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In Part 6 of the novel, Michener introduces the concept of “the Golden Man.” He defines this person as an amalgam of Hawaii’s varied genetic mix, but he stresses the fact that this composite man is primarily characterized by the way he thinks:
And it is interesting to note that none of these, in a direct sense, owed his golden quality to racial intermixtures. His awareness of the future and his rare ability to stand at the conflux of the world he owed to his understanding of the movements around him (1244).
The narrator then explains to the reader that he will be describing four individuals who all share this particular mental ability. He begins with Hoxworth Hale. In 1946, at age 48, he is at the peak of his intellectual powers and is still the head of The Fort. He notices the changes that are occurring around him despite his determination to keep Hawaii exactly as it is. Primarily, he wishes to keep unions out of the islands, and he is equally determined to keep mainland businesses from competing with island interests.
In the same year, Hong Kong Kee grows worried about the debt the family is carrying. Nyuk Tsin advises him to keep on acquiring real estate, still sure that a post-war tourist boom is about to begin. Hong Kong is quite surprised when he is approached by an Irish businessman from Boston named McLafferty. He represents a mainland store chain called Gregory’s, and he wants Hong Kong to begin secretly acquiring leases to prime real estate in Honolulu. He is especially interested in the property currently occupied by H & H headquarters. Knowing the astronomical commissions that he could earn as a result of managing this transaction, Hong Kong agrees.
Meanwhile, Captain Shigeo Sakagawa has been stationed in Japan, acting as a translator for the American forces managing the country’s post-war rehabilitation. While there, he becomes inspired to help the labor movement in Hawaii just as the United States is helping Japanese peasants to increase their prosperity. Back in America, Shigeo earns a Harvard Law degree, which he plans to put to use in Hawaii. He then sets up a law practice in Honolulu with McLafferty, who has brought mainland stores to the islands.
Meanwhile, Shigeo’s brother Goro helps to organize a union. Under his leadership, laborers at Malama Sugar are the first to strike. Other workers follow suit, grinding the Hawaiian economy to a halt for six months. Eventually, Hoxworth Hale and his cronies are forced to negotiate. Unexpectedly, after the incursions of mainland businesses and the introduction of labor unions, the local economy grows at a staggering rate.
The fourth Golden Man discussed in this segment is Kelly Kanaka. He works as a beach boy and surf instructor for some of the island hotels but specializes as a male escort for rich, bored divorcees from the mainland. In reality, his name is Kelolo, and he is directly descended from the original kings and queens of Hawaii. For the moment, he is content to idle away his life by playing music, gambling, and enjoying his affairs with rich tourists. His mother, Malama, still owns the rambling estate that was passed down through the Hoxworth line. The property is worth millions of dollars but is held in trust. Malama can’t sell it because she’s burdened with back taxes. Like her son, she also seems content to enjoy life on a day-to-day basis, nostalgically reliving the good old days with her many lady friends. However, changes are on the horizon for both of the Kanakas.
After the war, Goro returns home to Hawaii with a liberated Japanese bride named Akemi, whom his tradition-bound parents have trouble accepting. It takes very little time for Akemi to recognize that Hawaiian values aren’t at all in accord with her literate upbringing. In a few years, she divorces Goro and returns to Japan.
Within the Kee family, Nyuk Tsin figures out yet another money-making scheme. She advises Hong Kong to start buying up failing businesses that can be rolled into profitable ones for tax benefits. As this strategy pays off, the men of The Fort realize that they’ve been quietly outmaneuvered by Hong Kong Kee. Recognizing the inevitability of change, they invite him to take a seat on their board. He is also appointed as trustee of the estate where Malama lives. Hong Kong says that within a few years, he can reverse the old woman’s tax burden completely. During this meeting, her son Kelly arrives and strikes up an acquaintance with Hong Kong’s daughter Judy, who is a musician. She and Kelly soon begin performing together in nightclubs and eventually create their own record label. When the partnership turns romantic, Hong Kong is appalled that his Chinese daughter wants to marry a Hawaiian. When he tells this news to the other board members of The Fort, they sympathize and share their own stories of rebellious offspring who marry as they like.
Once US citizenship is offered to Asians, Shigeo urges his parents to take the qualifying exam, but they refuse. Instead, they move back to Japan. In the Kee family, Nyuk Tsin is eager to become a citizen, and she passes the exam. She receives her papers at the age of 106 and dies shortly afterward. The Sakagawas find that they don’t enjoy life back in Japan, so they return to Hawaii. However, they are adamant that they don’t wish to become citizens and still consider themselves Japanese. By this time, Shigeo runs for public office as a Democrat. He is elected as a US territorial senator, and the white men of The Fort now fear that the Japanese are on the verge of controlling Hawaii. Worse still, Hoxworth Hale’s daughter Noelani helps Shigeo’s campaign. Hoxworth himself recognizes the inevitable march of progress and offers Shigeo a seat on the board of Whipple Oil.
The novel concludes with the revelation that the narrator of the entire book has been Hoxworth Hale. While he admits to a longing to maintain the status quo, unlike his compatriots, he recognizes the inevitability of change. In fact, he understands that the clash of cultures in Hawaii is what best stimulates its growth. He says, “In an age of Golden Men it is not required that their bloodstreams mingle, but only that their ideas clash on equal footing and remain free to cross-fertilize and bear new fruit” (1441).
The book’s final segment consists of an examination of the lives of four men. They are meant to illustrate the narrator’s principle of “the Golden Man,” who is able to envision future changes and adapt to them. These character profiles circle back to the theme of Hawaii and its people–Indigenous and non—being a point of Cultural Crossroads. Hoxworth Hale, as narrator, uses the metaphor of cross-pollination creating robust, hybridized fruit to describe the intermingling of cultures in Hawaii creating a well-rounded, strong population. Though the characters over the long course of the story face countless hardships, the general message of the novel is that differences improve a populace more than they harm it.
Over the century and a half in which most of the novel’s action takes place, Resistance to Change has been replaced by a gradual acceptance of progress. As a result, four individuals are positioned to demonstrate how adaptation has allowed them to move beyond old traditions and narrow ways of thinking.
Hoxworth Hale is the first example of the Golden Man principle. His ancestry is partially Hawaiian, so intermarriage between the ethnicities in the islands has already become a part of his family history. Hoxworth is different from the rest of the men who rule The Fort because he can recognize the inevitability of change. He sees the arrival of labor unions, Democrats, and Asian upstarts in the local financial markets and recognizes that an infusion of new blood isn’t a bad thing. He even goes so far as to invite Hong Kong Kee to join the governing board of The Fort and to manage the estate still owned by Malama Kanakoa.
For his part, Hong Kong proves to be an astute financier. Taking Nyuk Tsin’s advice, he begins to cultivate goodwill with Shigeo Sakagawa and create a cultural crossroad between the Chinese and Japanese communities in Hawaii. Shigeo is instrumental in establishing mainland stores in Hawaii to give the local merchants some competition. Shigeo is not only a war hero, but he gets a Harvard Law degree and helps establish labor unions for the plantation workers. He ends up running for territorial senator and wins the race even though his father is still devoted to his Japanese heritage.
Kelly Kanakoa brings the story full circle since he is a direct descendent of Teroro and Marama, the Polynesians who first colonized Hawaii. While he projects the attitude of a laid-back islander, he is highly educated and an accomplished singer and musician. His partnership with Hong Kong’s daughter scandalizes the Chinese community, but the duo creates a successful record label. Their artistic and romantic union suggests that a hybrid identity has emerged in the islands that is shared by everyone who identifies themselves as Hawaiian, whether white, Polynesian, Chinese, or Japanese.
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By James A. Michener