the United States Government control Hawaii? asks the special representative of the Sydney Sun. The criminal outrage upon Mrs. Massie, wife of a United States Navy officer, by five men, and the consequent assault upon a Japanese and the murder of a Hawaiian, both allegedly concerned in the outrage, have done more than raise this question for a wondering world. A first-class storm has been raised in United States political circles, and fires of racial hatred fanned. Hawaii, with its variety of 14 races, is always a thorny problem in Uncle Sam’s side. Hawaii is United States territory, governed by Federal laws. Of a total population of approximately 350,000, racial antecedents are as follow: American and other whites, 40,000; Japanese, 150,000; Filipino, 60,000; Chinese, 30,000; Portuguese, 28,000; Hawaiian, 25,000; others, 17,000. This racial classification should not be confused with nationality. Of the Japanese, for example, at least 100,000 are United States citizens, although they are of pure Japanese parentage. That is because they were born in the United States territory. However, as one observer has noted —a Japanese in American clothes remains Japanese. America’s handling of the citizenship question has, in the past, caused bitter feeling in Japan, where America was openly called ‘ ‘an imposter" and a “studied deceiver/’ The Mongolians, especially the Japanese, have “peacefully penetrated” Hawaii. To-day they dominate the economic and commercial life of the islands. Their birth rate leaps ahead, and every child born is an American citizen, with the right to vote and to own property. These children, United States citizens, in turn will not inter-marry with the whites or other races. Such inter-marriage is unknown. On this mere dot in the Pacific arc found army, navy, and aviation bases larger than any on the United States mainland. They combine to make America’s front line against the Orient. There are vast stores of ammunition, equipment and food. There is enough barbed wire to go three times around the Hawaiian Islands. A fleet of minelayers maintains a series of minefields along all points of the compass from Hawaii. The United States Pacific Fleet holds annual manoeuvres in the Hawaiian sector. Last week the navy declared it would not visit this year unless the racial unrest was placed under control. But the army has definitely planned to handle the coloured races. All the forts are connected -with wide concrete highways, which, in turn, end in Punchbowl, the crater of an extinct volcanic cone overlooking Honolulu. The army plans to drive all coloured people into the crater in the event of trouble. In recent years justice has become a farce. The navy, for example, in the present Massie case, urges the change of the venue to San rrancisco “to avoid local influences, prejudices, and riot fears in Honolulu.” In 1928 a Japanese, Miles Fukunaga, kidnapped and murdered an American youth. Before the police made an arrest a vigilant committee of wealthy Americans and their sons forced the authorities’ hands with political issues, and speeded up action. Fukunaga confessed, but Honolulu Courts failed to register a conviction. The trial shifted to San Francisco. Fukunaga was condemned to death. The whole time the Mongolian Press was openly antiAmerican, and funds were raised to help Fukunaga. In cases like the Massie scandal and the Fukunaga trial, navy and army interference with the course of civil justice is dangerous. Everything is clouded in the inglorious cause of political issue. There is no straight-out. judicial action as in a British communitv.