24 years ago as a green Army Lieutenant I had the honor to take care of an American-Japanese gentleman at Tripler Army Medical Center. What made this man special was his story he told me about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Apparently before the attack,the Navy allowed local kids aboard the naval vessels in the harbor to do menial jobs. My patient was a 16 year-old at the time and was swabbing decks on one of the naval vessels. He was strafed... by Jap fighter planes and had to jump into the harbor to escape being killed. He later joined the US Air Force and ultimately retired from the Air Force. He was a frequent patient on my ward. I discovered that he lived only a mile or so from where we lived in Kailua; when we visited him at home one day, he took a shine to my son, Jack, who was learning to surf. From that day on, we were always welcome to park our car at his home and walk across the street to the most secluded and beautiful beach on Oahu. I shed tears the day he died under my care... cancer took what the Japanese couldn't. My 'brush with history'.
John Scribner