Evening star., 1938-01-02
From The Stars Letter Mail
Delegate King and Mr. Close Debate the Hawaiian
Judge-Kind Word for congressman

Advertiser have written objecting to these
statements and taking issue with some OF
my statistics They pay me the compli-
ment Of suggesting that the article might
nullify the good effect of the recent con-
gressional investigation of Hawaiian con-
ditions and might injure the Territory's
chances of being accepted as the 49th
State of the Union. That thought did not
occur to me-
Facts That Are CHALLENGED
We differ both as to fact and interpreta-
ton. My critics challenge these facts:
That japanese are a dominant element Of
the Territory's population: that japanese
plantation bosses outnumber whites; that
older. alien japanese influence the politi-
cal thinking of island-born Japanese and
keep alive in them q sentimental prefer.
ence for Japan as their motherland.
My critics and I each have a different
set Of population figures for the islands.
The difference between the two is less than
10 per cent. Their figures on the japanese
element IN the population recognize only
pure-blooded japanese. They leave out
several groups which must be considered
sentimentally inclined toward or dominated
Of japanese and a Hawaiian parent,
alien Koreaps and children Of japanese
and Filipino parent.
My critics also attack my statement that
1000 of the 5000 bosses on sugar and pine
apple plantations are Japanese. In my de-
fense I can cite the digest Of the 1880
census printed in the 1897 World Almanac:
THE census Of 1880 returned 1855 farms
valued at $11l,78O,432. Farm oper.
ators as owners. managers or tenants
were: White, 633; Hawaiian, 510; japanese
4l9l; Chinese, 1886; all other races, 266"
1t seems to me winking at facts to deny
that the Japanese-by the statistics Of my
critics from 80 per cent to 43 per cent Of
the Hawaiian population-are the domi-
nant race. They are the largest single ele-
ment in the population: the balance is
split into at least 10 other racial groups;
the Japanese are tight-knit, touchy and
racially conscious. They not only hold the
balance of power in Hawaiian politics.
they are the balance Of power.
Still Doubts Their Loyalty.
To rebut my assertion that older. alien
Japanese are the political mentors of their
young offspring, my critics offer statements
by prominent Japanese during the 1885
congressional hearings on Hawaiian af-
fairs. Though hold all respect for the
gentlemen who appeared at the hearings
and assured the Congressman that young
Japanese in Hawaii love America, I feel
that their love would be inadequate to the
strain of direct Japanese American con-
f1ict, should such deplorable clash develop
and feel that to bank upon the loyalty
Of such an unfortunately stressed group is
unsound craftsmanship
think my critics have interpreted a
mere reporters desire to present conditions
concisely-perhaps too concisely-with q
sinister purpose on my part Certainly
the last thing in my mind would be
defamation of the Territory where have
so many friends and correspondents, where
have been treated with such courtesy and
where my lectures and writings have been
well received. I, and those in the islands
who, feel, face conditions more realistically
than my present critics, may be entirely
mistaken in our feelings, which I for one
present without arrogance and entirely
subject to correction. It Is simply the
old question of who sees more clearly, the
man on the spot or the man with wider
perspective. Sometimes one, sometimes the
other, says history. UPTON CLOSE,