I first met Ruth Cope at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. She and her husband Bill volunteered there every Friday morning signing books about the Women’s Air Raid Defense (Ruth was one of the original members of the Women's Air Raid Defense. I have several posts about them later) and aviation histories of World War II. I had previously talked to Ruth by phone; she sent me photographs of and articles about herself, but we didn’t come face to face until May 2002. I spotted her sitting at a table in the atrium right outside the book store. She and Bill were wearing the teal Pearl Harbor volunteer shirts and Ruth had on her signature snap-peaked white cap. I waited in line to talk to her. The line was twenty deep but seemed never ending; so many people wanted to take pictures with them, and ask detailed questions about December 7, 1941.
When I finally got to the front of the line, I introduced myself to Ruth. On the phone, Ruth’s voice had sounded strong, with the gravely undertones of a lifelong smoker. In person, she looked frail, her skin mottled with bruises and her bones protruded from sun-leathered arms, but her eyes were intensely clear, and her smile was warm and welcoming. She took my hand into hers and asked, “So, dear, what do you want to know?”
She told Bill she was taking a break to talk to me and he said, “Just as long as your friend leaves me her phone number and hotel key.” Ruth turned to me and said, “He’s still my ‘Bad Billy.’”
Ruth and I walked to a bench at the edge of the harbor. She began her story by looking over to her husband. “It’s really a story about Bill and me. Our love story is better than any in the movies.” And it is. We talked, interrupted by tourists asking questions from directions to the restrooms to her memories of World War II. “It’s non-stop the whole time we’re here,” Ruth said. “Sometimes I sign so many books, my hands cramp the next day and since 9-11, the interest in the attack on Pearl Harbor has rekindled. Bill and I are grateful to tell them the story. It’s so important.”
That night, I wrote in my journal: "Today I met Ruth L. Cope. My life has changed forever." Ruth is one of The Ladies who inspired this website. The excerpt below is her story of how she "missed the boat" of evacuation.
On Christmas Day, Ruth was alone in their quarters. (The photo above is of junior officer apartment house at Hickam where Bill and Ruth lived. It is still junior officer housing.)“I had my bags packed,” she said. “We all had to be ready to be evacuated within 24 hours. And since I didn’t receive any evacuation notice that day, I decided to drive across the island to Bellows Field to spend part of Christmas with Bill. It took me hours to get there. We had just about enough time to have lunch together at the mess hall then I had to head back to Hickam before curfew.
“When I drove home and got up to the main gate at Hickam, the sentry asked me where I was going and I answered that I was going home, that I lived on Signer Boulevard. He told me not anymore because there had been an evacuation and all the other wives had been shipped out.”
Ruth said, “I missed the boat—literally. I went back to my quarters and sure enough all the other units were empty and Signer Boulevard was a ghost town. The army didn’t give the wives advance notice that day.” Ruth explained, “They figured out that too many wives had plans on not being in their quarters the day of their evacuation so they could stay in Hawaii with their husbands. So on Christmas Day they came in, unannounced and evacuated all of my area.
“And so, I was evacuated. A civilian family, Mr. and Mrs. Moody of Grossman-Moody Jewelers took me in. They were so gracious and kind. They had a lovely home in Nuuanu where I stayed until before I moved us into our Hibiscus Drive apartment.”
The photos above were taken at Bellows Air Field in Waimanalo. The upper photo is of officers' housing during World War II. The lower is of the captured Japanese midget two-man submarine. The sub got lost, and was beached on a reef. Air Force personnel dragged the midget sub off the reef and onto the beach. One of the crewmen was dead. The other, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, was washed ashore and captured. He was the first prisoner of war of World War II.
If you visit Bellows Field, you will see a small collection of photos and memorablila of World War II, among them is this image of the Main Gate of Bellows Field during World War II.
PHOTO: United States Air Force
Women of World War II Hawaii
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