Book Reviews
Japanese offerings examine culture brought to Hawai'i
By Wanda A. Adams
Assistant Features Editor
KACHIKAN: Values. Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, spiral-bound paperback, $10
The culture of Hawai'i has been profoundly influenced by ideas and values brought by immigrants. Arguably the most visible and readily identified influences have come from the Japanese, who came here in great numbers during plantation times and brought customs ranging from leaving your shoes at the door to answering every favor with a gift of acknowledgement.
Now the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i has produced a short but informative booklet describing the values and ideals that were central to the Japanese culture, and woven into the fabric of island life. Entitled "Kachikan" ("Values"), the short, spiral-bound work lists 13 kachikan translated into English, defined, illustrated by a quotation and further explained with an example.
Some are words familiar to us, such as "shikata ga nai," often translated as "it can't be helped," but here given its formal definition as "acceptance with resignation." Shikata ga nai is in the school of "no use crying over spilled milk" beliefs, and is cited here as having been the value that allowed Japanese Americans to go resignedly into internment camps during World War II and form thriving American communities.
Interestingly, none of the quotes that illustrate these values are from Asian sources. That is meant to show how Japanese values fit into the larger cultural picture. "Values are universal," the book declares. However, some values — such as gaman, or quiet endurance — run contrary to America's rebellious and outspoken nature, one reason why Hawai'i's "nail that sticks up gets hammered down" ethic frustrates many Mainlanders used to more in-your-face ways.
It is interesting to ponder each of the values outlined in this simple booklet and to consider how they have manifested themselves here.
FUN AND GAMES: Small-kid Time in Hawai'i. The Hawai'i Hiroshima Heritage Study Group, paperback, $12.95
This delightful collection of essays and game instructions was put together by senior members of the Hawai'i Hiroshima Heritage Study Group and is being distributed by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i. It introduces younger generations to the make-it-yourself games and toys of plantation-era children, many with roots in Japan, or simply devised on the spot by inventive children whose parents couldn't afford store-bought playthings.
Committee chairman Carl Kaizawa, a graphic artist, created the drawings that illustrate games that are hard to understand using words alone.
Some of these — jan ken po, yo-yo, paper airplane — will be familiar to children, but many will come as a revelation (and when your children learn how to make "an embarrassing human sound" using a poha fruit, don't blame the elders!) For anyone who lived through any portion of plantation times, this book will bring back memories of activities that took up hours of our days but which now seem so distant: playing ayotori (string games), juggling bean bags (ojame or otedama), playing jacks with wiliwili seeds or Job's tears, tossing knives in ways that caused our mothers to flinch.
Most enjoyable along with the game directions are the short memoirs of plantation towns, celebrations, sports leagues and other topics related to just plain fun.
The books are available at the Japanese Cultural Center gift shop, which is closed for the holidays. It will reopen Thursday.
