of congratulations by a deep-voiced man who spoke in behalf of the guests. Disclosing his past as a student of the Chinese classics, he profusely used words not in common usage. The speech of thanks rendered by one of Arata's intimate friends in behalf of the host was crisp, short, and to the point.
After this formal portion of the program came to an end and the men began making merry, Mrs. Fukuda led Haru back to her room and let her lie down in a more comfortable kimono. That part being over it was not necessary for her to appear in the midst of the drunken orgy for some were sure to get really drunk and behave in an unruly manner. Those men not used to drinking regularly fell under the influence of alcohol rather quickly. The groom had to stand his ground against the barrage of drinking cups that had to be emptied and returned. Thoughtfully, a woman shoved a bowl under his table and he poured the greater part of the proffered liquor into it. Meanwhile a housewife brought along a samisen, the three-stringed Japanese guitar, and singing started. The latest song hits about the China War were sung lustily, with the whole party joining in with rhythmical clapping to keep up the fervor and cadence.
Japan has declared war on China,
The Imperial fleet out of Shinagawa steam,
Leading is Azuma, the flagship,
Followed by Kongo and Naniwa.
CHAPTER 7
The Eldest Son
ALMOST EVERY TWO OR THREE YEARS, Mrs. Arata was with child and she was a mother of five in no time. Being of sturdy stock, the dual role of storekeeper and mother did not affect her very much. From morning till night she worked hard. There was little time for her to relax or enjoy herself. Like all pioneering women, her life was swamped and buried under the daily routine of cooking, washing, and attending to customers. She was active and pleasant. She was happy with the growing children, and the expanding business gave her impetus and the will to work. More and more people came to Kauai, for wages on the plantations increased and money floated about freely. Occasionally, she would become homesick for her native Mitajiri and its seasonal festive gaiety, but lately there was much activity in Kauai which made her forget such nostalgic cravings. All in all, she adapted herself to Hawaiian life very quickly and considered herself fortunate in having made the decision to come to this distant land.
Her eldest and pride of her flock was her son Sadao. To have had a son for the first child was not the best arrangement she could have wished for as a busy mother. A girl would have rendered her life much easier as she would have had a helper about the house to aid her in the daily routine and in the care of little ones that arrived regularly. But as the first child was a boy (aside from the natural attachment between mother and son, there seems to be a biological affinity between parents and offspring of different sexes) there was the peculiar satisfaction she felt during her initial puerperal period. One has to be an Oriental mother to bask in this contentment: a feeling like riding atop the world. Next to a barren wife, life was most miserable for one who could not bring forth a male child to perpetuate the family name. She earned for herself a rightful place in the eyes of the ancestors.
To her, the red-faced, wrinkled infant that lay so helpless at her side was more than her flesh and blood. He seemed to incarnate in his wriggling body the hopes and frustrations of myriads of his ancestors. And she 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