John A. Burns

17. End of the Rainbow

S·E·V·E·N·T·E·E·N End of the Rainbow IF A STRANGER TO HAWAII had asked Tom Gill and George Ariyoshi what it was like to be lieutenant governor of the State of Hawaii, he or she would have probably assumed from their answers that they had served under different governors.Tom Gill would have told a story of being denied participation in the administration of a man whose motto was “my way or the highway.”George Ariyoshi would have a different story to tell. In 1979, he reminisced about his relationship with Jack Burns: Even before the general election, during the primary election, Jack Burns and I started to do a lot of things together.Every night we would go our separate ways [on the campaign trail, but] we always got together at Washington Place before I went home and we’d talk about what happened during the day. And during the period just before the general election, we started to talk about the things that would happen after the election. And I remember so clearly Jack Burns telling me, . . . “George, I don’t want you to lose your individuality. I want you to remain creative, I want you to come up with ideas and suggestions. If you feel anything, let’s sit down and talk.” And the only thing he would say is that once a decision is made, we all pull together. Therein lay the different experiences of Gill and Ariyoshi as lieutenant governor. Jack Burns saw himself as the captain of a team, and he liked to work with team players. Burns allowed a man’s own light to shine and took pride in the accomplishments of others—as long as they remained loyal to the team. Dan Inouye was a perfect example. Burns never resented Inouye’s leading the ticket on election day, because he felt they were working together in a common cause. From that day in the 283 early 1950s when Dan Aoki and Matsy Takabuki asked Gill to join the Burns team—when Gill responded “Why don’t you join my team?”—it was clear to those who shared Burns’ vision for Hawaii that Gill was no team player.While Ariyoshi was not a part of the Burns inner circle during the early years,Burns recognized in him the qualities of courage,loyalty , and modesty that he liked. When George Ariyoshi finally became a part of the inner circle in 1970, he discovered all the benefits of team membership. As lieutenant governor, Ariyoshi remembered: He used to call me and ask me whether I was free for lunch and I would go out to lunch with him. After that, we would just walk back to the office and he’d ask me if I could stay. . . . And we used to spend hours and hours, sometimes ten hours a day. . . . [Then] we would go from [the state Capitol] to Washington Place and have dinner. . . And I really came to the conclusion that he wanted to get me exposed to the job of being governor. I had a chance to sit through his conferences. . . . I really felt that I went through a tremendous training period watching him address problems. Ariyoshi was no mere “fly on the wall.” As he pointed out in his autobiography , “Right after the 1970 election, [Burns] made me the head of his cabinet. I called all of his cabinet meetings, and I worked closely with the departments.” Bea Burns confirmed the closeness of the relationship between her husband and Ariyoshi. “He liked him,” she recalled. “We all did. But as a lieutenant governor, it was a joy to have somebody [Jack] could trust and that he felt would forward the goals of the administration.” Ariyoshi recalled Bea Burns saying to him, on more than one occasion, “George, you don’t know how good it is to see Governor Burns so relaxed on so many of his trips.” Ariyoshi later talked about how Burns’ trust in him was translated into responsibility. He recalled that between Tom Gill and Tony Hodges,an environmentalist who ran an interesting—if quixotic—campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1970, environmental activism had become a real force in Hawaii. Environmentalists were particularly critical of the sugarcane processing plants on the Hamakua coast of the Big Island. These mills discharged their waste product, called bagasse, directly into the ocean.When Ariyoshi spoke with Burns in the spring of 1971 about the conflict...