Kan Chong Chang

INTRODUCTION

May, 2008





My decision to write about my life happened when I was thinking that of all the people I know there is not one that knows about my whole life except God, of course. I have come to meet many relatives and friends over the years but my only contact had been but a short time with any of them. Even my own family do not know my long past and what I had to show in the way of achievements.



God has led me on a very interesting journey and I feel that it is about time for me to share what I have gone through with those that may be interested or those that are to come.



My memories are from my own personal perspective. My brothers and sisters, especially those that remember the World War II era, may have different perspectives because they may look at it from different levels of maturity and understanding.



As more survivors of the World War II era are leaving this world, I would ask all members of the ohana to seek out your parents or grandparents that have endured and hear of their recollections which is an important part of American history.



I recently read the book The Greatest Generation (Tom Brokaw) and it opened up many emotions and memories that I had stored away. The book stresses mostly on the military heroes of the WWII era but it does reveal the high characteristics in morality, loyalty and responsibility of this generation.



I am now of senior age. At this stage of life I look back in time almost every day. I enjoy the things I am doing because I feel at peace with myself and with God. I have arrived at the final stage of life and I am ready to meet the Lord. But before I go I am asking Him to give me the opportunity to finish this project.



My hope as I write this book is that it will give everyone motivation to do what I am doing. God bless.





THE 1930s





In order to give you some idea of what the world community was like when I was born in 1928, I have extracted the following information about the 1930s from the Internet. This information will set the background and influences that shaped my life.



Excerpted from the Kingwood College Library on the Internet:



Facts about this decade:

Population: 123,188,000 in 48 states

Life Expectancy: Male, 58.1; Female, 61.6

Average salary: $1,368

Unemployment rises to 25%

Huey Long proposes a guaranteed annual income of $2,500

Car Sales: 2,787,400

Food Prices: Milk, 14 cents a qt.; Bread, 9 cents a loaf; Round Steak, 42 cents a pound

Lynchings: 21



By the 1930s, money was scarce because of the depression, so people did what they could to make their lives happy. Movies were hot, parlor games and board games were popular. People gathered around radios to listen to the Yankees. Young people danced to the big bands. Franklin Roosevelt influenced Americans with his Fireside Chats. The golden age of the mystery novel continued as people escaped into books, reading writers like Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler.



In the Great Depression the American dream had become a nightmare. What was once the land of opportunity was now the land of desperation. What was once the land of hope and optimism had become the land of despair. The American people were questioning all the maxims on which they had based their lives - democracy, capitalism, individualism. The best hope for a better life was California. Many Dust Bowl farmers packed their families into cars, tied their few possessions on the back, and sought work in the agricultural fields or cities of the West - their role as independent landowners gone forever. Between 1929 and 1932, the income of the average American family was reduced by 40%, from $2,300 to $1,500. Instead of advancement, survival became the keyword. Institutions, attitudes, lifestyles changed in this decade but democracy prevailed. Democracies such as Germany and Italy fell to dictatorships, but the United States and its constitution survived.



Economics dominated politics in the 1930s. The decade began with shanty towns called Hoovervilles, named after a president who felt that relief should be left to the private sector, ands ended with an alphabet soup of federal programs funded by the national government and an assortment of commissions set up to regulate Wall Street, the banking industry, and other business enterprises. The Social Security Act of 1935 set up a program to ensure an income for the elderly. The Wagner Act of 1935 gave workers the legal right to unionize. John L. Lewis founded the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and conditions for blue-collar workers improved. Joseph P. Kennedy, a Wall Street insider, was appointed Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commissions.



By the beginning of the next decade, the United States had gone from a laissez-faire economy that regulated its own conduct to a regulated economy overseen by the federal government. The debate over which is the best course of action still rages today. The presidents of the 1930s were Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.



The 1930s were a perilous time for public education. With cash money in short supply parents were unable to provide their children with the necessary clothes, supplies, and textbooks (which were not furnished in some states) to attend school. Taxes, especially in rural areas, went unpaid. With the loss of revenue, school boards were forced to try numerous strategies to keep their districts operating. School terms were shortened. Teachers salaries were cut. One new teacher was paid $40 a month for a five-month school year - and was very glad for the job! When a rural county in Arkansas was forced to charge tuition one year in order to keep the schools open, some children were forced to drop out for that year. One farmer was able to barter wood to fuel the classrooms potbellied stoves for his four childrens tuition, thus enabling them to continue their education.



The famous Dick and Jane books that taught millions of children to read were first published in 1931. These primers introduced the students to reading with only one new word per page and a limited vocabulary per book. All who learned to read with these books still recall the Look. See Dick. See Dick run.



Radio reached its zenith of popularity in this decade. By 1939, about 80 percent of the population owned radio sets. Americans loved to laugh at the antics of such comedians as Jack Benny, Fred Allen, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Amos and Andy, and Fibber McGee and Molly. The soap opera dominated the daytime airwaves. Our Gal Sunday began each episode with the question, Can a girl from a little mining town in the west find happiness as the wife of a wealthy and titled Englishman? Many a womans ear was glued to her radio every day in hopes of learning the answer. The heroics of the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, the Shadow, and Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy, thrilled listeners both young and old and sold countless boxes of cereal. News broadcasts by commentators like H. V. Kaltenborn and Edward R. Murrow kept the public aware of the increasing crisis in Europe. Franklin Roosevelt used the medium in his Fireside Chats to influence public opinion. One of the most dramatic moments in radio history occurred on May 6, 1937, when the German airship Hindenburg burst into flames as it was about to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The horror of the incident was conveyed live by reporter Herb Morrison. His reaction to what was happening in front of him still enthralls today. On October 30, 1938, a twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles broadcast on his Mercury Theater of the Air the H. G. Wells story War of the Worlds. Despite the disclaimer at the end of the program, the tale of a Martian invasion of Earth panicked a million listeners who mistook the play for a newscast. Such was the influence of radio in this its golden age.





THE 1940s





The 1940s was very important to me because of World War II. I started my teen years during this period and it was a time when the outside world came to visit me on the tiny island of Kauai.



Excerpted from the Kingwood College Library on the Internet:



Facts about this decade:

Population: 132,122,000

Unemployed in 1940: 8,120,000

National Debt: $43 Billion

Average Salary $1,299; Teachers salary $1,441

Minimum Wage: $.43 per hour

55% of U.S. homes have indoor plumbing

Antarctica is discovered to be a continent

Life Expectancy: 68.2 female, 60.8 male

Auto deaths: 34,500

Supreme Court decides blacks do have a right to vote

World War II changed the order of world power, the United States and the USSR became super powers

Cold War begins



The l940s was dominated by World War II. European artists and intellectuals fled Hitler and the Holocaust, bringing new ideas created by disillusionment. War production pulled us out of the Great Depression. Women were needed to replace men who had gone off to war, and so the first great exodus of women from the home to the workplace began. Rationing affected the food we ate, the clothes we wore, the toys with which children played.



After the war, the men returned, having seen the rest of the world. No longer was the family farm an ideal; no longer would blacks accept lesser status. The GI Bill allowed more men than ever before to get a college education. Women had to give up their jobs to the returning men, but they had tasted independence.



The forties are pretty well defined by World War II. US isolationism was shattered by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt guided the country on the homefront, Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded the troops in Europe. Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz led them in the Pacific. The successful use of penicillin by 1944 revolutionized medicine. Developed first to help the military personnel survive war wounds, it also helped increase survival rates for surgery. The first eye bank was established at New York Hospital in 1944. Unemployment almost disappeared, as most men were drafted and sent off to war. The government reclassified 55% of their jobs, allowing women and blacks to fill them. First, single women were actively recruited to the workforce. In 1943, with virtually all the single women employed, married women were allowed to work. Japanese immigrants and their descendants, suspected of loyalty to their homeland, were sent to internment camps.



There were scrap drives for steel, tin, paper and rubber. These were a source of supplies and gave people a means of supporting the war effort. Automobile production ceased in 1942, and rationing of food supplies began in 1943. Victory gardens were re-instituted and supplied 40% of the vegetables consumed on the home front. In April, 1945, FDR died and President Harry Truman celebrated V-E Day on May 8, 1945. Japan surrendered only after two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States emerged from World War II as a world superpower, challenged only by the USSR. While the USSR subjugated the defeated countries, the US implemented the Marshall Plan, helping war-torn countries to rebuild and rejoin the world economy. Disputes over ideology and control led to the Cold War. Communism was treated as a contagious disease, and anyone who had contact with it was under suspicion. Alger Hiss, a former hero of the New Deal, was indicted as a traitor and the House Un-American Activities Committee began its infamous hearings.



Returning GIs created the baby boom, which is still having repercussions on American society today. Although there were rumors, it was only after the war ended that Americans learned the extent of the Holocaust. Realization of the power of prejudice helped lead to Civil Rights reforms over the next three decades. The Servicemens Readjustment Act, commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights, entitled returning soldiers to a college education. In 1949, three times as many college degrees were conferred as in 1940. College became available to the capable rather than the privileged few.



Television made its debut at the 1939 World Fair, but the war interrupted further development. In 1947, commercial television with 13 stations became available to the public. Computers were developed during the early 1940s. The digital computer, named ENIAC, weighing 30 tons and standing two stories high, was completed in 1945.







MY ELEMENTARY YEARS

(1928-42)





My date of birth into this world was January 15, 1928. My dad was Tai Kan Chang and my mother was Ruth Ah Sim (Ng) Chang. I was delivered at home by a midwife, as it was the commonly accepted practice at the time. I arrived by11:00 pm and was a very contented baby. My dad was 35 years old and had a taxicab business; my mom was 30 years old and definitely a busy housewife. I was the fifth child to be born; and the second son. I imagine dad was glad to have another son after waiting so long. The other four children before me were Esther, Robert, Bessie and Mary. You will notice they all had English names as well as Chinese names. However, when I arrived my parents must have run out of English names because I did not have one.



My preschool years were spent in a quaint house in Lihue (Rice Camp) that housed my dad and mom, my grandfather, and a total of two boys and three girls. This house was also where my grandfathers business as a harness shop and automobile top repair shop was located.



My grandfather built and repaired automobile canvas tops for automobiles. This is during the time when Ford Model As & Ts were in existence (l920s and 1930s). Tops during those days did not appear to be unsafe because automobiles did not travel as fast as they do today.



My grandfather also built saddles and harnesses that were used primarily by Hawaiian cowboys. These cowboys were employed by a dairy that was located nearby.



There was a pasture toward the back of our house where the dairy cows grazed. It was smelly at times and occasionally a cow or two would get out of the pasture and the cowboys would guide them back. There were times when Ah Yau (aka Kan Yau) and i would go to the dairy to watch the Chinese milkers do their work. We would go back to the feed room where all the bags of feed were stored and play there. The Chinese milkers were very friendly and it was a joy for me to watch them do Chinese things such as smoke on a bamboo pipe or cook in their community kitchen.



Directly across the street from our house was a wireless station with a high antenna. This was where telegrams were sent out on the airwaves. At this station, the grounds were very well kept by a gardener. I remember going over to play on the grounds many times because we did not have any yard at our house. The most common games that we played were marbles, hide-and-seek, flipping milk covers, and jumping jacks. We did have a tricycle that was shared by everyone.



I loved to have visitors come to our house. I recall that visitors would give us children a nickle each and we would all run down to the candy store which was just a few doors away. We would get chocolate kisses, candy bars or crackerjacks. Chocolate kisses were favored the most because for a penny we could get about four or five of them. Our family was poor at that time and we depended on visitors for candy money.



I recall that my dad raised pigeons in our back yard. There was a caged area where boxed nests were built so that the pigeons could lay their eggs or raise their little ones. My dad raised the pigeons not for sport but as a source of food. I remember my mom making delicious pigeon soup.



My dad also raised chickens. In those days, the Chinese raised chickens for food. Whenever mom wanted chicken for dinner, dad would pick a live chicken, have it slaughtered and dressed before being cooked. We didnt go to the market to buy packaged chicken. We bought or raised live chicken and had to do our own slaughtering. It was that way with many other animals such as fowl, pigs and rabbits that we raised.



All throughout my elementary school years I went by the name of Ah Chong. It was not until World War II when all residents of Hawaii had to apply for ID cards (verified by birth certificates) when I realized that my legal name was actually Kan Chong. I started using that name when I started attending Kauai High School.



However, when I first entered the U. S. Army in 1946 I started to notice that my last name was erroneously interchanged with part of my first name. My first name is Kan Chong and my last name is Chang. Chong and Chang are only one letter difference. I was having difficulty with people using Chong as my last name. Therefore, to solve the situation, I started using the initials of my first name K. C. together with my last name. I have used it so long that I now have it as my preferred name.





When I was six years old, I attended first grade at Lihue Grammar School. I remember that every day all the members of the class had a nap time and it was necessary for each student to bring a mat to sleep on. The teacher would check each student every day to see if their hands were clean, their teeth were brushed, and their ears were clean. If any student misbehaved, he or she would get the feel of the ruler on their hands. If any student was sent to the principal, it was most certain that the student would receive a paddling.



I considered myself to be only a fair student but somehow when I was in the fourth or fifth grade I was placed in a classroom classified as annex. I didnt know what that term meant until later when I was told that it is a class that housed English speaking students. Now, you all know that kids speak pidgin. So how I got into that class is a mystery. I did recognize that many of the students in that class did come from better English-speaking families.



You would imagine that I should have been a good student in elementary school, being that my main occupation was a schoolteacher. But the truth is I really hated school. It wasnt until I was in the seventh and eighth grades that I started to feel like I was making progress.



I suppose the greatest reason I did not enjoy school was because I did not have the help and support at home. My parents were not good at speaking proper English and I didnt even wanted them to speak to my teachers. I didnt have older siblings to help me at home. Im not trying to cast any bad reflection on anyone because I did overcome the many obstacles that came my way.



From the time I started school at first grade to the time I graduated from eighth grade, I walked to school every day barefooted. I dont remember if I had any shoes at home either. Being barefooted is part of being raised in Hawaii. The greatest dangers that I was warned about walking without shoes was (1) do not step on boards with nails sticking out of them, (2) watch out for centipedes, and (3) dont step on cow dung.











MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS

(1942-46)





The date, December 7, 1941 is etched in my mind ever since the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. Little did I know that the happenings after that date would become an integral part of me and my memories.



My World War II Years



Our family, consisting of mom and dad, together with Bessie, Kan Yau, Kim Moi, Kan Yin, Yuki, Kan Kim, Kan Hing and myself were living at our Wailua Kauai home on this December 7, 1941. Esther was married & living in Honolulu, Robert & Mary were also living in Honolulu. It was a lovely sunny Sunday morning and I was watering the plants in the front yard. The radio was playing in the house and I could hear it in the yard. Suddenly I heard the announcer (from a Honolulu radio station) make an announcement that planes were attacking Pearl Harbor. He kept repeating that this is not a practice but a real attack. I could hear planes in the background as he was issuing the warnings.



Later, we tuned in to the local Kauai radio station to learn what was happening on Kauai. We did not know if we, on Kauai, would also be under attack. No attack was made on Kauai. However, we did learn later that the nearest incident that happened near Kauai was when a Japanese fighter plane made an emergency landing on the island of Niihau. The pilot was killed after an encounter with one of the Hawaiian residents.



Robert, my brother, was employed at Hickam Field as a civilian. He told me that during the first days of the war he had to remain at Hickam Field to help restore the devastated facilities. Aunt Jane, who was not yet married to Robert, worked at Hickam Field at the same time and she can relate to you how bad things were at the time.



After December 7th, a total blackout every night was to be Hawaiis reminder of the war. Block wardens, volunteers that checked to see that all homes and businesses were properly blacked out (no light shing out of covered shades) were out every night to check. Gasoline rationing went into effect throughout the nation. Many imported products from the mainland were also rationed because of limited quantities. I remember oranges were in short supply and when we did manage to get some, we would savor their taste. Coca cola was still produced and distributed but on a limited basis. I was 13 years old when the war began. I was in the 7th grade, attending Lihue Grammar School. I remember everyone in Hawaii had to get their inoculations and vaccinations shots. Everyone was issued an ID card. Everyone was also issued a gas mask that was required to be carried wherever you go. In school we had bomb shelters and we would have practice drills for air attacks when the sirens sounded. Victory gardens were initiated by almost every family.



Life during this time went on quite normally. I was not old enough to be aware of the larger picture of the war effort and it was through newsreels that came with featured movies that kept the general public informed about what was happening outside Kauai. My dad was very good about taking us in our banana wagon (an early version of the station wagon) to the theatre to enjoy a western movie with stars like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassity or John Wayne. Westerns were very popular in those days.



Plantation Days



It was during the war years that my folks acquired the boarding house located in the Lihue Plantation camp. We still had our home in Wailua but now added a business in Lihue. The plantation did provide our family with a home in the camp, together with the boarding house. The boarding house was formerly run by my dads cousin and his family. Most of the plantation workers were Filipinos and single men. The boarding house was to provide meals for those workers that did not prefer to do their own cooking therefore they boarded at the boarding house. The boarding house also served as a restaurant and the general public was welcome. I remember getting up about 4:30 am to help my mom get the bread dough ready to bake in the oven. She made bread, doughnuts and pastries from the dough every day. All the kids helped in some way as they grew up.



Living in a country environment, I learned to help my dad raise chicken, rabbits, and pigs. I learned to slaughter animals for food because that was the rural lifestyle. Animals such as chicken, rabbits and pigs were part of the food supply at the boarding house. We had a pigpen at the Wailua home and dad, Kan Yau and myself would pick up garbage at the Wilcox Memorial Hospital every day to feed the pigs. Kan Yau & myself also worked on the Wailua property to do plantings of vegetables, watering of many fruit trees, and keeping the weeds cut.



I attended Kauai High School in Nawiliwili during this period, while I was living in Lihue. I walked to the high school every school day, which is about 2 or 3 miles, and then walked back to Lihue after school. I didnt have much free time after school because I had to help my father with the chores.



In the past, my folks were in businesses apart from the plantation. In his early years, my dad operated a cab business in Lihue where he had several cabs. He later went into the shop repair business, together with my mom. My mom operated a laundry during the time when many GIs were stationed on Kauai getting ready for the South Pacific invasion. Some GIs even visited the boarding house to look for homestyle cooking. Ive often wondered what happened to these young men. I can only imagine that many never made it back home.



It was during the plantation period that I went into my teen years. As you are aware, those are the years we remember the most about our lives. I began to identify myself with the plantation lifestyle; a time in Hawaiian history I fully enjoyed and was privileged to be a part of.



I learned many things about the Filipino culture and its people. Our family lived among them in the camp. We acquired a liking to some of their foods and learned to get along with them. I even picked up some of their common usage words but then that is how it is in Hawaii.



During the summer, I worked for the Lihue Plantation as a field worker. It had mostly to do with hoeing weeds in the cane fields but I earned some extra spending money. We would work six days a week but on Saturdays, we would work until 12:00 noon. Then we were sent home for lunch. Later, we would attend the Saturday matinee at the Lihue Theatre that was paid for by the plantation.



I can still recall the first day I worked in the fields. I was looking forward to it as this was my first paid job on my own. I spent the day hoeing weeds in the hot sun and when the day was done I felt so hot and tired that I said to myself, I dont think I want to return to work tomorrow. Well, I did return to the fields and adjusted to the hard work. I became good at it and enjoyed myself. I was about 14 at the time.



Pearl Harbor Days



In 1944, I made a decision that I wanted to go to Honolulu to find work. I was only 16 and still in high school but I was determined. My parents permitted me to go and Esther & Pang Kong opened their home to me. They were living on Kapena Lane (near Nuuanu & Beretania) that is not there anymore because of new housing development. Dan Pang was single and living with his parents next door. Bessie met Dan and they were married later.



Robert was living at the Pang Kong residence, so we shared the same bedroom. There were two small beds and the room was rather crowded. It was at this time that I first met Philip, Raymond and Janice when they were kids. I enjoyed their company and we got along fine.



I went to work at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard as a coppersmith apprentice. Most of the work done by a coppersmith has to do with copper tubing and pipes. Submarines utilize many copper components. Dan worked as a pipefitter that happens to be in the same shop. He was very helpful and supportive. He and I would catch the Pearl Harbor bus departing from Aala Park every morning.



I worked as a coppersmith apprentice for several months, and then decided I wanted to become an aircraft technician. So I transferred to the Ford Island Naval Air Station on Ford Island (still inside Pearl Harbor), but I had to catch a ferry to get to the island. As the ferry proceeded out, it would pass many of the naval vessels docked there. The most impressive ship that I saw was the battleship Missouri. It was very huge and heavily loaded with armor that it looked like a gigantic fort. I only stayed at this job for a few months when World War II ended.



Being now 17 years of age, I was unable to get a permanent job. I did get seasonal work at Dole Pineapple Cannery during the summer. I was a canned pineapple mover, which is not the proper name, but I moved stacks of canned pineapple from the end of the assembly line to the loading dock. Most teens work for the pineapple cannery during summers.



Since I had two more years to finish high school, I enrolled at McKinley High School. I stayed there several months but got homesick and decided to return to Kauai High School back on Kauai.





FINDING MY FAITH

(1945-46)





I returned to Kauai about September 1945 and started to attend Kauai High School. I was in my junior year and getting along as well as I could. I still did not have much motivation about attending school.



I took a typing course that I thought would be fun. I had no intention of taking on an office job in the future as I was more concentrated on working as a laborer. I did not have a typewriter at home to practice on and only did typing in class. In order to pass the course I had to type 40 words per minute. I was sitting next to a girl that had some typing experience and she was typing away. I would be typing two or three words, then I could hear her shift the carriage to start the next line. It was very distracting to hear her shifting the carriage so quickly. I must admit that I did not pass the course but I really didnt care. This is the only course that I failed in high school.



Kan Yau, my younger brother, played in a small dance band. The band was called the Solid Senders and was made up of part-time musicians. I would accompany my brother whenever the band played at dances. In that way, I get to go in free and also get the opportunity to dance.



One day, I noticed my mom sitting on the porch of the boarding house in the Lihue Plantation Camp when a white woman came up to her and they started talking to each other. I later discovered that she was a minister of the Door of Faith Church in Honolulu.

She was looking for a place to start a church in the area. My mom offered the use of the dining area in the boarding house to the lady.



Later a missionary couple, Harry & Alma Houghton, arrived to hold church services and a Sunday school. There were already my seven brothers and sisters now living there and we were already a good group to start a church. I had gone to church before this. In the past we kids attended the Hawaiian Christian Union Church at Christmastime, the Salvation Army kids workshop when I was a teen, and now we finally had an opportunity to attend another Christian church on a regular basis. I did not know much of the terminology that was used in the hymns and the Bible. I asked a lot of questions of the missionaries and they were very helpful.



The Houghtons were an elderly couple and lived at our Wailua home for a short time. Most of the family was living in the Lihue Plantation Camp at the time, However, Yuki and I lived at the Wailua home with the Houghtons. The Bible opened up many questions in my thinking because I now began to discover the purpose for my life. In the past I have many times wondered What is the reason for me being here on this earth? I now started to understand some of the basic teachings of Gods Word. When I heard John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I knew that I wanted to receive Jesus in my life and to receive eternal life. I was now born again. This promise is not only for me, but for anyone that wants to find the joy and peace that only God offers.



Though all my siblings attended the same church, they did not all accept Jesus like I did. One needs to make a personal choice to follow Jesus because that is how we show our love to Him. I am very thankful to my mom for making the decision to have us attend church. She opened up the way to God for us and I am certain that it was in Gods plan for our lives. Moms love will be with us always.



January 15, 1946 was when I turned 18 years old. I was now an adult a