<Begin Segment 14>

MN: And then changing the subject, I want to move you back. I know you told us, don't ask about your first year at UH, but first of all, I wanted to know, what was the rush to go back to UH so soon, three days after you came back? How come you didn't wait? What was the rush?

KM: It wasn't only me, you know, there were others that I found out later. But yeah, Eddie Okazaki was already back at UH because he was one year ahead of me. So Eddie was the president of the senior class, 46. We started back in in 1946. In 1948 he was the president of the senior class, Walter [inaudible] was the student body president.

MN: How come you didn't think of just taking a break? You just came back and three days later you were back at school.

KM: I can't recall why. I cannot recall why... as I said, that period of one year is a vague, cloudy... don't have distinct, other than moving into Veterans Dorm room as soon as you...

MN: Tell us about Veterans Dorm.

KM: As I said, starting to point out to you, coming here, this place we are now seated is the, back of this was the Farrington Hall. And Farrington Hall was being used during the war years as the home port for Maurice Evans, who was, I think it was a famous Shakespearean actor, stage man. And he had a USO performing group, and I don't know what the arrangements were, but there were cottages in the back of Farrington Hall, portable cottages right around, completely surrounding the... enough for his troupe of performers. And when the war ended, they had vacated that premises and we had turned that into what was then called the Veterans Dormitory. And a retired colonel, being the head of our Veterans Affairs at the university, I forgot his name. We had some characters, professional administrative characters at that time. Liebrick? Was it Liebrick?

MN: KC Liebrick.

KM: Yeah, Liebrick. I think he was the Veterans Affairs, and there was a famous military colonel, retired colonel who was in charge of the ROTC at that time. But I got appointed to be, I don't know how I got appointed, but to be the vets' dorm manager. And so I had to represent the boys in various affairs, mostly complaints or this and that. The Vets Dormitory was there for not too long. I was there for about one or two years, but then I ended up in Atherton House. But it was a fun place, was all by veterans. And so there was a day room that we had for the boys to play cards, and so there were a lot of card games going on and they had the same thing. One of the memorable gatherings of veterans was, I don't know what, it wasn't in the first year, Kamokila Campbell came to speak to us. And it was really a sad meeting between Kamokila and the veterans because she did not realize that the veterans were hard-nosed veterans. And she, I think her opening remark which turned everybody off was, "My dear boys," and her tone of presentation. And I don't know what the subject matter that she came to speak in front of the... the whole veteran group was, we had a pretty good, big presentation, people showing up to hear Kamokila Campbell because she was a well-known personality at that time, a very influential individual. But my recollection is that her presentation was a real big flop before the veterans.

MN: By that time, when you folks came back to school, like you said, you folks were hard-nosed veterans. You folks smoked, you folks drank, you folks went through battle, and now you're back in school, subject to studies, tests, professors.

KM: I don't know about studies. [Laughs]

MN: How did you folks fare?

KM: I flunked the first report card and the first quarter or first, it was during the first semester, I must have flunked three of the four or five courses that I had. But... and I really don't know how I survived the first semester. I don't recall how I survived, but somehow I think we were all in the same boots, all of the veterans. Prior to our coming back December of '45, ninety percent, ninety percent of the student body were girls. And about 350, I think, the second semester in 1946, I think there were about 350 of us veterans registering right away. So I wasn't the only one that registered right away. Because ahead of me was an infantry group that had come back earlier in, later on in 1945. It was only the artillery group that came back three days before the beginning of the second semester. And I really don't know why I registered so fast, because I was living with my other brother in Kapahulu the first month or so, until Vets Dorm was opened. And I'm sorry, but I cannot recall why, what motivated me to... maybe it was for want of nothing better else besides going to school.

WN: Did things seem anticlimactic to you?

KM: Hmm?

WN: Did things seem anticlimactic to you? You know, through this...

KM: Yeah, yeah, there is that kind of a letdown feeling that everything's all over with now, and we're back to where we started, day one, back in 1941. Because, remember, I started one year later, instead of right after high school. I laid off one year, and probably I felt that there was a gap that I couldn't make up. So probably that motivated me to get in three days after I got discharged. Already I felt I was behind one year, more than the others.

MN: I don't think you can answer this, but how come you had a hard time settling into studies?

KM: Let me give you an example. I think I had Sociology 100, basic sociology course. And I remember distinctly, when I was taking the first examination, there were several questions in the exam which completely astounded me. And the reason why is that, as I recall, the book that I was supposed to study, I never opened it before the exam. There were terminologies out the in exam which I had no idea what it was referring to. But that was, my recollection of the first exam taken after a couple of months after I got in. but even at that point, I had difficulty trying to study, to buckle down and read, basically. It was the most difficult thing to do.

MN: And then so when did you start buckling down?

KM: I guess after the first semester. After the first semester, I think, I buckled down. Then when I just survived the first semester, barely survived.

MN: What do you think made the difference?

KM: I wish I knew. But I believe it was a matter of getting back into the routine of studying. Until then, this business of reading the books and whatnot, was a ritual that we were not accustomed to, that we had already forgotten all about.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.