Will the Real Haole Please Stand Up?

Gary Pak, author of The Valley of the Dead Air, is a descendant of immigrants from Korea, making him haole. This is interesting because his writing is a kind of homage to Native Hawaiians and their past. The main conflict in The Valley of the Dead Air is a malodor that settles in the valley following the death of a community elder, Jacob Hookano. The malodor is actually part of a joke being played on the farmers, who are haole themselves, by Native Hawaiians of the past, represented by the soil and Hookano. Pak references the native impression of Hawaii’s annexation with elements throughout his story.

The U.S. government’s swindling of Hawaii is a motif that appears several times. During their conversation about the malodor or hauna, Joseph Correa says to Bobby Ignacio:

“I betchu one day dah gov’ment goin’ come down heah and dey goin’ brag how dey can take dis hauna away. And den they goin’ take ‘em away. But I betchu little while aftah dat, dey goin’ come back and try to ask us for do dem one favor” (p.38).

Correa is a retiree who bases his attitude towards the new Hawaiian government, headed by the Japanese at the time, on what they have done to natives in the past. Two farmers, Darryl Mineda and Earl Fritzhugh, talk about how invaders came and imposed taxes on Hookano’s family as a method of taking away their land when taxes weren’t paid:

“Somebody tol’ me all dah land in dis valley used to be his family’s land, long time ago. Den dah Cox family wen come in and take dah land away from his family. Somet’ing ‘bout Jacob’s family not paying dah land tax or water tax or somet’ing li’ dat, and dah haole wen pay instead” (p.38).

If these examples weren’t clear enough, Pak uses a smooth talking haole salesperson to bring his message home. This salesperson slips up and says, “They say that if you can’t see it, then you can surely smell it” (p.40). The character, Harriet Sugimura, asks him exactly who’s saying it belonged to since it isn’t a Hawaiian saying. The story leaves the reader to understand that it’s an American saying, and it refers to the smokescreen created by Americans during the takeover process.

- Francis Miguelino