The Real Air Heroes

Did you see the movie PEARL HARBOR? or any other American movie about the Japanese attack? Well, most likely there was a scene where some good looking "Fly Boys" took to the sky in the middle of the attack, and brazenly got into some serious dogfighting with the Japanese. Well, here's a photo of the real life air heroes. Left to right 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders, 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen, 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, 2nd Lt. George S. Welch, 2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown [P-36 fighter Wheeler]

Together these guys shot down 9 Japanese planes. One of their comrades did not survive.

Here's another shot of them. According to the caption in the Hickam Air Force archive, "Nine Japanese planes were shot down by these five young air corps officers during the raids on Oahu a week ago Sunday. Left to right they are-2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown, who bagged one Japanese plane; 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmmussen, one plane; 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, two planes; 2nd Lt. George S. Welch, four planes; 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders, one plane. Lts. Welsh and Taylor are to receive Distinguished Service Crosses."

Now here's where it gets personal. Did you read the post about Bill and Ruth Cope, and how Ruth missed the evacuation of Hickam housing area because she went out to Waimanalo to see Bill? Well, Bill and Ruth were good friends of Phil Rasmussen. He was the best man at their wedding and they remained friends for sixty years afterwards.

In the next few posts, I'll show you the connection among them. I'm hoping to make the war "personal" and for you. I'd like you to get to know these young people who played a part in the early days of the war.

Bill Cope was the young officer who was in charge of herding the planes in a tight formation, making them an easy target for the Japanese. After the declaration of war Ruth Cope became a charter member of the Women Air Raid Defense. That women's unit was under the direction of the Army Air Corps and Ken Taylor had direct overview of it.

I hope these people will be real to you--that you'll be able to picture Ruth playing golf with General Tinker, that you will "be there" when she finds out about his death.

But, right now, just take a look at those young guys. The real life heroes of December 7, 1941.

Phil Rasmussen died in 2006. Ruth Cope died in 2007 and Bill Cope died in 2008.

Coconut Butter

Let's stay "in the kitchen" a little longer. Lettie Yoshimura told me that during the war the first shipments of military assistance for the islanders included laced-up leather children's shoes--not very useful in Hawaii, where children rarely wore such shoes. (In fact, in those days, it was common to see rows of shoes and slippers lined up outside the classroom door, leaving children to walk barefoot in class.)

Another shipment Lettie remembers is pototoes. She said, "For rice-eating people they sent potatoes! My mother traded them for a pair of nylons."

There were many substitutions made during the war. One of them was for butter. The University of Hawaii Extension Service developed a method to make butter from coconuts. It took ten coconuts to make a pound of butter. Color and vitamin A were added by means of a fatty extract of the lipstick plant. (“Home Economists and Emergency War Measures in Honolulu,” by Katherine Bazore and Marian Weaver. JOURNAL OF HOME ECONOMICS 34-3. March 1942)

Not one of the women I interviewed remembered butter from coconuts and no one remembers even seeing the recipe in the newspapers.(During the war, recipes that used little fuel, or reduced the amounts of rationed food were published in the newspapers.) However, coconut butter was a "fact" in World War II Hawaii.

Women of World War II Hawaii

Imua, Mr. President

President Barack Obama gives the shaka to the Punahou marching band during the Inaugural Parade.

Imua, Mr. President!



Congratulations to this Keiki O Ka Aina, Child of Our Land.

Free yourself from cooking to volunteer!

In Hawaii, everyone was expected to do their part for the war. Women, even mothers with children out of school (schools were closed from December 7, 1941 through February 1942) were expected to help out the war effort.

Women were expected to learn how to cook in the dark, not waste any food, use the foods that the military ships were bringing in, stand in line for groceries, and cut their cooking time so that they would have “more time for relief work and to volunteer for Red Cross projects.”

Sounds easy to me!

To help the women out, the Honolulu Gas Company put on a series of cooking demonstrations called “Foods for Victory” in which Miss Jean Shimura, their home economist, taught classes on how to cook using less gas in less time. By July, 1942, two thousand women had attended the gas company’s cooking classes.

PHOTO: World War II poster, Office of War Information
Women of World War II Hawaii