By Jerry Burris
Advertiser Editorial Editor

Some of the old lions of the AJA community were honored at a fund-raising dinner at the Japanese Cultural Center last week.

Former University of Hawai'i President Fujio Matsuda was given a koa paddle in honor of his efforts heading a group that raised millions to bring the center out of insolvency and set it on a secure path to the future.

The guest of honor was senior Sen. Dan Inouye, almost certainly the pre-eminent AJA figure of postwar Hawai'i.

In the audience were dozens, if not hundreds, of community leaders, familiar figures from politics, business, education and other walks of life.

Among other enticements, the audience was given bags of popcorn and mochi crunch to nibble while watching the recently released video biography "Daniel K. Inouye, An American Story," produced by Heather Giugni, a skilled filmmaker and close member of the Inouye 'ohana. (Her father, Henry, is the senator's friend and longtime political ally.)

The video tells a personal story about Inouye, from childhood in Honolulu through war, politics and national prominence. But it is also — quite deliberately, one suspects — a story about the rise of Hawai'i's Democrats to political power.

Inouye's story, like that of former Gov. George Ariyoshi and others, mirrors that of the party: from obscurity and struggle to the pinnacles of power.

There were plenty of gray heads and lined faces at the Inouye testimonial. While the next generation of leaders was reasonably well-represented (attorney Colbert Matsumoto, chairman of the center's board of directors, for instance), the tilt was definitely, shall we say, senior. And here's where a warm evening of camaraderie and memory shifts into the political realm.

In many ways, the cultural center is a proxy for the Democratic Party in Hawai'i these days. It relies, perhaps more than it should, on memories and the gritty work ethic of the old-timers who built it, just as they built the modern state Democratic Party.

When the cultural center faced serious financial problems, the old-timers came out once again and, as in election after election, pulled together the troops and energy needed to save the day.

But they cannot continue to do so forever. As the last election demonstrated, Hawai'i has changed, and the simple old-fashioned energy and determination that propelled Democrats to power year after year is no longer enough.

The old-timers at the Japanese Cultural Center say they are determined to step back and let a new generation set the organization on a course to the future.

That makes sense. But are they truly willing to let go?

If so, they might establish a pattern that could work for the Democratic Party itself. As they learned in the past election, nostalgia alone will not win elections.

Jerry Burris is editor of the editorial pages of The Advertiser. You can reach him through letters@HonoluluAdvertiser.com.