Fear, chaos, terror and latent xenophobia took hold. The Japanese population of Hawaii did not integrate into the mainstream society. It was a two-sided issue with both Japanese and non-Japanese content with the segregation, and each group suspicious of the other. The following is an excerpt from an interview with Mrs. Brown of Lihue discussing one of her diary entries. (Copies of the diary entry are held in the University of Hawaii War Records Depository.) It's not posted to accuse Mrs. Brown of racism, or irrational thinking. She's put down on paper a common sentiment--and she does it with a flair and an attention to detail that brings it home.
December, 1941: Mrs. Brown of Lihue
I made surgical dressing at the Lihue Red Cross all morning and worked at Koloa Red Cross making hospital gowns until 4 p.m. I came home exhausted with the chit chat and rumors. My Jap cook met me and asked if “I go up to store and get ant poison.”
Ordinarily that was a simple enough request but you see we had heard stories as far back as 1940 that the Japs on the island were all set to kill or poison every haole on island the moment the war started.
I didn’t know what to do. If I didn’t get her the ant poison she would know I was afraid of her. We could not lose face. We all pretended to our servants that we trusted them to be loyal Americans. She had been with the family for 18 years.
When I went to bed, I laid myself out—my best night gown. I’d be beautiful in death! I kept waiting for the agonizing death from poison but I finally went to sleep.
Mrs. Brown survived the night and survived the war. I have read nothing regarding the ants in her house, though.
PHOTO: A sake brewery posted both this poster and the one posted on January 9, 2009 to support the anti-rumor campaign.
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