Hawaii - James Michener [402]
Now the major tragedy of the day approached, for as the fleeing Chinese, with flame and firecracker at their back, sought to break out from Chinatown they ran into solid rows of impassive policemen whose merciless job it was to hold them back within the plague-ridden area. There was no intention whatever--absolutely none, the police commissioner later swore--to trap the Chinese within the fiery area, but there was an ironclad insistence that they move out by established routes that would take them not into the uninfected parts of Honolulu but into the barbed-wire refugee camps, where doctors could watch them for new outbreaks of the plague.
"They won't let us out!" a poor, dimwitted Chinese woman began screaming. "They want us to burn, in the houses they set afire."
She made a futile attempt to dash past a policeman, but his orders required him to push her back toward the burning area, from which there was an orderly escape route, could she but find it.
"He's pushing me into the fire!" the woman screamed, and men who had been free from panic suddenly realized that they were not going to be allowed out of the doomed area, and they began a concentrated rush toward the policemen.
"They're breaking out!" the officers called, and behind them, from the parts of the city where there was no plague, white volunteers rush up bearing clubs and crowbars and guns.
"Get back!" they shouted. "There's a safe way out!"
At this point, when a deadly general riot seemed inevitable, the United States Army marched onto the scene with several hundred trained soldiers, guns at the ready, and they were moved into position along all the main exit routes from Chinatown. "Under no circumstances are you to fire unless I give the order," their captains said, and they marched stolidly on until they stood shoulder to shoulder with the police.
To the distraught Chinese, bombarded by their own fireworks, the arrival of the soldiers was intolerable. To them it meant that any who tried to escape the burning area were to be shot, and because language between the groups was such a difficult barrier, no one could explain that the soldiers were there merely to halt the spread of infection. There was a way out of Chinatown, and it led to safety, but tempers were growing so violent that it seemed unlikely that this way would ever be found.
"They're coming at us again!" a corporal cried, as sixteen Chinese prepared for a mass dash through the lines.
"Don't fire!" the captain of that sector shouted. "Don't you dare fire."
"What am I supposed to . . ." There was a wild crush. Policemen beat at the pigtailed bodies while soldiers jammed at their bellies with the butts of their guns. The defense line sagged for a moment until volunteer reserves rushed up with boards torn hastily from picket fences. Lustily they clubbed the panicky Chinese over the head, driving them back toward the fire.
"We can't hold next time!" the corporal warned, and as if to accent the peril of the moment, a large store of fireworks exploded, adding to the frenzy of all.
"Don't you fire!" the captain warned each of his men. "By God, if I go down beneath a bunch of damned Chinks I'm gonna fire!" the corporal shouted, disregarding the cautions of his superior, and it was then apparent that on the next charge from the Chinese a general massacre must surely begin.
At this moment, when the frightened captains were licking their lips and preparing to give the only sensible order they could: "Fire to repel rioters," Dr. Hewlett Whipple rushed up and shouted, "Let me through! And for Christ's sake, don't fire!"
He forced his way through the police lines and ran into the middle of the central group of terrified Chinese. Putting