Japanese Mormons

In Laie, Oahu, about an hour north of Honolulu is the Polynesian Cultural Center. It is a very popular tourist attraction, showcasing island "village" life and, in a nightly extravaganza the songs and dances of some of the key islands comprising Polynesia, including Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa. Of course it's bogus, but among boguses this ain't so bad. The songs are beautiful, and they are not translated and there are no subtitles. And the dances are mesmerizing. Certainly far better than the bogus tourist luaus. O bon dieu. The most uncivilized pack of cliches. A potlatch des banalités. Ugh. Disgusting.

Visitors to the PCC also seem to be much more mixed. On the one hand it's a version of Disneyland's It's a Small World, but also not. The curious thing about the PCC is that it is run by Mormons. That came as a shock to me. And it also made me appreciate the program more because I expected some kind of teleology in which the Church of the Latter Day Saints comes to bring light to the peoples of Polynesia. Thankfully, there was none. Not a single reference to Christianity or even Westerners at all. Appreciable, because the LDS Church is famous for its unflagging missionary work, and here in the Philippines that iconic pair of white boys in short sleeves and rep ties marching some dusty provincial trail or chaotic urban street has become a familiar apparition.

The PCC was established in 1963 as a means of allowing students of the nearby Brigham Young University to support themselves through school. Young (1801-1877) was one of the pioneers of the LDS Church; he founded Salt Lake City, and helped lead the settlement of the Western United States. The students staff the PCC. They act as guides, bus tables at the grand buffet that precedes the show, man the ticket booths, and so on. Presumably, they are not among the performers, choreographers, producers.

The curious thing is that many of the students are Japanese. According to one survey, Japanese Mormons have doubled in number since 1980. What leads the Japanese to Mormonism is a bafflement. Christianity itself has been so alien. In their Samoan skirts, with their slim figures, with their refinement and politesse the Japanese men of the PCC are strikingly attractive (photo above, click to enlarge).

The show "Breath of Life" shows in dance and song the unique cultures of each Polynesian place, but also narrates the migration which led to a commonality. It remains a bafflement still how Polynesian peoples created this commonality over an area that stretches millions of miles of open sea.

Polynesians are said to have originated thousands of years ago from Southeast Asia. It takes about a dozen hours to get from Manila to Honolulu on an airplane. Polynesians navigated the almost incomprehensible vastness of the sea by aid of starlight, the migration of birds, the pattern of waves, the winds' rhythms around atolls.

The Mormons honor Brigham Young, but he is controversial to the larger world. He was a practitioner of Mormon polygamy; he had 55 wives and around the same number of children. He is also linked to a massacre in which 120 men, women and children were killed. Recently, Mormons caught the public glare when polygamous households were brought to light in the media, and allegations were made of child abuse. Some of the houses the media showed were mansions housing several wives and all their children.