The AJ.A.s: Fast-Rising Sons

Television news clips of Japanese Emperor Hirohito's arrival at Honolulu International Airport last week probably left many viewers across the U.S. wondering momentarily whether they had heard the anchor man right. Was it Hawaii, the final leg of the Emperor's U.S. tour--or was the royal couple back in Tokyo? After all, practically all of the smiling and handshaking officials greeting Hirohito and Empress Nagako seemed to be Japanese. And so they were: Americans of Japanese ancestry. Few mainlanders realize the extent to which AJ.A.s, as they are known in Hawaii, have flourished in the islands and now dominate their politics.

Last fall A.J.A.s took over two principal bastions of Caucasian (haole in Hawaiian) power and status. George Ariyoshi was elected the state's Governor, and Fujio ("Fudge") Matsuda was appointed president of the University of Hawaii. Both men are nisei, or second-generation Americans; Ariyoshi's father had been a sumo wrestler in Japan. Today only two non-A.J.A.s hold major elective offices in Hawaii: U.S. Senator Hiram Fong, who is of Chinese ancestry, and Frank Fasi, mayor of Honolulu, an Italian American. A rundown of other important Hawaiian politicians reads like an A.J.A. Who's Who: U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye of Watergate committee fame, Representatives Spark Matsunaga and Patsy Mink, State Senate President John Ushijima, State House Speaker James Wakatsuki. A.J.A.s hold 55% of the seats in the state legislature and six of the eleven places on the University of Hawaii's board of regents.

Not bad for a community that numbers only 238,000 people--28% of the state's population as against 39% for haoles.

Japanese began arriving in Hawaii in the 1880s, when white plantation owners started importing them as farmhands. Even in the 1920s, Royal Mead, a spokesman for sugar planters, told a congressional committee: "The white people, the Americans in Hawaii, are going to dominate and will continue to dominate--there's no question about it." But the Caucasian elite did not figure on the dedication of members of the issei (immigrant) generation to the social mobility of their offspring. Though often illiterate, they hammered home the value of education. "When I was still a kid," recalls Governor Ariyoshi, "I told my father I wanted to be a lawyer. He said, 'Go to it. You can have the shirt off my back.' " Working hard, living frugally, the A.J.A.s speedily swapped plantation toil for small farms, mom-and-pop shops and city jobs. By the early '30s, almost half had Hawaiian bank accounts and almost 200 were dentists and doctors.

Heavily Decorated. Then came Pearl Harbor. A.J.A.s in public life withdrew rather than incur the wrath of the haoles. In huge numbers, the younger nisei volunteered for military service. They were rebuffed at first. But in 1942, thanks in part to the intercession of the late Governor John Burns, then a police officer serving as liaison between the FBI and the A.J.A.s, 7,500 were inducted and shipped to Europe. Half of them were killed or wounded; their units were heavily decorated. The proud survivors returned home and went to college on the G.I. Bill. A new professional class was born.

Meanwhile, John Burns began building a Democratic Party coalition of labor, A.J.A.s and other minorities. In 1954 Burns and his Democrats swept the haole Republican-controlled state legislature. Over the years, the A.J.A.s broadened their political base and helped Burns win the Governor's residence three times. The community as a whole prospered. Still no individual A.J.A. could even begin to match the wealthiest of the islands' 35,000 Chinese Americans, who are gifted entrepreneurs and speculators; at the same time, most of the top corporate posts remain in haole hands. But for many A.J.A.s, what mattered most was their rising influence and acceptability, symbolized in 1968 when the Pacific Club in Honolulu, long the exclusive domain of the haole ruling class, opened its doors to Japanese Americans.

How long can the A.J.A.s' political power endure? Today they account for almost 40% of all Hawaii's registered voters, but that percentage should shrink gradually as more and more mainland whites, Samoans and Filipinos migrate to the islands. In any case, A.J.A. politicians have found it necessary to play down their ethnic appeal, both as a balm to non-Japanese and in recognition of the fact that many A.J.A.s, especially young ones, are disinclined to vote on ethnic lines. "There is always this thing about how so-and-so is the first Japanese to become such-and-such," Carl Takamura, a young sansei (third-generation) state legislator, told TIME Los Angeles Bureau Chief Jess Cook. "It doesn't have meaning any more. The A.J.A. kids identify first with the Hawaiian life-style and culture and only secondarily with the particular ethnic group."

No Banzais. That was plainly evident during Hirohito's sojourn in the islands. The issei were excited--so much so that a protocol committee felt the need to urge them not to shout organized banzais at the royal motorcade. The nisei, however, were less curious. What about the sansei and yonsei (fourth-generation A.J.A.s)? Says Dennis Ogawa, associate professor of American studies at the University of Hawaii: "They think it's nice, but a lot of them would rather see Muhammad Ali."

But Japanese identity is by no means dead among the A.J.A.s. Many sansei, including Governor Ariyoshi's daughter Lynn, go to study in Japan. Traditional family New Year's fetes and a summertime harvest celebration called O ban are alive and well, even among the young. Numerous picnics held by members of various kens (groups of families tracing their lineage to specific prefectures in Japan) are common in Honolulu's Ala Moana park.

The A.J.A.s' near monopoly on top political offices will not last indefinitely.

Says craggy-faced George Ariyoshi: "At some point, the pendulum starts swinging back in the other direction." The economic outlook is hazy. New job openings in some fields traditionally favored by A.J.A.s, such as teaching and the civil service, have grown scarce.

That means that the sansei and yonsei must find some new and realistic aspirations that are different from their fathers' go-for-broke assault on Hawaii's civic heights. Many of those unwilling to give up their professional ambition will have to overcome reluctance to leave the haven of Hawaii and join Japanese Americans competing in the larger mainland society. Others may choose quality of life over personal advancement, possibly even turning to blue-collar occupations traditionally shunned by the nisei. It may take time for new goals to take shape, but for now, the confidence of the younger A.J.A.s seems wholly unimpaired. As a pidgin English poem written by a sansei goes, "Ma name Ameriken, ma face Japanee/ So wat! As up to me/ To be free an make it in Hawaii."

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