I spent the past weekend in the Puna district where I had lived a couple of my most important forma Give years. I visited Pahoa where I met old friends and made new ones. I was happy to see the people more prosperous and independent. It. hurt me, however, to see workers and their families living in the same old plantation houses, unattractive and dilapidated on the outside. What a contrast it is to see and feel the warm and homelike atmosphere inside these shacks to which the workers return after a hard day's labor.
And what a contrast these houses are to the mansion in which Manager Frank Burns lives. I was told Burns remarked that he doesn't care to live in his "stable" which is too big and too troublesome to clean. The manager’s “stable” is a huge building, standing high, with a new coat of paint, within a spacious, neatly kept lawn.
Manager Burns would rather have, the talk goes, a more compact, modern-type house. His house is a carry-over from the old days when the plantation bosses felt like kings among slaves. Manager Burns, of course, would not put up his family in houses the like of which you find in Camps 2 or 6 at Pahoa, or at eight-and-a-half -mile or nine-and-a-half-mile at Olaa.
Union Brings New Outlook On Life
The change in the outlook and attitude of people, for example at Pahoa, gave me encouragement and happiness. I met old friends like Estanislao Galopon and Antonio Agmata, whom I knew 20 years ago. I was then a store clerk in Pahoa, and I noticed they bought egg plant, beans, onions and bagaong during the off season. They had no choice but to buy the cheapest food that would fill their stomachs.
Then, when cutting season came around, they bought eggs and meat, but sparingly. Today, the workers are freer to the extent that they have more money to spend for food, household needs, clothing or entertainment. And you hear them talk of their "union."
Workers Battered Down Artificial Wall Of Suspicion and Disunity
Daniel Gallardo of Camp 2, Pahoa, is still a most friendly and thoughtful person, and he has grown tremendously in stature through his participation in the union. I remember delivering kerosene rice and food packages to his room in the barracks-like camp house. He used to ask me how much I made on the WPA project where I worked part-time about 30 hours a week. When I said I made more than twice his pay, he used to shake his head. He worked harder than I did and was exhausted at the end of the day. But the idea of a "union" to elevate living standards never entered our discussions two decades ago.
Twenty years ago the president of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association was saying that laborers imported from the Orient were no different from jute bags brought from India in which to sack sugar.
Common workers, were regarded as lowly creatures then.
Today, the workers have won dignity, respect and decency and then social outlook has changed.
The conduct and attitude of employers have helped to bring about this change. Older Filipinos, Japanese and Portuguese and the younger elements are closely knit and they have battered down the artificial dividing wall of suspicion and disunity put up by the employers. And you hear workers speak of a "Filipino brother" and not "bayau" which was used in former times. The union has eliminated to a large extent the poison of prejudice and hate instilled by the employers.
How strong are people united to improve their living standards and to win independence and human decency!
Yearning for a Better Life Motivates Change
I thought of all these things as I returned from my trip to Puna. And since I am writing about my China experience in my column, I thought of the struggles of the Chinese people and of the two years I spent in their country. In both places in China as well as in Buna, changes have taken place during the past 20 years, although the scope varies. In China, under the new government, the farmers won title to the land they cultivate and they live much better now than under Chang Kai-shek. Here in Hawaii, the paternalistic and semi-feudal setup of the old plantation system has undergone social changes since the workers organized themselves into the ILWU.
The yearning for a better life is in everyone and the privileged few who live off the sweat and toil of the great majority of workers use pressures, bribes, force and violence and deceit to keep down the people and maintain the status quo.
As big employers try hard to keep changes from taking place in their economic relationship with, workers, so do they attempt to keep the status quo of colonialism and semi- colonialism abroad.
China of the past was a profitable exploiting ground for the British, the U. S. and Japanese industrialists and big businessman and the leaders of these governments kept military garrisons there to discourage movements for people's nationalism and independence.
Statement On Paper Without Follow-Through
After the last war the U. S. tried to control China, through the puppet Chiang Kai-shek, who is corrupt and. weak and manageable. The people opposed this stratagem and in an anti-civil war coalition led by the Yenan government, defeated a U. S. plan to seat Chiang in the saddle through political and military support.
When Chiang showed every element of weakness, Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley, who supported him wholeheartedly, resigned. Then, on December 15, 1945, President Truman made a policy statement that said:
"The United States is cognizant that the present Nationalist Government of China is a one-party government and believes that peace, unity and democratic reform in China will be furthered if the basis of the government is broadened to include other political elements in the country . . . United States support will not extend to United States military intervention to influence the course of any Chinese internal strife . . . And as China moves toward peace and unity along the lines described above, the United States would be prepared to assist the National Government in every reasonable way . . ."
Students Beaten by Chiang's Gendarmes
The day this statement was made the President sent General George C. Marshall to China to mediate between Yenan and Chungking. And when he arrived in Shanghai, several thousand, students marched toward the airport to welcome him and to ask him to help bring peace rather than civil war in China. The students were side-tracked, beaten and their leaders were jailed by Chiang's gendarmes. The gendarmes/quickly gathered another group to welcome General Marshall, but without the anti-civil war and peace slogans. On that day, I went around Shanghai to gather the story of the beating up.
The demand for peace was popular. The President's statement of non-support to Chiang until peace, unity and democratic reform took place in China, meant practically nothing, for the U. S. kept supplying and training Chiang's army, navy and air force. Peace-loving Chinese were all concerned. The Marshall mission was bound to fail.
Just before I was separated from the army in China, I made a trip to Chungking to report my observations to General Marshall. He was not a Hurley — bombastic and egotistical--but quiet, always formulating his short, precise questions with care. — He drew you out and listened.
Once as a Chinese waiter came to the table, the general motioned to me with his hand to stop talking. As the waiter walked away, he motioned for me to continue. One of the waiters there was the chief waiter at the U. S. enlisted men's mess hall during the war, and I had always suspected him as a Tai Li agent. He stood around the dining room tables, apparently picking up information.
Beginning of the Cold War
When I flew back to Shanghai, I arrived there right after the GI we-want-to-go-home demonstration which greeted Secretary of War Patterson. A usually well-informed Chinese mentioned to me that after Secretary Patterson's departure, General Wedemeyer made a most significant statement to his staff.
According to this Chinese source, the general had said that President Truman and Secretary of States Byrnes were very much concerned with the spread of communism in the world and that U. S. troops were in China to keep it from spreading there. If our troops did not remain in China, we would be paying lip service to the UN. Furthermore, the success, of Marshall's mission depended on the presence of American forces in China.
I checked up with American officers and discovered the Chinese had the correct information. I believed the Kuomintang already had this juicy intelligence. If they believed it they would not take Marshall's mediation seriously. They would depend on U. S. support, for Chiang and his clique believed that the U. S. needed ah alliance with the Kuomintang in carrying out a "get tough with Russia policy. And in a war between the U. S. and the Soviet Union which Chiang evidently wanted he felt he could crush the Yenan-led opposition. At least the Kuomintang leaders expected the U. S. to help them to defeat Yenan.
The Military Brass Hats Gnashed Their Teeth
The GIs wanted no part in a civil war, and they had demonstrated. A few days later, on January 13 and 14, tens of thousands of students carrying placards passed in front of the U. S. Army headquarters, shouting; "Stop civil war!" "We want peace!" and "Lonely GIs, go home!"
I watched one parade from the G-2 office. A colonel told us that instructions had gone out that U.S. ships in the harbor would sound their sirens in case of "trouble." The sirens were to be the signal for U. S. servicemen to rush to the headquarters building.
On January 15 another 100,000, this time workers, marched the same route, shouting the same slogans. This demonstration made the U. S. military brass hats gnash their teeth in helplessness and seething anger.