‘Yellow Ass’ Allegation Roils Hawaii Government
Native Hawai’ian leader says Inouye doesn’t care enough
By Jason Ma

With an Asian Pacific Islander majority, a Japanese American U.S. senator and a U.S. representative, a Native Hawai’ian senator and a Filipino American governor, the state’s one-million-plus residents don’t see the type of racism that has festered in big cities on the mainland.

That’s not to say that Hawaii’s residents are in a racism-free state. It’s just that the conflicts are less black and white ... and more yellow on yellow, fomented by a long-standing, unwritten hierarchy that for generations has festered discontent between Filipino Americans and Native Hawai’ians and residents of Chinese and Japanese descent.

The tensions and reactions can be incendiary. Angry at U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye’s perceived lack of action in pushing the U.S. government to apologize to Native Hawai’ians for having annexed Hawai’i 106 years ago, Office of Hawai’ian Affairs trustee Mililani Trask vowed to “kick Inouye’s yellow ass,” according to another trustee’s aide who said he was on the comment’s receiving end.

Trask denied on Nov. 24 having made the remark to fellow board member Collette Machado’s aide, Kekai Perry, outside the men’s bathroom two weeks before. She accused the Democratic senator and Machado, whom she called his “whore,” of “fabricating a press smear.”

Machado did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

OHA Trustee Haunani Apoliona emphasized that Trask’s alleged comments about Inouye do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the rest of the board. “Trask is not speaking for the Board of Trustees. There’s a lot of Hawai’ians she’s not speaking for,” she said.

Sandi Skousen, a spokesperson for Inouye, pointed out that throughout 40 years in the Senate and the House, Inouye has voted in favor of all but two of the 98 bills that came up regarding Native Hawai’ians. The two he voted against contained unrelated riders that he opposed, Skousen explained.

“I am deeply saddened...I have spent most of my life doing everything possible to improve the lives and conditions of native Hawaiians,” said Inouye in a written statement last month. “Some old-timers will reveal that it began long before my service in the Congress. I am content that the record will bear this out.”

Inouye expressed disappointment at Trask’s depiction of him as a “one-armed bandit.” The senator lost his right arm while serving in the 442nd regiment in World War II. However, Trask last week reaffirmed her comment, saying that the same arm he lost in battle was supposedly adorned with stolen jewelry acquired during the war.

Trask said she has much more faith in Hawaii’s other U.S. senator, Democrat Dan Akaka, to lead the push for reconciliation. Trask said that since the people of Hawaii, including Native Hawai’ians, rallied around Japanese Americans during their drive to secure an apology and reparations payments for survivors of internment camps, Japanese Americans now have an obligation to reciprocate and help Native Hawai’ians obtain redress.

“The Asian community is going to be given a sterling opportunity to get behind reconciliation,” she said. “They will be judged accordingly. ...There is an obligation to support Native Hawai’ians. We’re going to test the Japanese community.”

Trask noted that Akaka is part Native Hawai’ian, and, according to Akaka’s staff assistant Minnie Yang, also part Chinese American. Trask noted that it was Akaka who authored and introduced the apology resolution in the Senate six years ago. The law, which passed in November 1993, stipulates that the federal government move toward reconciliation, the conditions of which have yet to be determined.

Though Inouye co-sponsored the bill, that has earned him no points with Trask. “Give me a break,” she said, “Any bill that comes out of the same state has co-sponsors. He doesn’t support reconciliation. Inouye is interposing himself in it.”

Akaka defended his Senate colleague. “I am disappointed by the rancor that has brought discord and division to our community,” he said in a statement. For her part, Apoliona noted that the senators work collaboratively, dividing the labor between themselves. “We cannot infer that he didn’t support” the apology, she said. “It’s really a team approach.”

Outside of who said what, the invective itself reveals a potential fault line between the Asian American population of Hawaii -- including Inouye -- and its indigenous inhabitants, who make up about 20 percent of the population.

University of Hawaii ethnic studies professor Marion Kelly said Inouye, while effective in securing money for his state, may have made the state overly dependent on federal largesse.

“Intentionally or unintentionally, Inouye may have made people more dependent on the U.S. -- just providing them with money to do this and that,” said Kelly, who estimated that the senator secures from $5 million to $15 million annually for each of many state programs. “They’ve become very grateful to him. But it doesn’t solve problems.”

The issue, she said, might not even be about ordinary Pacific Islanders or Asian Americans, noting that generations of coexistence has produced thousands of residents of mixed heritage.

“I don’t think they hold anything against Asians,” she said. “It’s power that’s the problem. Inouye’s power brings lots of money. He controls the lives of Hawaiians.”