was the medium through which this link was forged. He nursed well and cried lustily when hungry. She had plenty of milk. To suckle was sometimes painful because of the force with which the infant nursed, but it was not unpleasant or bothersome. There seemed to be nothing wrong with his physical makeup. It was funny, she thought, that she should feel so wrapped up in this tiny child, but by his arrival she knew that in Japan the old in-laws and her parents would be immensely proud. A special offering of thanks would be offered to the village shrine, the gods of which watched over the sons and daughters of the villagers, no matter where they happened to be domiciled. Not only would there be much rejoicing by relatives in Japan, but there would be a feast again in Hawaii, and the credit would come to her. She could not help feeling contented: she was in fact filled with a glow of satisfaction. These were perhaps the happiest days of her life.
For thirty days she was supposed to take care of herself according to custom. Had she been in the old country, on the thirty-first day she would have taken the infant, clad in resplendent kimono, to the shrine to exhibit to the gods, present offerings of thanks, and beseech further protection from evil in the life that was then beginning. At the same time she could fold up her bedding and enter conjugal life without fear of untoward consequences. Such restrictions were wise regulations, born of experience governing post-partum care and sex relations, to avoid infections and damage to the maternal body. But such leisurely precautions and care were workable only in a family with many spare hands. In Hawaii, things must be done differently. Out of necessity, she was up and working on the fourteenth day and was none the worse for her early activity.
A Chinese neighbor brought her a potful of duck cooked over a slow fire for many hours, so that the essence of the fowl was collected in the thick extract. This she was urged to drink to facilitate and speed her convalescence. Obediently she took it daily and seemed to feel much stronger each day. Her lactation seemed to be favorably influenced and the infant waxed fat.
During the intervening years, Sadao did not suffer from the usual childhood diseases—except for measles. The other childhood ailments were of later importation to this isolated Paradise of the Pacific. The Aratas prospered.
In the meantime, the Hawaiian kingdom was abolished and the islands were incorporated as an integral part of the United States. Modernization programs in all fields of industrial and cultural endeavors became marked. Great strides were made. Public schools were opened in the remotest villages of the islands and attendance was made compulsory. According to the terms of the Annexation Protocol, all citizens of the monarchy and succeeding Republic and Provisional Governments were to become American citizens automatically with the raising of the Stars and Stripes over the archipelago. Children born in the islands naturally were citizens according to the constitution of the United States. They were therefore being educated as American citizens. Teachers were being trained at the Territorial Normal Training School at Honolulu and the shortage was supplemented by teachers from the mainland.
The district school had an enrollment of about two hundred pupils. Cosmopolitan in makeup, the student body was composed of Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiians, Portuguese, Spanish, and Koreans. The teaching staff was almost as representative of the conglomeration of racial extractions that made up the population—Portuguese, Chinese, Part-Hawaiian, and Caucasians. Japanese and Koreans did not appear on the list as their arrival had been recent and none of the children were old enough to have attained that age group.
The melting-pot process was a success. Youngsters were being instilled with the ideals of democracy without letup and each was made to feel that he was just as good an American as the direct descendants of the passengers on the Mayflower. Considering the fact that annexation of the islands was effected only a dozen or so years previously, it was a startling achievement that the children could be so Americanized. Surrounded by elders who spoke pidgin English enunciated with a peculiar accent, the children's enunciation might not have been the equal of a New England child's, his diction was limited and relatively poor, yet his line of thought and his convictions were typically American after several years of schooling.
Since their parents were immigrants from the old world, the children had to speak in a different tongue to their elders. But they were handicapped in the usage of the mother tongue at home. In other words, the children could neither speak good English nor use the language of their parents correctly. As years went by there evolved in Hawaii a new jargon—a conglomeration of English, Japanese, and Hawaiian, with a pronounced intonation like the Portuguese language. This became the popular colloquial medium through which the elders of different racial strains made themselves understood to each other, and was prevalent on all plantations. The children had a difficult time speaking any form of language in its pure form.
Among the common people, racial barriers were minimal, and one person was as good as another. Only the ruling race, the Anglo-Saxons, held themselves haughty and aloof, priding themselves on racial superiority. Yet even they were not averse to taking native women for wives: perhaps out of necessity due to the scarcity of white women. Anyway many "hapa-haoles" or half-breeds came into being from these unions. The easy-going seductiveness of Hawaiian existence made all people tolerant and a spirit of "live and let live" seemed to be the guiding motif. Whatever contrary feelings one might have harbored regarding racial equality and intermarriage prior to his arrival in the islands, he soon changed his ideas about humanity. According to the Hawaiian mode of reasoning, as long as one was intrinsically good, just, and capable, he was welcome as one of the family, irrespective of his racial extraction. Thus intermarriage was a common occurrence and usually ended happily.
In such an environment, children grew up as Hawaiian citizens—Neo-Pacific nationals—as some preferred to designate them. Many had half a dozen strains of blood running in their veins, but the pure stock felt the same way. A healthy sort of camaraderie that lasted to manhood sprang up among the boys and survived the change in the world's outlook. It was a result of mature experience and judgment.
Sadao Arata was no exception and he grew to be a strapping youngster with a mode of thought typical of this growing generation. Just as vegetation grows smoothly and rapidly, man matures rapidly in the sub-tropics. Some girls begin menstruating at nine or ten. This is a phenomenon not only encountered among the Hawaiian natives, but among second generation girls whose cousins in colder latitudes would not reach adolescence until fourteen to sixteen.
An episode without any sequel occurred at this time and its meshes threatened to involve young Sadao. Miss Miriam Kealoha was a Chinese-Hawaiian school teacher who had inherited the good features of her dual ancestry. In her, harshness in her original ancestral strains were softened and moderated and produced a harmonious blend in her charming personality. Of medium height and seductively beautiful, her large, dreamy eyes, characteristic of the Polynesians, enhanced her loveliness. Used to urban life with much entertainment and many friends to make life exciting, existence at a Kauai district school was tame and monotonous, especially to a full-blooded young woman in her prime.
Among her pupils, she noticed at once the artistic inclination and aptitude of Sadao Arata who not only could sing well, an accomplishment so dear to Hawaiian hearts, but could draw remarkably well in spite of his lack of training. Lacking this talent herself, it was not long before she asked the assistance of twelve-year-old Sadao to illustrate stories and biology lessons. Well developed for his age on account of his constant outdoor life and vigorous exercise, Sadao was a young man in stature, but the somatic portion of his development outdid his germinal cells. As far as his sexual life was concerned, he was relatively retarded in spite of the climatic factor. In this respect he was different from the other children who matured early. His artistic temperament also tended to paint the universe in beautiful colors and human relationship in childish romanticism. His dream world was of the knights of old and fairy-like damsels were to be looked at, but beyond reach. The inner urge was not there. Libido as yet lay dormant within this half-developed man.
Miriam Kealoha had had an escapade or two during Normal School days. Few maids of Polynesian blood ever escaped being involved in such romances in their late 'teens and early twenties: especially one
