Densho Digital Archive - James Lovell Interview (denshovh-ljames-01-0001)

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JL: I first became acquainted with the men of the 100th Battalion and the men of the 442nd also when I first arrived in Hawaii in 1930 to teach school at Washington Intermediate School where I taught mechanical drawing and also coached football, basketball and track. Then, of course, later on I went to Roosevelt, and we had a few of the American Japanese there, but not too many. I stayed there six years and then went on to McKinley where, of course, we had a great number of them. And many of those went on into the service in October of 1940 when the 298th was called into service under the national emergency. At Scofield at that time, the first draft had taken place, and the first unit of draftees at the reception center that were called in in October of 1940. And they later were assigned to the 298th or the 299th Infantry. So I had a good number of me in the 298th who had formerly been students or athletes of mine at one of the schools. It was during that time that I became acquainted with them in such a way that I knew that they were able to take orders, take instruction, they proved to be very loyal in the way they reacted to the orders that I gave them as far as athletics, of course, you have to be well disciplined, and this also carried over into the classroom. And I think that this carried over a great deal more as we got into the service. Of course, those days, there had not been a Pearl Harbor, and people didn't know what the national emergency was really for as far as these men being drafted. I think that they also proved this discipline of theirs in the fact that they went on to their own language school and the fact that they were in serious trouble at home if they had problems in their school day or in their school life, their parents would take care of them at that time.

[Interruption]

JL: My daily observation in the classroom of these students, especially like in mechanical drawing, I find that they would have to reach a certain perfection in lettering and that type of drawing, mimicking dimensions on drawings and that sort of thing. So you know that they could... well you soon learned that they were after perfection in these. And the reason for this was because they wanted to achieve a certain standard and they worked hard at it to get it done. I also noticed it in the woodworking shop where you have machinery. They were, followed the instructions for safety instructions in the proper use of that equipment, and they only did this because I think they were trying to do a good job. On the athletic field where discipline was probably closer to the army than maybe in the classroom, at least they were there on time, they performed their job, and naturally everybody has to. If you're going to make the team, you've got to do your job. But I think that spirit of competition is one that would carry over into their life because they truly had to compete with other nationalities as well as their own in order to achieve a position they were seeking.

LD: Were they good athletes?

JL: They were exceptional athletes for their size. Of course, they developed faster, I would say, than some of the others, say, some of the haole kids. For their size, they were outstanding athletes. They probably wouldn't do as much in basketball as they would in some others because they didn't have the great height that's a common practice today in basketball.

[Interruption]

JL: I think the respect that the respect that these men had for their parents was gained from the fact that many of those parents had a pretty menial existence. They had to work hard for everything they had, there were large families, many of them were plantation people, and they didn't have all the things that we find in many other homes around. And I think the fact that their parents were able to gain that much, and it took quite a firm resolve on their parents' part to get where they were, and I don't see how anybody could anything but respect for 'em. And I think that's how the young men got the respect for their parents.