Military | Page 42 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 16, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Everybody Has It – Everybody Needs It

“The most interesting medical journal that has come to this desk in a long time is Number 3 of the first volume of the Hawaii Medical Journal. Although the publication date given on the cover is January, the Journal did not arrive until the middle of April.” (North Carolina Medical Journal, May, 1942)

“The delay in the publication of this issue of the Journal is due in part to the pressure of activity following the events of December 7th (1941) which delayed the preparation of material by the authors and in part to the necessity for securing permission from the office of the Military Governor for continuance of publication. That permission was finally received on January 15th…”

“The whole issue breathes the spirit of American medicine at its best. The first page of reading matter is headed ‘War Came to Hawaiʻi’, and briefly retells the story of the Pearl Harbor tragedy.”

“A dramatic story of the Honolulu Blood and Plasma Bank is told by its director, Dr Forrest J Pinkerton. He first tells of how ‘wounded men … very evidently marked for death … still live because of the life-giving plasma poured back into their veins.”

“A call for donors was broadcast over local radio stations and the response was overwhelming. From a previous maximum of 8-donors a day, 4-days a week, volunteers were now being bled at the rate of 50 an hour, 10-hours a day, 7-days a week. This continued over a period of 2-weeks. Every available doctor and nurse was enlisted to assist.”

“Men and women waited in line for hours. Soldiers stood their guns with fixed bayonets in the surgery hallway and rolled up their sleeves and helped; sailors gave their few precious hours of liberty to wait their turn. Mothers asked strangers to hold their small children and took their turns on the surgery tables.”

“Civilian defense workers from Pearl Harbor, and workers from Red Hill, red eyed from long hours of welding, stopped by to donate before snatching a few hours rest.”

“A crew of husky iron workers in their oily work clothes came en masse; whole crews from dry docks and inter-island steamships; the dock workers and society folks waiting in line side by side to do their part. Sugar and pineapple plantation employees came direct from their work in the fields…”

“The question most commonly asked was ‘How soon can I come again?’” (North Carolina Medical Journal, May, 1942)

Founded in 1941, the organization was originally known as the Honolulu Blood and Plasma Bank operating out of The Queen’s Hospital.

The Blood Bank operated as a war-time agency with the outbreak of World War II returning to its civilian status in 1942. Over the years, the name changed to Blood Bank of Hawaiʻi, services were expanded to include neighbor island blood drives and Hawaii’s unique ethnic population became nationally recognized as a source for many types of rare blood.

Later, to encourage folks to donate, ‘Fang’ called into Aku’s morning radio program (Hal Lewis – J Akuhead Pupule) to announce a coming Blood Drive. That was Betsy Mitchell (the Blood Lady;) she was Director of Donor Recruitment and Community Relations for the Blood Bank.

The Mitchells used to live in our old neighborhood on Aumoana on Kaneohe Bay Drive. In the early-‘80s she moved to Volcano, co-founded and was past president of the Cooper Center Council, and was one of the most energetic and community-minded people you would ever meet. Unfortunately, Betsy passed away on December 16, 2013.

I looked forward to the monthly meetings we had in Volcano; I think of Betsy a lot, especially when I give blood.

Unlike the post-Pearl Harbor waiting lines to give blood, the Blood Bank of Hawai‘i needs folks to drop into their offices or mobile locations to make donations to meet Hawaiʻi’s needs; they require approximately 250 donors every day.

There’s no substitute for blood. If people lose blood from surgery or injury, or if their bodies can’t produce enough, there is only one place to turn – volunteer blood donors.

You may donate if you are in good health, weigh at least 110 pounds, have a valid photo ID with birth date and are at least 18 years old (or 17 years old with signed Blood Bank parent/legal guardian consent form.)

Every donor completes a health history questionnaire and screening interview to identify behaviors that indicate a high risk for carrying blood borne disease. There is strict confidentiality.

They like my blood (O-negative,) it’s a universal donor type (can be transfused to almost any patient in need;) I’m also CMV-negative (not been exposed to the cytomegalovirus (so I am a ‘baby donor.’))

They regularly call me for donations – there is an 8-week wait period between donations. I was called again last week. The process is relatively painless – the worst part for me is when they pull the tape holding the needle down and it pulls the hair on my arm.

Please consider giving blood.

More on the Blood Bank of Hawaii here:
http://www.bbh.org

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Blood Bank of Hawaii

December 12, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

John Kendrick

Sea Captain John Kendrick fought in the French and Indian Wars in 1762, threw tea overboard in the Boston Tea Party in 1773, and was in charge of the Fanny, one of the United States’ first ships, during the Revolutionary War.

He survived all that, and was later killed on December 12, 1794 in a 13-canon saluting round in Fair Haven (now known as Honolulu Harbor.) (Lytle)

Let’s look back …

Kendrick was born in 1740 on a small hilly farm in East Harwich, Cape Cod, the third of seven children of Solomon Kendrick and Elizabeth Atkins.

Kendrick’s grandfather, Edward Kendrick, had arrived in Harwich around 1700 and married Elizabeth Snow, the granddaughter of Nicholas Snow, a holder of extensive lands and one of the ‘old-comers’ from Plymouth who first settled the Cape.

Kendrick’s father, Solomon, born sometime during the winter of 1705, was master of a whaling vessel who was famous in local lore. He followed his father and went to sea by the time he was fourteen. By his late-teens, he was crewing on local sailing vessels.

“John Kendrick came of age in the defiant atmosphere of the coffeehouses and taverns of Boston. Here, he was in the midst of the firestorm of opposition to the Parliament’s Stamp Act of 1765 and the hated Townshend Acts, which usurped local authority and levied an array of onerous taxes.”

“As strife increased on the waterfront, he may have been involved in the widespread boycott of British goods and the burning of Boston’s customs house, or riots over seizure and impressment of American sailors for British ships.”

“(O)n the rainy night of December 16, 1773, John Kendrick was part of the legendary band that boarded two East India Company ships at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor. Thumbing his nose at the British shortly after, he is said to have been master of the brig Undutied Tea.”

He fought in the American Revolutionary War and at its outbreak, he smuggled powder and arms from the Caribbean with the sloop Fanny, whose owners were under contract with a secret committee of the Continental Congress and later captured a couple ships, which helped to precipitate the entry of France into the war.

“Shortly before the British surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, Kendrick came ashore. In his sporadic visits home he had managed to father six children, and now he buckled down to making his way in the new nation.”

“After the victorious Revolution and the euphoria of the Peace Treaty of 1783, an economic depression had settled over villages and farms. Port cities and their harbors were left reeling from the war. Inflation was rampant.”

“There was no common currency, state governments were weak, and representatives to the Congress of the Confederation bickered over fundamental issues, threatening to secede.”

“Heavy debts owed to Britain for damages in the war were due, and the prospects for international trade and revenue were bleak. In a punching move, the king had closed all British ports from Canada and the British Isles to the Caribbean to the remaining American ships.”

Without trade, without customs revenue, without taxes, it would be impossible to support a new central government and succeed in securing independence.

Shipping was the soul of early commerce; the Pacific voyages of James Cook revealed the high prices sea otter furs from the Northwest Coast would bring in China.

That took Kendrick and his crew to the Pacific, where they traded with the local population and explored the northwest of the American continent. They eventually (January 1790) went to China to trade the Northwest furs and eventually made it to Japan, arriving on May 6, 1791, probably becoming the first official Americans to meet the Japanese.

On December 3, 1794, Kendrick arrived in Fair Haven (Honolulu) Hawaiʻi aboard the Lady Washington; a war was waging between Kalanikupule and his half-brother Kaʻeokulani (Kaʻeo.)

Also in Honolulu were Captain William Brown (the first credited with entering Honolulu Harbor) in general command of the Jackall and the Prince Lee Boo, Captain Gordon.

At the death of Kahekili in 1793, Kaʻeo became ruling chief of Maui, Molokai and Lānaʻi. Kalanikupule was ruler of Oʻahu. Homesick for his friends, Kaʻeo set out to return to Kauai by way of Waialua and then to Waimea. He learned of a conspiracy to kill him. (Kamakau)

Captain Brown of the Jackall helped Kalanikupule. While Kaʻeo was successful after some initial skirmishes. A great battle was fought in the area between Kalauao and ‘Aiea in ‘Ewa. Kalanikupule’s forces surrounded Kaʻeo. (Cultural Surveys) The ship’s men successfully aided in the defense and Kaʻeo was defeated.

To celebrate the victory, on December 12, 1794, Kendrick’s brig fired a thirteen-gun salute in celebration the British ship of Captain Brown.

The tradition of rendering a salute by cannon originated in the 14th century as firearms and cannons came into use. Since these early devices contained only one projectile, discharging them rendered them harmless.

Initially, the tradition began as a custom among ships, whose captains had volleys fired upon entering a friendly port to release its arsenal, which demonstrated their peaceful intentions (by placing their weapons in a position that rendered them ineffective.)

Following Kendrick’s salute, Brown answered with a round of fire.

Unfortunately, through an oversight, one of the saluting guns on the Jackall was loaded with round and grape shot, and this shot passed through the side of the Lady Washington, killing Captain Kendrick and several of his crew. (Kuykendall) (Lots of information here is from Ridley; Daughters of the American Revolution)

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Captain John Kendrick

December 8, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Fifth Column

There were several types of columns used by the military infantry: marching columns for transiting long distances and columns used on the battlefield. They were not intended as assault formations, except under special circumstances.

Reference to a ‘Fifth Column’ dates to the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and refers to a group or faction of subversive agents (or spys.)

Nationalist General Emilio Mola Vidal coined the term when he told a local journalist that four columns of his soldiers were fighting their way to Madrid, and that a secret ‘Fifth Column’ was intent on undermining the loyalist government from within the capital. The papers reported:

“Out of hiding came a few of the phantom ‘fifth column’ – the fascist auxiliary force dreaded by the loyalists. Scheduled to appear within the city itself and take the defenders from the rear, these rebel sympathizers sniped from rooftops at the government militia.” (North Adams Transcript, November 14, 1936)

The term ‘Fifth Column’ survived that war and has ever since been used to designate secret armies or groups of armed subversives.

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, that brought the United States into World War II, outraged Americans and sparked a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment across the country.

Many blamed all Japanese for the Pearl Harbor attack, directing their anger and frustration even at Japanese resident aliens and Japanese-Americans who had done nothing that would bring into question their loyalty to the United States. (Weider)

Fear of the ‘Fifth Column” hit home.

The term’s first use in WWII was by Navy Secretary Frank Knox to describe the Japanese in Hawaiʻi, even though his own report proved his charge an unsupported averment. (Tanner)

“I think the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaiʻi with the exception of Norway.” (Frank Knox, Secretary of Navy)

“It was common wisdom that the Nazi invasions of Norway and western Europe had been aided by agents and sympathizers within the country under attack – the so-called fifth column – and that the same approach should be anticipated from Japan.” (Executive Order 9066, archives-gov)

Wartime hysteria inherently relied on the narrative of widespread Japanese saboteurs, or the fifth-column myth. This myth developed as “fears (were) spawned by … headlines (blaring,) ‘Secretary of Navy Blames Fifth Column for Raid’ and ‘Fifth Column Treachery Told.’” (Tanner)

In February 1942, Mississippi Congressman Rankin told the US House of Representatives:
“I know the Hawaiian Islands. I know the Pacific coast where these Japanese reside. Even though they may be the third or fourth generation of Japanese, we cannot trust them.”

“I know that those areas are teeming with Japanese spies and fifth columnists. … Do not forget that once a Japanese always a Japanese …. (They had) been there for generations were making signs, if you please …”

“… guiding the Japanese planes to the objects of their iniquity in order that they might destroy our naval vessels, murder our soldiers and sailors, and blow to pieces the helpless women and children of Hawaii. (Congressional Record; Everest-Phillips)

“(S)enior Government officials ’ignored’ reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of naval intelligence who concluded that nothing beyond careful watching of suspicious people or individual reviews of loyalty was called for.” (NY Times)

A report commissioned by Congress contended that the vast majority of Japanese Americans were loyal but it did nothing to stop the mounting public hysteria and government and military reactionism.

“(Second generation Nisei are) universally estimated from 90 to 98 percent loyal to the United States … The Nisei are pathetically eager to show this loyalty. They are not Japanese in culture. They are foreigners to Japan. … The loyal Nisei hardly knows where to turn.” (Munson Report; UW)

On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which authorized the military to exclude any person from designated military areas.

“I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders … to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded”.

“(A)nd with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military … may impose in his discretion.”

“The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order.” (Executive Order 9066)

Beginning in 1942, more than 120,000-Japanese-Americans, most of them living on the West Coast, were ordered to leave their homes and were transported to relocation centers (camps) for the duration of the war. The internees were stripped of both their possessions and their civil liberties. (Papers of the Wartime Relocation Commission)

After the war, Japanese Americans returned home.

“(N)ot a single documented act of espionage, sabotage or fifth column activity was committed by an American citizen of Japanese ancestry or by a resident Japanese alien on the West Coast.” (Wartime Relocation Commission; NY Times)

In the decades following World War II, the internment of Japanese-Americans has generally been acknowledged as a national embarrassment, a shameful episode that stands as a blot on America’s record. (Weider)

In 1952 the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act finally allowed Issei (first generation) naturalization. In 1976, on the thirty-fourth anniversary of Executive Order 9066, President Gerald Ford declared the evacuation a “national mistake.”

And in 1988 HR 442 was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan providing for reparations for surviving internees. Beginning in 1990 $20,000 in redress payments were sent to all eligible Japanese Americans. (UW)

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December 7, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

A Dauntless Collides With a Val

Pilot, Ensign John HL Vogt; Radioman-gunner, Third Class Sidney Pierce
Pilot, Petty Officer 2nd Class Koreyoshi Toyama (Sotoyama); Flier 1st Class Hajime Murao

A pair of enemy planes apparently collided on the morning of December 7, 1941 – reports from the scene at the time suggest they also crashed at the same spot on the ʻEwa Plain.

Let’s look back …

In the early morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese pilots flew toward the island of Oʻahu from six aircraft carriers (the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku;) two attack waves of planes attacked various military installations on Oʻahu (a third group attacked ʻEwa as part of a rear guard action.)

The prearranged coded signal “East wind, rain,” part of the weather forecast broadcast over Radio Tokyo, alerted Japanese Consul General Nagao Kita in Honolulu, and others, that the attack on Pearl Harbor had begun.

The first wave of 183-planes (43-fighters, 49-high-level bombers, 51-dive bombers and 40-torpedo planes) struck its targets at 7:55 am. The second wave of 167-Japanese planes (35-fighters, 54-horizontal bombers and 78-dive bombers) struck Oʻahu beginning at 8:40 am.

Perhaps twenty American fighter planes managed to get off the ground the morning of December 7, 1941. Most of them were shot down, but their actions accounted for six victories in the one-sided aerial battle. (Castagnaro and Padilla)

The USS Enterprise was at sea during the attack, it was shuttling Army Air Force, as well as Navy planes, from West Coast ports to Pearl Harbor, and to outlying detachments on Wake and Guam further west.

She departed on November 28 carrying Marine pilots and their planes to Wake Island, flying them off on December 2 before turning east to return to Pearl Harbor.

Forced to slow by a storm system, which also sheltered the Japanese Combined Fleet advancing on Oʻahu, Enterprise missed her expected return date to Pearl Harbor: December 6. Instead, she was 150-miles west when the Japanese attacked. (CV6-org)

When approaching the Islands, the Enterprise sent out scout dive bombers, which flew in ahead of the ship; unaware of the attack, they were caught in the initial Japanese attack.

One of those was a ‘Dauntless’ manned by Ensign John HL Vogt (pilot) and Third Class Sidney Pierce (radioman-gunner.) Vogt had become separated from his section leader during the Pearl-bound flight in from the carrier; he may have circled off-shore, and then arrived to encounter the dive bombers near ʻEwa. (Cressmand & Wenger)

The Japanese were flying Aichi D3A (Type 99 Navy Dive Bomber – later referred to as ‘Val’ aircraft.) During the Pearl Harbor attack the Japanese dive bombers flew in units of three who looked out for one another.

The Val was the first Japanese aircraft to bomb American targets in WWII. It was the primary dive bomber in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and participated in almost all actions in the war.

One of those was manned by Petty Officer 2nd Class Koreyoshi Toyama (Sotoyama) (pilot) and Flier 1st Class Hajime Murao. Toyama attacked the USS Pennsylvania in Drydock 1. His bomb missed and hit the dock itself. (Cole)

Other than flying over Pearl Harbor, flying back to their aircraft carrier was the second most difficult part of their mission because the air units had to regroup initially over ʻEwa and then proceed to further geographic points – Barbers Point and Kaʻena Point, before heading out to sea northwest of Oʻahu and finding their respective aircraft carriers approximately 200-miles away. (Bond)

Neither of these planes made it back to their respective ships.

One report notes Vogt entered a low altitude dogfight with at least two Japanese planes. He trailed one as best it could until the Japanese plane pulled up sharply and stalled, causing the two to collide in an explosion that brought both plans down. (AECOM)

This was confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Larkin who saw an American plane and a Japanese plane collide in mid-air a short distance away from the ʻEwa Field. In all probability, Larkin saw the Dauntless collide with a Val. (marines-mil) (Other reports note each was separately shot down.)

The American crew bailed out, but were too low an altitude; both were found dead in the trees when their chutes failed to deploy. Neither of the Japanese crewmen escaped their Val when it crashed. (Cressmand & Wenger)

According to several reports, the two planes ended up in the same spot, at what is today the vicinity of the Hoakalei Golf Course club house. (Bond)

“Investigation disclosed two of our fliers, Ensign JHB Vogt, USNR, and Pierce Sidney, RM 3c, both of the USS Enterprise, were casualties. Two Japanese pilots, both badly burned, were also in the wreck.” (Milz)

Toyama’s two wingmen flew over the crash site, possibly trying to determine if either of the Japanese crew had somehow made it out of the burning crash. They then made a strafing pass before flying away. (Lots of information here from Bond)

The image shows the crash site on the ʻEwa Plain (note the two Japanese support planes circling the site.) (Photographed by Staff Sergeant Lee Embree from a US Army 38th Reconnaissance Squadron B-17E that arrived over Oahu during the Japanese attack. (navy-mil, notation by Bond)

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December 2, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Niitaka Yama Nobore

The Qing dynasty (Manchu dynasty,) ruling from 1644 to 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. The First Sino-Japanese War (August 1, 1894 – April 17, 1895) was fought between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan.

The primary interest was control of Korea. As part of that war, in March 1895, Japan forces attacked the Chinese-controlled Taiwan. Japan won that battle and the war.

The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the First Sino-Japanese War and through it China gave full control of Korea and Taiwan to Japan. Taiwan (also referred to as Formosa) was under Japanese rule from 1895 and 1945.

“In the heart of the savage territory of the island of Formosa rises Mt Morrison, the highest mountain in the Orient, east of the Himalayas. …”

“The mountain was so named to commemorate the memory of the Reverend Robert Morrison, the first protestant missionary to China … in the year 1842.” (Arnold, 1908)

“When the Japanese took possession of Formosa in the year 1895 she re-christened the mountain Niitaka-yama, which means new high mountain; Fuji-yama, sacred to the heart of every Japanese, being thus relegated to the position of old high mountain.” (Arnold, 1908)

The renaming of the mountain “Nii-taka-yama, that is, the ‘New High Mountain,’ (is an) allusion to the fact that this (was) the last to be added to the empire, being also the highest, – higher than Fuji itself.” (Handbook for Travellers in Japan, 1903)

Then, on December 2, 1941 (Tokyo Time,) a coded message, ‘Niitakayama Nobore’ (“Climb Mount Niitaka”) was sent to all Imperial Japanese Navy units.

Approaching the International Date Line from the west at that time were six Japanese aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku, along with over ten escorts and supply ships.

Receiving this signal Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi, went to his cabin onboard his flagship, the aircraft carrier Akagi, and opened a set of Top Secret documents, which told him, and those that opened the same order throughout the fleet, that on December 8 (the 7th on the Pearl Harbor side of the International Date Line) Japan would be going to war. (Johnson)

Previously, the Japanese force assembled 2 battleships, 6 carriers, 3 cruisers, approximately 20 destroyers and 5 submarines, including midgets which were carried by mother submarines.

The force departed at 6 am, November 26, Japan time, and set an indirect northern course for the next rendezvous, 200 miles north of Oahu. On December 6, when the force was still 800 miles north of O‘ahu; it received the long awaited code message.

When the Japanese attacked, 86 vessels, including 8 battleships, 7 cruisers, 28 destroyers and 5 submarines, plus the usual complement of small craft, were based in the harbor (there were no aircraft carriers moored at Pearl Harbor at the time.) (Morris)

In the Islands, the message: “Air Raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill” came at 0755 on December 7, as Japanese planes swept overhead in an attempt to cripple the Pacific Fleet.

By 9:45 am, the Japanese attack on Oʻahu was over.

(Today, Niitakayama is known as Mount Yushan (Jade Mountain) and is part of Yushan National Park, the largest national park in Taiwan.)

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