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Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski 
with photos

Sophie Barrett essay 1981 Forthieth Anniversary of PEARL HARBOR attack and WAR GAMES HAWAII 1925 p 57-#1099

Mrs. McVay's Class:  FIRST ROW:  Ena Marie Sroat, Evelyn Lau, Barbara Stroop, Raleen Johnson, Margo Levitt, Julie Brown, Joan Palma, Shirley Chun, John Whelchel, Ned Kiergan.   SECOND ROW: Reed Glover, Charles Black, Gail Pratt, Rachel Coleman, Mrs. McVay, Dale Frazier, George Yamasaki, Terry Wallace.   THIRD ROW:  John Barrett, Don Hayselden, Johanna Souza, Bernardette Farden, Marjorie Miyahara, Betty O'Leary, Hal Wicke.                                                               6th Grade Sophie Meranski Barrett 40th anniversary essay for West Roxbury Transcript December 1981- SOPHIE BARRETT l981 Pearl Harbor:"THE ADMIRAL sees the GENERAL on the GOLF COURSE."This is the story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forty years ago on December 7, l94l,where Commander Jack Barrett served from July,l5 l94l as Assistant War Plans Officer to October and then from October 194l for four years throughout World War II as Assistant Personnel Officer in charge of the Overseas Transportation Office at the Administration Building.He & John & I lived only twelve miles away at 24l5 Ala Wai Boulevard Waikiki. John was five years & seven months old at the time of the attack that scared everyone in Hawaii & disrupted our lives for four years of Pacific war. We continued to write Jack's 87-year old father at 640 E. Seventh Street,South Boston,until he passed away August 2l,l942.We endured complete blackout, ten o'clock curfew (earlier at the beginning)martial law, gas masks,damp bomb shelters (our neighbors James & Edythe Needles had one in the back of their big yard next door,with carrots in a Victory garden on top)censored mail, poor food,especially for the civilians who did not have commissary privileges & miles & miles of barbed wire along Ala Wai canal & Waikiki Beach, where I caught my only umbrella, irreplaceable in a land of "liquid sunshine," as Hawaiians called the frquent bursts of rain,often accompanied by spectacular rainbows toward the Koolau range volcanic mountains that made a spectacular bright colored view behind the canal & golf course to the north.The canal was lined with palm trees & purple bouganvillea bushes.Our neighborhood had numerous pink, gold & rainbow shower trees & royal poincianas and African tulip and sausage trees, papayas, mangos, panax hedges and one black south of our house the big Kaiulani banyan tree on Tuisitala Street, named for "the teller of tales" Robert Louis Stevenson, who around l890 read to the young Hawaiian princess there on a stone seat under the huge spreading tree of the fig family with its high aereal roots near her home on Cleghorn Street.After the attack the shelves of our two Waikiki grocery stores & of department stores Liberty House & Sears Roebuck were bare for many weeks,& not an umbrella or much of anything else was for sale.Most Navy dependents & some civilians were evacuated as soon as transports & a convoy were available & not filled with the wounded.Dr. (John Barrett note -Jim Moloney knew Dr. Withington well - he played football and rowed on Harvard crew l909 - after Harvard Medical l9l3 he coached football U.Wisconsin then went to England as army doctor ww I -knew General Patton Hawaii l930's & was Naval Reserve doctor WW ii) Paul Withington, Navy Reserve determined the facilities needed for medical cases. Fleet Chaplain William Maguire & native Hawaiian social worker Clorinda Lucas and kamaaina ("long-resident") businessman Frank Midkiff advised on a relatively small number of hardship cases that qualified for priority consideration.Life was dull for John,as Jack worked seven days a week including holidays (Christmas Day Jack went to the docks to watch thousands of dependents board a large convoy to San Francisco, though many did not have proper winter clothes - then he joined us for supper,about six p.m. on Lewers Road Waikiki, where we were having a pleasant supper at the home of Captain & Mrs. Paul Rice, our old friends from Tientsin China l930-3l & Panama l935. Mrs. Rice served brandied peaches but remarked, "The last time I served them, the brandy made my heart beat,beat, beat all night." Paul replied, "You're lucky it didn't STOP beating!")Some mornings Jack drove John to Pearl Harbor for lunch in the Navy Officers Club (often baked beans & brown bread).In February l944 John assisted Admiral William Furlong in the War Bond drive.Often Jack brought tense lonely naval personnel to our home form a swim & quick supper.Captain Harold Fultz, in command of a big hospital ship a friend from the MARBLEHEAD l926-7 was a frequent visitor.He also knew our neighbor Gerta Busck.The big hospital ship was kept fully lighted but had nevertheless been fired on by Japanese in violation of international agreements.He relaxed with us often. Then Jack would drive him in blacked-out Waikiki & Honolulu to a bus for Pearl Harbor.The public schools were closed for months Early in the war Waikiki Beach was closed off by Army barbed wire In early September l94l while England was at war with Germany but the United States was officially neutral, Admiral Sir Louis Mountbatten inspected Pearl Harbor & told CINCUS Admiral Kimmel & General Short,the Hawaii=Pacific commanders, at the Royal Hawaiian hotel that Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack, poorly defended, could be captured,& the ships tied up there destroyed. (He also warned Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold Stark in Washington DC and was scheduled to see President Roosevelt, but Churchill wanted him back in London, so the opportunity was lost).Not enough was done to strengthen Pearl by the Army or Navy Commandant or to scatter ships of the fleet weekends. Disregarding Mountbatten's warning was very costly in the December 7 attack.On July l5, l94l John & I arrived by Matson liner Lurline, with Commander Barrett to be Assistant War Plans Officer under Admiral Claude Bloch in charge of the Fourteenth Naval District shore facilities under Kimmel.As the ship approached Honolulu there was a festival atmosphere with no inkling of the Japanese attack Barrett predicted.He had discussed this with his brother Bill & other friends & neighbors during our years in Brooklyn l939-l94l.He opposed sales of critical oil & scrap iron to Japann & the Axis. In command of the Branch Hydrographic Office he heard dramatic accounts from visiting ship captains of many nations of mines, subs & wartime hazards to navigation in the Atlantic.The contrasting mood in the "Paradise of the Pacific" was dramatic. Admiral James O.Richardson had been relieved of command in January l94l because he personally told President Roosevelt he opposed the movement of the fleet to Pearl Harbor from San Diego.Jack repeated a story that one time a newsboy asked Admiral Richardson his opinion of the weather. "-Say that again boy?" "What do you think of the weather, Admiral?" ="That's the first time in six months anyone has wanted my opinion about anything." ..As we landed at Honolulu harbor July l5 small boys were diving for the coins carefree passengers were tossing overboard.On the dock a band was playing, men were singing in high voices,& hula girls were dancing.Gertrude Rice and her daughter Nathalie put frangipani flower leis around our necks & drove us to the Moana Hotel, where Jack registered & then went with Captain Rice & the Head of the War Plans Office to Pearl Harbor.Gertrude, Nathalie,. John & I sat in the courtyard of the Moana under a big banyan tree.The first Saturday afternoon we went to see the unfinished new house assigned to us at Makalapa near oil tanks adjoining Pearl Harbor. Partly because the house was too big for our furniture but also because the location near the big oil tanks looked dangerous, we decided NOT to accept the house.We stayed in the expensive Moana Hotel until we found a furnished house at 24l5 Ala Wai Boulevard three doors east of Kaiulani Street, where we stayed nearly six years. We moved in July 28, just as soon as the preious tenant Mrs. Bailey vacated. The commandant at Pearl, Admiral Claude Bloch, & the Commander-in Chief Admiral Kimmel, seemed to be unaware of impending attack. Jack warned Admiral Bloch & his chief of staff Captain Earle "Whistlebritches" that "one bomb could hit two ships."Jack advised Admiral Bloch & his staff that the War Plans Office should cooperate & work closely with General Short & Army War Plans of the defense of the fleet when in port, but Bloch said,"No -I see the General on the golf course." ((A partial explanation for this bizarre attitude was desire for secrecy against spies.Kimmel had a false sense of security & kept his ship tied up in pairs at Pearl Harbor most weekends while personnel went on authorized or unauthorized holidays to Maui or elsewhere. On the Pearl Harbor weekend, Jack had granted leave to one sailor who was going to Maui, but with the strict condition he file a formal request. It was several days before he could return to the base, & he was convinced Jack knew the attack was coming: Jack said,"He looked at me as if I was the seventh son of a seventh son." When the Fleet Admiral in early December l94l asked the operations officer what the chances were of a surprise attack on Pearl, the answer was "None whatever."Yet only a week later on Sunday December 7,l94l at 6:55 AM the Japanese did attack by surprise,sank two battleships (the ARIZONA had over one thousand men lost on board,& the ship was never raised.)At 3:30 AM that Sunday morning an American mine sweeper based at Pearl signted the periscope of an unidentified submarine & radioed the destroyer WARD patroling the area. At 5:30 AM the WARD fired the first shot of the Pacific war at a submarine & radioed the Pearl Harbor radio office where an experienced noncommissioned officer tried to reach Admiral Bloch by phone but couldn't.-so he phoned his important message to Bloch's chief of staff & to a Fleet duty officer under Kimmel. In disbelief the chief of staff asked that the message be verified,& Kimmel decided to wait for verification.When the chief of staff reached Bloch by phone,he too decided to wait for verification.They were still waiting when the Japanese planes attacked- with disastrous results. But theyJapanese made three costly mistakes. They failed to destroy the repair facilities, failed to destroy the oil storage tanks, failed to realize that an aroused,angry American people would forge a great war machine,& beat that Japanese soundly at the battle of of Midway June 4-5, l942,put them on the defensive, hit them in their homeland with the atomic bomb, resulting in surrender in August l945. Jack & John were at Pearl Harbor at the time the surrender was announced.Postwar reports indicate a peace party in Japan was intimidated by assassination threats from extremists in the Army, & Stalin concealed information that Japan was trying diplomatically to arrange an earlier surrender that might have eliminated the use of nuclear weapons.The sudden death of President Roosevelt complicated any diplomatic effort to end the war, and the bitter-end defense of Okinawa by thousands of kamikazes led military men to believe an invasion of Japan's home islands might involve a million American casualties.In hindsight, the use of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima & Nagasaki was an unnecessary tragedy, but appeasement after Mudken l93l and the destruction of democratic Czechoslovakia l938 & U.S. isolationism & lack of preparedness led to Pearl Harbor & many tragedies.Jack Barrett spent a life warning & preparing from education at Boston Latin & Revenue Cutter School through Navy Reserve service World War I, Naval War College l923-4,the war games l925 that demostrated vulnerability of Pearl Harbor; the Reserve training New York l928-9, Boston l932-33 (Terminated in foolish effort to balance budget) Philadelphia l936-8 he saw the Atlantic Was close up at Naval Hydrographic Office New York l939-4l_-then Cassandra-like he tried to warn the War Plans staff at Pearl Harbor, but twenty-four hundred Americans died December 7.Americans at the time considered the atomic bomb retribution for Pearl Harbor,but it was a terrible tragedy,and Japanese has been one of America's most critical & loyal allies through fifty years of struggle against Communism. General MacArthur & the emperor Showa (known in his lifetime as Hirohito deserve enormous credit for this happy transformation. (This is revised from draft Sophie prepared for forieth anniversary l983 at suggestion of Jason Korell, West Roxbury Transcript weekly newspaper.Sophie covered much of the material in a talk to Roslindale Historical Society (Helen Goetz president) November 1978 at Knights of Columbus HaLL, ROSLINDALE, MASSACHUSETTS. Below is account of the 1925 WAR GAMES Jack participated in, which demonstrated vulnerability of Pearl Harbor to air attack and Oahu to surprise invasion.Jack was officer aboard light cruiser MARBLEHEAD.-- ++#38MARBLEHEAD Lahaina l925 To: Lactoris@yahoo.com After Panama & the West Coast, where Jack saw his second cousin Robert Fahrbach & Fahrbach's father Emil Fahrbach,they arrived under radio silence in Hawaii April l5,l925, when the MARBLEHEAD took part in the very important war games in which the attacking "Blue" Forces defeated the defending "Black" Forces & captured the Hawaiian Islands.Admiral MacDonald in collaboration with the Army,had the defense of the Hawaiian Islands.The story is well told in the New York Times article headed "MARBLEHEAD at Hawaii War Maneuvers",Sunday,May l0,l925.Story of the swift triumph of Blue Forces on Hawaiian Defenses forced to anchor because the capital ships could enter Pearl Harbor only with difficulty because of the lack of anchorage space inside.After the War Games many departed with General Hines including Major General Neville, who commanded the Blue Mai??col Forces (some material illegible will be checked against original article when available)the senior Black umpire,a general & Lieutenant Colonel Kruger,who was the chief Army assistant to Admiral Coontz & General Hines.Several thousand persons went to the pierdecorating the officers & other passengers with leis.The ship was tied to the pier with paper streamers that cracked when the ship pulled away to the strains of "Aloha Oe" & other Hawaiian tunes.252Major General Lewis,the Hawaiian Department Commander,declined to comment on the statement attributed to Chairman Butler of the House Naval (Appropriations) Committee (Philadelphia Congressman & father of the great Marine general Smedley Butler) to the effect that appropriations would be asked to make Hawaii the strongest military outpost in the world.The General admitted that there are serious deficiencies in the defenses as they exist.General Lewis said,"I am naturally very much interested in any proposal for developing the defeses of Hawaii as they have constituted my most earnest study since my arrival in the Territory. I can assure you that it has been for some time the conservative opinion of our trained officers that these defenses are insufficient even for a reasonable security against unfortunate eventualities.And I concur in that opinion." General Lewis was asked to comment on the prevalent belief that Army garrison here should be from five to ten thousand men stronger than at present,that the air forces should be greatly increased & provided with modern equipment to enazble the Army to resist successfully such landing as that simulated in the recent maneuvers- that there should be additional modern eighteen inch guns in the Coast Defenses-that the Construction program has been seriously neglected & that the local naval protection in the form of submarines & mines is seriously deficient. Some officers wanted on hundred thousand men.The General replied that there were serious shortages in all of these respects.The detailsfrom the flagship Pennsylvania to the New York Times,April 27,l925:Now that the struggle is ended between the Blues & the Blacks for the control of the Island of Oahu-keystone in the Hawaiian Arch of the American Structure of National Defence, the story of the campaign plan of the pictors & vanquished may be told (Jack Barrett was on the MARBLEHEAD of the victors,the Blue Forces-SMB note)- it is clearly evident 253 it is evident from the progress of this major peacetime conflict that the Naval & Marines forces comprising the Blues would now be camping in Pearl Harbor after having taken the Island by direct assault in today's operation.The mission of the Blues was to recover from the Blacks possession of Honolulu & Pearl Harbor as Naval Operating Bases.That mission was certain of achievement when the umpires called a halt on the contest.The action of the umpires was founded in the conviction that the Blue forces had been able to land & advance on the north shore of Oahu,- a superior military force of Marine Sl...? troops & maneuver them in a position where the Blacks were unable to halt or defeat the advance of the khaki-clad invaders.The defeat of the Blacks does not mean that the Hawaiian Islands are not strongly defended.Both Nature & Washingtton with liberal hands have contributed toward the defense of the Islands against attack by enemy forces.The mountain ranges along the east & most of the west coast of Oahu are absolutely impossible for armed forces landing along these particular stretches of the shoreland.After a twelve day voyage of 2600 miles fromSan Francisco to the Hawaiian group, the Blue Fleet arrived off the northern & southwestern coasts of Oahu at midnight of April 26.The armada traveled in special screening formation en route to protect the sixteen vessels of the Fleet train (constructively representing transports) against enemy submarine attack. This formation consisted of a series of concentric circles of warships.The battleships were in the center,with the train of transports.Around the battleships steamed the smart & speeding destroyers.Beyon the -254-steamed the light cruisers (JBB in MARBLEHEAD-SMB note)& beyond that were the submarines-the furthermost outpost of the Fleet formation,which was 42 miles in diameter.Not a mishap ?marred the voyage.All ships that left San Francisco Harbor on April l5 in an aggregation of one hundred twenty-seven of all types of warshipsarrived at their appointed positions at the Islands of Oahu & Molokai in safety & good condition.The battleship MARYLAND,which left Puget Sound at a later date joined the main body of the battle fleet several hundred miles north of Oahu.Somewhere out in the Pacific the Blue Scouting Fleet headed by the battleship WYOMING was detached from the main formation & sent ahead so as to be able to carry out the operation of establishing an air base on the island of Molokai April 25, two days before the scheduled of Admiral Robinson for the main expedition attack on Oahu.The rest of the fleet continued on a direct route to Kaena Point at the northwestern corner of Oahu,maneuvering from day to day in th execution of Battle Problems.Radio silence was established on the seond day out from San Francisco & was not lifted until arrival of the vessels within sight of Diamond Head late this afternoon after the execution of the mission involved in the War Games.At twelve o'clock last night when the bulk of the main battle fleet moved into position off the northern coast of Oahu,mighty searchlights from the interior & along the northern coast flashed seaward.Under cover of darkness the vessels were in position for the attack,six miles out when several minutes after midnight a bombardment of the beach was inaugurated preliminary to the landing 255--#39-#39 MARBLEHEAD P.255 preliminary to the landing of the first wave of Marines at twelve o'clock this morning,exactly twelve hours after the bombardment began.>>During these twelve hours the main forcemade the landing on the north coast.Some of the battleships-0with destroywes were detached & sent around to the southwestern coast to carry to carry out a similar landing of Marines- this was only a secondary operation.The attack on the north was the primary one.Meanwhile the Scouting Fleet under the command of Vice ADMIRAL MCKEAN WHICH HAD GONE WITH THE AIRCRAFT carrier LANGLEY to establish a temporary air base at Molokai Islandslipped westward to the southern coast of Oahu & endeavored to delude the Blacks into the belief that a landing force was about to be put into east of Diamond Head.It was a successful manoeuvre & in combination with the secondary landing of the Marines on the southwest coast cau8sed the Blacks to think that the main landing was being made on the south coast.In this assumption the blacks made a fatal mistake& were not in a position to meet the shock of the primary landing of the expeditionary force when it was shoved forward on the north coast.Ideal weather conditions favored the Blues when it (the Blue Force) emerged from the long spell of radio silence & lowered the boats in which the Marines were sent through the surf to the beach.While the heavens sparkled with thousands of starts,the region between shore & coast was blanketed with that particular form of tropical semi=mist & near rain which Americans in Hawaii have come to regard as 'liquid sunshine'.It was difficult for the powerful searchlights of the Blacks to distinguish the faint shadows of the hulls (hulks?)in the darkness that enveleoped the arrival of the Fleet.The Fleet had been darkened & traveled with 256 no lights showing above decks long before reaching Oahu.When morning broke magnificiently over the island,the main section of the expeditionary force began landingon the northern & southwestern coasts,& feinting operations were progressing east of Diamond Head.On the north coast especially where no ships had stood the night before,morning discllosed the presence of a strong naval force.The big guns of seven dreadnaughts were trained on the shore.Beyond them were the transports between boats filled with Marines,& destroyers were protecting the formation against submarine attack while seaplanes were being catapulted from the decks of battleships & spinning off inbto the air for reconhnaisdance of the enemy positions ashore.The sea was as smooth as glass & the breakers not as heavy as usual over the coral reefs.The first wave of Marines sent ashore were met with heavy machinegun attack &suffered heavy casualties,but the defense cordon of Blacks on the north coast was weak & the second wave were pused through so far that the succeeding waves had soon charged the beachhead & soon had driven six miles from the beach.The operation was accompanied by a spectacular aircraft operation in which there were thrilling battles between enemy bombing & fighting planes & the fighting planes & scouters of the Fleet.Had not the Blues completely outgunned the Blacks in the north of the principal landing shore,it would have been difficult for the invader to have made such easy headway in pushing their Marines forward in the northern coast.Part of the time the Fleet steamed with darkened lights.& for nearly ten days it steamed the Pacific with all wireless switches pulled so as to ensure complete radio silence.Not a single letter was flashed by radio from any of the ships.The radio silence was a complete success-a real simulation of actual war conditions as near as it could be achieved in time of peace.Should the United States as a nation ever be faced with the problem of defending Oahu in time of war,it would be infinitely better257 On ther return trip In the Galapagos Islands they were surprised to see a large number of seals-hundreds of them.A rather cold current runs through them,& it seems strange to see the seals where only tropical animals would be expected.But the seals were there.p260 MARBLEHEAD itinerary departed Philadelphia l5 September l924 - arr.Sep l6 Newport RI dep.l7 Sept. -arr.l8 Sep.Navy Yard,New York dep.5 November-Arr.. 7 November Bermuda Islands dep Nov 2l arr. 23 Nov.Navy yard Norfolk Virginia dep. 28 Nov.-arr.6 December Southampton England dep 12 Dec. -arr. l7 DecMarseilles France dep 24 Dec.-arr.24 Dec Villefranche France dep 25 Dec - arr. 27 Dec. Algiers,Algeria dep.31 Decem-1924-arr. 1 January l925 Gibraltar dep. 5 Jan- arr. 7 Jan. Funchal, Madeira dep.9 January -arr. l7 Jan. Navy Yard Boston dep l0 February -arr. l0 Feb. Boston Light dep.l3 Feb. -arriv l8 Feb. Hampton Roads Virginia dep. l9 Feb.- 23 Feb. arr.Colon,CaNAL ZONE DEP 23 FEB.- arr. 23 Feb Panama Bay dep 25 Feb. arr. 12 March San Diego California dep l6 March arrive l7 March San Pedro Cal.depart 3 April - arr. 5 April San Francisco California dep. 15 April -arr. 25 April Molokai, Territory of Hawaii Honolulu Territory of Hawaii -#40-25 Apr.l925 arr. Molokai Territoy of Hawaii dep. 25 Apr. -arr .27 Apr.Honolulu dep 30 Apr.-arr. 30 Apr. Pearl Harbor dep l May - arr. 1 May Honolulu dep.7 May - arr.9 May Lahaina,Maui dep.28 May-arr. 29 May Hilo,island of Hawaii dep.29 May - arr. 1 June Honolulu dep. l Jun-arr. 1 June Pearl Harbor dep 2 Jun -arr. 2 Jun Lahaina dep 6 June- arr. 6 June Honolulyu dep.l5 June -& l July - crossed equator 6 July l925 - arr.l0 July Pago Pago Samoa dep.11 Jul -arr. 23 Jul Melbourne, Victoria, Australia dep 4 August - arr. 5 August Hobart Tasmania dep 7 Augu -arr. 11 Aug Wellington New Zealand dep.24 Aug- arr 30Aug..Pago Pago Samoa dep 3 September -arr. 8 September Papeetee Tahiti dep.ll Sep -arr. 22 Sep Galapagos Islands, Ecuador dep 24 Sep-arr.25 Sep Balboa Canal Zone dep 2 October -arr. October 4 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba dep -dep 12 Oct-arr. 12 Oct Gonaives Gulf Haiti dep. l6 Oct.-arr.l6 Oct. Guantanamo Bay Cuba dep.26 Oct.- arr.26 Oct. Gonaives Haiti dep. 30 Oct. -arr.30 Oct. Gonaives Gulf Haitidep 2 Nov- arr. 2 Nov Guantanamo Bay Cuba dep.20 November arr. 23 Nov Hampton Roads Virginia dep ? - arr30 Nov.North river New York dep30 Nov.- arr. 1 December Navy Yard Boston dep 8 January l926-arr. 9 Jan Hampton Roads Virginia dep. 10 Ja. page 262- ... arrived Bluefields Nicaragua ll January l927 - Puerto Caebas on l3 January. Jack Barrett received ribbons in l927 for being in combat areas in Nicaragua in January & Shanghai China April-June during the civil war there. He was scheduled to lead a landing force at Bluefields, but the MARBLEHEAD was shifted to the Pacific. He encountered marine writer John Thomason this time in Nicaragua & later l943 arranged his transportation to the mainland.In February in Honolulu he receieved a letter from "Chesty" Puller - who later commanded Maines in the Inchon Korea landing September, l950 - the letter stolen l993 concerned an informal evening party.- continuing chronology: MARBLEHEAD arrivewd Puerto Cabezas Jan. l3, l927 left Nicaragua 29 January = spent some tiome in honolullu February-March departed 24 March to make record eight & a half day cruise to Shanghai with hundreds of Marines, who came under command of Gen. Smedley Butler, survivor of the Boxer rebellion in Peking l900. Jack admired Butler, who was very sucessful in China l927-9 & was slated to become Marine commandant but for the personal animosity of Herbert Hoover, who had worked in the Kailin mining operaztions in North China & object to remarks Butler had made condemning the dictatorial actions of Benito Mussolini.Butler in l930's retirement condemned over-use of Marines to serve commercial interests in foreign countries where national security was not threatened. Chaing-kai shek took the offensive against the communists at Shanghai speing l927, & both sides were strongly anti=foreigner & business interested were threated. Jack had a number of friends from l927 at Standard Oil co. Shanghai.He was detached June 4 at Shanghia & traveled Tokyo to Seattle onthe same ship as General Leonard Wood, retired l920's US> governor of the Philippines.Jack traveled by rail from Seattle to his home in Boston & next duty in New York June l927-l929. -#56-# 56 Fradd letter Marblehead l927 Shanghai Lactoris page M 259 responded magnificently to our letters of inquir: John F. Fradd wrote from Florida: Your two very nice letters awakened nostalgic memories of the first cruise I ever had in my thirty-five years in the Navy.Whenever MARBLEHEAD sailors get together,all we talk about is our cruise to China & back,which covered nineteen months.The MARBLEHEAD was my first ship.I joined her in June of l926 & served four years in her.I can't vouch for the correctness of dates,& l927 was a long time ago. You mentioned that Jack Barrett was mess treasurer, & so was I shortly afterward.I had the job for about three months during our cruise up the Yangtze River & after. I recall the mess bill at that time was thirty dollars a month. It was near Christmas time in l926 when we returned to Boston, her home port, from Guantanamo,Cuba.In January l927 we were ordered to proceed toNorfolk,& load our torpedoes & two scout planes & continue on to Nicaragua,where trouble was brewing.We put a company of our landing force ashore to join our Marines, who were protecting the holdinhs og United Fruit company from some bandit who was trying to start an uprising. The name of the place was Puerto Cabezas on the east coast.Our flagship was the USS RICHMOND, another six inch gun cruiser. We were ordered to Pearl Harbor.At the time very few of us knew about what was going on in China.We spent a month or so in the Hawaii area practicing gunnery, torpedoes,& operations,-when suddenly we were ordered to Shanghai,China.I can recall returning from libery with Lieutenant Close to find the navigator & chief engineer figuring out how fast we could make the trip without running out of fuel. M260. We got under way in the morning & completed the (Shanghai) run in the shortest time ever up to that time (eight & a half days).Our sister ship the CINCINNATI gad sime propellor trouble & arrived twenty-four hours later.At this point we were getting reports of civil war in China, & the names of Chiang kai-shek & Chaing Tso-lin & (Michael) Borodin were in the newsWe also received a report of the Communist attack on the "foreign" embassies in Nanking,in which the USS NOAH was involved.When we arrived at Shanghai,the Whangpoa river near town was loaded with ships, so we went downstream to the juncture of the Whangpoa & Yangtze & anchored for a week or so.While there we witnessed the first naval battle many of us had ever seen. The Wonson fort at the juncture of the two rivers was held by South Chinese forces & was to be attacked by the North Chinese fleet.The commander of the fort came aboard to ask if we would move off to an anchorage to the west,as he was expecting an attack by the northern forces & did not want us in the way. So we moved.Sure enough,at 11:30 Saturday morning four gunboats appeared,standing upriver right after our Saturday inspection.They opened fire on the fort,which returned the fire.The accuracy of both left much to be desired,but we had to admire the tactics of the commander of the ships afloat.It happened an English warship was anchored in the stream-& the Northern commander took full advantage of this fact.His ship would steam within range of the fort,fire & then swing around in columns behind the English warship while they reloaded their guns. this continued for a hour, until a burst from the fort M 261 appeared to hit the bridge of the leading gunboat.This signalled the end of the battle.Shortly after this we steamed up river to just south of Shanghai & moved to the Standard Oil docks.In the city the Southern forces had taken Shanghai & moved north,although barbed wire entanglements & bunkers were still in place on the streets.The city quickly returned to normal,but brigands were active. While on liberty,most of our officers were robbed at one time or another.I relieved "Shorty" Milner as head of the baseball team& MARBLEHEAD not only won the Shanghai league championship but had the opportunity of playing with five other teams including the Japanese. One of these was the team representing Japan in the eastern Olympics.We also played later for the championship of the Phillippines.The next episode concerned our trip up the Yangtze River to Nanking. The CINCINNATI went up first for a stay of a month,& we followed later.She was fired on by small arms from the banks & an officer was wounded,so we placed boiler plate around the bridge & other exposed positions for protection- nobody fired at us, but all guns were at the ready.The navigator measured the fall of the river every morning so we would know when we had to return down river in order to cross over some sand bars safely.Otherwise we would have had to remain upstream for months before the river rose azgain.The ship visited Tsingtao & Chingwantao later. In July a number of us took a trip to Peking.We got there aboard a Chinese troop train.Upon arrival we saw an armored train furnished by the Japanese & tried to take snapshots of it,-but guards with fixed bayonets prevented that. I did ask one of the M262 guards if I could take his picture-& he was quite pleased- we got good pictures of him -& the train! (notes on photos).- John E Fradd, Rear Admiral USN Retired."-#58 -#58 Dahlquist MARBLEHEAD l927 Lactoris #58 Commander Phil Dahlquist in commentary on Admiral Fradd's letter wrote from Eugene Oregon: "The MARBLEHEAD did not stop at Nanking, as he intimated but went on up the Yangtze River for another couple of hundred miles to Hankow.I'm sure he would recall this if he remembered all the golf he played on the course there,which was surrounded by a ten foot high (or higher) stone wall. It wasn't unusual to hear shots on the other side of the wall as we played.I think one of the sad days of that era was when "Eva" Brant was lost overboard.He was an excellent young oficer & probably one of the most popular on board. Brant went back to the after part of the ship-which was very low.The seas were coming up from astern & breaking over the deck very heavily.Brant went out to help an enlisted man & held the man with a scissors hold in his legs until others could pull him back-but a following sea washed Brant overboard.It was a very heroic act on Brant's part & typical of what one would have expected of such a man.On our trip to Australia we stopped off at Samoa going & coming.I was swimming in at the dock & missed the last boat back to the MARBLEHEAD.I waited,& the Captain's gig came in fromthe MARBLEHEAD to pick up a guest for dinner with the Captain.He was a Samoan gentleman of about fifty years.He seemed very dignified & wore a black dinner jacket,black tie, & studs in his shirt. Instead of trousers he wore a sort of wrap-around garment of excellent quality material-very neatly pressed.coming down to his kneecaps.Riding out to the ship I said I had been at a nautical school at Norfolk about three years before, & we had a Samoan classmate who acquitted himself very well- he had graduated well up in his class & had been well thought of.The man was Chief of Police in American Samoa, & we was very pleased by my story,as the boy was his son.It was the l927 Nanking incident that took the MARBLEHEAD to China in the first place.Trouble had been anticipated aapparently-& we were already out as far as Honolulu on a standby basis.Then the Nanking thing happened,& we went out the rest of the way.I think the NOAH was in on it. The american destroyer NOAH had been sent up to Nanking on a plea from some missionares who were in danger from bandits overrunning the area.The American destroyer skipper went over to call on his counterpart on an English destroyer - they agreed & laid down a barrage above the mission-then the missionaries could come out & down to the dock under cover of the barrage.This was successful,& the destroyer took them to safety.In April l97l Rear Admiral James McNally wrote,"I cannot add too much to your wonderful job of research work.Jack loved papers & kept all kinds of papers & notes.That in fact is one of the strongest memories I have of him.I remember sitting in his stateroom & he pouring through a wicker hamper full of notes to locate a paper that would settled a wardroom argument. Jack was very thoughtful & kind to us junior officers.Phillips,Brant,Van Nagell,Florence, & McNally all reported to the MARBLEHEAD azt Pearl Harbor after Naval academy graduation l925. I notice you have not mentioned John E.Florence.He lives in Charleston, South Carolina. You will have to excuse this new automatic typewriter. It writes faster than I can think, & it cannot spell.We all made the Australian cruise together.Then after leave & recreation in New York after we got back we went to the West Indies- Guantanamo & Haiti. I served on the MARBLEHEAD 23 June l925 to 25 June l926. I was first division junior officer. In that job I had lots of contact with John (Jack).John read a lot & had a good grasp of what was going on in the world.Some of his statements were prophetic.(Executive officer) Commander Alex Sharp would ask,"What has the saber-rattler to say today?" The next contact I had with john was at Pearl.Marjorie & I called on you- young John was only a baby.I was stationed at the Navy Yard & was machinery-electrical planning officer.After the attack I became the Salvage Planning officer & was in charge of preparing the plans for raising & repairing the sunken ships.John helped me get the family off to Long Beach,California.Later he assigned me transportation so I could go to Newport News Virginia to fit out & be chief engineer of p.266M YORKTOWN. The "Fighting Lady" was another wonderful ship just like the MARBLEHEAD.#57-#57 Phillips letter MARBLEHEAD l925Lactoris #57 Rear Admiral George L.Phillips of Maine wrote: Dear Mrs. Barrett,I well remember your husband Jack (sometimes known as "Red") from the MARBLEHEAD,which I joined in June,l925 & served in until July l926. I used to stand watches with him in station for several months until I qualified as a top watch stander.I remember the trip he arranged with a New Zealand friend of his (Haskell Anderson of Wellington & Napier) for a party (of which I was one) to spend a few days in Napier.NZ.I believe that Jack & the New Zealander had met in Newport News Virginia at the end of World War I when the latter was on his way home was on his way home from service in Europe (wounded at Gallipoli).We had a splendid cruise to Australia & New Zealand & a wonderful voyage through the south Pacific islands.I remember seeing Jack at Pearl Harbor in late l944 when I was on my way out to Ulithi for the attack on Iwo Jima & Okinawa.I called on him at his office & well remember being at your house for dinner some time in November or December,l944. I brought out a jug of maple syrup to give you.My wife came from Australia where I met her on the cruise in l925.We were married in Montreal,Canada in l928, & Jack was one of two sponsors for her entry permit into the United States.The other was Frank Maeihle (spell?) who was also on the MARBLEHEAD with Jack.I was in ooccasional touch with Captain Shackford before his death in Jamestown a few years ago."

Wilfred Pang, OVERSEAS TRANSPORTATION OFFICE #1100 about p 57 Sophie main text Pearl Harbor attack,schools, Brantingham, Sam King

On Sunday morning December 7,l94l I got up early hoping to go for a swim before breakfast.My next door neighbor Mr. James Needles (a Mormon with a wife Edythe a Christian Scientist from Wales) knocked on the window & told me Jack should proceed at once to Pearl Harbor as the Japanese had bombed the ships,& all service personnel were required to report to duty stations.Mr. Needles told me the bombing was at its height.An Army wife at #24ll Ala Wai Mrs. Means had a miscarriage that morning.A little later Gertrude Rice drove up in a private car.She lived near the Army Fort DeRussy.She said she was going to "the hills"&asked John & me to go with her.I refused, telling her Jack had gone to Pearl Harbor & wouldn't know where to find me if he came home safely.Then an Army jeep appeared,& the driver told me to stay in the house,not use the telephone, boil all water,& observe a six o'clock curfew & complete blackout as soon as darkness fell.Around dark Jack appeared in full white uniform with sword,gun & gunbelt with ammunition.Tears filled his eyes as he told me that professionally,as he had feared, the Japanese had done a superb job,crippling our battleships,killing our men,& destroying planes at Ford Island, & Army planes at Hickam Field & other installations.Jack repeated the fact that he had been "shut up" by the brass when he harped on the likelihood of just such an attack & the need for better Army-Navy cooperation.Driving to Pearl Harbor that morning Jack had to pass hot ashes where someone had been killed shortly before (possibly by antiaircraft "friendly" fire from American ships.)While I served his supper in complete darkness, he told me the ARIZONA was sunk with great loss of life- the OKLAHOMA was capsized- the WEST VIRGINIA & CALIFORNIA were hit & damaged-the NEVADA got under way but later met difficulties- the PENNSYLVANIA was hit in dry dock & badly damaged.. He became silent when neighbors came in, but they soon had to observe the curfew & go home.At curfew we put two cots together in our back bedroom & had John sleep with us there in the "Crack" between the cots.Jack went to bed when John did saying he would have the emergency duty at Pearl Harbor the next few nights & might get little sleep.About midnight I was startled when the telephone rang.I heard Captain Rice anxiously ask me if I knew where Gertrude was. I answered ,"Yes, she went to the hills."Of course he asked me what hill & to whose house she went,but I had no more information.He gallantly told me I had helped him & he would telephone everyone he knew who lived on a hill - Oahu was full of them-Round Top, Saint Louis Heights,Wilhelmina Rise, Pacific Heights.At dawn December 8 Captain Rice appeared, grey & unshaven,with Gertrude safely in tow.Since he would have duty for some nights to come,we arranged to have Gertrude occupy John's usual cot in the front bedroom = she would arrive just before blackout & leave before breakfast every morning.Jack left after breakfast Monday December 8 & I picked up a broom to sweep the living room while John was reading one of the Christmas books we bought the previous Saturday at Liberty House.There was a ring at the door & two men entered in civilian clothes.When one flashed an FBI badge,I almost passed out.He asked,"Does Walter Glockner live here?"Walter Glockner was my landlord who lived upstairs & had just returned with a large load of groceries.They went upstairs & took him off in their car,& I never saw him again until after the war.He was interned on Sand Island in Honolulu Harbor - the Hawaiian territory civilian courts held military governor Richardson in contempt of court for disregarding a writ of habeas corpus-the fine of five thousand dollars was never paid as President Roosevelt pardoned the governor- but Mr. Glockner agreed to spend the rest of the war years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he wrote us frequently. He worked there as a brewer, returned in l945, swam every day at Waikiki Beach, & offered to give blood when I had surgery in May l947 before leaving Hawaii.We soon were outfitted with gas masks & required to carry them at all times.We also were finger printed,had our blood typed (mine was probably done wrong-my metal dogtag said "type O",but years later I found out I was type B.) We were vaccinated & given tetanus toxoid & typhoid shots.We had to turn in our money & receive bills marked,"Hawaii."Even five-year old John was fitted to a special smaller gas mask made at Pearl Harbor & had to carry it everywhere.We were no longer allowed our daily swim at Waikiki as the Army strung miles of thick barbed wire fence all along the beach with no entrance gates.Jack worked seven days a week & some nights without any holidays off-neither Christmas,New Year's Thanksgiving or any other day from the first day of the war through the last.We could no longer walk along the banks of the Ala Wai Canal for exercise,as the Army strung barbed wire the entire length.Barbed wire was strung in downtown Honolulu near the Academy of Arts on Beretania Street,where one rainy day my irreplaceable big black umbrella was caught by the wind,& a large hole ripped in it.I really believe that my umbrella was the only thing the Army caught in all those miles of barbed wire.I thenceforth got properly soaked in Honolulu's "liquid sunshine" as I walked a great deal.Jack became friendly with Riley Allen,editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin-Riley invited Jack to meet his friends & reporters one Sunday afternoon at their home on a steep hill.Several Sundays later Mr.& Mrs. Allen invited the three of us to have dinner with them at the Honolulu Country Club.Since Jack had to work,we met at 5:30 in the lounge,& Riley hurried us to the dinner table as the waiters & waitresses were all "enemy aliens" according to martial law.& had to be in their own homes by six PM.Young John refused to eat,on the grounds that he had not washed his hands.I tried to persuade him he could just use the knife & fork,but without being cross the childless editor calmly took the boy to the washroom, & they returned happily to eat their meal in lovely surroundings.They were neighbors of our friend Dr.Paul Withington and his ward Rose, whom he later married- Irish,Chinese, & Hawaiian. (In l990 she took John junior to visit the Administration Building where Jack worked & the site of their former home near Round Top & to lunch at the Honolulu Yacht club in which Paul was long active). After December 7 Jack's office was a very busy thoroughfare where requests poured in from the hospitals for evacuation of those wounded who could be moved,for the evacuation of outside non-residents caught in Hawaii on the day of the attack,evacuation of Navy & Army dependents & evacuation of some local civilians whose idea was to get out of there to the mainland. Jack's office had the tremendous job of sending Navy & Army personnel with orders to the forward areas of the war or to the mainland for reassignment.The lines of applicants were never ending.He had several very able assistants. Matson p.86 Navigation Company or from Castle & Cooke & worked as a Lieutenant as assistant to Jack.His knowledge of ships and of Hawaii was invaluable.From l943-5 Jack also had a young Lieutenant Martin Williams from Kentucky.In charge of the clerical force was a Chinese-American Wilfred Pang-Jack's right-hand man who relieved him of a great deal of the routine work.Secretaries Violet Ho & Blossom .. were under Pang's direction. Also there was a Marine officer present to take care of transportation requirements for the Marines.In addition to his office in the Pearl Harbor Administration Building,Jack had a downtown office for the convenience of women & children,as the rationing of gasoline & the crowded buses made it difficult for them to go to the Pearl Harbor office.The downtown office reduced the crush at the Pearl Harbor office PANG letter from Sophie Barrett l=notebook #4:"WILFRED S. PANG Executive Secretary State of Hawaii (John A.Burns governor)Department of Social Services -Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission-l390 MillerStreet-PO Box 339 Honolulu Hawaii 96809 August l4,l970 Dear Mrs.Barrett,This will acknowledge receipt of your nice letter of June 28th,which was forwarded to me recently. I am no longer with Matson Navigation Company-I left Matson in l966 & am now employed by the State of Hawaii.I saw an item in the local newspaper when Commander Barrett passed away.I am very glad you & John are preparing a family memoir of your experience.I went to work for the United States Navy in December l94l.However,I was not assigned to Overseas Transportation Office until April or May l942.Actually I was loaned to the Navy by my employer at the time,Castle & Cooke Inc.(General Shipping Agent).The Overseas Transportation Office handled surface transportation for the Fourteenth Naval District (Pearl Harbor).It was our responsibility to get personnel to their ship or station (command).In addition,we arranged transportation for dependents of naval personnel.Much of the work was of highly confidential nature.I was sort of an administrative assistant or right hand man to Commander Barrett.I coordinated activities & supervised the work of several persons-Robert Choy,who is employed by Castle & Cooke Inc, Violet Ho,& Blossom Anyong.Besides my office in Pearl Harbor, I also maintained an office in the Castle & Cooke building in downtown Honolulu. Lieutenant James Murray l94l-2 & Lieutenant Martin Williams l943-5 were assigned to the office also. I reported directly to Commander Barrett.The Commander demanded the best in a person.Because of my background & experience he entrusted me with most of the detailed work.We worked very closely & got along extremely well.I enjoyed working with him & had the deepest respect & admiration for the man.He talked to me about John often.I left Pearl Harbor shortly after thee end of World War II September l0,l945 to return to my civilian job at Castle & Cooke,Inc.My responsibility was to help reorganize the Passenger Department.In l947 I was transferred to Matson lines. I worked in the Booking or Reservations Division until l960,when I was promoted to Sales Representative.In this capacity I worked closely with airlines & travel agencies.In September l966 I joined the Mid-Pacific Insurance Agency,Limited, as an account executive.I resigned in May l968 when I was offered a job with the State Government.I am the Executive-Secretary-Administrator for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission,State of Hawaii.I manage the statewide program which aids victims of a criminal act.There are only six states with this type of legislation.The other states are California,New York,Maryland,Massachusetts & Nevada.I have an Investigator & a Secretary working for me,& I enjoy my work very much.Also the pay & benefits are good.Ever since l960 I have become deeply involved in community service activities.In l964 I was appointed by the Governor of Hawaii to serve as a Commissioner on the Commission on Children & Youth.The Commission is advisory to the Governor & the State Legislature with respect to any & all problems affecting children & youth in the state of Hawaii.I worked as Chairman of the Commission from l965-l969.I am now serving my seventh year as a commissioner.Under the statute the statutory maximum is eight years.Because of my interest & concern for children I have been asked to serve on many boards of private & public agencies.Among them are: Member,commission on Children & Youth,state of Hawaii=-Member of Board of Trustees,Palsina Settlement-Past President Honolulu Theatre for Youth -Past President Hawaii Eye Bank -Vice President & Director Waikiki Lions Club Vice President & director Big Brothers of Hawaii, Inc. Member of Task Force on Juvenile Delinquency- Law Enforcement Planning Agency, state of Hawaii -Director Hale Kipa Inc. (runaway shelter for girls- chairman of board Services to Girls) Blind Advisory Board. In addition I am an active big brother & spend weekends with two fifteen year old boys (twins).They are fatherless & live in low housing area.I also devote considerable time to the Lions organization. As past president of the Hawaii Lions Eye Foundation & the Hawaii Eye Bank I am deeply involved with programs for the visually handicapped.Some of my activities are glaucoma clinics,used eyeglass project,pre school vision screening program,eye bank, diabetes treatment center. I was awarded the LIBERTY BELL Award for the State of Hawaii in Conference on citizenship held in Washington DC in September.As a member of the YMCA I see Robert Choy occasionally.I have not seen Violet Ho or Blossom Anyong since I left Pearl Harbor in l945.Kindest personal regards to you & John.WILFRED S. PANG" Letter from Captain Harold F. FULTZ USN Retired July 29,l970:"8 Ridley Court,Glen Ridge,New Jersey 07028 Dear Sophie,Any people of any color who really mean business I am willing to help.I tutor black kids (age l4 to 40)-& it requires real study at age eighty-one.I am free for a week or two now & want to answer your two letters,which were quite nostalgic.I remember MARBLEHEAD Captain Miller well- I was later his Executive Officer at the U.S. Navy Ammunition Depot, Hingham, Massachusetts- and Alex Sharp (MARBLEHEAD "exec") was well known & greatly looked up to. The MARBLEHEAD was a relatively new ship,& a fine one.I was assistant engineer officer & later went to the cruiser OMAHA as Engineer Officer,where I remained over the usual tour of duty to repair her after her serious grounding on Castle Island in July l938.We eventually put her through a highly successful full power test & restored her in time for her to serve valiantly in the war.The MARBLEHEAD had a good baseball team largely because of an officer named"Shorty" Milner,who was almost major league stuff.Bumphrey was a supervisor at the Standard Oil Compound, Shanghai,& a good friend to us all.He introduced us to the Ashleys.If you look up Jack's civil war uncle in Somerville, New Jersey,come insured. It's notorious for auto deaths.I was Executive Officer of Republic-the big transport.We evacuated civilians from Honolulu.Some of the kids we evacuated had never worn shoes or even wanted to.One of my duties aboard was to play the piano in the large theatre space to quiet passenger nerves.Our warning to mothers that in event any child got overboard we would not stop was not exactly a happy prospect.Your husband,who was always able to see the real root of things,would have been amazed at the navigational problems of a hospital ship in wartime.Except in rare places all navigational coastal lights were extinguished,& we had to "grasp at a straw" to get around,because we were on the move day & night. Without forest fires, the moon &lightning we would often have been in difficulty.Off New Guinea is a passage known as the Tufi Leads (Leads means Range).A dozen times I ran it at night following very excellent range lights,which were never extinguished during the war.Finally I ran it in daylight & saw the angry,jutting rocks-& I've had a slight shake in my knees ever since,thinking of the disaster had I not followed exactly those lights.A range is a line to keep you on course by lining up two lights.-like two trees in the woods so you won't go in a circle.I've dreamed a sailing (small sailboat) back to Tufi with my wife to show her those rocks.It's only ten thousand miles as the crow flies,& a sailboat does not follow a crow.In the October 20 typhoon the COMFORT (hospital ship) came through by the grace of God. Forty nurses that night were scared to death,but not one even let their helpless patient(s) know it.Seventy craft were lost that night,I am told. My quartermaster shouted,"The barometer has reached bottom & has risen a bit. Best to you... Harold Fultz." _Another friend from TULSA days Commander Myron Thomas,was on Admiral Calhoun's staff, & through Jack he made arrangements for his wife & son to be evacuated on Christmas Day.He appreciated all Jack did to help & wrote to me recently that except for confusion on the dock his wife & son had a good trip on the Lurline. "I well remember he booked my wife & son for the LURLINE on Christmas Day l94l & I didn't see them again until Christmas Day l943.He enjoyed the reputation of being a good shipmate & always willing to help a fellow officer or enlisted man-Myron Thomas." Commander Thomas wrote that when he was on Admiral Calhoun's staff (Commander Service Force) he knew what a difficult time Jack was having trying to provide transportation with so little available space. "He performed his task in a most creditable manner & then with his tact,careful planning,foresight & diplomacy in dealing with many anxious wives & husbands at this critical time was able to satisfy the majority of naval personnel who had to remain in the (war) zone & were anxious to get their dependents to the mainland." #78-#78B Thomas Jefferson School Waikiki l942-1946 #78B Thomas Jefferson School Hawaii I entered John in the public English Standard primary Thomas Jefferson School, Waikiki near the head of the Ala Wai Canal, where Ala Wai Boulevard intersects Kapahulu Street about five blocks east of our home near Kapiolani Park with its remarkable zoo & bird collection & Sunday band concerts.At that time in Hawaii there were two school systems. For those children who passed an exam in proficiency in English a very fine education was offered. We estimated a large majority of the pupils were of Asian backgrounds, with Japanese the largest group many exceptionally gifted & hard-working.Another gifted pupil was Robert Ho of a Shanghai background. His mother lived in Waikiki & was proficient at block printing.At least one student Sam was part Hawaiian, and the students knew and used common native Hawaiian words like the greeting "Aloha" kapu keep out - Pau finished-Mauka toward the mountains - Makai toward the water, & opu - stomach.The teachers were well qualified & in many cases had experience on the United States mainland.Three of John's teachers, were of Portuguese backgrounds, Mrs Celestine Silva Barbour in the first grade, who was our neighbor on Ohua Street, Celia Ponte of Kaimuki in the third grade,& Mrs. Silva in the fourth grade. In the fifth grade John's teacher Mrs. Agnes Davidson came from an old New England family - her names was Agnes Dee Mason before her marriage, & her ancestor Mason in l630 received the original royal charter as founder of the New Hampshire colony. One of her daughters was on the staff of Honolulu radio station KHON, and her son Douglas Davidson was a professional photographer who photographed her class in l946 at Valentine's Day & also did nature photography including Hawaii's major waterfalls.Mrs. Barbour the first grade teacher had an exceptionally warm & friendly personality.Her parents had come from Portugal & Madeira in l883 to work on sugar plantations at Kohala on the northwest coast of the "big" Island - Hawaii.She remembered seeing Queen Liliuokalani around l9l5 at the girls school she attended in Kaimuki.She remembered the musicologist Sigmund Spaeth "the tone sleuth" & other interesting visitors in Hawaii over many years.She had previously taught on the Islands of Hawaii & was later a high school principal - probably at Kamehameha school Honolulu.Her first grade classroom was a small cottage at the south tip of the long covered corridor with the first, second &third grade classrooms. An art classroom was next door.A large vegetable garden run by Mr. Chong was on the west side of the building & shared by the neighboring non-English standard Waikiki school. Crown flower plants hosting monarch butterflies grew between the classrooms & the garden & furnished material for science projects.John had been reading & writing for more than two years, but he was in the habit of printing all-capitals & had to learn to use the small letters also. There were hot lunches in the centrally located school cafeteria, where pupils took turns working under head cook Mrs. Billie. A small pomegranate grew at a little fishpond near the lunch room.In the dining & assembly area a Christmas show produced eight Christmas carols, including "Silent Night, Away in a Manger" &" Joy to the World" & relatively little-known "Love Came Down at Christmas Love our lovely love divine Love came down at Christmas Stars & angels Gave the Sign." Pupils acting as angels had to stand very still while the others sang the songs.Naps were required in rest period. In January l943 John was transferred to Mrs. Elsie Mattoon's second grade classroom, where the children were six months to a year older than John. Again the teaching was excellent..One day a week Mrs. Mattoon & the other second grade teacher Mrs. Fisher sent their pupils to the other teacher's room, & Mrs. Fisher read an interesting story titled,"Billy the Goat." John was sick a couple of sessions & never found out how the story turns. out. The children used to play on swings & seesaws & jungle-jims & play games like "Go in & out the window -as we have done before-Go skipping round the village- Go kneel before your partner..." Nancy Kawamura was frequently a leader in these games & songs.Rose Lee lived on the golf course across the Ala Wai Canal in front of our home, where her father was a caretaker.Her mother was deaf. Joseph Kinoshita, who became a Honolulu lawyer (& Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate) would often walk home with John along Ala Wai Boulevard after school. Sometimes he would stop at our house & practice wrestling on the front lawn (despite the crabgrass). Miss Celia Ponte was a conscientious & understanding third grade teacher with a large number of students in her classroom.She later became a school principal.During this time John was becoming more nearsighted & got glasses after testing at school & with Dr. Withington's encouragement.Janet Ikeda was an outstanding student in spelling bees & in races to answer arithmetic flash cards quickly.The other third grade teacher Mrs. Evans always wore a flower in her hair fresh every day & like to recite a poem about the Hawaii cup-of-gold flower "made for fairies to hide in."Mary Lou Gilares & other girls acted as Junior Police Officers "JPO's" holding STOP signs after school so that pupils could cross Kapahulu Street on the east ("Diamond Head") side.Students learned to sing a melodic rendition of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; of restricting the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances. All of the fourth grade class voluntarily took religion classes once a week- our Ala Wai neighbor Mrs. McCarthy covered the Good Samaritan & other parables & the Golden Rule & Sermon on the Mount & managed to convey the joyous, charitable side of religion without getting hung up over doctrinal controversies. The librarian Miss Becker was friendly & popular & one book John discovered there was Richard Halliburton two travel books - the Wonder Books of Marvels. Sometimes pupils would be assigned to assist in the school office, answering telephones "Thomas Jefferson School- office monitor speaking"- ringing the bells at proper times & taking messages to teachers.It was an opportunity for the principal Mrs. Vance to get to know the students.She was actively involved in all phases of school life.North of the school buildings were softball fields & exercise bars for chinning & arms exercises.A very active Cub Scout pack met on the bleachers near the softball field under the leadership of scout master Mr. Paul Ishimoto, who later became a top official of the Honolulu Boy Scouts.At that time the official age for entering Cub Scouts was nine years, but John did a lot of the Cub achievement tests in early l945 before his ninth birthday in his fourth grade year, looking up family history & learning scout pledges & lessons. The group climbed Red Hill & went on other hikes.After the war ended l945-l946 some of the other pupils would ride with Jack & John to the waterfall on the Pali road & other sites.In the fourth grade Mrs. Martin was friendly & sometimes rode home with us in Waikiki, but she had health problems & left Honolulu around January l945. For one week Mrs. Jepson was a substitute - one day she explained a method of thinking in terms of "aliquot parts of the dollar." The spring of l945 Mrs. Silva was an effective, hard-working teacher who stressed arithmetic achievement. One day April l2, l945 in rest period news came President Roosevelt had died & students were sent home.In the fifth grade Agnes Davidson had students memorize many poems- "True worth is about being not seeming, Of doing each day that goes by Some little good - not in dreaming of great things to do by & bye. Oh better than the riches of a gold crowned king Is the heart-felt memory Of a lovely thing." Mrs. Davidson knew a great deal of American history. She had lived in Arizona & subscribed to the photo magazine "Arizona Highways".She lived west of us on Lewers Road, where we visited after she retired.She once saw John & me after school sitting at the north edge of the school grounds under monkeypods trees near Ala Wai Boulevard & sang, "Don't sit under the monkeypod tree with anybody else but me" - a Hawaiian adaptation of the current American hit, "Don't sit under the apple tree."(*Monkeypods are members of the Bean or Legume family in the mimosoid subfamily - also known as "rain trees" because leaves fold up when it rains.We used to see sixth grade teacher Mrs. Hazleton near her home on Kuhio Street not far from the school, where she sometimes gave us ripe mangoes from a tree in her yard. In l942 there was an art teacher, who passed away not long afterward at a young age, but usually the home classroom teachers supervised periods in the art room. Mrs. Harrison,Mrs. Barbour's first grade teacher was often friendly though John was not in her class - she worked with Mrs. Barbour on the l942 Christmas Pageant, which was very well done & a welcome contrast to the war tensions of Christmas l94l when schools were closed. Air raid drills were held in bomb shelters at school,& effectiveness of gas masks was tested in a room full of tear gas. #76 Sam King from notebook p.107"The first native Hawaiian to graduate from the U>S> Naval Academy was Samuel Wilder King class of l909.He resigned his seat as elected Hawaiian territorial delegate to the United States Congress to return to active Naval duty during the war.He served as Military Governor of American Samoa during the war.During his absence his wife Pauline went to see Jack about a lost trunk belonging to her son in the Navy.She was pleased by the personal interest she felt Jack took.She used to say she was "Part-Hawaiian & proud of it."Jack knew her husband either in person or by reputation from his several visits to Hawaii in the l920's.Her husband also had New England ancestral roots & was a distant relative of the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes.One day Pauline paid an afternoon call on me in Waikiki.When I told Mrs. King I could not find a small lahalla straw mate for John's daily nap at school in rest period,she said that she would ask Sam to try to get one in Samoa.A few weeks later she returned,carrying a Samoan straw mat.- a little too large & pretty for school naps where the mats were stuffed into a wooden chest for storage, but since Sam had taken the trouble to ship it via a Navy ship going to Pearl Harbor, & Mrs. King had picked it up there & delivered it herself to us in her car,we used the mat for naps at Thomas Jefferson School.Frequently after that I would find wonderful bananas, pineapple, papays & lettuces on the bench on my front porch & once I found some macadamia nuts there- a nut I had never seen before- hard & most delicious.These delicacies were left for us by Mrs. King after her occasional visits to her family on the other side of Oahu.During the war mr. & Mrs. King & their children lived in a rented home in Kahala because of the gasoline rationing & blackout.When the war ended,Sam returned to Oahu, & Mrs. King telephoned inviting the three of us to a supper party in honor of Sam's return home.Jack was no longer working on Sundays.As we were preparing to leave the house about 5:30 Sunday evening to go to Kahala, Colonel William Winchester Paca, commander of the Marines at Camp Catlin came to call. He was an old friend from our TULSA days in North China in l93l, & his family were descendants of the William W.Paca of Annapolis Maryland who signed the Declaration of Independence in l776. Paca's home in Annapolis became Carvel Hall at th Naval Academy.Paca was one of the few Marine officers who was a graduate of West Point military academy.He was known to some of his friends as "Soldier" because of this background- he visited us several times during his Hawaii duty l944=l946.That Sunday afternoon he was cold & tired& soon after he aarrive he asked me for a cup of coffee, which I tried to make it my large Silex. i am afraid I gave him a rather poor cup of coffee because my mind was on the King party, where we were to eat at six o'clock - still I didn'y like to desert Paca. Without consulting him I telephoned Pauline King to ask her if she could have the commanding officer of Camp Catlin as her guesxt for supper, and she agreed.At the supper we met Captain Edward D. Washburn, junior, who like Jack, had formerly been in charge of a Branch Hydrographic office.. Washburn had the one in San Francisco at the same time Jack had the one in New York City l939-l94l.At the party were Captain Sam King, Captain & Mrs. Lewis- Jack's boss as Personnel Officer during the war, & the woman who headed the Women's Marine Corps.There were also a number of young people, including the King & Lewis families.When Mrs. King asked me to fill glasses of milk in her kitchen,I was amazed that she was handling all the cooking herself with no maid to cook or serve.The senior guests were served at numerous card tables in the living room, while the young people were served outdoors.Mrs. King had prepared an enormous pot of spaghetti & meatballs-just right for that rather chilly evening.We were seated at Captain Washburn's small table for four- he,Jack, John & I comprising that group.At first I did not sit with them as Mrs. King asked me to serve the dishes of spaghetti as she ladled them out & told me exactly whom to serve & to whom to give milk.So I rushed back & forth serving Captain Washburn,Jack, Colonel Paca, the woman Marine,Captain & Mrs. Lewis exactly as she told me to-& when I asked about the people outdoors,she said they understood that the kitchen would be theirs after the guests were served.Then she filled a plate for me,& when I realized it was the last of the spaghetti,I asked her about her own spaghetti, & she told me to forget it.So reluctantly I went to my seat, feeling I had done a good job.Suddenly I heard the guest of honor Sam King inquiring loudly, "Don't I get anything to eat?" We had forgotten to serve Sam.After dinner the young folks came into the living room, played dance records, & danced. Colonel Paca enjoyed himself very much dancing with the young people, & when we finally left, he continued at the party.While waiting for hisa supper, Sam King said," This informality is just Pauline. It reminds me of an incident that happened shortly before I resigned as Delegate to Congress.We ususally came home (to the windward side of the Island) when Congress closed each year to relax.I had often said to friends in Congress 'if you come to the Islands, let us show you some Hawaiian hospitality'. One afternoon when I was not home,three Congressmen did call- & a maid told them, 'Just go out back'- because that's where Pauline was. ."- so they went out back to see the perfect Washington hostess they had known impeccable in dress when in Washington-& they were amazed when she hailed them from high up in a tree.She nonchalantly climbed down & offered the Congressmen some of the mangoes she had collected.Pauline verified that the story was true.There was a parent-teacher association at the Thomas Jefferson School through which I met some of the other parents.We met Peter Perser & his mother from nearby Tuisitala Street in the first grade on the day school opened in September l942- & later the families of Robert Ho, Nicholas Vaksvik, Rose Lee on the gold course, & the Cook family who lived half a block east of us at 2465 Ala Wai. Edrice Cook worked wityh a shipping company,& his wife Anne was from Seattle. Her father born in Europe came for an extended visit about l945. Ether Trease was an officer of the Honolulu arent Teachers Association.We attended the ten birthday of her daughter Diane at their large house on a hill in Kaimuki.Mrs. Trease commented that nobody ever bothered to celebrate her own birthdays because they fell two days after Christmas on December 27.Dr. Paul Withington was a Navy Reserve doctor who advised Jack on ship tacilities & priorities for the sick & wounded.His mother was the first woman principal in a Massachusetts school (in Brookline) The Withington family developed a sugar plantation on windward Oahu before l900, and five sons attended Harvard. Paul Withington played football & rowed on the crew in the class of l909.After medical school l9l3 he coached fotball at University of Wisconsin & became an Army doctor in World War I. In Hawaii he was interested in yachting & worked with swimmer Duke Kahanamoku improving the breathing & timing of the Australian crawl stroke. In the l930's he knew General Patton, who was stationed in Hawaii several years.One time we had dinner at Dr. Withington's home high up in a valley near Mount Round Top & saw several rabbits in cages there & met his ward Rose, whom he later married.There was a tidal wave tsunami in l946 - the most serious damage was at Hilo.In March l945 the Navy sponsored aswimming met at which wesaw the famous champion Duke Kahanamoku.Jack arranged transportation for a number of prominent athletes & entertainers mostly in the Navy who entertained troops in forward areas. He had an autrographed catchers mitt from Yankee Bill Dickey a baseball from Johnny Mize then with the New York Giants, & a photo of Gene Tunney, all of whom visited the Transportation Office, as did Bing Crosby's sons.We also saw ehbitions of prominent tennis players.-#28ee- To: Lactorid@yahoo.com w the dog, except I had seen her several times with her owner. I dared not go to his apartment to look for dog food, as the large dog might have attacked me.I had stocked nothing.& the military governor had ordered all stores closed to halt the hoarding that started the day after the attack.The dog went back & forth between my front & side doors & the entrance to Mr. Glockner's upstairs apartment at the back of the house.She would not let the milkman, laundry man or newspaper boy approach.When Gertrude Rice came to spend the night,she would rush in when the dog was going to his own door, & in the morning she would rush out. I called the police to remove the dog,but they refused,saying they had more to do than be concerned about the dog.Jack was on duty at Pearl Harbor day & night December 8-11.Finally I called the police to come at once for an emergency.The dog would not let them ring the doorbell - I called out that I had a small boy in the house & was out of food.Finally they did send the dog catcher.Later that month I had a postcard from Mr. Glockner asking me about his property & asking me to put mothballs in his clothes.Then it happened.When Navy women learned Jack had a wife in Waikiki,they began calling me on the telephone & came in droves to the little house,thinking I might plead their cases with Jack.Eventually Jack established priorities-the wounded-surviving widows & their children -pregnant women-women with very young children-& women with medical problems.Naval Reservist Dr. Paul Withington-who had grown up on a Windward Oahu sugar plantation & played football & rowed at Harvard l909 -& who was in charge of the Navy Dependents' Dispensary- advised Jack onmedical cases needing to leave for the mainland.Mrs.Clorinda Low Lucas,one of the first native Hawaiian social workers advised about civilians who needed immediate transportation because of health or social need,& Pacific Fleet Chaplain Captain William Maguire haunted the Transportation Office,as he was familiar wwith the hardships of Navy women & children.Jack found it hard to refuse Chaplain Maguire's requests. because he was the Navy chaplain who in l93l found a room for me in Chefoo in l93l when the whole Asiatic fleet was in town & there was no place for me in the hotels.All sailings of ships in & out of Pearl Harbor were top secret..So when Jack got word from the Port Director, Lieutenant Commander Martin Derx, of the exact number of spaces he could have in the ships to evacuate personnel & dependents on Christmas Day l94l,his staff immediately started telephoning the hospitals to prepare the wounded for the trip to the mainland. They telephoned Navy & Marine personnel to be ready to sail,& then secretly notified the Navy dependents as all Navy women with young children were required to leave the Islands whether or not they wanted to.The order came from Admiral Bloch that ALL Navy dependents were to be evacuated as quickly as ships could be made available.When Gertrude Rice learned that Jack would be working on the dock all Christmas Day loading the evacuees aboard several ships, to be convoyed by three destroyers & a cruiser,she invited John & me to share Christmas dinner with her & Paul -risky as she lived near the Army's Fort Derussy in Waikiki, but it was within walking distance of our house.Carrying our gas masks,John & I walked to Gertrude's apartment, where she gave us a most delicious turkey dinner.When John asked for more peaches with his turkey,Gertrude hesitated, as they were brandied peaches.We had just finished eating when Jack apeared-tired & unfed at three o'clock in the afternoon.Gertrude gave him a good dinner,but he had to leave immediately because he was evacuating thousands of frightened wounded & dependent women with unruly children-with lines miles long waiting to get on the ships.Many women & children had given up their homes & were unfed. Jack saw our friend Mrs. Jean Nelson (from Panama days) standing in line with her two sons-ages about five & seven-at least a mile from the ship trying to control the two boys & watch her luggage at the same time.Jack called a couple of sailors to help her with her bags,& then he went aboard with her & gave her a lovely big room on the Matson Line's LURLINE.She was very pleased when he had an extra cot put in for Eric,the younger boy,so the family could be together in one cabin.Jack ordered her trunk taken to her cabin-a great privilege as most passengers could get nothing from their trunks during the voyage,because the trunks were in the hold.Later Gene Nelson wrote me that many of the children had no warm clothes for the cold weather of San Francisco about New Year's Day,& many had no shoes or stockings, which children generally do not use in Hawaii.One evening when the order came to "Darken Ship," some women thought they heard,"Abandon Ship," & there was temporary panic-but that soon suibsided.The destroyers of the convoy occasionally dropped depth charges for suspected submarines,but the voyage was not too harrowing.GENE NELSON letter June 24,l970 "widow of Captain Paul Nelson,who had been a young boat officer on the survey ship HANNIBAL when Jack was "exec" & who was aboard the mine layer OGLALA on December 7,l94lwhen she was sunk & who died some time ago- a letter about her evacuation by Jack onthe LURLINE Christmas Day l94l.Her son Paul junior was graduated from the Naval Academy & became a submariner- & her sonEric became a Naval aviator,but Eric was killed in a mountain acident recently.Gene herself passed away from a heart condition in March l97l. There were our good Navy friends,who visited at our house in West Roxbury in the l950's for Sunday dinner. In her letter Gene wrote,' Dear Sophie: Paul had (p.ll9f)the duty December 6-7 l94l aboard the OGLALA usually referred to as THAT old minelayer.I did not know he was alive until 2;30 pm The wife of the skipper 'Colonel' Speight located me at Kay Tompkins' where I had gone after I picked upthe children at Saint Andrews Episcopal Church.Kalaimaku Street was an evacuation area,so that it was senseless totry to go home. I went on home with the boys-Paul junior & Eric after spending the day getting up & down a rickety ladder with them & hiding under a reinforced concrete culvert.Later Paul & the paymaster came home-Paul trying to whistle & in khaki as the uniform was changed from whites to try to catch any possible saboteurs.I forget how I got the word,but I went downtown to have the boys evacuated wight away.Later I was informed I had to go along.A might telephone call told me to report for evacuation at a downtown pier.Somehow I had trunks,suitcases & even a toy or two with us.All our Christmas presents had sunk on the OGLALA December 7, l94l.(Paul jr was about eight & Eric about five) A cot was put in a lovely room on the LURLINE now renamed the MATSONIA.It was made up about sundown for Eric.The sheets felt odd,& next morning we found they were pure linen from the lanai suites! We had nothing to bathe in for 4 l/2 days but cold salt water. We had sailed on December 26,l94l accompaniedby two cruisers- one of them the St. LOUIS,& five destroyers.The destroyers ran around like mad that afternoon tossing over "ash cans" (depth charges).They were kept very busy tossing over depth charges p ll9g as we had all four of the Matson liners in convoy. We had aboard I believe thirty-eight of the burn cases.The boys went belting down a main staircase & almost ran into one, one day.I threatened them with everything I knew if theyt did it again. The gallant suffering burned boy (sailor) kept telling me he kknew they meant no harm. have keen hearing.One night over the loudspeaker came "Prepare to darken ship."Over a hundred people paniced,as they heard,"Prepare to abandon ship." My table mates bolted,but I grabbed an arm of each boy & told them to stay seated.Took quite a while to restore order.One evening some others were in our assigned places.We were put at a small table against the wall-I had some words,believe me with the steward- & we went back to our table for breakfast & kept on there.The stewards were quite surly. I heard later that at disembarkation at San Francisco they were marched off & sent toa recruiting office - or else...I cannot vouch for the story.They should have been,because the children were given a patented cooked cereal every day & diarrhea was rampant,you may imagine. One morning I was talking to a lovely older lady & mentioned I was worried about all the children I saw barefooted & in cotton only.Our boys had their little but too small coats & caps & were warm enough to land in San Franciscowithin two days. I bet it was twenty minutes later when over the loud speaker came a request that anyone who could spare clothes report to deck room- I had been talking with a General's wife.She got things done that I a Lieutenant's wife coould only worry about.We docked on a beautiful day at Pier 32 San Francisco.I managed to reach a phone & called Paul's sister-at work of course.I could hear her call over her shoulder,"My brother's wife & boys are here from Pearl Harbor-'bye,bosss."When she came to pick us up, I told ner "Open the front & back doors. We've had only cold salt water in which to wash for 4 l/2 days." On the dock were plenty of warm donations which should have been sent to Honolulu.Plenty of time for it. The Red Cross was there selling orange juice, coffee, milk for anickel apiece. A good friend of mine had on the same slacksuit for three dazys & I asked if she had any other clothes.Everything of hers had been put in the hold & no person could go look.She came down to our room & I outfitted her with a brand new suit from Sears Roebuck & even had thread & needle for her to shorten the pants- all thanks to your Jack having given orders for all our baggage to go in our lovely big room. This is Jyuly 5 now- I get sidetracked by this lousy heart & my sixty-first birthday on July 3. As ever, Gene Nelson." THE OGLALA haD PREVIOUSLY BEEN A FALL RIVER liner But she was almost always tied up at Pearl Harbor. On December 7,l94l she lay next to the cruiser HELENA at 1010 dock & capsized. She was tied up so slong that a family of birds built a nest in her funel. End addition rest from #28:Another friend- from TULSA days in China-Commander Myron Thomas-was on Admiral Calhoun's staff,& through Jack he made arrangements for his wife & son to be evacuated on Christmas Day.He appreciated all Jack did to help & wrote to me recently that except for confusion on the dock before departure his wife & son had a good trip home on the LURLINE.Since I refused tonaccept my Navy quarters at Makalapa in July l941 chiefly because it was located so near the oil storage tanks,I was interested to read later in Samuel Eliot Morison's official history of the Navy in World War II that the greatest mistake the Japanese made on December 7 was theirfailure to bomb the huge reserve supply of oil at Pearl Harbor-& their failure to destroy the repair yards & docks & command & information facilities at the Administration Building. Commander Myron Thomas on Admiral Calhoun's Service Force staff wrote l970 about Jack: "He performed his task in a most creditable manner,& then his tact,careful planning,foresight & diplomacy with many people at this critical time satisfied the majority of naval personnel who had to remain in the (war) zone & were anxious to get their dependents tothe mainland. I well remember that he booked my wife &^ son for sailing on the SS.LURLINE on Christmas Day '4l- & I didn't see them again until Christmas'43." Soon after the attack I learned a lot about it from Jack & from Captain Paul Rice,who worked for Admiral Furlong in the Navy Yard in charge of civilian workers in the repair shops.When Jack was Operations & War Plans assistant at Pearl Harbor in August l94l, he tried hard to get his superiors to work with the Army & alert the navy to the real threat of an attack by the Japanese, but he was ignored-& transferred by Bloch to the Overseas Transportation Office,where his warnings could not disturb their golf.Paul Rice told me the civilian workmen voluntarily returned to work at the repair shops even while the attack was in progress-they worked well to prepare the ships for the trip to the mainland for permanent repairs.Early in the New Year l942 Jack was notified that several ships were en route to Honolulu to evacuate a large number of Navy dependents.Accordingly they secretly notified many women to give up their homes & be prepared to sail at a specified secret time.Not until the day of planned departure did Jack learn that all the ships had been sent elsewhere-the Navy women & children were stranded without places to live & without much ready cash.Jack was hounded day & night by displaced women & children=he was the victim of a situation which he had done nothing to create. For months no ships for dependents were made available to him, as they were all occupied in transporting troops & supplies for the crucial battle of Midway,which occured June 4. Late in May l942 my friend Lillian Arroyo visited me in Waikiki as she had learned that her husband was scheduled to leave the Islands shortly.She used her precious gasoline to drive me to a Japanese store in Honolulu where they put new covers on my chair cushions & sold me their last three Philippine teakwood bookcases & the only two unpainted pine rocking chairs in the place, which was practically empty.Lillian told me the awful secret of the preparations for Midway,& I promised to say nothing to anyone-not even to Jack.But the secret worried me,& I understood why Jack had no ships for the wounded & Navy dependents.But we won the Battle of Midway- & after that Jack could transport all the people who wanted to leave. Since Admiral Bloch put pressure on him to send us away,& since we had no home to go to on the mainland, we declared Hawaii our legal residence & remained throughout the war until June 4,l947.In the spring of l942,the Army cut some of the barbed wire at our entrance to the beach at Waikiki,& we joyfully resumed our daily swim just before dinner each evening.One late afternoon May l942 I lit the oven to bake a few very old potatoes & the last four old yellow onions.WhenJack finally came home,he had with him a young man in civilian clothes-a soiled white shirt & really dirty white civilin trousers.Jack took me aside & whispered that his guest was a Lieutenant junior grade just in from a forward area of the war exhausted & afraid of the Shore Patrol because he was out of uniform-he had no time or funds to get a uniform before he left for the states to receive a Presidential citation from Franklin Roosevelt on behalf of his unit that had been in the Philippines.We took Henry Brantinghamfor a walk to the beach & loaned him a swim suit.The four of us walked hurriedly to the beach, swam-& in the walk home Henry was relaxed enough to laugh & talk like a normal young person.I raced into the kitchen-where my potatoes were overcooked -& my few little onions almost burned. I cut some stale cold roast beef cooked the previous Sunday.By the time they had showered & dressed it was dark,but we sat down to our simple meal.But we had a pleasant time & whe I asked Henry if he would like to join us for a swim & supper the next night,he merely replied,"That is up to the Commander."Jack walked to the Moana hotel with Henry so he wouldn't get lost & picked up by the Shore Patrol. Jack told him not to leave the hotel until he had heard from the Transportation Office.Brantingham had been skipper of a PT boat evacuating MacArthur & his family- then in mountains of Cebu-a Filipino loaned him a civilian shirt & trousers so he could have his dirty uniform .washed. Before the uniform came back from the laundry,Brantingham flew out on one of the two last planes to leave the Philippines.So that is why Brantingham reached Australia in soiled civilian clothes.Later in the Solomons he commanded one of the four PT boats that were with Lt. John F. Kennedy & was involved iin picking up Kennedy, as described in Donovan's book "PT l09."Brantingham remembers us well in l970 & expressed appreciation in his l970 letter from La Jolla,California.

#1101 p 57 Early text 1969 of Brooklyn Hawaii 1939-1942

In the spring of l942,the Army cut some of the barbed wire at our entrance to the beach at Waikiki,& we joyfully resumed our daily swim just before dinner each evening.One late afternoon May l942 I lit the oven to bake a few very old potatoes & the last four old yellow onions.When Jack finally came home,he had with him a young man in civilian clothes-a soiled white shirt & really dirty white civilian trousers.Jack took me aside & whispered that his guest was a Lieutenant junior grade just in from a forward area of the war exhausted & afraid of the Shore Patrol because he was out of uniform-he had no time or funds to get a uniform before he left for the states to receive a Presidential citation from Franklin Roosevelt on behalf of his unit that had been in the Philippines.We took Henry Brantingham for a walk to the beach & loaned him a swim suit.The four of us walked hurriedly to the beach, swam-& in the walk home Henry was relaxed enough to laugh & talk like a normal young person.I raced into the kitchen-where my potatoes were overcooked -& my few little onions almost burned. I cut some stale cold roast beef cooked the previous Sunday.By the time they had showered & dressed it was dark,but we sat down to our simple meal.But we had a pleasant time & whe I asked Henry if he would like to join us for a swim & supper the next night,he merely replied,"That is up to the Commander."Jack walked to the Moana hotel with Henry so he wouldn't get lost & picked up by the Shore Patrol. Jack told him not to leave the hotel until he had heard from the Transportation Office.Brantingham had been skipper of a PT boat evacuating MacArthur & his family- then in mountains of Cebu-a Filipino loaned him a civilian shirt & trousers so he could have his dirty uniform washed. Before the uniform came back from the laundry,Brantingham flew out on one of the two last planes to leave the Philippines.So that is why Brantingham reached Australia in soiled civilian clothes.Later in the Solomons he commanded one of the four PT boats that were with Lt. John F. Kennedy & was involved in picking up Kennedy, as described in Donovan's book "PT l09."Brantingham remembers us well in l970 & expressed appreciation in his l970 letter from La Jolla,California. BRANTINGHAM letter September 4, l970 Dear Mrs. Barrett Your letter brought many memories. I do indeed remember the details you mention.I remember the kindness to me by your husand & yourself,but I do [did] not remember the name.My return to the United States,I'm afraid completely pervaded my thoughts.I had just returned to Honolulu sometime in May l942 after having been in the Philippines since the October before the war started.I was attached to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron at the time,commanded by Lieutenant now Admiral John D. Bulkeley recorded in the book,"They were Expendable."One of the last tasks of this ill-fated squadron was the evacuating General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor & taking him by PT boat to Mindanao, then he was flown to Australia. I was on the second of four boats that joined in this effort. Our squadron was awarded a 'Presidential Unit Citation".I was personally awarded an Army 'Silver Star' medal from Gen MacArthur.After depositing the General in page l19-L Mindanao, our remaining boats returned to Cebu in the central Philippines & remained there until being destroyed (April l942) when the Japanese invaded Cebu.My boat was the last to go. My crew & I were stranded in the mountains of Cebu over a period of about a month.We gradually worked our way, on foot & by native canoe back to Mindanano. We had long since discarded all non-essential equipment & had only the uniforms we were wearing.A few days later my five remaining crewmen & I were flown to Australia on the last two planes to leave the Philippines.To account for my soiled civilian clothing in Honolulu- just before we were flown to Australia, a Philippine native offered to wash my uniform,then quite dirty from weeks in the mountains. He lent me a civilian shirt & trousers to wear while the uniform was being washed.At that point the airplanes came in,& I was faced with the choice of going to Australia or waiting for the laundry.Naturally I chose the former.In the long trip from Mindanao to Honolulu via Australia & Pacific Islands,I had no opportunity to buy a uniform.In fact I was still wearing the same civilian clothes. plus my sun helmet, until I got to San Francisco, after what now seems an unbelieveable six months of strange events.After returning to the States, I stayed long enough to get married & then went back to the Solomon Islands for nineteen months-then to the Mediterranean until after VE Day (May 8, l945) then back to the Pacific-Iwo Jima Okinawa etc. until after V-J day.I don't believe I ran across your husband again.I hope this adds a little to your collection,& I thank you for your interest in writing & belatedly thank you for the evening in Hawaii.I've retired by now- living in La Jolla, working at University of California, San Diego.Thanks again for writing.sincerely, Henry J. Brantingham.PS For what it is worth,while I was in P.T(torpedo) boats in the Solomon Islands I was in command of the P.T. boat at the scene of the rescue of Lieutenant- later President John F. Kennedy.See book 'PT l09) (Donovan)" +++Brooklyn-Hawaii1940-41 from"BlackNotebookOne" early text before Sophie wrote "RED HEADED STEPCHILD] We just missed getting acquainted with the Roche family in August 1939 for they moved in downstairs in November having arrived from Newfoundland not long before that.Nora the maid slept in the small room off the dining room. Although the wire hair terrier Skippy was a very active dog, she was very careful with John. We were still at 640 when Bill called up with the news of the birth of his son William Joel August 26, 1939. Since Bill's name is William Joseph Barrett, they are both "William J. Barrett", but Billy is not "junior". His oldest son [1960s] is therefore William Joel, junior. All the Barretts were delighted with Billy's arrival. Jack had been at work for several weeks at the Branch Hydrographic Office in New York and -62-had rented an apartment and unpacked and arranged the furniture at 9615 Shore Road. He now came back for us, and we made the train trip to New York and taxied to Brooklyn. --After bring settled in Brooklyn I wrote a letter to the Head Red Cap, Los Angeles Railroad Station, telling him the exact time and date when our train left Los Angeles and explaining why we failed to tip a most helpful red cap who had to jump off a moving train. I asked him to try to locate the red cap so that I could pay him. Very soon after we received a letter telling us the name and address of the red cap. I sent him a letter of appreciation and of apology and a check for five dollars. We received a thank-you note from him. The stores on Third, Fourth, and Fifth Avenues in Brooklyn were about five blocks walk up 97th Street from Shore Road. This was also the route to the subway. Jack rode the subway to work at the Custom House Tower. There was a good meat market on Third Avenue where we bought rib roasts, chopped sirloin, and other cuts. We soon made the acquaintance of the Rooney family on the first floor and became very good friends. For recreation we would walk to Fort Hamilton, or drive to Prospect Park or Owl's Head Park to see the squirrels. Later on we made more ambitious trips to Jones, Beach, Coney Island and the World's Fair. -63-In 1940 Bill called up to give me my first news of Jack's promotion to Commander. He had also been the first one to read the news in the New York Times when Jack made Lieutenant Commander in 1932. At Thanksgiving 1939 we drove to Overbrook, Pennsylvania, to see my sister Bee. Sam worked for LeRoux Liquers making cordials, and their two children Jason and Thalia were somewhat older than John. My brother Pete and his wife Jen drove -64- up from Baltimore. After a fine Thanksgiving dinner we all left for home. Around this time my sister Esther in Hartford had successful surgery for abdominal cancer. John was interested in the snow in the back courtyard at 9615 Shore Road, after the mild winter the year before in the San Diego area. The paved courtyard behind the building used to have curious little whirlwinds produced by the shape of the building, and his father would point them out and talk about low pressure systems. Jack had many years studying winds and hydrography - came through a Carribean hurricane September 1935 on the trip of the HANNIBAL north from Panama to Virginia- Mollie had taken photos of the September 1938 hurricane damage at Carson Beach, South Boston, and around this time Gershom Bradford was developing his theory that low pressure waterspouts west of the Azores caused the abandonment of the New Bedford fishuing schooner MARY CELESTE in November 1872. Jack used to recite a verse about hurricanes -"June too soon- July stand by- August - look out you must - September - Remember! - October, -all over -" - but then he would tell he knew of a bad hurricane in November. -- There was a small patch of poison ivy on the fence, and Jack would tell us how his father once met some tourists who were collecting bright-red three-leaved autumn bouquets of poison ivy foliage contrary to his advice. Jack's father also advised passengers to sit in the middle cars of subway and railroad trains, as accidents usually damaged the front or rear end. Jack's father gave up his plumbing shop in 1926, but later would be called out from time to time as a consultant when a leak occurred because he had an exceptional knowledge of the complex mains and pipes underground in Boston. He later said he might not have retired if he had known he would live so long. His wife had diabetes, before insulin was available but she survived to age eighty to January 1938, requiring considerable care, while grandfather himself remained strong and active nearly until his death in August 1942 at age eighty-seven years, eight months. Jack grew and photographed many amaryllis, ranunculus plants, anemones,, and begonias, but never had any luck with freesias. Both Christmases at Brooklyn we devoted considerable energy to decorating small Christmas trees. One year there was a considerable problem with a leak in a tub of water that was used to prevent the tree from drying out. We have photos from both Christmases, and Joan Rooney from downstairs appears in many of the 1940 Christmas photos.We still [1970] have much of the Chinese furniture that appears in pictures at the Brooklyn apartment. Jack fashioned clothesline swings on the roof for John. In early 1940 there were spectacular displays of the five planets all visible shortly after sunset in the western sky across the Narrows,-65- This grouping of the five visible planets occurs less than once every twenty years. We spent many hours watching them. We had a large Tinkertoy set and began to accumulate the Beatrix Potter series of books Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, the Flopsy Bunnies,Mrs. Titmouse, Squirrel Nutkin,Pigling Bland, the Tailor of Gloucester, Tom Kitten, the Roly-Poly Pudding, the Two Bad Mice,Jeremy Fisher, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle,Ginger and Pickles, and the rest. Jack began to invent his own sequels to these stories. A little illustrated child's story of a dog "Sniffy" and a cat "Mitzi" provided us a name for the toy cat our maid Nellie Kelly gave John in Philadelphia. In May 1940 Mitzie appears in one of John's better photos in the fields across Shore Road. The koala bear the Craig family sent from Melbourne was one of the most unusual of John's big collection of toys. Jack had a porcelain kookaburra [bird] from New Zealand. Grandpa gave a white toy horse, and Bill gave a rocking horse while we were in Coronado 1938. A candy company gave away toy Peter Rabbit bunnies with boxes of Easter candy.We added"Saucy Squirrel", several more rabbits, a toy dog,a bear, a panda, and a cow. The Tinkertoys made good windmills and derricks,and there was a spring motor, we spent many hours with these. In the Brooklyn newspapers we used to read "Napoleon and -66- p66- Uncle Elby, Maggie and Jiggs in "Bringing Up Father" and "Mutt and Jeff." John learned to read by watching the page as we read stories and would puzzle over the Culbertson bridge columns. During the summer of 1940 we visited Mrs. Conover in Ossining, New York. She was a friend from the [PRESIDENT] PIERCE Voyage of 1932. She prepared good meals despite unfortunately hot weather. Her son Frank sold antiques at home. About July 1940 we went to see Bee and Sam in Atlantic City. Jack said John needed no swimming instruction but instinctively dog-paddled, treaded water, floated, and tried to head for Europe. By the time we returned to their house, Sam and Bee had gone out for the evening, and John was so tired, we went right to bed. Jack was tired too, and although he meant to stretch out to rest for a short time, he fell asleep for the night. The next morning he found a police ticket in his car for having parked illegally overnight. One time Jack was caught in an eight or ten foot wave at Jones Beach [where we went frequently on south coast of Long Island.] Fortunately, he saw it a moment before it hit, grabbed a deep breath, and rolled around with it until it passed by, - without serious effects. After that we used the children's area to swim at Jones Beach. Kay Trufant of Mount Holyoke [1923 classmate] made on trip to Jones Beach with us, as did Anne's sister Eleanor Taylor. p. 67- Anne and Ivan McCormack came to Sunday dinner at Shore Road, and we returned their visit at Patchen Place. Anne gave John a Hershey bar, which would have been the first candy he had, but I found the bar unopened by John, and when he failed to ask for it for several days, I ate it. We saw the film Pinocchio in Brooklyn.The color [Technicolor] was considered advanced at that time. We visited Macy's [Stores] several times, and August 28, 1940, Jack bought a Baldwin Spinet piano there on his fifty-second birthday, for about seven hundred dollars on sale. Chester Swanner, his old friend from the ZIZANIA from the Lighthouse Service in Maine in 1912 was with him that day while he was in Macy's buying the piano. Later Mr. Swanner had dinner at 9615 [Shore Road]. He was a Mississippian, very much interested in cattle raising- and planned to study the cattle exhibits of the New York World's Fair. His special interest was Ayrshire cattle. He declined an invitation to tour the World's Fair exhibits with us because he preferred to concentrate on the cattle exhibits. He had written Jack from a freighter in Tamipaulis, Mexico in 1923 and had a daughter born about 1920. Mollie Barrett could not locate him when she visited Bay St. Louis, Mississippi in 1961 [Mollie went to see Mrs. DeSta, mother of her brother Bill's wife Margaret, whom Bill married in 1958]. The wild apple blossoms were one of the attractive features of the spring flowers on the undeveloped slope between Shore Road and the ocean waters near The Narrows leading to New York Harbor in front of our apartment at #9615 Shore Road. Mollie came to 9615 Shore Road only once, and that was a quick trip during a visit at Bill's in Darien. My sister-in-law Ethyle Meranski and her son and daughter Carol Jane stayed one night in the apartment when they were our guests at the World's Fair. We bought a pencil -p . 68- sharpener which we still have [1970] and another one as a gift for Ted. I was struck by the length of time Ethyle cooked the hamburgers; theyt wanted them crisp and well-done for their lunch the day after they went to the Fair, before leaving for their home in Hartford. On one occasion Sam Pollack had business in new York and brought his family. I think he was arranging to transfer to the Schenley company, which wanted him in its management.Not long after this he joined their staff in Cincinnati and later came as a senior executive to the home office in the Empire State Building. Young Thalia stayed with us. Friday she went with us to the World's Fair, where we enjoyed seeing the Borden cows milked mechanically. My brother Harry's sister-in-law, Marion Taylor, was a nurse at the Green Point hospital, Brooklyn, at this time. I invited her to dinner, and I spent a lot of time making roast chicken, which I had never served to my family before. Jack, John, and I were enjoying the meal when Marion said, "I don't like chicken." She ate it like a good sport. Helen Miller lived in Brooklyn and came to the apartment once to help hang curtains and draperies. She was still working for Mary Augusta Clark in the Commonwealth Fund. I talked with Mrs. Edward Beach on the phone early in our stay in Brooklyn, when she called up to invite me to dinner. I had to decline, however, as we had no baby sitter, and she felt it would not be an appropriate dinner for John. As a result I have not yet met those very good friends of Jack's from the battleship WYOMING [is it destroyer TOUCEY 1921?] I voted for Willkie, in November 1940. It was the first time I voted. The State of New York used to discriminate against voting by military personnel, so my husband could not vote. They also tried to collect 1939 income taxes, though he resided principally in California that year. A mistake by the Navy in sending data to New York required much correspondence to straighten out. Jack had also to explain the situation to Massachusetts Tax Commissioner Henry Long, who was later [1951] to become his good friend as his teacher in Taxation at Northeastern University Law School. We toured the Perisphere and Trilon at the New York World's Fair, and Jack was proud of a lighted night view of the Perisphere, which he took with his Voightlander camera. We enjoyed the Borden cows and milking exhibit. I especially enjoyed a restaurant where we got tender rare roast beef and a wonderful dessert of cake and ice cream with fudge sauce. We had a lady come in twice a week to vacuum the floors and furniture. She also took my aprons home to wash, and I gave her a great many of John's baby things when she said that her daughter was going to have a baby. We used Bill Barrett's dentist Dr. Ellis on Fifth Avenue, New York. Jack was not particularly anxious to retire in 1940, though he had thought of continuing law study. However, officers were p 70 being encouraged to retire under a policy that gave an extra grade of rank to those that applied for voluntary retirement - a so-called Irish promotion. Very reluctantly about February 1940 he submitted his request for voluntary retirement. Unexpectedly, instead of being retired, he was promoted to Commander.He would have gone on the Retired List June 30, 1940 while in fact remaining on duty in charge of the New York [Branch] Hydrographic Office. On June 12, eighteen days before his scheduled retirement, all voluntary retirements were cancelled, and he stayed on the active list for six and one half more years, thus giving him an opportunity to qualify for thirty years active service, which he attained in mid-1943. There are some good family photos in Owl's Head Park with the Rooneys in September 1940. They latter part of our stay in Brooklyn they became close friends. We saw a lot of them around Christmas, l940 and in June 1941. On our last day in our apartment Mrs. Rooney gave us a very good lunch - chicken, potatoes, and peas just before we caught our train for the West Coast. Mrs. Rooney died during the war, but we saw George Rooney and his second wife in 1958 in their same apartment after the wedding of David Geetter and his wife Joan Trouboff. Mr. Rooney said his daughter Joan was studying nursing. In 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz [then of Bureau of Navigation] sent orders for Jack to leave for Pearl Harbor in July. It was rather painful to tell Grandfather Barrett and Mollie. Grandpa guessed the news, but Mollie did not. {In our 1937 Lincoln Zephyr] we took a tour to Springfield and Greenfield, in western Massachusetts, drove near Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, and stopped in for a night in South Boston without explaining the reason. It was a slightly awkward visit, as Mollie did not expect us and did not guess we were to be away for six years. Later on a visit to Darien we told Bill and Virginia we were leaving, and Bill and Jack took pictures of John (age five) and Billy (twenty-one months). In early July after a goodbye lunch with the Rooneys we took a train for the West Coast. We took a northerly route because of our previous experience with summer weather. We crossed Nebraska. Around daybreak at five AM Jack called us as we passed into Colorado at Julesburg on the northern border of the state. We were only in the state a few minutes. Then we went across Wyoming and were a mile high in Cheyenne, as Jack told us then and used to recollect in later years. We got out of the train there briefly. At Salt Lake City we changed trains and headed South through Utah to Las Vegas and southern California.Probably there was a little less hot weather than on the Arizona route.. We were to catch the Matson Line LURLINE at Wilmington, California near Los Angeles about July 10 and arrive Honolulu July 15. The Pardees saw us off and were very impressed with the suite we occupied on the LURLINE. I think C.J. Todd [former Revenue Cutter School classmate] may have been there also. p.72- An elaborate sendoff with many colored long paper streamers from the ship to the pier was provided After a pleasant five day voyage on arrival at Honolulu, many people purchased flower leis, and Gertrude Rice came with her daughter Nathalie to meet us and put one of the frangipani flower leis around my neck. Another was presented to me by Captain Knowles, the officer in charge of the Pearl Harbor War Plans office where Jack was to work. Gertrude Rice, her daughter Nathalie, and John and I sat in the patio of the Moana Hotel on Waikiki Beach while Jack rode off to Pearl Harbor with Captain Paul Rice. We stayed a long time, and when Jack failed to return to us, I inquired at the desk at the Moana, and I was told that my husband had registered us there, and I was given the key to a double room, which had a child's cot in it. Gertrude went home for lunch, saying she would see us in the lobby of the Moana hotel after dinner. John and I found the glare of Waikiki very trying [the sun was nearly overhead in July] , and we found the tropical heat to be exhausting. Both of us were glad to be indoors, and even after a nap we stuck closely to the large lanai, which was covered against the afternoon sun. That evening out in the large patio Gertrude and Paul Rice were with us when we saw our first hula dancers and listened to the high voices of the Hawaiian male singers. The waiter made fancy forms out of toothpicks to amuse the five-year-old John, and the trunk porter Jake Oberholzer really adopted John. The first Saturday we were there Jack took us "around the Island" [Oahu] and the dining room was just about to be -p73- closed when we returned, but the kindly head waiter let us in, and we were glad to eat and go to bed. The three of us found the climate enervating at first. I had to wear dark glasses, and an allergic skin condition on my hands. which I had in China in 1931 soon returned. In spring 1942 at night during strict wartime blackout I was painfully stung in the scalp by a very large centipede, which left two large fang marks. We had shipped our furnture from Brooklyn to Pearl Harbor, because we were told before we left New York we would have government quarters. About a week after our arrival, before our furniture got there, Jack drove us to Pearl Harbor to see our new home. I was sick at heart to find that our quarters were not far from the oil storage tanks [a huge main Naval facility at Makalapa] and that the houses being built were much too large for our small family of three people. The living room was twice the size of any home I had had before, and my gold living room rug - nine by twelve feet- and my ancient Kassiu rug would be lost in those spacious rooms. Moreover, I owned no dining room furniture, and my one bureau and one chest of drawers could not fill three large bedrooms. Since I expected to stay in Pearl Harbor only two years- maybe three- I couldn't imagine buying curtains and draperies for all those windows. When I arrived, Gertrude told me it was just about impossible to get a cook or maid in Honolulu, and I couldn't imagine how I could take care of that enormous house alone. Also I considered the monthly rent of one hundred twenty-five dollars extravagant. When Jack told the Fourteenth Naval District Paymaster that I didn't want the quarters, the paymaster told Jack that he would assign them to a doctor with a large family.So we stayed at the expensive -p74- Moana for both room and meals and began looking for a place to live, without any success. Still I did not regret not living near those oil tanks and not having that big house to furnish and decorate. Knowing that I was concerned about the expense of the Moana and getting a bit tired of the constant singing and dancing there, Gertrude Rice took me to the agent who had rented her an apartment in Waikiki. He told us about a small furnished apartment at 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard, Waikiki, which would be vacated the next day [July 28] and rented for ninety-five dollars. That was the only furnished place he had listed. So we went with him, and the little family of Navy Lieutenant Bailey there were enthusiastic about the place they had had for only two months, - but they had to sail to the mainland because the husband had been ordered to a ship on the West Coast. She sold me two couch covers, green with white ships, an inexpensive table lamp, and a heavy frying pan, - and I rented the apartment joyfully, paying the rent in advance and the agent's fee. The next day we moved in,carrying our bags up Kaiulani Street to the Ala Wai. I expected to stay there until my furniture arrived and until I found an unfurnished place. On the day I moved in, Mrs. Bailey was scheduled to sail. She had left the door unlocked while she did a few last-mimute errands. When I left the apartment, I carefully locked the door so no one would steal my things and her suitcases. When I returned several hours later, she told me that I had locked her out without her door key, but her son got in through a window. They soon left for the ship. Very soon after we moved in, our next door neighbor at #2421, Mrs. James Needles (Edythe) dropped in, and told me that she had furnished the place for our landlord and had also furnished the four small apartments next door at #2411 Ala Wai Boulevard, which also belonged to Mr. Glockner. He dropped in after his work at the brewery and complained that I had moved in before I signed an inventory of the furnishings. I shrugged it off, saying I would go over the inventory with him at his convenience- but we never did -and I never signed anything for him. I just rented the place on a monthly basis and stayed six years. My husband worked in War Plans at Pearl Harbor when he arrived. About five o'clock every evening we went to the nearby Waikiki Beach to swim- a delightful experience. We would walk a long block east on Ala Wai Boulevard past shower, poinciana, and Bauhinia "orchid" trees and then seven blocks down broad Liliuokalani Street, named for the 1890s Queen of Hawaii, who spent much time in Waikiki. We would pass Mountain View, Cleghorn, Kuhio, and Koa Streets to Kalakaua Avenue, the main business route along Waikiki Beach. Often Captain and Mrs. Rice would swim with us and come to our house for dinner afterwards. The talk betwen Jack and Paul Rice invariably turned to war with the Japanese. Although many civilians and service personnel doubted the imminence of war with Japan, both Jack and Captain Rice believed it was a real possibility. Not long after my husband expressed the view to his superiors that the battleships were sitting ducks for bombing - one bomb could hit two ships in the Pearl Harbor lochs- he was transferred to head the Overseas Transportation Office - with title of Assistant Personnel Officer in October 1941. 75-76 Theoretically he was assistant personnel officer under the Personnel officer Captain Lewis, but in practice the transportation duty took practically all his time. He held the post throughout the entire duration of the Pacific War and a couple of months afterwards. His office was near the south corner of the first floor of the Administration Building at Pearl Harbor with two doors, one on each side of the left front corner of the building. The public entrance was on the front of the Administration Building facing east, while there was a less-used access to Jack's inner office around the corner on the south lanai. Persons having business with the Overseas Transportation Office usually walked in the door on the front side of the building into a large room where the staff of ten or twelve military and civilian employees had their desks. Commander Barrett's private office adjoined the main room and had windows and a door on the left side of the building. John used to visit frequently from late 1942 onward, usually on weekends or school vacations = Jack worked every day including Sundays and took no leave during the war. Jack's Assistant Lt. Commander USNR Martin Williams from Kentucky frequently visited us in Waikiki to swim and have supper. We got into a discussion one time of Jack's work at the Office, and John teasingly remarked, "All he does is sign his name and bawl people out." One of the best photographs we have of Jack was taken at his desk in the private office by a Navy photographer in 1943. Unfortunately we have no record of his name. In 1941 a kamaaina resident of the Hawaiian Islands named Jimmy Murray was his first assistant. Later Martin Williams a Reservist from Kentucky arrived and was a close friend and associate from July 1943 through October 1945. Wilfred Pang, with shipping and personnel experience and Catle and Cook and Matson Navigation had great knowledge of passenger ship procedures and spent much of his time running an office in downtown Honolulu that serviced the transportation of wives and fmaillies. other workers such as Robert Choy, Violet Ho, and Philip Dolan were also very good friends. Jack was fortunate in his staff. Although my furniture arrived and was at Pearl Harbor, I could not find an unfurnished house and did not try too hard because we were comfortable in the little house which required very little housework. Walter Glockner lived in the one room apartment above us. The first few months we had more free time than we did after the war started in December 1941 and after John started school in September 1942. The main business street of Waikiki is Kalakaua Avenue, which runs past the hotels and is zoned for business. Eight blocks inland the Ala Wai Boulevard built about 1922 is a scenic route more or less parallel to Kalakaua Avenue, which is on the shore. Ala Wai Boulevard has houses only on the "makai". (seaward) side, On the other p77 side of its two-and-a-half mile length is a row of carefully planted palm trees and purple-flowered bouganvillea bushes and then down-about six feet the cement-walled Ala Wai Canal, which drains an area that formerly was marshy. Although the water is somewhat polluted, and the sides are barnacle encrusted, it provides a splendid sight from a little distance. Beyond it was a very fine golf course and spectacular view of the mountains and valleys of the volcanic, two thosand foot Koolau range, which forms the backbone of the Island of Oahu along the windward northeastern shore. The moutains rise virtually from sea level In the foreground in the view from our house from left to right were Round Top, Manoa Valley, St. Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, and Wilhelmina Rise. Many houses were visible on Wilhelmina Rise, and their lights would be visible at night above the neighboring residential area of Kaimuki. A small number of houses were visible on St. Louis Heights. In the background the higher peaks of the Koolau Range were visible.behind the foreground features, and these mountains frequently were covered by rain clouds thrown up against them by the Northeast Trade Winds. These mountains sharply divided Honolulu from the windward side of the Island. In the old days only the Nuuanu Pali road crossed the mauntains, and it did so at an altitude of more than a thousand feet. Later a shore road was developed around Koko Head at the southeastern end of the Island. - the Kalanianaole highway with spectacular views of the "Blowhole" and other surf features. p. 78- In September 1941 Jack took many pictures of our Ala Wai house, lawn, car, and views of the mountains, palm trees, and the Ala Wai canal and the beginnings of our garden there. Fortunately we got a considerable group of photographs of him on our lawn in his white uniform at this time. In October we went to the Kapiolani Park and Zoo at the eastern end of Waikiki not far from the prominent crater of Diamond Head, which nearly everyone uses to identify photographs of Waikiki Beach. The Diamond Head crater was off limits to tourists and ocupied by an Army Fort, whose searchlights we would see at night. Kapiolani Park had a very large collection of spectacular tropical birds. We found an African crowned crane probably the most interesting exhibit. There were also birds of paradise. peacocks, a penguin, an Australian cassowary, toucans, storks, and other more familiar varieties. A large pigeon cage was open at the top, and thousands of white pigeons were free to stay in the cage or try their luck outsideas they preferred. There were numerous goats and monkeys, and after a while some Australian wallabies were added an became a favorite exhibit. There were many acres of trees - ironwoods, coconut and date palms, banyans, monkeypods and well-kept grass and a bandstand area where I frequently attended Sunday afternoon band concerts, usually bring John. Jack worked seven days a week at the Overseas Transportation Office at Pearl Harbor making a daily drive of twelve miles each way. In back of our house one block from the Ala Wai was a famous banyan tree known as Kaiulani's banyan. Banyans are very broad tropical trees whose heavy spreading branches send down tendrils that reach the ground and form new roots at a distance from the central trunk. They provide excellent shade, and on the north side of this tree there is a stone seat where the poet Robert Louis Stevenson often sat in 1890 with the young princess Kaiulani of the Hawaiian royal family. The Polynesians called him Tuisitala - the teller of tales. The street is called Tuisitala after Stevenson, an a plaque commemorates Kaiulani's banyan. In Waikiki we remember the Piggly Wiggly store near the corner of Kalakaua Avenue and Liliuokalani Street. and N. Aoki Limited near the corner of Ohua Street. These were two stores where we bought groceries, vegetables, and meat. Bird's Eye frozen foods were becoming available., such as spinach or peas. Later we bought most of our groceries at the Pearl Harbor Navy Commissary. Whole wheat bread was hard to find, and we began to make trips to a bakery on Kapahulu Street in Kaimuki where we would get it fresh from the oven. Jack was consistently pessimistic and ready for the worst as far as Japanese war intentions were concerned. War warnings had been received November 27 by the top commanders in the Army and Navy, and at this date Jack was glad not to be in War Plans at this stage in view of the prevailing complacency, which he had been unable to influence. We recommend a book entitled "The Week Before Pearl Harbor " for an accurate picture of what went on. An enlisted sailor in Jack's Transportation Office asked permission to fly to one of the outlying islands [probably Maui or Molokai] over December 6 and 7 when he was off duty. Jack insisted that he file formal leave papers. "You never can tell what may happen." This precaution kept this individual from being AWOL [Absent Without Official Leave] when his return was delayed by the starts of the war. -80- We had become familiar with the Liberty House store in downtown Honolulu, and on Saturday December 6 we made numerous purchases there and at Woolworth's of Christmas presents, hardware, dishpans, kitchen strainers, oilcloths, and many items that became extremely scarce as soon as the war started. On Monday December 8 people cleared the shelves, and the stores were closed December 9. We had been taking Sunday morning swims about 7:30 AM before breakfast the last few weeks.,but on Sunday December 7, l941 it was an unusually cool, dark day, and we were thinking about skipping the swim and began breakfast. About 7:50 AM Mr. Needles rapped on the screen window on the left side of the house and told John and me that all military personnel were ordered to report to their stations because of a Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor. Jack was in the bathroom when I told him about the attack, and before he could get dressed, Mr. Needles was back again urging hm to hurry. Jack proceeded a short way with John in the car,- saw the Japanese planes- realized that it was indeed no drill- bought a Sunday newspaper, and dropped John with it at home. He thinks the slight delay may have saved his life because he drove over a spot on his route with "Hot ashes" from a bomb [or probably U.S. antiaircraft fire from the ships]. Several people had been killed there, so he was glad not to have been there a few minutes earlier. He came home in the December dark about six PM that night for supper but then had night duty at Pearl Harbor for three or four nights consecutively, and he was working day and night for the next several weeks. That Sunday morning he left in civilian clothes but came home in uniform with gun and ammunition belt. --81- About ten AM an Army Jeep passed through our section of Waikiki telling people to stay indoors, for all military personnel to report to their stations, to boil all drinking water, to refrain from using the telephone, to observe a six PM to six AM blackout and a ten PM curfew for citizens and a seven PM curfew for aliens. We had never had a trial blackout. About ten Am December 7 Gertrude Rice came by in a taxi. She had left her apartment on Lewers Road, which was about a mile west of us near the Army Fort DeRussy. She planned to stay with friends in the hills away from the waterfront area, and she wanted us to go with her for safety. I declined, because Jack would have no way of knowing where we were, if he returned or telephoned. Our little house was in a relatively safe location twelve miles from Pearl Harbor and over a mile - probably two miles from Derussy, the nearest Army fort. We had made a wise or lucky choice. John and I had an early dinner and the place was fully dark and blacked out when Jack returned with the horrifying news of the Pearl Harbor disaster in ships and in men, telling me to say nothing about my information as we were anxious to keep the Japanese from knowing how successful they were. He did tell me secretly, "They [the Japanese] did a 'sweet' [highly effective] job." He felt they missed an opportunity by not hitting our ship repair facilities and the oil storage tanks. Halsey's carriers were at sea, though on that Sunday two thirds of their airplanes were temporarily unavilable for action. {As Japanese planes were fast and highly maneuverable, and Americans at that had little experience finding their weaknesses, some people including Admiral Nimitz since have wondered whether Halsey's planes could have counterattacked effectively even if they had been available. Later American pilots did learn that the fast Japanese attack planes could indeed be destroyed, and Halsey would have liked to have had the opportunity December 7] T he ship repair facilities remqining intact saved us several months in the war effort. They were under the command of Admiral William Furlong and William Calhoun and Captain Gillette. Captain Paul Rice was involved in managing civilian workers. Because we were a military family of moderately high rank, many of our neighbors gathered in our home in the early evening to find out what they should do. Jack was very careful to give -82- them no information, though he minimized the likelihood of invasion of Oahu. An invasion force required far greater logistic support than the December 7 airstrike, and Japan clearly could not sustain her war effort without concentrating her major energies on the immediate capture of the indispensable oil resources of the Dutch East Indies. Therefore an attempt to capture Oahu appeared beyond her capability. Jack was kindly and patient with all the concerned people and their questions. About midnight Captain Paul Rice called up and asked if we knew where his wife was. I told him that she had stopped by my house that morning saying she was going to the home of friends in the hills, but I didn't know what friends or what hill. Very early the next morning December 8, Paul and Gertrude appeared at my door, and we arranged to have Gertrude sleep with us as Paul and Jack would be working day and night. Nathalie had gone to school [college] on the mainland in September. Gertrude slept with us for about a week. Paul returned nights to his apartment after that. After Jack left us for several days on the morning of December 8, the FBI came around looking for our landlord, Mr. Walter Glockner. He was a thirty-four year old American citizen whose rights were flagrantly violated over the next several years by the FBI and the military government of Hawaii because he had been born in Germany. The military governor of Hawaii was fined five thousand dollars for contempt of a habeas corpus order of the -83- civilian courts of the Territory of Hawaii in this cases and the related case of Mr. Saife, but the fine was never paid as President Roosevelt pardoned Governor Richardson. In a similar case from Hawaii [[Korematsu v. United Sttes]] the United States Supreme Court decided in 1946 that the military authorities had clearly acted unconstititutionally, and it is to be hoped that American citizens will be spared such hardships in the future. Mr. Glockner was confined for some months in 1942 at Federal immigration facilities at Sand Island in Honolulu Harbor. The military availed themselves of his talents as a brewer on several occasions preparing beer for the troops. He remained cheerful and was a loyal American but sought legal counsel to obtain his freedom. He corresponded with me about the care of his property and assisted us to various repairs to the sink and other matters and asked me to put moth balls in the suits in his apartment. He hoped my husband would act as a character witness on his behalf at the hearing, but Jack had known him only a brief time and was cautious, not knowing enough about him to be certain, though he was a fine landlord and considerate. After some months the military, wary of the growing indignation of the civilian authorities in Honolullu, made a deal with Mr. Glockner. They agreed to release him in Wisconsin, and he had no objection to leaving the Islands for the duration of the war, though it involved some hardship. He sold several real estate properties in Oahu in which he had invested,- but kept the two houses on Ala Wai in view of the fact that I paid my rent regularly. Another property in Kahala he sold because collections had been difficult. He earned a good living as a brewer in -84- Stevens Point, Wisconsin 1943-1945 and sent us photographs of himself and his dog. He also had a pet fox. The Hawaiian Trust Company acted as his agent concerning the property during the early part of the war. Later the Maier Realty Company took over. Mr. Glockner returned to the Islands in 1945 when the war was over. Barbed wire soon appeared along Waikiki Beach and along the row of palm trees on the north side of Ala Wai Boulevard across from our home next to the Canal. It also appeared in other shore locations that might afford landing places in an invasion. After a time a zig-zag path was opened that permitted swimmers to get down to the water through gates in the barbed wire at Waikiki Beach. When the wire was removed a year or two later, there was still a hazard in walking on the beach because of rusty pieces of barbed wire that would turn up buried in the sand here and there. John went barefoot most of the time as was the general custom. We had tetanus shots and boosters. Most of the sand at Waikiki Beach was imported from Kaneohe, but it was still an atrractive beach inside a breakwater and relatively calm. As I was walking from the bus with John to take him to the Honolulu Art Academy on Beretania Street one rainy afternoon, my priceless black unbrella was caught in the barbed wire and sustained a large hole. Umbrellas were impossible to obtain in wartime Hawaii. I remarked, "That's the only thing that the miles and miles of barbed wire in Honolulu ever caught." We received telegrams from Jack's father and sisters in South Boston, my sisters Bertha Pollack and Babe Geetter, and from Dr. Craig in Melbourne concerning our safety after the Pearl Harbor attack. We also received some especially fine presents from the Craigs in Australia in 1941 and 1942. Besides the usual books at Christmas and geographic "Walkabout" magazine, they sent a toy koala, a white wool rug, and a beautiful paperweight of Australian opal - primary color light azure blue, but with prismatic oranges, greens, and purples from different angles of view. Mr. and Mrs. Needles next door gave us some very special Christmas present in 1941 which we have treasured ever since - the most unusual was a ten-inch-long electric light bulb made in Japan and designed as a Santa Claus, in a red suit with a white beard, with green and yellow ornamentation and Japanese facial features,- probably for use by Japanese Christians or Japnese-Hawaiians. We used this light sparingly, and it has continued to light up [until given to Hallahan family of West Roxbury in 1993 still in working condition]. Mr. and Mrs. Needles also gave us several other small Christmas ornaments including a sleigh with reindeer and a cloth Santa Claus on a little plastic stand with a walnut in the sack on his back. The Needles' property at #2421 had about the same frontage as our house at #2415, but it had a deep back yard going in most of the distance from Ala Wai Boulevard to Tuisitala Street to the south. It was fine for croquet and other games. A coconut palm tree, pink and red hibiscus bushes, and a long variegated panax hedge had been planted along the property line when the houses were built around 1922. A large prickly pear cactus stood at the southwest corner of the Needles property. Shortly after we arrived,Mr. Glockner planted four little papaya trees, but only the one furthest from the street near our back bedroon survived. It eventually grew eight or nine feet tall and produced many delicious papayas, which we regularly consumed. Mangoes were our favorite tropical fruit- less regularly available, though our neighbor Mrs. Distelli and sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Hazleton on Kuhio street occasionally gave us excellent fresh ones. We never developed much of a taste for breadfruit, though there was an attractive-looking breadfruit tree on Mr. Glockner's property between our driveway and his apartments next door at #2411. Bright yellow and orange ginger plants bloosomed in fron of #2411. There were blue passion flowers growing on a trellis which served as the open west wall of our garage, whose roof was supported by heavy pillars of lava rock at the corners. Our living room and kitchen doors opened into the garage on the right [[west]] side of the house, and there was a shower door at the right rear corner of the house, ideally designed for coming back in to take a shower after swimming at Waikiki Beach. Directly behind the house at 2415 was the stairway to the upstairs apartment. Mr. Glockner lived there in 1941, and several war workers later occupied the apartment. -86- Finally a young Samoan woman with two small children lived there at the end of the war and remained when we left in June, 1947. A fence divided the Glockner properties from a two-story apartment building on Tuisitala Street behind our house. Bomb shelters were soon built in the back part of the Needles' yard and in the vacant lot between the Glockner apartments at #2411 Ala Wai and the corner of Kaiulani Street to the west. Mr. amd Mrs. Needles started a victory garden on top of their bomb shelter and managed to grow some carrots and other vegetables there. There were several air raid alerts in early 1942 , and we used the Needles' bomb shelter several times most at night,though in fact only a very few stray Japanese planes actually came near Oahu after the war started. During one late night air raid alert we stayed home and watched the powerful searchlights from Diamond Head instead of going into the dreary shelter. We had 1941 Christmas dinner over at Gertrude Rice's apartment near Lewers Road and Fort DeRussy in west-central Waikiki. We walked there, carrying our gas masks, and she served a delicious dinner-= brandied pears served with the turkey. Jack was working Christmas Day, loading passengers at the dock, but he came and joined us after we had eaten, but Mrs. Rice saved food for him, and a grand time was had by all. [[There was a discussion of how much brandy the fruit contained - John thought the pears were delicious and asked for a second helping- Gertrude mentioned a time when she had a drink that seemed to keep her awake, "My heart beat, beat, beat all night" and Paul Rice replied, "You're lucky it didn't STOP beating!" [They lived to ages ninety-five and one hundred two-and-a-half]] Jack drove us home around three o'clock and returned to the docks as three transports were leaving that day December 25 with wounded and other high priority departing personnel. Movements were top secret, and his office had to notify departing personnel and dependents [families], who were not to tell their friends when they were leaving but stand by and be ready to go on twenty-four-hour notice. His assistants Wilfred Pang and Violet Ho and others handled many of the secret identifying phone calls. Dr. Paul Withington, Chaplains Thornton Miller, William Maguire, and Walter Mahler,. and Port Director Martin Derx worked closely with Jack and became good friends. This was probably the most important duty of Jack's career, as he had contact with thousands of persons. There was also considerable liaison with Honolulu shipping interests- a prominent businessman Frank Midkiff [also involved with Punah9u school]worked closely with Jack. Midkiff was in charge of civilian evacuation. He had lunch with Jack's brother Bill at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Manhattan during a 1942 trip. Future Hawaiian Governer and Mrs. Samuel Wilder King, and Riley Allen, editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, became Jack's friends and appreciated the personal attention he gave many of their suggestions and requests. Jack worked under the Fourteenth Naval District Personnel Officer, Captain Lewis, who was a kamaaina permanent resident of Honolulu., who had been recalled from retirement. One of the first native Hawaiian social workers was Clorinda Low Lucas, whose father was a famous cow handler on the Parker cattle ranch near Mauna Kea. She gave Jack and the Transportation office advice on special needs of local people for evaucation, and we became acquainted when Jack told her of my previous experiene in social work. She also was involved in education and trusts administering native Hawaiian lands.Soon after the war started,the order came out for all Navy dependents to be evacuated. An exception then was made for those who declared Hawaii their permanent legal domicile and gave up any right of government transportation, so we made this declaration about June 1942. when more than ninety per cent of families had already been evacuated. In January 1942 Our family did not want to be separated, and our only home on the mainland would have been with Jack's eighty-seven-year old father.I received a letter from our old friend Mary Boyd, whose husband had served on the HANNIBAL 1933-1934. She mentioned her friend Madeleine Wagner, a Navy wife, and inquired if I knew anything about their safety. I called up Madeleine Wagner in Waikiki, and she was very glad to hear from me, as a friend of a good friend. She became very friendly with John, and before leaving gave him a favorite book,- Edward Huey's "A Child's Story of the Animal World", full of tales of the New Zealand sphenodon and other unusual animals such as hyraxes and poetry explaining how to tell antelopes from canteloups. At first Madeleine wanted to stay in the Islands and asked Jack to defer her evacuation. Then when her husband Dan Wagner got new orders, she requested evacuation and left. The great majority. of military dependents were eager to leave Hawaii as soon as possible. A minority had special reasons for wanting to stay in the Islands - usually permanent residents.We fell in the latter category,having no place to go on the mainland unless we tried to move in with Jack's sister and eighty-seven-year old father. We were dismayed by the order for all military dependents to leave the Islands. From our point of view it was fortunate that dependent evacuation was a relatively low priority matter, and the scarce shipping was needed for wounded, special hardship cases, and military personnel reassigned to other stations. Even so, over ninety per cent of the military dependents in Hawaii on December 7, l941 had left through Jack's office within six months. Jack tried to stay out of sight of Admiral Bloch, and John and I stayed away from Pearl Harbor and hoped no high-ranking officer would "get after" Jack and force him to hurry up and send us off. One of the Admirals did inquire after us several times to Jack's discomfort. After the Battle of Midway [June 4, 1942] the orders concerning dependents were liberalized, and those families who chose to be considered permanent residents were permitted to file declarations that they did not want transportation. Therefore our family was able to stay together during six years in the Islands. We missed the rigor of mainland food rationing although certain items were scarce such as the common mainland fresh fruits and vegetables. Foods we used included Campbell's chicken soup, Bird's Eye fresh frozen broccoli, peas, and corn, mangoes, weekly roastbeef, baking potatoes from the Navy Commissary, fresh oranges when available, and ground Chase and Sanborn coffee. We switched from percolator to Silex in 1942. Sophie used to write in pencil on the wall above the kitchen sink a thought from Mount Holyoke College Days, "Reputation is what others think of you. Character is what you think of yourself." She used to say "Ordinary minds talk about things. Better minds talk about people. Great minds talk about ideas."

#1102 p 57 THE CAPTAIN WEARS A CROSS Pacific Fleet Chaplin William Maguire Chapter Nine "BREAD ON THE WATERS" and Walter Glockner habeas corpus case

JackBarrett OverseasTransportation Office after Pearl Harbor attack Chaplain Maguire #1174 p 66 H-A-W-A-I-I Ch NINE IX BREAD ON THE WATERS from THE CAPTAIN WEARS A CROSS 1943 by Captain WILLIAM MAGUIRE Pacific Fleet Chaplain: Among the more trying tasks that faced me in my office was handling the requests of Navy wives to help them and their children to obtain berths on board the few ships that were avilable to evacuate families of service personnel to the mainland. It became necessary, in compliance with a despatch from Washington, to make up lists of those who lived in the Hawaiian Naval District and to embark them without show of partiality.At the top of each list were placed the names of the sick, but alas, it was impossible to please everyone.The telephone rang continuously and between calls, women came with their children to the office and stressed their reasons for claiming the right to be the first to leave. At one time in December, there were over three thousand standing by to take passage for home. It did no good to explain that I had little or no connection with the business of evacuation, for they were quick to remind me that my recommendations would no go unheeded.They referred to a statement of policy which they had read in the papers to the effect that medical officers and chaplains would be consulted regarding the merits of doubtful cases. I found it quite easy, however, to be patient with the individual problems of our Navy wives.For a quarter of a century in peace time I had found countless reasons for sympathizing with Navy families on account of their nomadic way of living. The greater part of a Navy man's life is spent at sea, and this may account, strange as it may seem for the fine family spirit he has of affection and loyalty. The Navy wife, unlike the Army wife who lives on a government reservation,always faces,when she arrives at the port at which her husband's ship is based, the strenuous business of house hunting. Among my most vivid memories are the strange shacks and boarding houses Navy people called home years ago on the Asistic Station. But they were cheerful about it, and they still laugh when telling of their experiences.They will tell you about the many times they went "broke".Even though the Navy furnishes funds for transportation and the shipment of household effects,change of duty usually means spending the family's savings.Moving from the tropics to northern zones requires buying a new outfit of clothing for the family. Furniture, on arrival, is usually in need of repair; and the rents seem to grow unusually high when the Navy comes to town. Departures of ships from Honolulu were made in military secrecy. Announcements of sailings came by telephone to the homes with only a few hours alloted for getting trunks and hand-bags to the dock.This uncertainty and the necessity of staying at all times near the family 'phone put ordinary shopping tours in the class of strategic planning. If someone failed to get the word about a sailing, there was always a willing substitute waiting with bag and baggage at the ship's gangway.Navy families for months literally lived "out of a suitcase." As was to be expected, in accordance with ancient tradition, word got around that the chaplain could "fix it." ...in Honolulu.When they found their names listed among those to go, not knowing that it would be unwise to load a ship entirely with sick people, they protested and suddenly thought,"maybe the chaplain can fix that too."Those without children who had jobs in the Navy Yard and in the city shops could not understand why they had to leave. Others, whose husbands were on duty on repair ships anchored in Pearl Harbor, felt they were being badly handled.The families of those who served in our cruisers and other ships who came in periodically for brief overhaul periods,wanted to remain because it would afford an occasional family reunion which they could not have had on the mainland.It was a dificult situation, and it was my job to be a sort of buffer between the wives and the Navy Yard officers whose unpleasant responsibility it was to make the final decisions. The work of assisting the evacuees required one or more trips to the Navy Yard to pleaad my cases.An office had been established in the administration building, which was called the "OVERSEAS TRANSPORT[ATION] SERVICE." The one in charge was an experienced officer of the regular Navy, Commander John B. Barrett. We had served together in 1930 in the Asiatic Fleet.I marvelled at the patience of this harried officer,and I have since wondered how he kept going. On entering his office, there was usually a crowd of women and children waiting for a chance to get the ear of one of Barrett's assistants or even the ear of Barrett himself.His job was anything but a sinecure. I actually felt sorry for him every time I came and presented, with a tear in my voice, the demands of some unhappy Navy wife who complained that the blackout was ruinous to her little boy's peace of mind, or the woman of wealth who had a palace in Pasadena which needed her personal supervision.Commander Barrett was so kind and sympathetic in squeezing so many of my clients on board that I became eloquently profuse in my thanks. He was particularly kind in helping me find a place on board a transport for Captain Barry Wilson's colored maid Claribel.One day with a smile on his freckled face, he exclained, "How can I refuse you? Don't you remember the night in Chefoo when my wife arrived alone from Tientsin? They told her there wasn't a room in town, not even a park bench. A ricksha coolie got hold of you, and you scouted around until you found a room in Wineglass's boarding house. I wish I could forget, but I can't. All I can say is, 'Take it easy, chum; you're running me ragged.'" The Chefoo incident had vanished from my memory. Unknowingly, ten years before, I had cast Chinese bread upon the waters. John Barrett was equal to the challenge of that heart-breaking emergency. I can still see him checking the long list of evacuees and shaking his weary head to the accompaniemnt of a woeful, pidgin English, "No can do." But he salvaged his sense of humor, always finding time for a friendly chat. I seldom left his noisy office without a new story. One afternoon with Father [Walter} Mahler in tow, I drove out to his home on the Ala Wai to pay my respects. I had not see Mrs. Barrett since that night of house hunting in Chefoo [1931].John was about five years old. He showed us his menagerie of stuffed animals.It was the best variety of wild beasts I had ever seen.It struck me that Commander Barrett's old shipmates had the boy's collection in mind whenever they went ashore in strange and foreign ports of the world.John had a little pigeon that came every morning for crumbs and sat outside the window while they both enjoyed the radio program.He flew away when John [left] for school but always returned when the child got back, for thyen it was time to play together on the front lawn.[The pigeon disappeared for a week or so...] then One morning he discovered his bird-buddy again standing outside the window-screen, chipper and as good as new. When orders came for Father Mahler and me to proceed to San Diego for a tour of shore duty, Commander Barrett again showed that he meant what he said about the little favor I had done him in China. He visited at least three ships before deciding that he had found the one that would suit us. He had little to choose from, and he was not a bit pleased with the results. He took us one day in June [1942] to a transport, a ship that for years had made the round-trip from New York to Havana, heaviuly laden with freight cars. It was really an old ferry-boat, but it was the best thing afloat at the disposal of Commander John B. Barrett, U.S.N." -On June 30, l942 Father Walter Mahler, CHAPLAIN at Pearl Harbor with Captain William Maguire when they visited us in Waikiki shortly before leaving Pearl Harbor - wrote to Jack from Marine headquarters in San Diego "Dear Commander Barrett,I wish to thank you for all your many efforts in behalf of Padre Maguire and myself.It was indeed kind of you, and we shall not forget in a hurry. Give me best to Mrs. Barrett and John. Tell John that pigeon story certainly is a classic. With every good wish, Walter A. Mahler,Chaplain, USN." (p.497) + airmail from Colonel John W. THOMASON, United States Marine Corps to Commander John B. Barrett 14th Naval District Pearl Harbor 5 August 1943 [from] "SS SANGAY en route Frisco Dear Jack: Thanks to your good offices, I am enjoying the most comfortable cruise of my life as a passenger. The SANGAY is a fine new ship about six thousand tons fitted out as a mine carrier. They gave me the squadron commander's cabin, and I bedded down like an Admiral, and the food is excellent, the officers courteous and competent, and I could stand more time aboard, and we are due [port] late Saturday. = If you ever have another wanderer whom you desire especially to favor, get him on SANGAY. With my best thanks and all good wishes, Sincerely John Thomason." Thomason was a well known writer on life and activities of United States Marines, including the "Red Pants" collection and stories of China, Nicaragua, Chlie, and the West Indies. Jack knew him from 1926 or earlier, having been introdcued by Ora Sterry Waterman, who was in Camaguey, Cuba for a number of years with her husband Edgar and daughters Bonnie and Garda. Thomason also wrote a 1930 biography of Confederate calvary leader Jeb Stuart, interviewing surviving family members. He died not long after leaving Hawaii in 1943.===++ John Barrett: captions of Walter Glockner 1945 post cards from Stevens Point Wisconsin. Postcard reproductions appear on web page 81 {numbered #1300 + 1303]. Text is also placed here with HAWAII chapter materials-"Walter Glockner owned the house the Barretts rented at 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard from July 28, 1941 to June 4, 1947.He was a naturalized American citizen born in Germany about 1907, who was taken into federal custody December 8, 1941, the Monday morning after the Pearl Harbor attack.As Sophie Barrett memoirs relate,he was held six months or more at Sand Island immigration station in Honolulu, and civilian courts of Territory of Hawaii fined miliary governor Richardson five thousand dollars for contempt of habeas corpus order,but he was pardoned by President Roosevelt,and the fine was never paid.Mr. Glockner was living in a small second floor apartment above the Barretts when they arrived in 1941. His large German shepherd dog was running loose when he was taken away, and Sophie had to telephone the police several times before an animal control officer finally came to take the animal away.Mr. Glockner in mid-1942 agreed to go to Stevens Point Wisconsin for the duration of the war and worked there as a brewer. These postcards pinpoint the date of his return in late 1945. Subject to wartime rent control, Sophie paid seventy-five to ninety-five dollars monthly rent to Hawaiian Trust Company as trustee. Mr. Glockner wrote four other letters that disappear in 1993 thefts and appreciated Sophie's steady regular rent payment and occasional help with mail, mothballs in his clothes, and other minor matters relating to the property.He was unable to return to his apartment as planned, because a Samoan tenant with two very young children successfully resisted eviction in Honolulu housing court.He offered to donate blood when Sophie had surgery in May 1947. He loved the Islands and used to swim and remained in the Islands through 1970 or later. Prange "At Dawn We Slept" tells that a German spy named Kuehn was active in the Islands. As far as we know Mr. Glockner appeared to be a patriotic and loyal American citizen.Whether the government had any valid grounds forsuspicion we do not know. The Supreme Court in the 1946 Korematsu decision later held that military authorities had acted unconstitutionally in restricting civil liberties and disregarding habeas corpus. Intra arma leges silent." #1303 p 81 #1303 --1945 Walter Glockner postcards turned sideways to facilitate reading message, which establishes that his return to Waikiki from Wisconsin was in late 1945 (or later).Born in Germany,he was taken into military custody December 8, 1941 at 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard Waikiki. Landlord Walter Glockner from December 1941 until the Barrett left Hawaii June 1947 consistently maintained that he was a loyal American citizen He was a friendly and responsible landlord.We were concerned and frightened by his internment.Recently in 1999 memoir editor John Barrett jr has run across information on spies in Honolulu in Gordon Prange's (posthumous 1981) text "At Dawn We Slept" pages 255-7: I would be interested if anyone can find more information as to why the FBI or other agencies might have suspected Glockner of contacts (possibly naive and accidental) with spies. Prange Goldstein & Dillon write: "The fact that the Japanese were spying on military and naval activities was no news to the Americans...It is another irony of the Pearl Harbor story that at the same time the Japanese intensified their activities on the intelligence front, Senator Guy M. Gillette of Iowa and Congressman Martin Dies of Texas planned to invesitgate Japanese subversion....Both had studied it carefully, were alarmed at what they found, and thought action should be taken without delay.By August Dies and his committee 'made arrangements for 52 witnesses to proceed to Washington for public hearings early in September 1941.' " President Roosevelt advised the heqrings would be inadvisable, and Secretary of State Cordell Hull feared an investigation "would upset the diplomatic talks then under way between Tokyo and Washington." War and Navy Departments were trying to delay a confrontation till spring 1942, knowing the US. was "woefully unprepared" for Pacific war.Sept 20 Dies stated "the potential Japanese spy system in this country is greater than the Germans ever dreamed of having in the Low Countries." On October 2 Senator Gillette cited "the activities of Japanese consular official in Hawaii and in the Western States." Sec. Cordell Hull responded, "Please, Senator, I appeal to you - don't rock the boat!" In January 1942 Dies told Congress that is the Committee had been "permitted to reveal the facts on Japanese espionage and sabotage in September , the tragedy of Pearl Harbor might have been averted." Prange comments "The cutting off of its primary source of intelligence in Hawaii might well have stiffened backbones in the [Japanese] Naval General Staff to the point of refusing Yamamoto permission to go through with it.Indeed Yamamoto himself might have paused if he had had to rely on chance and not current intelligence in order to find Kimmel's Fleet in Pearl Harbor." It is in this context that some innocent persons' rights were probably violated.

#1103 p 57 Sopihe's Black Notebook Four Hawaii years 1940s

From notebook 4 p 262 bottom- We had crossed the continent by train and to Hawaii by fast steamer, whereas our -263- furniture would follow the cheapest means of transportation for the government - probably water all the way. = Captain Rice returned to his work at Pearl Harbor, taking Jack with him to report for duty and John and I stayed in the courtyard of the Moana Hotel with Gertrude and Nathalie for several hours.The heat and glare were difficult for John and me, but we were lucky to be with two people I knew instead of alone in the hot room. We found the banyan tree very interesting and soon learned that each evening the guests were entertained by hula dancers and musicians performing under lights near the banyan. When Jack returned from Pearl Harbor that first day, we tried Waikiki Beach right in back of the Moana Hotel, but found the heat and glare oppressive, so took a quick dip and returned to the shade of the Moana porch. In the early evening on that porch we were joined by Captain and Mrs. Rice, and listened to the male Hawaiian singers and musicians. Honolulu was a very crowded place. It was summer, and every hotel was filled with tourists and with Service personnel who couldn't find a place to live. The Fleet was at Pearl Harbor,- dependents were still allowed to go to Hawaii, and there just were no available cheap hotel accomodations or furnished apartments. So we were living in a very expensive hotel, right on Waikiki Beach and eating three meals a day at that hotel because there were no public restaurants nearby. Jack usually had his lunch at the Officers Club at Pearl Harbor. We were staying at the Hotel on the American Plan, and John and I found it very difficult to consume the hearty, big meals -p. 264- served to us three times a day. We tried to take walks or sit on the beach, but it was just too hot, and we spent endless hours just sitting in the hotel lobby watching the guests come and go. In the evning young John was completely bored with the hula dancers and the musicians and wanted his father to go and make up stories, which they invented together.= When we went to call on Admiral Bloch, who was Commandant of the [Fourteenth Naval] District, John had to sit in the car at Pearl Harbor, as we couldn't possibly leave him alone in the Hotel. We did manage to take the drive "around the Island" on a Saturday afternoon, and all three of us enjoyed that. = When Jack said our quarters were ready for occupancy, I was delighted, - thinking to escape some of the expense and monotony of a hotel's room and board and thinking that John might have a more normal existence.But I was stunned when I saw our quarters at Pearl Harbor, because they were enormous,- a very large house, with many large rooms,- the living room and dining room could serve as dance floors! Live-in maids or even day workers were impossible to get in Hawaii, because they all were getting good pay as clerical or industrial workers at Pearl Harbor, and the shops and stores were employing anyone they could get because of the large numbers of service personnel shopping in Honolulu. I realized that my furniture would be inadequate,- that it would cost me a fortune for curtains and draperies for the house, and I owned no dining room furniture and only -p. 265- one bedroom set, although I did have two beds.There were four large bedrooms. So reluctantly I told Jack I didn't want the quarters, that John would be lost in that big house, - which meant I'd have to spend all my time trying to furnish it, keep it clean, and cook in that big kitchen, to say nothing of the laundry involved in the upkeep. We just couldn't afford to furnish it for the two years we would be there if they didn't push us out for someone senior, AND TOO, THE HOUSES WERE NEAR THE [MAKALAPA] OIL STORAGE TANKS, WHICH I FOUND MOST DEPRESSING. {Jack was concerned they might be prime Japanese targets in an air attack, and analysts since the attack have agreed the Japanese missed a very importnat opportunity here to delay American recovery]. I spent several hours in the vicinity of the house, saw no young children and absolutely no provision for children such as swings, seesaws, jungle gyms or sand boxes--John would just be cooped up in the quarters while I tried to keep house. The quarters would cost one hundred twenty-five dollars per month, and I thought I might be able to do better elsewhere. So we gave them up, and they were immediately taken by a doctor with a large family. = Our furniture had not arrived, so there was no sense in looking for a unfurnished apartment. Gertrude Rice lived in a furnished apartment on Lewers Road near Fort DeRussy in Waikiki and took me to a rental agent in the Moana Hotel. He rented me the house at 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard, occupied by a navy wife Mrs. Bailey and her yong son. She was leaving immediately, and we moved in July 28, 1941. The house was within easy walking distance of Waikiki Beach -p.266- , and Jack, John, and I swam about 5:30 to 6:00 every evening, and on Sunday morning before breakfast. Captain and Mrs. Rice joined us often for a swim and dinner at our home. In September our furniture arrived, but as we could find no unfurnished house or apartment, the Navy kept our furniture temporarily. = On Saturday, December 6, l941 we spent the afternoon in downtown Honolulu, where we bought kitchen pots and strainers and a few Christmas decorations, and because the furnished house lacked much that we needed, we bought crockery, cereal bowls, and a few plates and cups, saucers, and glasses.Then we went to the Liberty House, where we bought some books for John- Dr. Doolittle books and Mary Poppins and a few of the Peter Rabbit series. All of John's books and most of his toys were with our household goods somewhere in Navy storage. Fortunately I had his small toy animals because I had put them in my trunk before we left New York. The apartments and houses on the Ala Wai were small, expensive, - occupied almost exclusively by adults- there were no children for John to play with the first year except a fourteen-year-old girl Alfreida Watson who lived in the high apartments behind us which faced toward Tuisitala Street. [Presently a fence was erected between the properties, and the Watsons moved away. Later Sophie was friendly with Mrs. Shapiro, the owner or manager, and they would talk through the fence. In back near the fence John recognized uncommon sweet potato weevils, a newly introduced insect pest, which resembled good drawings in 1941 National Geographic magazine. These apartments are visible in one photo on this website. Behind them was the famous old Tuisitala banyan, with the big stone seat where in 1890 Robert Louis Stevenson "the teller of tales" read to young Princess Kaiulani near her Cleghorn Street home.] John occupied himself planting flowers in front of the house, reading his books, enjoying his toy animals, and swimming with us at Waikiki Beach. = In conversation with Captain Rice and others, Jack was very critical of the way ships were arranged in pairs at Pearl Harbor and Ford Island [the aviation center]. He thought they should be more dispersed and not have such a regular schedule of being in port every weekend. He remarked repeatedly that he "could hit two ships with one bomb." Beginning in october, he was iin charge of the Overseas Transportation Office in the Administration Building. = On Sunday morning Dec. 7, 1941 I as usual got up early to get ready for our swim before breakfast. For Waikiki, it was unusually dark and chilly that early morning, and Jack and John showed no inclination to walk eight blocks to the beach that early, so I prepared breakfast, which we finished at about 7:30. Then John was in his room, Jack was in the bathroom, and I was clearing the table when Mr. [James] Needles who lived next door [on the east at #2421 Ala Wai] appeared at the window in John's room, rapped on the glass, and when I inquired what he wanted, he replied, "The Japanese are bombing Pearl Harbor, and all military personnel are directed to go to their stations." We had no radio in the furnished house, so I had no means of checking his information. I called the news to Jack through the bathroom door. Jack thought it was a drill, but he dressed quickly, - told John to get into the car for the ride, and started off. In a few minutes he returned- John had the Sunday paper-Jack told me he saw and heard the bombs, and he hurried off. John stayed in his room- he was five years and eight months old - -p. 268- and occupied himself calmly with the Sunday papers. Waikiki is twelve miles east of Pearl Harbor. Stunned I washed the dishes, swept the floor, thinking the house might be bombed any minute, but I had to keep busy. Then, with John in his own room, I stepped out onto the front lawn, and Gertrude Rice appeared in a car with an oriental driver. She was surprised to see me just standing there and said, " Doesn't Jack know that Pearl Harbor is being attacked?" I told her he was out there, and she tried to take John and me to her friend's home in the hills, but I decided to stay put. Her apartment was near the Army's Fort DeRussy- so she was in a dangerous spot, but I couldn't see how a home in the hills would be safer than my house, - and I didn't want to impose on her friends with a five-year-old child. I also figured that Jack wouldn't know what happened to us if he tried to phone. = As Gertrude left, a jeep drew up and the soldier told me to boil all drinking water, to avoid using the telephone, to observe a complete blackout from dusk to dawn and a ten-o-clock curfew (which for a time became a 6 pm curfew).He advised me to notify service people in the adjacent apartments to return to their posts and told me to stay indoors. So I went indoors and began cooking the roast beef I had [for our usual Sunday dinner] although I was scared and believed we probably would be bombed before the meat was done.Without a radio and without the use of the telephone, we didn't know what to expect. We were to use the telephone only for emergency. = We were accustomed to spending most of Sunday on the beach at Waikiki and walking along the Ala Wai Canal. I did the dishes and then just sat or walked impatiently in and out of the house.About five o'clock john and I had our supper. I had no idea whether the Japanese were still bombing or even whether they had landed on Oahu. I expected them to appear at the house at any minute. After months of hearing Jack tell how vulnerable our ships were on weekends, I feared the worst. The Army jeep soldier had warned everyone to stay indoors. = I was really surprised when Jack appeared at the door just before complete darkness. He had left in civilian clothes -- returned in white uniform with sword, gun, and ammunition belt. To avoid alarming John, we went into the kitchen together, where - shaken - Jack told me the Japanese were gone after doing great damage to our battleships. "They did a sweet job," he said. He whispered the names of the ships sunk,those damaged, and the estimated dead and wounded. He warned me to say nothing as we didn't want the Japanese to know how successful they were. [During 1942 the Japanese had great confusion as to how many American carriers were operational in the Pacific.] Then in the dark -p.270- I fixed cold roast beef, bread and coffee for Jack,and we tried to do those dishes in the dark kitchen. Jack wanted to stretch out in our bedroom to tell stories to amuse John, but the neighbors came in the pitch darkness to try to find out what the situation was and to try to get some comfort from association with others. Poor Jack tried to be patient with them, and after they left at the curfew, we pushed our two cots together in the darkness of our bedroom and transferred John there from his front bedroom. John and Jack talked until midnight. I did not take my clothes off - not even my shoes. It was a windy night, and as the windows rattled I imagined I heard all sorts of things. A trip in the dark to the bathroom was dangerous, so I didn't even brush my teeth. When the telephone rang about midnight,, I groped my way to the telephone in the living room. It was Captain Rice looking for Gertrude. I couldn't tell him just where she was in the hills, but he seemed to know what home she went to if she wasn't with me. = Early the next morning Jack left - to be gone several days and nights, as he would have the duty nights. Paul and Gertrude appeared- Paul gray with fatigue. He too would have night duty, and we arranged to have Gertrude sleep in John's cot [in front bedroom].Notebook Four [Sophie] bot p. 270-75 #1241 p 74 and #1245 Christmas, Wegforth added So John was again sitting on the floor of his room not far from the front door when two members of the FBI appeared. I nearly fell to the floor with fright -p. 271-when they showed their badges, thinking that I was being suspected of disloyalty.But immediately they asked for my landlord, Walter Glockner,who lived in a one room apartment upstairs.I saw Mr. Glockner leave with them. He was interned at Sand Island. He was an American citizen though of German descent [born in Germany]. He spent [about six months] at Sand Island [in Honolulu Harbor also used to quarantine dogs against introduction of rabies and to control introduction of harmful insects on plants]. Then he was allowed to go to the mainland on condition he not return to Hawaii for the duration of the war. After the war in 1945 he returned. {The Hawaiian Trust company collected rents and represented him as landlord. He was an experienced brewer and continued his work in Stevens Point Wisconsin and wrote friendly letters asking Sophie for help on various minor personal affairs. He was listed in Honolulu directories around 1970]. Since gasoline was rationed and Jack worked every day, including Sunday,John and I walked to the grocery store on Kalakaua Avenue, the store [usually] being Japanese N. Aoki. [In 1941 we sometimes went to Piggly Wiggly also, but got in habit of shopping at N. Aoki and Kalakaua and Ohua Streets east of Liliuokalani St. Later when Jack had more time, he would buy coffee at the Navy Commissary at Pearl Harbor and whole wheat bread at a bakery on Kapahulu Street Kaimuki]. John helped me carry the meat and vegetables,and N. Aoki delivered the heavier items. But soon, owing to the lack of shipping and hoarding by the people, the shelves were almost bare ,and we had to depend on Jack to bring our supplies from the Commissary at Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately for us, the Army strung barbaed wire all along the beach at Waikiki, [for some weeks] depriving us of our much needed daily swim, so the only exercise we could get was walking along the hot pavements by day, as it was too dark in the blackout to go walking by night {and there was a curfew]. Flashlights, except those shielded by dark blue paper,were not allowed, and those shielded gave very little light for walking. Except on bright moonlight nights we never walked in the evening during the years of the blackout. [After some weeks access to Waikiki Beach was provided by a gap in the barbed wire, which could be closed again quickly in case of attack with spare wire that could be moved back in place. = Soon after the attack I was troubled by pain -p.272- in my gums, so when Jack left for work at Pearl Harbor one morning, he took John and me to Pearl Harbor with him. As he showed the two of us the damaged ships at Pearl Harbor and Ford Island, I must confess that I was heartsick,but tried to hide my sorrow and fear from John.I also hoped the Japanese would not pick that moment to return to bomb the shore instalations and the oil tanks. We had to stay at Pearl Harbor all day, because Jack was busy and gasoline was rationed, so we sat quietly on chairs in the back of his very active office, and he took us to the Officers Club for lunch. I was the only woman there, and John was the only child in the restaurant. The Navy dentist [whom I saw that day] advised me to see an exceptionally capable Japanese dentist who could do the gum work I needed, Dr. Allem Ito on Nuuanu Avenue, so soon after, John and I went by bus to the downtown section of Honolulu where Dr. Ito's office was. We learned to use the buses.= The Navy issued a child's gas mask to John, and I received one from the civilian authorities.John and I went to the Thomas Jefferson School [six blocks east of our house] for identification tags and tests to determine blood type.Mr. amd Mrs. James Needles built a bomb shelter next door to us and allowed Jack John and me to us it when the sirens sounded [a number of nights in early 1942}.John and I were required to carry our gas masks slung over our shoulders whenever we left the house - even for a short walk. = We had two Christmas trees in 1941 -the first was an "Australian ironwood" - casuarina- tree donated by "Mack the barber" at the Moana Hotel;then someone donated a more familiar small balsam fir. The "ironwood" is actually a flowering tree with needle-like leaves widely planted in Honolulu, including a substantial number in Kapiolani Park. [Christmas, Wegforth-] The two of them -273- decorated that branch with odds and ends of ornaments and Jack found a few presents for John inclueing a game called "Fire Chief" which Jack and john played at the table before total darkness put an end to the game. A neighbor John Frank Wegforth - a distinguished Naval airman- used to play "Fire Chief" with john. The Navy blacked out our kitchen, bathroom and back bedroom and although it was a "ventilated blackout" those rooms were stifling by day and by night and too dingy by day for reading or playing board games. The living room and John's front bedroom were not blacked out, so after dark they were practically useless. We put chairs on the front lawn, sat there in the evening until the ten o'clock curfew or until rain forced us indoors. = That first Christmas 1941 Jack was loading evacuees and wounded on several large ships scheduled to be part of a convoy to the mainland.He was on the dock in Honolulu while john and I with our gas masks walked to the Rice home on Lewers Road for Christmas dinner, which was superb. When the four of us had eaten, [their daughter Nathalie had gone to cllege on mainland September 1941]Jack appeared, unfed, and Gertrude gave him an excellent meal. Then he dropped us at home at 2415 Ala Wai and left again for the docks until late Christmas night. The convoy left the next day carrying many Navy wives and children, Army personnel and some civilians as well as the wounded who could travel. They were escorted by the cruiser ST. LOUIS and four destroyers. = Jack and John tried to raise tomatoes and flowers -274

Aiea Naval Hospital Hawaii #1105 p 57

p 89-103 Notebook One early draft inserted before Aiea hospital text: . p. 89 Along the Ala Wai Canal there were many pink and white shower trees and fine poincianas.Mynah birds were extremely common. A lost canary flew into our garage early in 1942, and after wondering how we might find the owner, we decided we would keep it. We also had eight goldfish and adopted a pigeon, which liked some cookies we gave it and developed into a pet with a loft on top of a lava pillar at the front of the semi-open garage. The pigeon was named Quove - an arbitrary collection of letters with a euphonious sound like cooing. The pigeon would sit outside the living room window and listen to people reading from the couch inside - apparently the vocal sounds were interesting. Jack got some remarkable photos of the pigeon listening at the window.Occasionally we put up the screen, and the pigeon would come in. Fleet Chaplain Maguire and his assistant Father Mahler saw the pigeon while at our house. They heard the tale of the pigeon following us to school at Thomas Jefferson elementary school in eastern Waikiki when John entered the first grade September 1942.Jack drove John to school in the morning, and I [Sophie] walked home with him in the afternoon. The pigeon often would follow along in the afternoon, walking behind and flying ahead. Father Maguire has a six page account of Jack and our family and Quove in his 1943 book, "The Captain Wears a Cross". He appreciated Jack's work finding space for hardship evacuees that Jack tried to help. Jack answered, "It's p. 90 the least I can do after your kindness in finding a room for my wife at the Wineglass boarding house when she arrived alone at Chefoo in 1931." Father Maguire mentions the pigeon in his book but adds a few fanciful details. Even so we were glad to show his book to friends and visitors after the war. = Going back to Memorial Day 1942 Chaplain Thornton Miller, another Navy chaplain, accepted a gift of a considerable number of flowers from our garden for the Punchbowl military cemetery in Honolulu, and some more were scattered at sea. John and I represented women and children at Memorial exercises that were otherwise attended only by military personnel. Chaplain Miller felt it would be symbolic to have one Navy wife and child there. = It was in June 1942 that we sent a large package of photographs to Grandpa Barrett and Mollie.We are glad to understand he saw and enjoyed them before his final illness in August.= After the Battle of Midway in early June insiders in the military were considerably more optimistic about the Pacific war, and the threat of invasion of Hawaii or strikes at California receded.Guadalcanal and other hard fights were ahead, but Hawaii began to be a little further from the front line.An enormous volume of personnel and materiel funneled through the islands, and Jack's volume of outgoing Naval personnel grew steadily, and ship movements to the front were still highly [p 91] secret, though transportation to the mainland slowly became safer and less secret as to time of departure.Interior Secretry Harold Ickes fumed about the lack of transportation to and from Hawaii for permanent residents, but in general such requests were ignored even when VIPS were involved. Jack had on his desk typed "crying tickets" - "That slow dripping noise is my heart bleeding for you. Your troubles are unique. I have never heard anything like them.This ticket entitles you to one cry on the shoulders of the nearest chaplain." These cards maintained the morale of the office staff, who sometimes had to deal with very irate complaints.= There were a minority of high ranking officers who complained of shipboard facilities that were inferior to those they had been accustomed to in peacetime.Where possible Jack tried to give these officers a choice to two or three ships that might be available. In one case he apologized to a Captain who had a rather unsatisfactory passage on an Army transport and said he would keep Naval officers on Navy ships in the future.Against this on the other hand, there was a very large volume of appreciative mail from persons who felt that their needs had been handled in an imaginative and intelligent manner. The General Electric Company was very appreciative of the treatment accorded a party of their essential workers who had come to Pearl Harbor headed by Charles E. 92. Wilson. Their return was a real priority matter in the natinal interest and was handled smoothly. = The survivors of the PRINCETON, a ship with many wounded from combat experience, were evacuated as a group to the mainland and expressed their appreciation, naming Commander Jack Barrett and Lieutenant Commander Martin Williams very specially. Jack had to be firm in expediting ship departures and overruling bureaucrats who tried to delay personnel while they checked currency and tariff and health regulations. These people were not permitted to delay movement of personnel while performing their subordinate functions, though they sometimes tried. Hawaiian currency was used in the Islands during the was, with the letters H A W A I I printed on each dollar bill. There was a policy of requiring that these bills not be taken to the mainland. However, Jack refused to allow any unreasonable delay in personnel movement. = Captain John Wegforth, commanding officer of the Naval Air station at Ford Island, lived near us in Waikiki and sometimes played a Parker Brothers board game "Fire Chief" with John. Captain Dale Collins, whom Jack and I met in 1932 as First officer of the PRESIDENT PIERCE from Kobe, Japan to Naples, came whenever his ship was at Pearl Harbor to play chess with John, too. = Jake Oberholzer, the trunk man at the Moana Hotel, lived about six houses west of us on the Ala Wai Canal with Mr. and Mrs. Distelli - Louie and 'Tootsie'. In November 1942 Mr. Distelli, who sat in a wheel chair and had been a chef at the Royal Hawaiian hotel for many years, invited the three of us for Thanksgiving Dinner. Jake Oberholzer, his son Jack, a young couple from Manoa Valley, a young sailor, Jack, John, and I were guests of the Distellis, who gave us a fine roast turkey dinner. The woman from Manoa Valley cooked a special dough -93- dish, which some of us tasted and enjoyed, and Mr. Distelli baked a large potato for Jack because he knew Jack liked his potato baked.Since we had bought a turkey for Thanksgiving, I gave my turkey to Mrs. Distelli who cooked it for his famiy the following Sunday. I happened to mention to Mrs. Distelli that our maid Takeko, who was a citizen, had left to work at Pearl Harbor, and her successor Uri, also. To my surprise on Monday morning Mrs. Distelli came to my home with her feather duster and offered to clean my house free. I was delighted to have her help but insisted on paying her.-102- working hours of our men and because we were requested to use the telephone only in case of emergency. I did not see or hear from Lillian until April 1942. She drove to Waikiki one day in April, and when I told her that the cushions in the living room chairs neded replacement,she graciously and efficiently drove John and me to a downtown Japanese furniture store, where they agreed to re-cover the cushions and where we bought two wooden,unpainted, unfinished rocking chairs and three Philippine mahogany bookcases. Furniture of any kind was very scarce at that stage of the war, and I appreciated Lillian's taking us to a shop where she was known, and we bought the last two rocking chairs they had made in the place and the only three bookcases they had - also made on the premises. When in gratitude I invited her, Eddie, and their young daughter Eddie for dinner, Lillian refused, saying that Eddie was working day and night getting ready for an expected big battle shortly, and that she didn't dare drive aftr dark. Soon after the Battle of Midway, turning point of the war, [first week of June 1942]Lillian telephoned to me to say that the Battle of Midway was what Eddie had been preparing for, but that [at that time] she didn't dare whisper it even to me because, if things went badly at Midway, she didn't want to feel that she had leaked the word to anyone.We have some good snapshots of Mary Arroyo and John, but unfortunately we saw no more of them because in December, 1942, Eddie left for the mainland, suffering from arthritis. He retired permanently soon after, and they are living in New Orleans, Louisiana. = When John was in the third grade in October 1943 we spent Halloween at Mr. and Mrs. Barbour's house on Ohua Street. We have some photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Barbour and of John in a Halloween costume. [103] Aiea Hospital Hawaii - Aiea hospital #89 After the war in late May l947 (I was a patient at Jack's beautiful Aiea Hospital, operated on by Dr. Robert Cooper, whom I knew as a young doctor aboard the TRINITY in l938-l939 in San Diego when Jack was Executive Officer. The day after major abdominal surgery when I was suffering agonizing gas pains, Dr. Cooper asked me if I was lying perfectly still. I assured him I wasn't moving an inch. Whereupon he ordered me to get up. I thought he was joking or had lost his mind and asked him which of the two it was.But he just laughed and told me to get up at once and walk to my bathroom.-which I did with no ill effects- as a matter of fact I lost the gas pain, and Dr. Cooper explained they learned in the War to make patients walk soon after operations to avoid adhesions. Late in May, l947 I entered the Aiea hospital on Saturday noon after Jack telephoned to the Dispensary that I was sick and bleeding, and the Dispensary physician and Dr. Cooper were already there to see me when I arived with Jack and John.Dr. Cooper told me to keep an ice bag on my stomach.constantly and under no circumstances to get out of bed.He ordered medicine for me and said he would do exploratory surgery for me Monday morning, and then left. I had a room to myself at that point.Soon a young nurse came in to take my medical history.When I gave her the name of my brother-in-law Dr. Geetter, she told me that she had taken her nurse's training at the New Britain General Hospital where he was Chief Resident doctor. that evening abut five o'clock a nurse gave me an envelope containing quite a few pills.She put them in the drawer of my table stand, telling me to take one every four hours. I told her I was not wearing my watch and that there was no clock in the room, but she just shrugged her shoulders and told me to estimate the time (day and night!). So I just lay there, very uncomfortable with the icebag on my stomach, and about six o'clock I rang for a nurse to please bring a wash cloth, warm water, and soap and towel, as I was very much in need of washing up.Although the nurse was friendly and sympathetic, she said it was going to be a moonlight Saturday night in the Tropics, and that she was going off duty to dress and date a hospital doctor.She told me that all the young nurses were primarily interested in catching an eligible doctor- their real reason for being way out there. So I remained unwashed. saturday night there was a great deal of commotion about midnight in the room across from mine. A nurse told me a young enlisted man's wife and the man himself-parents of a very young child- had been badly injured in an automobile accident.The nurse had no ice for me. It was Sunday - most of the help were gone, and I could get no ice Sunday or Sunday night, and of course that worried me as the doctor had told me to keep an ice bag on my abdomen constantly. A Navy Captain's elderly mother was put in my room Sunday noon. She was confused and got out of bed every few minutes to go to the nurses' station. soon my bed was pushed out into the room across from mine =p.119BR- occupied by the young woman who had been in the automobile accident the previous night.She was in traction- all kinds of mechanical contraptions were on her bed, and she was wired for a broken jaw. Her husband was a patient in the hospital, and she was worried about her two month old baby daughter who had been left with a baby sitter the night before.My pills had been left in the other room, and there was no ice for me.The exploratory surgery disclosed the need for major surgery performed Tuesday for benign (non-cancerous) bleeding tumor of the uterus, and by Wednesday afternoon I was out of bed for a few minutes.No one seemed to have the responsibility for our food, and when I asked for supper Wednesday evening a hospital corpsman brought a tough hunk of meat and some mashed turnips, which I couldn't eat. The girl in the other bed couldn't eat any of it, because she was flat on her back and had her jaw wired. a young corpsman brought in breakfast Thursday morning- a near-green banana and some shredded wheat with milk. When I asked for eggs and toast,he told me in no uncertain terms that he was a volunteer- it was not part of his duty to feed me, and that he never knew anyone to eat as much as I did. I made no complaint to Dr. Cooper, but Jack's beautiful Aiea Hospital was no place for a sick woman. While I was in the hospital, Jack had to take care of our eleven year old son, who was to appear in a piano recital at the Punahou School. He had to attend to all the details of our transportation to the mainland to the packing of our personal belongings, and had to arrange to give up our house and ship his car to the mainland, because we planned to drive across the country after touring the Western National Parks.Every day he took the long trip to Aiea Hospital bringing flowers from the garden a few small tomatoes, and even a bit of cold roast beef. They were badly frightened by the seriousness of my illness, but it turned out well, and we were able to keep our originalk schedule of leaving Hawaii June 4. Dr, Cooper's wife, whom I knew very slightly, was among those who came to the hospital to see me, as were Captain Frank and Sue Delahanty and Mimi and Harry Bronson.Captain and Mrs. Ascherfeld friends from the HANNIBAL brought a gardenia lei. Harry and Mimi Bronson lent Jack their car for a week as his had to be shipped to the mainland.My hospital roommate couldn't read flat on her back. One sympathetic doctor had a small stand built across her chest, thinking her food could be put on the stand so she could feed herself, but it wasn't satisfactory.The boy who brought her food usually left it on the chair near her bed and darted off- or if he placed it on the stand he didn't return for hours to remove the tray or the stand.I tried to brush her hair and wash her hairbrush, but I was too weak to handle the stand or the tray. she remained worried about tthe baby and the fact her injured husband would have to face a court-martial.,=. When I left, she was still helpless. I had her name and address, but failed to write as there was little opportunity while we were crossing the country and on the road most of the day. #90 Captain Ceres Navy medicine: from p. 119Ai Since Jack had to evacuate the wounded after Pearl Harbor, he was most interested in the Navy hospital. Soon after the attack a new hospital was started at Aiea, and Jack watched its progress with great interest, telling me that the Commanding officer wanted the hospital to be attractive, to have room and wards colorful- not just bleak white.Captain J.A. McMullin (*Medical Corps)USN assumed comand of the Pearl Harbor hospital in February, l942 two months after the attack on Pearl HarborIn addition he supervised the construction of the new hospital on Aiea Heights with a capacity of eighteen hundred beds, which was commissioned on 11 November 1942. Dr. McMullin invited Jack to attend its dedication. He was greatly imporessed with the new hospital and said he was onlyt a lowly Commander with three stripes whereas most of the other invited guests were captains and Admirals, including Chester Nimitz. From Captain Frederick Ceres (pronounced "Sears") I received a letter from Hancock, New Hampshire on 4 August l970, "Dear Mrs. Barrett: I relieved Captain McMullan on 3 August l943, assuming command of both Pearl Harbor and Aiea Heights Hospitals. Later the Command separated, and I continued to command at Aiea Heights. Admiral Ghormley was Commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District (Pearl Harbor) and either Admiral Furlong or Admiral Calhoun commanded the Navy Yard.During my command the Aiea Hospital underwent major construction to increase the bed capacity from eighteen hundred to five thousand beds, completed in the spring of l944.It was ready and of service to care for the Navy and Marine wounded from the Western Pacific battles such as Tarawa,Guam, Tinian, Saipan etc. The addition of the thirty-two hundred beds were constructed by civilian contractors awarded other contracts in the Pacific area.During these campaigns, the evacuation of the wounded and sick from ships and planes was effected through the resources of the personnel of the hospital in cooperation with the command of the Aiea Naval Barracks. the evacuation of the sick and wounded to the mainland USA was effected through the services of the district Medical office.- Captain Johnson and Admiral Chambers. evidently there must have been a board convened at the Navy Yard consisting of heads of departments in conjunction with district Medical Office and Commander Barrett as head of the overseas Transportation Office Pearl Harbor during the years 1941-l945. Chances are that through his expert planning and organization the evacuation of the sick and wounded was carried to a successful conclusion.I was relieved of my commandby Captain W.W. Hargrove MC USN on 3 August 1944.I remember quite well Dr. (James B.) Moloney, (Dr.) Julius Neuberger, Father (William ) Maguire and others that you mention.I am most iinterested in your undertaking and just wish that I could have been more helpful. However, I hope that the above may be of some assitance in your project, Sincerely, Dr. Frederick Ceres." Walter Lord in his book "Day of Infamy" wrote about our friend chaplain Willaim Maguire, "Father Maguire on the dock at Pearl Harbor waiting to go out to the ARIZONA which blew up to conduct Church services on sunday morning December 7, l94l, looked at the warm sun, the high clouds and thought all things considered, the day was perfect.Turning to his assistant, Seaman joseph Workman, Maguire burst out, 'Joe this is one for the tourists'" Jack knew the Navy's unofficial photographer Tai Sing Loe. He was a colorful Chinese who took his pictures while wearing a huge elephant hunter's hat. He always seemed able to get his subjects in his shots. Rear Admiral Wiilliam F. Fitzgerald, Executive director of the US Naval Academy Alumni Association Annapolis Maryland wrote on 12 August l970,"Dear Mrs. Barrett Thank you for your interesting letter of 7 August The mention of so many of my old friends and shipmates brought back many pleasant memories.I do indeed remember Jack from the TULSA and from Pearl HarborThere was that short time over on the TULSA (l93l) and then our paths crossed again when he was at Pearl after the attack, and I was Operations Officer on the staff of Commander Battleships. Actually I had the staff duty on the MARYLAND during the attack.My brief contacts with Jack were always pleasant - I found him a most cooperative colleague- and that was so important during those hectic days in Pearl Harbor. All good wishes to you and the very best fof luck in your research concerning the Navy and Jack's outstanding career.-Adm. Fitgerald."On March 4, l945 the Navy sponsored a swimnming meet at Pearl Harbor at which we saw the famous native Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoke. Jack had contacts with him when he was Honolulu sheriff and Jack was supervising Shore Patrols from the MARBLEHEAD, Duke Kahanamoku made improvements in the breathing ands timing of the Australian crawl stroke, which became the fastest stroke for longer distances.He discussed these with our friend Dr. Paul Withington, active in Honoulu sports manmy years.Jack arranged transportation for retired boxing champion GeneTunney, who toured forward areas for the Navy in demonstrations and athletic programs, and for Yankee catcher Bill Dickey and Giants slugger Johnny Mize and the sons of Bing Crosby.We saw Joe DiMaggio and other major league players in exhibition baseball and prominent tennis players., including Don Budge.

p 57-1107 Samoan Tommy, encounter with Admiral Halsey,Japanese Surrender 1945

#87 Hawaii p. 112 the many pigeons and watch the many small birds and the peacocks and the gold-crested African crowned crane. No description of our life in Waikiki for six years would be adequate without an account of the young, slender, dark-skinned, dark-haired pearly-toothed Samoan girl who lived in the one room apartment upstairs of us at 24l5 Ala Wai Boulevard belonging to my landlord Walter Glockner, the American citizen of German birth who was taken by the FBI on Decmber 8, l941, and detained on Sand Island in Honolulu harbor,until allowed to go to Wisconsin until war's end. With the advent of war workers, housing was a problem, and the Hawaiian Trust Company, alien custodian for Glockner's properties, rented his furnished apartment first to a beautiful young Japanese girl, - wife of an American Naval officer in Saipan- she left for Detroit with him after he was wounded - and she was accepted graciously there by his family. Then the apartment was rented to about five young American men, who stayed only a short time. Then Mike Ryan a Seabee from Missouri or Oklahoma,lived there alone for about six months. The day after he left, late in the afternoon, when a young man came from the back of the house, smiled at me as he passed, and said, "I hope she won't give you any trouble," and off he went.I never saw him again.For some time I saw no one from upstairs, but occasionally I heard water running.Many women in Hawaii are barefooted, so I didn't hear her up there, and I often wondered why I didn't see or hear him.About two months passed- I didn't know their names because although we shared a mailbox, they got no mail- not even bills or advertisements Then I was sitting on a rocking chair in front of my house one hot afternoon about 1943 when the young woman from upstairs appeared for the first time- barefoot, with a blouse and slacks, obviously pregnant, and she stretched out on the grass near me under the coconut tree.She was dark, raven-haired,pretty, with white, even teeth. I asked if she was Hawaiian, and she replied, "Samoan."She was most uncommunicative, and when I asked her about her husband, she said, "I haven't seen him or heard from him since he brought me here."I realized then that she lived up there all alone in complete darkness, because the windows of the house were not blacked out to comply with regulations, so no lights could be used at night.She was neat and clean, stayed with me only a few minutes, and left. I don't kow when or where she had her baby, but some months later I saw her enter the apartment of a neighbor at 2411 Ala Wai Boulevard holding an infant in a blanket in her arms. I didn't talk to her or she to me. There was never any mail for her, but I saw her often dart in and out of the apartment next door to visit the d'Auberts,and I saw her when she was hanging the baby's clothes on my clothesline.I asked her to put up her own line as she had so much wash,but she never did and complained to the d'Auberts, who thought me heartless for objecting to having Tommy's clothes hanging on my line close to our kitchen day and night.I never heard the young child cry, and as he grew I never heard him in the apartment. They never walked out except to go to the d'Aubert apartment next door.She kept herself and the boy immaculate.I often wondered how she got her groceries as I never saw her go or return from shopping. Tommy was a handsome toddler two or three years old around 1945 or l946 when I saw his mother carrying a new infant next door while Tommy walked behind her.The year ended, and Mr. Glockner returned to Waikiki, expecting to occupy his apartment.But the Samoan woman with two children would not move.I don't know who supported her as the d'Auberts told me that "Van" never got in touch with her after he left her at the apartment.Mr. Glockner asked me to appear in court in proceedings to evict her from the apartment. I told him I would attend but could say nothing against the young lady, who paid her rent regularly,was very quiet, and kept herself and her children spotlessly clean.Tommy used to look to me for a chat, and was a bright, alert, very well-behaved little boy.She appeared in court wearing a nice dress, real shoes, and had a flower in her hair.Tommy was all dressed up in a new wash suit and was wearing shoes and socks.But the star of the show was the baby in her arms in a long white dress trimmed with pink ribbons. She held the baby with one arm and held Tommy's hand with her other hand, as she walked down the aisle of the court to the front row.The proceedings were unbelievably brief. The judge read the date of the hearing,-then read the date of the notice to her and dismissed the case because she 115 had been given only nine days notice instead of the legal ten. I was greatly relieved and determined not to appear against her.Soon a sign appeared on the lawn, "House for sale," BUT BEFORE LONG IT WAS KNOCKED DOWN ON THE GRASS, AND a few days later it disappeared altogether.Tommy continued to grow as did the little girl. The d'Auberts wanted to adopt Tommy, but the mother refused to part with him.When I left the Islands in June l947, they were still in the upstairs apartment. The d'Auberts had moved near Kailua on the windward side of the Island beyond the Koolau Mountains, where they lived in a tent and used a truck for transportation.Mrs. d'Aubert told me they would have loved to adopt Tommy as they had no children.They had a cocker spaniel Wickie and two cats named Samurai and Snicker-snee.[photos on webpage ] Tommy was certainly an atttractive and well behaved child, and I have often wondered how he fared in later life.Mr. d'Aubert who survived stomach cancer, was a graduate of the Sorbonne in France, and Nancy d"Aubert had been a school teacher in Honolulu before her marriage. One day in l945 Jack came home from his office at Pearl Harbor and gave me a role of bright red cloth ribbon and said, "I thought you might like some 'Navy red tape.'"I enjoyed the joke ad found many uses for the tape - stronger than most ribbon and flatter and more convenient than string. Our next door neighbors in Waikiki were Mr. amd Mrs. James Needles. He was a consulting engineer who before the War had owned a restaurant and bar called "TheTrmp." He was active in Democratic politics and a Mormon who came from Utah. In l946 he seupported Wilson, the Democrat, who was elected mayor by ten votes over Monty Richards. Jim Needles criticized big business and the "sugar daddies." He also seemed to have many friends from Texas and to have lived in Texas at some time. Mrs. Needles had been born in Wales and was a Christian Scientist, a widow with one son named Ted Williams.m She was a realtor and unsettled us by offering to help Mr. Glockner sell his house in l945. She had helped in furnishing it before we arrived.At Chtistmas l94l she gave us a number of Chritsmas ornaments - there were reindeer and a sleigh, a toy Christmas tree, a cloth Santa Claus with a walnut in his sack, and a remarkable electric-light bulb Santa Claus made in Japan about seven inches high, with Japanese facial features probably made for Japanese Christian use either in Japan or Hawaii. It was very well made and durable. We lighted it sparingly every Christmas for fifty years, and it was still lighting when we gave it to our West Roxbury neighbor Mrs. Florence Hallahan around l993. In late 1944 when travel was easier, Mr. Needles took a trip to the mainland for business in Chicago and looked up Mrs. Needles's best friend there, Miss Wolff, also a Christian Scientist, who worked in the Marshall Field Department Store.Without telling Mrs. Needles, Mr. Needles persuaded Miss Wolff to give up her job and fly out with him to the West coast, where he planned to take a plane for both of them and surprise Mrs. Needles in Waikiki.Mr. Needles called via overseas telephone asking Jack to arrange plane transportation for him and a companion, but Jack told him he had no authority in San Francisco. Evidently Mr. Needles was stranded in San Francisco and tried to reverse the charges on a telephone call to Jack the next day.I refused the call, knowing that Jack could do nothing for him.The next morning Mrs. Needles, visibly upset,told me that she had received an overseas call from her former Christian Science reader in Chicago warning her that Miss Wolff was on her way to Waikiki with Jim.She inferred that she would not know what to do with her.But Mr. Needles arrived that afternoon with Miss Wolff, who moved right in with them.She found a job as a salesclerk in the Liberty House, but she told me she was heartsick at the long hours and low pay she had to accept in competition with the young local girls who did not have to be self-supporting but earned extra money part-time.Miss Wolff lived briefly in the Needles' own home as a guest, but after she went to work, she paid rent for the small apartment upstairs of the Needles'home.After a few months she decided to return to Chicago.Jack helped to arrange her transportation, and she gave us an excellent up-to-date one volume encyclopedia. When the war was over, Mr. and Mrs. Needles invited us to a luau, also attended by their new upstairs tenants, Mimi and Harry Bronson, who became our friends for many years, continuing after our return to Massachusetts, Mimi Bronson was a l935 Mount Holyoke alumna. Harry was an entomologist. They visited us in Boston in l948 and showed photos of their vacations high in the Sierra Nevada mountains with spring flowers.Later we got to know Mimi's mother in Marlboro, Massachusetts, and her sister Frances Gage.It was a real Hawaiian luau with roasted pig, pineapple, fish, and poi. a large gathering sat at long tables on the lawn and danced to Hawaiian music. Colorful Japanese lanters provided light. A rare Venezuelan tree known as the "gold Tree" is a spectacular sight in the Foster gardens near Nuuanu Street in Honolulu. Another is on the road to Pearl Harbor.There were then only about six of these tree on the island of Oahu. On the walls of Punahou School is a large planting of the clmbing night-blooming cereus cactus from Mexico, with many very large fragrant flowers. p. 117 #91- #91 Jack took a great interest in USAFI the United States Armed Forces Forces Infortion service, which made many textbooks availale to servicemen, including a four volume English literature survey "From Beowulf to Thomas Hardy" preepared by a Professor at the University of Cincinnati. There were many handbooks on science and electronics and a fine volume, "Exploring Biology. Jack had weekly war maps at his office, with lands occupied by the allies in Green, and Axis-occupied areas in red.John began following these in the autum of l942, when only a little green strip appeared on Guadalcanal, with the rest red. the Japanese were near Port Moresby New Guinea and our friends in Australia, but Jack and John watched each week Allied gains in Buna and Gona New Guinea,then the Aleutians, Stalingrad, Sicily, Tarawa,.. along the north New Guinea coast, then faster and faster as l944 saw rapid Russian gains and the Normandy invasion in which my nephew Arthur Meranski participated in tanks under General George Patton" and soon Saipan, Guam and the Philippines began to be colored green.Japane still maintained the offensive in China, however until near the end.John sometimes would get his haircuts at the Ship's Service at Pearl Harbor, though we were friendly with Mack the Barber in Waikiki near the Moana Hotel, who gave us an Australian ironwood (Casuarina) tree for Christmas l941. One afternoon Jack went to the Ships' Service where he was surprised to see only one customer whereas it was usually a busy place. As he was about to order his merchandise,he realized that the other customer was Admiral William Halsey. Jack apologized for barging in on him, but Halsey encouraged Jack to stay and buy what he wanted, Halsey insisted," (Here) I am no more important than you are."Jack and John were at Pearl Harbor the day the Japanese surrender was announced in mid-August l945. All the sirens and bells in the Navy Yard sounded,and there was general rejoicing.Hawai from pages ll9- ll9a Since John could read at a very young age, the base librarian at Pearl Harbor delighted in supplying him with books as he had so much time to read.She gave him Irving Melbo's "Our Country's National Parks which he studied avidly. Then he had maps of the western part of the United States, studied them carefully, and planned a trip to be taken on our return to the mainland, which turned out to be June 4,l947.Jack belonged to the American Automobile Assoication, where Roberta Clark of the Honolulu office was tireless in supplying us with tourist information and making reservations for us in hotels and motels around the Northwest, and cabins at national parks. As soon as John finished the sixth grade school year at Punahou, we boarded the Army Transport GENERAL RANDALL for our return to the mainland,sailing June 4 from Honolulu harbor.

p 57-#1108 "OVER THE MOUNTAIN" Western national parks summer 1947

OVER THE MOUNTAIN Jack and John were at Pearl Harbor the day the Japanese surrender was announced in mid-August l945. All the sirens and bells in the Navy Yard sounded,and there was general rejoicing.Hawai from pages ll9-ll9a Since John could read at a very young age, the base librarian at Pearl Harbor delighted in supplying him with books as he had so much time to read.She gave him Irving Melbo's "Our Country's National Parks", which he studied avidly. Then he had maps of the western part of the United States, studied them carefully, and planned a trip to be taken on our return to the mainland, which turned out to be June l947.Jack belonged to the American Automobile Assoication, where Roberta Clark of the Honolulu office was tireless in supplying us with tourist information and making reservations for us in hotels, motels, and cabins at national parks. As soon as John finished the sixth grade school year at Punahou, we boarded the Army Transport GENERAL RANDALL for our return to the mainland,sailing June 4 from Honolulu harbor Year: 1947JuneYosemite #1201 p 69 Yosemite Falls - one of group of three photos by Jack Barrett June 1947 showing substantial changes in shape of upper fall because of wind. Sophie visited Yosemite Valley late September 1930 while en route to Tientsin China on transport HENDERSON, but falls were seasonally dry at that time. She prchased a handcolored photo of Bridal Veils Falls that was stolen 1993. #65A with p. l20 added summer l947#65 for disk summer l947 Crater Lake Ch. 24 O-V-E-R T-H-E M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N page 120 On the GENERAL RANDALL en route from Honolulu to San Francsico we had some very congenial Navy people at the table with us I I enjoyed having someone else prepare & serve our food.I well remember a most kindly Navy Captain who remarked after we had been at sea for three days that he had been concerned about the state of my health when he first saw me (after my operation) but was delighted to see how well I looked.It was an uneventful trip. Jack took complete charge of John as I was recuperating from major surgery performed only a week previously.As we had reservations at the Hotel Californian June 10-17 in central San Francisco, we registered there to await our car & to wait for the arrival of Jack's sister Mary Barrett-John's aunt Mollie -to arrive by plane from Boston to join us for our tour of the National Parks & for the trip across the country to her home in South Boston, where we planned to live until we could find our own quarters.Our first meal at the Californian was lunch - without Jack, who was off trying to locate our Lincoln Zephyr on the San Francisco dock- that car had to take us across the country to Boston.John & I enjoyed the fish & vegetables served at lunchat a most reasonable price-about sixty-five cents.The Californian was an excellent hotel.We stayed there a week while Mollie came from Boston & Jack got the car ready for the long trip. We drove all around San Francisco- up the Twin Peaks for the View,around the coastline & the Presidio- & at the Golden Gate Park we saw rabbits,which do not run wild in Honolulu. Also there was white clover - not found where we lived in Hawaii. John picked a clover leaf at random- which proved to be a four-leafed clover.We enjoyed riding the cable cars. One afternoon after telephoning we went to a San Francisco hospital where Marion Taylor my oldest brother Harry's sister in law, a native of Hartford Connecticut, was a nurse.She was delighted to see us. We (p. l2l....insert later. p. l22": The next morning we had breakfast at a pleasant restaurant of the Pine Cone Doughnut chain.We drove to Yosemite that day taking our time on the uphill route to avoid overheating.Jack bought a special water can to keep in the car with an excess supply of water for the radiator.The Wawona hotel was twenty-two miles south of Yosemite Valley,& we had engaged it on the American plan. The Ahwanee in Yosemite seemed out of our price range (I had stayed there September l930 while the HENDERSON was being overhauled ar Mare Island before its journey to China) & everything else was booked up, so we became quite familiar with the road back & forth from Wawona to the vallley.We visited Hetch Hetchy Valley one day on the Tuolumne River - flooded l9l3- but a painting in Mount Holyoke art museum shows it as it was in l880's.We looked around the sequoia grove near Wawona- the road went through one of the big trees-& twice we visited Glacier Point high on the South rim above the valley.Jack took photos ofVernal & Nevada Falls.We had the Sawyer's Viewmaster stereo photo of the Fire Fall,which formerly was produced by dumping glowing charcoal off Glacier Point, but we did not see it on our visit.We had though of visiting Lake Tahoe,but the Tioga Pass Road across the Sierra Nevada crest was still blocked by snow.We drove in for a close look at BridalVeil Falls & photographed El Capitan, Yosemite Falls,the foot bridges on the Merced River, Half Dome, the Three Brothers,, Mirror Lake and Mount Watkins. We hiked to the Happy Isles area on the Merced River, and Jack& Mollie went up further for a view of Vernal Falls.Our troubles with the radiator were by no means over. On the ride into Yosemite it was necessary several times to fill the water can from the Merced River.As Jack's left shoulder was stiff & painful, Mollie gallantly went to the river to fill the water can.Going to Monterey we left Yosemite by a different road.Jack was interested in the agricultural area around Salinas & the Monterey peninsula with its seventeen-mile drive & Carmel.There was a special development for retired naval officers at Monterey,& Jack thought about settling there.After a very lovely day we arrived at San Francisco the evening of June twenty-fourth.The California Hotel had no room that night,but I think we ate there while sleeping at a less well-known hotel nearby.The next day we drove across the Golden Gate casting a look out to sea toward Hawaii-& proceeded up the Redwood highway.Jack stopped to see friends, & that night we got as far as Ukiah,which we remember for its amber sodium lights.The next day we drove as far as Crescent City.On the way we stopped to see a redwood which in l947 was the tallest tree yet discovered.Other taller redwoods were discovered -also in Northern California-in the early l960's- so that tree cannot longer be considered the tallest.June 27 we left Crescent City & drove into Oregon after stopping at the California border agricultural inspection station.We proceeded to Crater Lake,encountering huge lumber trucks, one of which forced us into a ditch north of Grants Pass.Eventually with the help of the truck driver & a lot of passing motorists we got back on the road. After we arrived at Crater Lake National Park we began to see flakes of falling snow & accumulations in shaded area under trees along the road.Jack stopped the car to let John go over & look at the snow, because we had not seen snow since we left Brooklyn six years earlier.As it turned out, we need not have stopped,because we soon found ourselves in a full-fledged snowstorm that afternoon of June 27,l947,.Jack had to stop & ask questions for fear of driving over the rim & into the Crater lake (never having been there).Using our chains we had no great difficulty arriving at the Crater Lake Lodge, a cheerful large building that claimed to have the largest fireplace in the state of Oregon.Our rooms were satisfactory,& the food was good.Only the southern third of the Crater Lake Rim Road was open,but we enjoyed some fine views & good weather the next three days.We got a very good photo of Mollie over near Kerr Notch on the southeastern side of the Lake, with the Lake & Phantom Ship a small twisted lava island in the background.We also saw the symmetrical cone of Wizard Island (with whitebark pines), & the "Old man of the Lake" (a tree stump which floats in a vertical position) & numerous ground squirrels.About June 30 or July l we headed for Portland Oregon reminiscing that in Eagle l9 days l932-3 in Maine we once drove a long ways back from Bar Harbor with a hitchiking passenger who kept asking "Do you think we'll get to Portland tonight?"- this became a standing family joke.We retraced our steps to Grants Pass & went up the Williamette Valley through Eugene & Salem, the state capital.We stayed at the Portland Rose Motel, and Portland, the Rose City,certainly had its flower gardens in full bloom.Jack & John had scheduled a swing over toward the Olympic Peninsula for a couple of days hoping to visit Olympic National Park near the Washington coast.Mollie &I voted for a couple of quiet days doing washing, so this was the first major departurefrom the trip plan.One day we did take a short drive down the Columbia river toward its mouth aT Astoria.Then July 3 we made a leisurely drive along the Columbia River Highway to the Dalles, where we had reservations over the third & Fourth of July. As planned we took a careful look at the remarkable series of waterfalls along the Oregon side.Multnomah Falls is the highest, but many of the smaller falls such as Horsetail & Latourette have highly individual features & can be approached closely.The Columbia River was one of the earliest scenic highways dating from l927. Many of the waterfalls are shown in the Sawyer Viewmaster stereo series.We looked at the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam. There were a rodeo & parade & fireworks at The Dalles & American Indians in the parade.Jack was impressed by the cherry & apple orchards near Mount Hood.July five to seven we visited the southwest section of Mount Rainier National Park. We had only about seventy-five minutes of clear weather in two & a half days, but Jack was ready when the opportunity came and took a few good color pictures of Mount Rainier.The rest of the time the mountain was obscured by clouds. Subalpine firs show iin the photos.About July 8 we went through Olympia & Tacoma to Seattle where an old Navy friend Adolph Bloom then in the lumber business in Tacoma came to see us at our Seattle motel. July 9 we drove east across lava flats into the Inland Empire region of rich soil & excellent crops around Spokane.In cooler weather the region would be attractive. We hit it on a very hot day & kept our eyes on the radiator gage.To avoid planning an excessive mileage in one day we took reservations at a small motel in Ritzville rather than trying to drive to Spokane to the east.The four of us competed to get into the shower first.After supper we took a walk around the town & remember the many hollyhocks.We made a start at daybreak & had breakfast in Spokane.I think this is the town where Jack reached in the sugar bowl at breakfast & found after a bit that he had put flour in his coffee rather than sugar. With the early start we made substantial mileage that day-over three huhndred miles.The Pend Oreille lake region of the Idaho panhandle was cool &pleasant, but we pushed on through Thompson Falls to Kalispell, Montana.A bright yellow mustard plant covered large areas of the grazing land in this part of western Montana.It provided a refreshing change of view.The roads from Spokane to Glacier Park are very roundabout as they follow stream contours- but this would be interesting country to explore at leisure.A restaurant called Hennessy's in Kalispell served fish & hamburger of excellent quality. Jack enjoyed the fish.The next day we drove across the Continental Divide on the spectacular Going=-to-the Sun Highway in Glacier Park.We stayed at Swift Current cabins on the northeast slope of the park, where the rivers drain toward the Arctic through Hudson Bay. One day John & Mollie hiked to the blue-green cold waters of Iceberg Lake. on a ranger-conducted tour.Mollie & I had some clothes on the line outside the cabins,& two women artists included them in their paintings.When we started to take the clothes in,they asked us to wait until they had completed their painting- in a couple of hours.Jack & I enjoyed the lovely wild spring flowers that grew atop a tall hill near our cabins & talking with the Minneapolis school teacher who ran the cabins. After a leisurely stay till about July l4we proceeded toward Yellowstone,spending a night near Helena & driving over to look at Butte, the city on "the richest hill in the world," a great hill of copper mixed with gold and silver.We stayed about three nights at Mammoth Hot Springs near the North Yellowstone entrance. summer l947 dcbr7@yahoo.com, #66 Yellowstone l947:Our first full day at Yellowstone was an extremely full one.We began by looking at the brightly colored travertine limestone terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, drove by the obsidian cliff of black glass,& sampled some Apollinaris spring mineral water.We looked at the Riverside & Old Faithful geysers in eruption & steaming Grotto Geyser ( where another day we observed extremely brilliant sunset orange colors).We continued down the west side of the main figure-eight loop road to the South Entrance & arrived near Grand Teton National Park & Jackson Hole in good early afternoon weather for spectacular views & started back in late afternoon.Somewhat apprehensively Jack acquiesced in the wishes of the family to return via the east side of the figure-eight loop.We passed by West Thumb & saw Yellowstone Lake briefly & enjoyed gorgeous volcanic dust effects in the sunsets.We observed the very last rays of the Sunset at Artists Point on the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Already we had put in a very full day.After losing some time on a side road used mostly by Park staff,thinking we were on the forty-mile road north back to Mammoth, we found ourselves making a small loop & reversing direction in total darkness.Jack was thoroughly baffled. At this point another car appeared, and Jack asked directions.The other driver replied,"I'm just as lost as you are." It turned out that both cars had taken a turn onto the spur road to Inspiration Point, a blind alley road that leads only to a rise which is one of the two main viewing points for tourists at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (Artist's Point in the other] At the parking area here the road ends in a loop designed for reversing direction, & here it was we found ourselves.The other drtiver needed gasoline,& fortunately we were able to direct him to a gasoline station a short way south.When we asked him the way to Mammoth, he said,"You have to go over the mountain."We did drive over the mountain, a disxtance of forty-four miles to Mammoth Hot Springs,with only one intersection, the Tower Junction about half way along the route- which was the only place we saw people in the forty-four mile drive.There was spectacular lightning along the highest part of the route above eight thousand feet.Jack remembered seeing the eyes of animals along the road reflecting the light of the headlights- often we did not know if they were snunks or bears.Mollie kept talking to Jack because she thought he might be sleepy. No major difficulties were encountered.The next day wee retraced the unfamiliar >road we had driven that night,stopping to see the pertified tree in the northern part of the park, then spending considerable time at Inspiration Point,which has a very fine view by day of Yellowstone Falls & the bright cliffs around it- although we had not found it particularly attractive by night far from our quarters.We revisited Old Faithful & saw Morning Glory Pool and the Fountain Paint Pots.We climbed a hill to get a good view & I asked Mollie to go over to see what a small sign on the hill said.She came right back when the sign said, "Danger, keep off."This may have been the afternoon of the spectacular sunset at Grotto Geyser,with its high steam cloud.One night Mollie had an unsettling experience with black bears when coming back to her cabin from the separate toilets. Jack had advised her to make a loud noise in the event of encountering bears, and sure enough they went away when she clapped her hands and spoke loudly.We left the park via the Northeast entrance & l0,942 foot Beartooth Mountain pass with its many hairpin turns & steady uphill climbs. We had to stop frequently & attend our thirsty radiator.We continued down the Yellowstone River route as far as Forsyth,Montana that Saturday night July l9.Having no reservations & being in a very thinly populated area we made inquiry at Forsyth & found that certain church groups arranged to have people stay as paying guests of private families.We were very fond of Mr. & Mrs. Guy Gray who took us in for the night for five dollars & gave us without charge some bread, butter & tea when I said I was too hungry to sleep.John played the theme of the first movement of the Mozart A major piano sonata K. 33l, a piece which he had memorized for Miss Canafax [Punahou School sixth grade].Mollie went to church n Forsyth on the morning of July 20, & we proceeded to Dickinson, North Dakota, where we had reservations at a small motel recommended by the American Automobile Association.As this country was thinly populated we were glad to have advance reservations.We were adhering rigidly to an eastward schedule during the trip because Mollie was an employee of more than four years standing at the Metropolitan Life branch office in South Boston, & her six weeks would be up about July 28.On Tuesday July 22 Jack drove our car to a stop at the main intersection of Mandan,North Dakota on the west bank of the Missouri River.A loud CLANK was heard.When he tried to start up again,the speedometer needle climbed cheerfully to thirty-five miles per hour, but the car sat still.A gasoline station was alongside us at our right hand, & we had to be towed in there with a broken rear axle.Mollie caught a train to Boston, arriving at work on time by the next Monday.We stayed about three days in Mandan,-a new axle cost six dollars,but telegrams to obtain it from Minneapolis cost more than the axle itself.We made one long day's trip through Fargo,North Dakota to Brainerd. Minnesota, where baffling radiator difficulties stmped the experts while we sweltered in local-record high temperatures of l04 degrees for more than a week.We were about ready to walk east but finally proceeded into cooler terrain around Duluth & Superior,Wisconsin.We spent three nights in Michigan at Ironwood & Saint Ignace on the upper peninsula & at Port Huron near the Canadian border north of Lake St. Clair.We cut across from Port Huron to Buffalo.The generator conked out,& a new one was installed in London,Ontario.Canada was observing beefless days at this time because of the postwar shortages in Europe,& we had a very good chicken dinner at Niagara Falls O ntario.In the late afternoon we observed the Falls from the Canadian side.After dark we enjoyed the American falls in colored lights until about ten pm. We planned to drive east to Rochester but found that streets were blocked off because of an American Legion convention, & all traffic was forced south to Buffalo.We were thoroughly exhausted & found ouselves foced to rent extravangtly expenbsive rooms at an ancient Buffalo hotel about three A.M.In the morning we attempted to leave Buffalo & found the urban streets incredibly confusing.Finally we pointed the car east,& by nightfall were in West Winfield, New York where we took a chance on a local inn recommended by Duncan Hines.From here the next day we drove through Albany & Great Barrington, Massachusetts & surprised my folks in Hartford by stopping in at Babe & Getter's home at 92 Fern Street.It was the first of many pleasant visits there.Before we went to Babe's house we stopped in at Swift & Company to see my oldest sister Esther, still working there as an accountant.That night after stopping at THE OLDEST ORIGINAL HOWARD JOHNSON'S RESTAURANT in Quincy,we arrived at Mollie's home at 640 East Seventh Street South Boston. It was probably around August eleven, early in the evening.We stayed there a little over three months until Thanksgiving Day l947.We soon became acquainted with Mr. & Mrs. Alphonse & Catherine Roche dowstairs & their sons Raymond, Alphonse, & Donnie ages about ten, eight & four- alsi Billy Sullivan & Bobby Adams in neighboring houses.They would come in the kitchen & play "high'low-jack"& other card games including an unusual variant of whist & "slapjack"{ & "fish."Frequently Mr. Roche would provide Mollie with fresh fish on Friday from his catch as a fisherman.Mollie often baked chocolate brownies.We would take the neighbors on rides to the Arnold Arboretum or Castle Island.The Arnold Arboretum at that time had beautiful exhibits of flowering cherry, apple & other fruit trees, -lilacs, azaleas,rhododendrons, magnolias,daffodils, jonquils,narcissus, honeysuckle & bright-leaved copper beeches.In the autumn the blue-purple berries of Callicarpa japonica attracted our notice the first autumn, l947.