EAST MEETS WEST

[Music] that football game over there just evolved after classes let out on a hot afternoon it might be happening anywhere but for one difference one of the players comes from the island of truck another is samoan a third comes from nepal and one of them used to live in trenton new jersey that song drifting on the afternoon air is from thailand what do football and thai songs have in common we'll find out today when discovery visits honolulu hawaii for a first-hand look at the east-west center [Music] discovery 68 the award-winning program for young people with bill owen and virginia gibson hi and welcome to discovery today discovery has traveled over 5 000 miles for a return visit to the state of hawaii when we were here earlier in the year we took a close-up look at the islands themselves and how they were formed we discovered that hawaii was the only state in the union built entirely on the tops of mountains and that most of the land was formed in fiery outbursts of volcanic activity that looked like this [Music] now much of the major volcanic activity has died down but occasionally there's still an eruption and if the lava happens to reach the sea as it did in 1964 a little more land is added to our new estate so the state of hawaii keeps growing and probably will as long as volcanoes continue to erupt hawaii is made up of eight principal islands running from north to south they are kawaii niihau oahu molokai lanai kahalave maui and the big island of hawaii the island we're on today is oahu and the city is honolulu [Music] there's the famous beach at waikiki and over there diamond head which every visitor sees when he approaches by sea or air honolulu is a busy cosmopolitan city with many famous sites and points of interest but what we're especially interested in today is something that's going on right here at the main campus of the university of hawaii it's located in honolulu's manoa valley the 50th state university is unusual enough to begin with after all it's the only one built on an island of volcanic rock but in may of 1961 lyndon b johnson as vice president dedicated the site of that cluster of buildings down there and with that ceremony the east west center was officially born the administration building is named for thomas jefferson and the library for abraham lincoln the theater is dedicated to the memory of john fitzgerald kennedy there's this garden from japan designed in the shape of the japanese language character that means heart this pavilion is a gift from thailand the buildings shine before oahu's green mountains and under her blue skies but what makes the center throb and makes the whole idea work is the vitality of the people who come here they come from all over asia and the pacific to promote better relations and understanding between the united states and the nations of asia and the pacific normally there are about 600 students here from some 30 to 35 countries including the united states [Music] marine from new jersey he's one of something under 200 americans at the east west center it's set up here on a two to one basis two asians for every american one of the conditions for an american is that you must learn an asian language while you're here in the case of reg kearney [Music] with students here from so many countries you think automatically of cultural interchange and programs in asian studies but that's only a part of the story of the east west center [Music] is an east-west center grantee from thailand he's a university graduate in his own country but he's been given a financial grant to come to the center to learn the mechanics of heavy equipment so that he can return to thailand and teach it he's a student most of whose work isn't done in the classroom these girls from samoa in new guinea don't see the inside of a classroom very often either they've come here to learn hotel food services since it's one of the things their countrymen and women will have to know with the increased tourist industry in that part of the world tokumitsu yasutomi comes from okinawa a pacific island with a subtropical climate that's suitable for many fruits and vegetables including corn this field corn is being developed to increase the ability of farmers to produce locally grown animal feed and this corn is especially resistant to some of the diseases which plague field crops in okinawa when tokumitsu's work at the east west center is finished he'll return to okinawa and try to introduce the corn into his island's crop system with luck he may make a major improvement in okinawa's agricultural life because of what he's learned in hawaii fujiko imagici and makiko kojitani are young japanese violinists they are in hawaii this year on an east-west center grant but most of their work will be done with the honolulu symphony orchestra and its new resident conductor robert lamorkina [Music] even two eighth notes one two this is an example of the valuable interchange with community leaders and master teachers giving the students the opportunity to profit from contact with other cultures [Music] another of the east-west center's major projects is the science of oceanography and how the sea may become a major source of the world's food supply onboard the salpa a university vessel aditi pant one of the east west center's 39 students from india does a good deal of her laboratory work aditi is researching and studying plankton a minute form of life which floats and drifts with the currents of the oceans and the plankton she studies could be a major source of food for india and other countries with too many people and not enough food soropan sudara a student from thailand shares a similar interest with adidi in the study of plankton as a source of food for fish scientists like adidi and surupon chart the plankton movement patterns and their study will be able to predict fish catches for the future [Music] kaneohe bay about a half hours drive from the campus furnished aditi and sauropon with the plankton-filled waters which they will analyze and study back in the laboratory in a world where food is a growing problem it's easy to see the importance of studying ways to increase the supply and the east-west center is one place where that's being done [Music] the students also study other forms of marine life [Music] this is a sea cucumber a plant-like animal that has no power of locomotion it must depend upon the tides to move around [Music] there's a lot of air and a lot of sea around hawaii so it's not surprising how much time is given to the sciences that specialize in the atmosphere and in the study of the oceans while aniti pond works at kaneohe and the other side of the island a group of six young men and women from american samoa are hard at work at honolulu's international airport that's sapili fuyava and he's come from pongo pongo american samoa to learn a skill which he can put to use when he goes back home what's this young man doing out here at honolulu's international airport we'll find out in just a minute these six young samoans are here to become meteorological technicians they're training for their own country american samoa actually there are two samoas western samoa is here mainly two big islands this is american samoa which has been an american protectorate since 1918 when world war one ended it's composed of one major island and three smaller ones the largest is tutuila and that's where pongo pongo is these samoan students will find themselves in pongo pango in a few months honolulu's international airport is the home of a weather station which is the hub of the world systems of weather prediction and weather tabulation outposts so it's the perfect place for these young samoans to come to learn about meteorology here's an experiment which will give us some idea of the sort of thing sapili puyav and the others are learning here sapili is holding a pilot balloon in his hand twice a day at weather stations like this one and the one at pongo pongo balloons are released into the air and then tracked by technical equipment which makes reports on the currents the balloon encounters as it travels upward [Music] what supil is aiming for is called a wind profile an analysis of air currents and changing wind patterns these instruments take the information returned by the pilot balloon computed and then it's teletype to key weather stations in the network this is where these six students will learn the skills which they'll need at pongo pongo weather bureau report stationed at pongo pongo is a vital link in a chain that reaches around the world wangopongo reports to nandi in the fiji islands and honolulu and the information gathered is of great importance to weather forecasting in general and in particular to flight operations right now the station at pongo pond was staffed by mainland americans who have to be brought great distances to do their work but soon these six samoans will take over working their own station in their own country and it will be a direct result of the east-west center the east-west center is more than just a place to learn technical skills it's also a place to get together with people of different backgrounds the east-west center offers the students a comfortable atmosphere for the exchange of ideas and views which they might find they could not express in their own countries this is the home of judge samuel king and his family the king family were the first americans aditi pont knew in hawaii the kings are adidi's host family and this was the first honolulu home that she knew when she came to the center she still comes here regularly in the two years that aditi has been here she has come to know the king family well to her they represent a strong and rewarding tie to the community and to the kings aditi is a window to another part of the world [Music] the center is small enough so that sooner or later most of the students get to know each other quite well [Music] that's odd over there performing one of the dances of her native thailand for her fellow students [Music] her real job though is as a teacher of the thai language [Music] classes like this one in the thai language are open to the university of hawaii students as well as the people enrolled in the east west center the center was established by the united states government and the university of hawaii the thai language is one of the most difficult of all languages on the university's schedule [Music] the thai language is tonal which means that what you want to say depends not only on the words but on the way your voice rises and falls when you say them many of the words sound the same but the inflection of your voice can give the word a different meaning for is instance and ma is horse mastering the thai language isn't easy but our students will learn and will in time be able to apply their technical skills to a world of which they once knew nothing at all what effect will the work produced at the east west center have on the future of asia and the world we'll investigate some possibilities from fruit trees to free speech in just a minute this is the university of hawaii's experimental farm on the island of oahu the three young men working with dr horace clay are okinawans they don't speak english and he doesn't speak japanese but what he and his staff of horticulturists know can make a definite mark on the future of the fruit trees of okinawa so conversations about soil enrichment and pest control are carried on with the benefit of the interpreter large size deep red color and high vitamin c content this one actually does possess these characteristics as you can see the production of fruit is one of okinawa's main industries and if the industry improves the life of the island will improve in other ways dr clay and these okinawans are professionals and technicians their life work is decided and well along its way but the east-west center also reaches people whose careers have not been decided upon people like don bahadur suba who would like to be a doctor don is from the tiny country of sikkim high in the himalayan mountains north of india don is the first person from sikkim to enter the east west center in fact he's the first sikkim citizen ever to seek education out of his own country is just one student in the sea of other asians he finds himself surrounded by the various languages and customs of asia the pacific and the united states [Music] [Music] the experience that don is having at the east west centre may be a little overwhelming at first but it is one he couldn't possibly experience by staying inside his country's borders because he is so young don bahadur subba has more to learn from the center than he has to give but there is a phase of the program where the exact opposite is true [Music] this is one of the discussions at the east west center in which students express their thoughts about united states aid to foreign countries reginald kearney of new jersey exchanges ideas with students from pakistan australia the philippines india and a fellow american from north carolina [Music] it's an interesting experiment in international understanding [Music] if you believe that communication between human beings of different backgrounds is a good thing and you'd be pleased by the things you see around you at the east-west center in honolulu whether it be a heated discussion between americans and asians on foreign policy or a samoan like sapili fuyava handling of football as if he were born with it it doesn't matter whether it's a graceful indian girl like a deity pont in a sorry or a beautiful vietnamese like bachmai in a costume of her own country a japanese and a kimono or a melee in a sarong dress everything around you speaks out clearly that people can learn to understand each other better that we as americans don't have to be cut off by distance not anymore and not by difference either when you're here at the east west center for even a few days you soon realize that there's hope for better times and a better world [Music] we'll be back in just a minute [Music] we hope you've enjoyed discovery's visit to the east west center if you'd like to find out more about southeast asia and hawaii than ask a librarian for any of these books let's visit southeast asia by john c caldwell hawaii usa by lilly edelman and this book main streets of southeast asia by hal buehl be with us next week as discovery continues to discover america bye bye bye the discovery unit's transportation and promotional consideration provided by united airlines [Music] so this has been a jewels power production in association with abc news and public [Music] affairs