Japanese Americans
find fault with UH

The ethnic studies department has
no Japanese American specialist

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

There are specialists on Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans and native Hawaiians. An African-American specialist also joined the faculty at the University of Hawaii's ethnic studies department last year.

But the second-largest and a politically powerful ethnic group in the state - Japanese Americans - is not represented in the department. The university is not hiring one, despite urging from the Japanese American Citizens League and 28 legislators, because of budget cuts.

The position opened in October after Franklin Odo, an internationally recognized researcher on Japanese in Hawaii, left to become counselor to the provost on Asia-Pacific research and programming at the Smithsonian Institution.

"This is the quintessential penny-wise and pound-foolish," said Odo in a phone interview yesterday. "It's a terrible thing to alienate this group. Even in terms of self-interest, these alumni have the means to provide support and resources."

But Richard Dubanoski, dean of the College of Social Sciences, said he could not hire any new faculty this year, despite 21 unfilled posts, because the college's budget was cut $750,000. The journalism department is short three faculty members, and psychology four and one-half.

Dubanoski said he realizes the ethnic studies post is important, but he cannot say where priorities will fall once he can hire again.

"We have to serve everybody in Hawaii," Dubanoski said. "When students come for a social science education, all areas must be attended to."

President Kenneth Mortimer, in a letter to the Japanese American Citizens League, said officials had to balance overall university needs with budget cuts.

Mortimer added that the American studies and anthropology departments last year added faculty with Japanese-American and Hawaiian-Japanese specialties.

But the president of the Japanese American Citizens League, Clayton Ikei, said he is bothered that the ethnic studies department is not getting the focus it deserves.

"We want an assurance that the position is going to be filled," Ikei said. "It sounds like a nice p.r. (public relations) letter which is not addressing the real issue."

Ibrahim Aoude, chairman of the ethnic studies department, said the faculty members Mortimer referred to in his letter did not cover the same perspectives on the Japanese-American community here, like ethnic roots, history and community relations. Instead they focused on Japan-U.S. relations and cultural aspects like kabuki.

Ethnic studies professors, who consider Japanese Americans the largest study group here because Caucasians are not separated by ethnic roots, also said that by leaving the post unfilled, UH will not stay in the forefront of research in the area. Odo's work was an important factor in getting reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II. He's also researched Okinawans here.

"Ethnic studies needs to be expanded, not gutted," said Aoude, adding that Asian-American studies is one of the fastest-growing academic fields on the mainland. "We're talking about service to the community. The university should be at the forefront."

Dubanoski said the university has been very supportive of the department, which has grown more proportionally than any of the 14 departments in the college.

Ethnic studies started at UH in 1969. By 1995, it had become a department offering a major. Currently 44 students are majoring in ethnic studies, 75 are getting certificates of specialty in the area, and 750 students enroll in the 36 classes offered by the department. Full-time staff members have dropped to seven, from eight last year.

Part-time lecturers are teaching Odo's classes on Japanese in Hawaii and plantation history, some of the most popular choices in the department.

Odo said that until the 1970s, most Asian Americans lived in Hawaii, and most of them were Japanese. Important legal cases that became precedents in race relations took root here, making the state an excellent laboratory for Asian-American studies.

"It's important that they understand their own histories and heritages that allow them to make the best possible choices," Odo said, "about what is kept alive and how to think about the future."