I have had some wine.

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In addition there were Japanese interment camps in Hawaii, a fact that the US government denied at least until the 1980's. I know that because a friend of mine's grandfather-in-law was in one.

Yes, there were some areas where various races did mingle and much more so than in the contiguous U.S. but racial identity and limitations were still in place.

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On the other hand, Maxine Hong Kingston documents that Chinese men were allowed into the dime-a-dance places in New York City and danced with "blonde demonesses".

Hawaii is a nice place and definitely has a wonderfully ethnically mixed population, but to oversimplify the suffering of its people of color over the time from the advent of the missionaries based on one photograph from the 1940's is sad to me.

For example, the original culture of ethnic Hawaiians has barely been preserved in a form truer than almost parody. Ethnic Hawaiians that refused to leave areas that whites wanted for agriculture were rounded up and sent to leper colonies at Molokai, thus guaranteeing their death.

Chinese and Japanese came as emigrant laborers and worked hard to make it into the fabric of the greater society.

And again in the picture this is one USO club in a war zone. At the time Honolulu off the military bases was more like today's Bangkok where native Hawaiians and those of mixed race worked in the sex industry to make enough money to buy the inflated necessaries of life.

You would never see an openly gay man OR woman at that "Rainbow Club".

Today's Hawai'i is a product of its past just like any other place. Could Barack Obama have come from a different state? I certainly hope so. He came to national prominence in the very heartland of America and for that I think we should all be thankful.

t

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I'm like, how could one seriously pin that on one's head and walk out of the house with a straight face? And they were all the rage!

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