I recently picked up Lee A. Tonouchi’s Oriental Faddah and Son as part of my deep dive into what it means to be Uchinanchu. An interesting study from the cultural topics Tonouchi covers with his poetry to the fact that the entire book is written in Hawai’i Creole. An advocate for the dialect locally known as Pidgin, Tonouchi writes his books this way to draw attention to and change perceptions of. Known as “Da Pidgen Guerilla,” Tonouchi preserves a way of life in his poetry that reflect what it means to be Oriental and Okinawan in Hawaii.
As a third generation Okinawan myself, his poems allow me to peek into the life my mother, also born in Hawaii. When she was eight she spoke Japanese, Pidgen and Okinawan but not much English. From Hawaii she moved to Alaska. I thought I had culture shock when I moved to Tennessee… at least I could understand what the bullies were saying to me. My mother would have gone from the tropics to a chilled and barren place: strange language, food and family in one blow.
Reading Tonouchi makes me jealous that I didn’t get to know that side of my family more. While I did get to experience this on visits, it wasn’t something I was immersed in. I got a watered down version of this family, and I’m grateful to Oriental Faddah and Son for sharing his so I can have a more potent taste of what I’ve missed.
One of my favorite poems is “Palms Face Up,” speaking of hajichi tattoos on the back of his grandmother’s hands. These line sum up why my research has made me so angry:
if dey caught you speaking / Uchinānchu / you had for wear /
da hogen fuda sign / around your neck / as your punishment.
Imagine ridiculing a child for speaking his language. Hopefully, you can’t. We all know how damaging it is to a child, and later a society, when adults are the bullies. I’d like to think this could never happen now…
Not all his poems arouse anger, however. Humor, love and pride are evident as well. Above all, Tonouchi shares what it means to be an Okinawan American growing up on the islands… not the same islands with beaches of star-shaped sand and groves of living myth… but islands just the same.
I really enjoyed every aspect of Oriental Faddah and Son by Lee A. Tonouchi. A challenge to read in both language and emotional impact, it’s a work of both literary and cultural significance. You can find this book on Amazon here. affiliate link