Page 140 of Hawaii


  “I’ll do that for you, Dad,” Noelani said, adding her lipstick to the collection.

  Hoxworth studied the victorious senator for a moment and asked wryly, “How is it none of you smart young fellows are Republicans?”

  “You never invited us,” Shig replied with a nervous laugh.

  In distinct tones that many could overhear, Hoxworth said, “Well, I want it on record this time, Senator Sakagawa. I’m inviting you to join the board of Whipple Oil. I would be proud to work with a man like you.”

  The crowd gasped, and Shigeo replied, “On the morning after I introduce my land-reform bill, I’ll join you. That is, supposing you still want me.”

  “You’d be foolish to accept before,” Hoxworth said, and with this the proud, lonely man, descendant of the missionaries and owner of the islands, excused himself from a celebration where he was not wholly at ease. When he was gone, Shig’s friends cried, “My God! He asked a Japanese to join his board,” but Noelani said, “That’s not important. Look! He gave Shig a maile lei. Coming from my father that’s better than a crown.”

  I can speak with a certain authority about these matters, because I participated in them. I knew these Golden Men: the lyric beachboy Kelly Kanakoa; the crafty Chinese banker Hong Kong Kee; and the dedicated Japanese politician Shigeo Sakagawa. I was there when they became vital parts of the new Hawaii.

  It was I who engineered the coalition that defeated Senator Sakagawa’s radical land reform. It was I who warned Noelani Janders against the needless folly of falling in love with a Japanese boy, and I told Shigeo Sakagawa frankly that he would damage his career if he allowed it; for in an age of Golden Men it is not required that their bloodstreams mingle, but only that their ideas clash on equal footing and remain free to cross-fertilize and bear new fruit.

  So at the age of fifty-six I, Hoxworth Hale, have discovered that I, too, am one of those Golden Men who see both the West and the East, who cherish the glowing past and who apprehend the obscure future; and the things I have written of in this memoir are very close to my heart.

  GENEALOGICAL CHARTS

  BY JAMES A. MICHENER

  Tales of the South Pacific

  The Fires of Spring

  Return to Paradise

  The Voice of Asia

  The Bridges at Toko-Ri

  Sayonara

  The Floating World

  The Bridge at Andau

  Hawaii

  Report of the Country Chairman

  Caravans

  The Source

  Iberia

  Presidential Lottery

  The Quality of Life

  Kent State: What Happened and Why

  The Drifters

  A Michener Miscellany: 1950–1970

  Centennial

  Sports in America

  Chesapeake

  The Covenant

  Space

  Poland

  Texas

  Legacy

  Alaska

  Journey

  Caribbean

  The Eagle and the Raven

  Pilgrimage

  The Novel

  James A. Michener’s Writer’s Handbook

  Mexico

  Creatures of the Kingdom

  Recessional

  Miracle in Seville

  This Noble Land: My Vision for America

  The World Is My Home

  with A. Grove Day

  Rascals in Paradise

  with John Kings

  Six Days in Havana

  About the Author

  JAMES A. MICHENER, one of the world’s most popular writers, was the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Tales of the South Pacific, the best-selling novels Hawaii, Texas, Chesapeake, The Covenant, and Alaska, and the memoir The World Is My Home. Michener served on the advisory council to NASA and the International Broadcast Board, which oversees the Voice of America. Among dozens of awards and honors, he received America’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1977, and an award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 1983 for his commitment to art in America. Michener died in 1997 at the age of ninety.

 


 

  James A. Michener, Hawaii

  (Series: # )

 

 


 

 
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