There was only one problem: my father was missing. He had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or
grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact. Their stories didn't tell me why he had left. They
couldn't describe what it might have been like had he stayed. Like the janitor, Mr. Reed, or the black girl who churned
up dust as she raced down a Texas road, my father became a prop in someone else's narrative. An attractive prop-the
alien figure with the heart of gold, the mysterious stranger who saves the town and wins the girl-but a prop nonetheless.
I don't really blame my mother or grandparents for this. My father may have preferred the image they created for himindeed,
he may have been complicit in its creation. In an article published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin upon his
graduation, he appears guarded and responsible, the model student, ambassador for his continent. He mildly scolds the
university for herding visiting students into dormitories and forcing them to attend programs designed to promote
cultural understanding-a distraction, he says, from the practical training he seeks. Although he hasn't experienced any
problems himself, he detects self-segregation and overt discrimination taking place between the various ethnic groups
and expresses wry amusement at the fact that "Caucasians" in Hawaii are occasionally at the receiving end of prejudice.
But if his a****sment is relatively clear-eyed, he is careful to end on a happy note: One thing other nations can learn
grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact. Their stories didn't tell me why he had left. They
couldn't describe what it might have been like had he stayed. Like the janitor, Mr. Reed, or the black girl who churned
up dust as she raced down a Texas road, my father became a prop in someone else's narrative. An attractive prop-the
alien figure with the heart of gold, the mysterious stranger who saves the town and wins the girl-but a prop nonetheless.
I don't really blame my mother or grandparents for this. My father may have preferred the image they created for himindeed,
he may have been complicit in its creation. In an article published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin upon his
graduation, he appears guarded and responsible, the model student, ambassador for his continent. He mildly scolds the
university for herding visiting students into dormitories and forcing them to attend programs designed to promote
cultural understanding-a distraction, he says, from the practical training he seeks. Although he hasn't experienced any
problems himself, he detects self-segregation and overt discrimination taking place between the various ethnic groups
and expresses wry amusement at the fact that "Caucasians" in Hawaii are occasionally at the receiving end of prejudice.
But if his a****sment is relatively clear-eyed, he is careful to end on a happy note: One thing other nations can learn