Island Voices
UH can bridge the Asian Pacific gap

By Evan S. Dobelle
President of the University of Hawai'i

No one in Hawai'i needed a reminder from Hollywood this summer that these Islands are a pivotal meeting place, in good time and bad, linking Asia and the North American continent.

In 1941, Hawai'i tragically became the flashpoint of an American relationship with Japan that went terribly wrong. Misunderstandings, conflict of principle and two vastly different visions of the Pacific world resulted in a conflict that changed the course of history.

The global culture that has taken shape since 1941 brought a quantum leap in American understanding of Asia. Before 1941, the United States made relatively feeble efforts to understand its Asian Pacific neighbors. Few Americans studied any non-European language; courses on history, literature or social science courses with a focus on the Asian Pacific world were almost completely missing in the curricula of American universities, and neither the everyday life of Americans nor their material culture was much affected by Asian Pacific societies.

The tiny cottage industry in Asian Pacific studies that was an artifact of the prewar era is dwarfed today by the highly sophisticated set of mechanisms set in place in so many frameworks within American society to extend understanding between states and peoples. The interface between the United States and its Asian Pacific neighbors is a vast one, and the array of economic, cultural and social ties grow each year.

I would contend, however, that much more can and should occur in these opening decades of the 21st century to reinforce and amplify these impressive bridges between societies. As we prepare for a future in which partnerships with the Asian Pacific world will be an ever more conspicuous feature of American life. I believe we need to accentuate Hawai'i's traditional role as meeting place and venue for interaction between peoples.

In the last half-century, millions of Asians have learned English and undertaken a cultural quest that has brought them a clear understanding of American society. In this process, many among them have become bicultural women and men completely at home in any setting within our society and capable of communicating at the highest level.

But of how many Americans may the same be said? When was the last time an American president or secretary of state spoke to a Japanese, Chinese or Korean counterpart in his or her language? How many of us could trace the 20th-century history of any Asian country with a grasp of the names of that state's major figures or the controversies and challenges that give form to life in that part of the world?

My friend Mario Molina of MIT is a Nobel laureate whose pioneering work on the destruction of the ozone layer led to international accords that function today to control fluorocarbon emissions. As he described his work, he remarked that at the beginning he faced a hard sell: He studied invisible gases, an invisible reaction in the atmosphere and an invisible process of destruction that was damaging the world ecosystem.

In promoting education and culture as a vital component in America's emerging relationship with Asia, we, likewise, face a hard sell. The focus when it comes to U.S.-Asian relations is usually on the tangible: trade statistics, corporate collaborations, diplomatic and strategic accords. This is where America's attention goes and a determinedly practical ethos dominates.

The learning process, like Professor Molina's gases, is invisible. The complex reaction that occurs as people are educated is invisible. And the result of education is often intangible.

This said, I would assert that the cultural and educational dimension of the vast relationship that is emerging with the Asian Pacific world is of central importance. It is not a fortuitous "spinoff" of other types of relationships; rather the process of education will provide the compass that will point the way to be taken in our new century.

American relations with China lately are governed by the principle of "constructive engagement." We focus on the positive to create room for negotiations and discussion when it comes to problematic elements of our link to China.

In the realm of higher education in Hawai'i, I would advocate a formula of "creative engagement" as we approach the Asian Pacific world. By this I mean a proactive approach to engaging ourselves with Asian peoples and states.

In concrete terms, this means configuring novel and imaginative approaches to giving the Asian Pacific world reality in higher education. It means taking determined initiatives that will cumulatively make Hawai'i the foremost center for study of Asia in the United States.

Our university system should be the leader when it comes to language study, initiatives in foreign exchange, building links to Asian universities, policy studies and programs designed to convey to students at all levels the shape of Asian realities.

When the question is asked (as such questions always are within academia) where is the paramount center for study of Asia, the Pacific and Oceania, the answer should be: "Hawai'i. Hawai'i is the best."

For America, the 21st century will be the century of ethnicity. Asian Americans today form the second largest new group within our society nationwide. As this process of transformation occurs, novel approaches need to evolve to engage diasporic communities with the life of the university, and here, too, Hawai'i, with its rich mixture of ethnic groups, can create models that will sensibly influence a parallel process that is now going on throughout continental America.

There was a happy ending to Professor Molina's story. He learned through his research that the invisible could become the tangible. He discovered that international cooperation based on scientific discoveries and new knowledge can lead to improvement of the world we share.

We can, likewise, create paradigms in the field of education that will yield learning opportunities that will give shape to America's interaction with the Asian Pacific world and devise modes of cooperation that will prevent tragic misunderstandings.

As it has so often in the past, Hawai'i can light the way as a rich and textured new relationship is built between the United States and the Asian Pacific world in the future. Our faculty throughout the university system on all our Islands, as well as the East-West Center at Manoa, are two of the state's most valuable resources.