Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu: Honolulu Record Digitization Project
Honolulu Record, Volume 10 No. 20, Thursday, December 12, 1957 p. 1
Mitsuyuki Kido Finds Japanese More Carefree Than Issei in Territory
The Japanese people's attitude toward life is far different from that of the Issei in Hawaii who came from Japan years ago, according to Sen. Mitsuyuki Kido who recently returned from a trip to the Orient.
"In Japan the people live for today," Kido said, and they are not obsessed by the urge to save for the future, He recalled, that the Issei, including his parents, were frugal, always thinking of putting away something for the future.
People enjoy life in Japan, travel extensively and "the intourist business is terrific," he said. Kido said that Japanese probably "live for today" because they have experienced catastrophes like the earthquake and World War II. Furthermore, he observed, the Japanese live on a low subsistence level, and they try to make life as enjoyable as possible.
He visited Japan in 1950, but he was not impressed by their "live for today" attitude at that time. In 1950, he recalls, people looked shabby, with old and patched, clothing.
"This tune they wore nice suits. They seemed more prosperous outwardly," he said.
Although it is reported that things are cheap in Japan this does not hold true for tourists, he explained. Fairly decent hotels charge from $8 to $10 a day, without food. Food prices compare favorably with those charged by Princess Kaiulani Hotel, lie said.
Kido visited Hong Kong and he says he was appalled by the overcrowding and stark poverty. In Asia, he said, the key problem concerning the mass of people seems to be the raising of the standard of living for human decency, and not ideology.
Appreciation of Finer Musk Needs to be Cultivated
Last week we discussed the present state of pure symphony, particularly the unsatisfactory musical development and its effect on the composition of the orchestra.
All of this, you'll recall, was ' provoked by an interview of George Barati, symphony director, with a Star-Bulletin reporter.
We will now discuss Mr. Barati's second important point— lack of funds and disappointing audience participation as a handicap which must be removed before Honolulu's symphony orchestra moves into front ranks with orchestras in cities of similar size.
Mr. Barati said, in connection with the fund drive this year and attendance at the concerts: "Not enough people realize their responsibilities . . . people don't realize the symphony has a very important function. However, the growth of the audience has been most gratifying."
First of all, one can say, "You can't tell us what to like. We'll listen to what we want, be it the classics, opera, rock 'n' roll, progressive jazz, or what have you."
To which we answer: "Certainly you do. And you can pay what you want to get what you want. Everyone to his taste."
However, the matter goes deeper than that, in our opinion. If we are agreed that the symphony is an important part of our cultural life and is something we should support not only through our contributions, but also through our attendance we must first find out why no money is forthcoming from the larger community and why the concerts are not more fully attended.
To come back to the basic issue —people must first like the music that is played by the orchestra and like it well enough to go to concerts' and contribute their $1.00 when fund drives are conducted. If they don't like the music, they won't contribute their attendance and money.
A lot of us who have grown up with Western music think that it's the only worthwhile and great music; we haven't heard anything else to any great extent which would make us think that there's anything better or finer in this world.
Meanwhile, there are millions of people in the world who've never heard this kind of music and don't give two hoots if they never hear it.
We've become so familiar with Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Chopin and the other giants of Western music, that whenever anyone else appears on the scene, we listen with a bit of misgiving.
It hasn't been too long ago that programming Stravinsky, Cope-land, and some of the others with their atonal, somewhat cacophonous music seemed almost a heresy.
On the other hand, there are a whole lot of us whose knowledge and appreciation of Western' music date back only one generation. Heretofore it's only been slight familiarity with the music of the Orient,' which one must admit, had never been too widely known in this hinterland.
After all, not all of us are born into families of musicians or where music is almost second nature. Also, riot all of us had the good fortune of having a 7th grade teacher leave us starry-eyed and shaken with her stories of the tempestuous Beethoven or the drunken Moussorgsky.
Is it any surprise then, that most of us don't dig long hair music?
If we agree that the music as played by our symphony orchestra is worthwhile, beautiful, and great, what can we do to make our people like it?
First, there, must be more music education in our schools, not only in terms of Western Music, but music of' the other parts of the world.
As children, we react most responsively to music, whether it be in the sound of rain falling on the roof, or the banging on an old pot. Is it any wonder that many of us react in the way to the strong rhythms of jazz and rock-n-roll. Music is primarily an emotional response; "secondarily an intellectual one.
Which raises another question —how about some consumer pressure on radio stations to give us more fine music on our programs?
(To Be Continued)
It is only common humanity to feed the hungry. If our hospitals are too big, too complex, too impersonal to do these small kindnesses for the sick, something is very wrong.