My name is Charles Harrell and I’m here with Carolyn Mason. And it is July 1^st, 2004.

I know Carolyn Mason because she is local community here in Bowling Green. Mrs. Mason, would you please, for the record, state your full name and your place of birth.

My full name is Carolyn Waite Mason. W.A.I.T.E. And I was born in Los Angeles California on November 15^th, 1921.

And your current address?

Bowling Green, Va. 101 Hoolmes Circle.

And here today are Rhonda Harrell, Frank Harrell, and Javan Harrell all participating in the interview. What type of civilian work did you perform during World War II?

I went to Hawaii as a student, a young person with my mother and father. And I was a student at the University of Hawaii and then I, when the war broke out, I joined the U.S.O. and I worked at the Central Y.M.C.A. on, in downtown Honolulu. And I operated a housing bureau there for service personnel and civilians, when they came to the islands and they were looking for a place to live.

Did you have a lot of service men come to you to aid them before the war?

Not too much before the war because Honolulu had a deluge of service personnel come in right after December 7^th, 1941. And that is when I decided, I couldn’t go to the University of Hawaii, it was closed after the war. And, so I got this job with the housing bureau that the United Service Organization. And there were a lot of service men there. Also down, just a block from the Central Y., there was an Army & Navy Y. that I worked in with army and navy personnel only. But the Central Y. was for civilians and service personnel.

Can you tell me a little bit about your family? Your mother, father, siblings?

My father was a minister in Riverside California. His name was Claire L. Waite. And my mother was from Milwaukee Wisconsin. Her family was originally from Bergin, Norway. Her mother and father came from Bergin to Milwaukee. And she met my father and they were married. They were evangelists for a while, then they worked their way toward California. And my father was a minister at Peco Heights Christian Church in Los Angeles, California. And then I was born at that time in 1921. And then he was transferred to the Christian Church in Riverside, California. I had two brothers. Henry, my oldest brother was ten years older than I. And he was in the navy. And was stationed in the Pacific during World War II. And my younger brother, who was five years older than I, was in the merchant marines during that time.

So how did your parents move to California?

I think they were attracted to California. They were living in Milwaukee and Chicago and the eastern part of the United States. And I believe my father always wanted to go to California and see, heard so much about it. And at that time, it wasn’t so crowded. And life was pretty wonderful and the weather was beautiful. And my mother was anxious to go there too, so they worked there way to California. He was called to the Christian church there. And I don’t know. I was youngest in my family. I don’t know exactly why he was called to the Christian Church but he had been very active in the eastern part of the United States in the First Christian Church.

5:09, part 1

I know you grew up during some of the worst of the Great Depression. Can you describe to me some of your memories? One or two of the possible suffering that you were…

I was very fortunate because even though my father was a minister made very little money. I think he made something like $3,000 a year. My mother made all my clothes. She was very talented. And my father sort of protected me from the severe ness of the Depression. I do remember that most of our food came from our parishioners. They would bring us vegetables and in southern California you had many beautiful fruits and vegetables. We even had farmers who brought us eggs, meat. So we really didn’t have to buy much of our food. And my mother would take my father’s white flannel pants and turn them into a skirt for me. She was very clever. And my brothers worked in the orange groves in southern California. They would have to use smudge pots during the nights when it got cold. And they’d work all night on the smudge pots. They’d come home the next morning with black all over their face. That’s how, that’s how we lived. But I didn’t feel like I was being deprived because my parents gave me a rich, beautiful Christian background.

Do you remember any of these parishioners who were so kind?

Well, its been a long time ago. But I do remember we had a lot of church dinners and the people would bring food and Mrs. Mark’s chocolate cake was fantastic. She lived in Riverside. And then there was an attorney. I really never thought about attorneys. I happened to have married one, but there was an attorney in our church. And I think he was very poor, because I remember that they used to use our newspaper, we didn’t have tablecloths. But they would always bring wonderful food to the church. And we ate a lot of our meals that way. Church suppers and dinners. So, I don’t, I feel like I was very fortunate.

When you moved from California to Hawaii, could you explain to me, or describe the events that led to that move and how did you actually get to Hawaii?

My father was very elated that a Reverend Burgess, who was the minister at the Honolulu church on Kewallo Street, I think they pronounce it Kevallo Street, in Hawaii, wanted to come to Riverside. So he was looking for a Christian Church in Riverside and contacted my father and they exchanged pulpits. So we were very excited. My brothers were older than I and they were already in college and the oldest one was married. But I was younger, I was nineteen. And we sailed on the Luroleen, on the Pacific Ocean over to Hawaii.

Was that the first time you had been on a big ship?

That’s was the first time I was ever on a big ship. And it took a week to get there. And it was rough. And at that time, they had no Dramamine or anything like that and we did get very sea sick. But we seemed to weather it pretty well. My father was very stoic and didn’t miss a meal. But my mother and I were a little queasy during that trip. But when we arrived in Hawaii, the people from our church came out in little boats just laden with lays. And they came aboard the Luraleen, the ship, and put lays, we couldn’t even see, they were up this high, this carnation, gardenia, very pungent pumaria, beautiful lays. And they had some place to go to, The Edgewater Beach Apartments, there right on Waikiki Beach. My mother and father and I took our lays and put them all in the bath tub, we had so many of them. But that was how we happened to go to Hawaii. This was before there was any thought of World War II.

10:18 part 1

When you arrived there as a young girl, nineteen, how did you feel about, I’m told a paradise?

I was ecstatic. I felt very fortunate that I could go to a place like Hawaii. It was sort of like a dream.

Was it a paradise situation for you at that time?

Yes, it was. Honolulu, at that time, the outer islands like the big island of Hawaii and Kawaii, Mawi, Molokai, and all those other little islands had not grown as much as Honolulu had at that time. Honolulu was the main island. And it was the city on the main island. The island was Oahu, and Honolulu was the main city. And I was very impressed because it was such a casual, beautiful life. And the mountains and the ocean and all the abundance of flowers and unusual fruits. It was like a little paradise. It was very untouched at that time.

Do you remember when you showed up that first time, what date that was?

Well, I know it was in 1940, the end of 1940. The war was December 7^th, 1941, now this is the end of 1940. And it was very natural there. The largest hotel on Waikiki Beach at that time was the Royal Hawaiian. It’s still there. It’s pink by the way. And it’s just beautiful. It was beautiful there.

Were going to take a break here.

Okay.

12:12 part 1

Mrs. Mason. You were in Hawaii, on Oahu, on that fateful day of December 7^th, 1941. Can you remember the very first thoughts that went through your mind when you woke up that morning?

Of course, it was Sunday morning and we were preparing for church. And my father became rather irritated because of all the bombing sounds. All the noise coming from the Pearl Harbor area. And he just assumed they were practicing. And he felt that they didn’t need to practice on Sunday morning. They should be in church of course. So, he…

Were you asleep when the attack came?

We had gotten up. We were eating our breakfast. And we heard all this commotion. We were in Manoa Valley, which was right up above the University of Hawaii. And this was like in Pearl Harbor which was like ten or twelve miles away. And later one the bombs did come closer to the city. There was one that dropped down at, below Manoa Valley where we lived. But my father went on to church. And everything began to come wild. The sky was very dark. And we heard, we knew at that time it was worse than just practicing. So he phoned us and told us that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. That’s how we first found out, my mother and I. And he, he was very concerned. He stayed right there at church hoping that he could be of some assistance. And it was good he did because some wives from Hickam Field had come in. I think there were five of them altogether whose husbands were in battle. And Hickam Field and Pearl Harbor were not too far apart. And later on, some wives from Pearl Harbor came into the church and he was there to comfort them, console them. And it ended up they came to our house and stayed a few days. It was a frightening day because of all the commotion, all the bombing. I actually had never been through anything like that before. And it, it was very scary for me. I was young, just about twenty years old. And I thought the world was coming to an end.

Did you know any of these wives personally?

Oh yes. They were members of our church.

And the husbands were in battle?

The husbands were in battle. They had to leave their wives. Their wives came to our church hoping they could get a place to stay to get away from the fighting. So the wives stayed with us for several days. And that particular night, it rained, poured down rain. And if the Japanese had returned to Honolulu, they could have taken the islands for it was definitely a surprise attack. And there were these big apee leaves at the side of our house, the rain was hitting on them, and I was sleeping downstairs on the sofa and I was so frightened, I finally went upstairs, I didn’t have a place to sleep up there, but I curled up on the floor found a place, because it was too frightening to be downstairs by myself.

Did you have real thoughts or nightmares that the Japs were going to attack?

Oh, I was certain they were coming back. Everybody thought they were coming back. And I am just amazed that they didn’t. Apparently they didn’t plan as well as they should have because they could have taken the islands. But right after that initial attack on December 7^th, all of Honolulu became paralyzed. Stood still. And the civilians were issued gas masks that we had to carry with us all the time. We were in a complete blackout. We took blankets and put at the windows. There was a curfew at night, 10 o’clock at night. Nobody was allowed on the streets after that hour. And life became rather difficult. Because you just didn’t know what was going to happen. You see, the majority of the population in Honolulu at that time was Japanese. So we didn’t know who was our friend and who was our foe.

Did you have Japanese that came to the church?

In our particular church, maybe one or two families were Japanese. But there was a large population of Japanese people in Hawaii at that time. I went to school with them. And the civilians, the civilians who were Japanese were just as shocked. They were Americanized. But at that time Hawaii was a territory as you know. And so they were taken by surprise themselves.

Did you see any, I don’t want to call them hate crimes, but anger towards Japanese Americans that were left in Hawaii after the attack?

Yes, there was a feeling of hatred. There was an army veteran who lived next door to us. His name was McIntire. I can’t remember his first name. And he actually, he would take me in his car to my job at the Central Y. down from Manoa Valley into the central section of Honolulu and he would tease me and say he was going to run over those Japs. That was frightening. But you know, I knew how he felt, because it was difficult for me to like Japanese people after they attacked Pearl Harbor and killed many of the young men who were in our church and the terrible sinking of the ships at Pearl Harbor. We were angry. And I think we should have been. I think it was understandable.

When you got up that morning and your dad wasn’t there, he was at church and you looked off towards Honolulu and the base, can you describe what you saw in the distance?

The sky was black. It looked almost like a storm. My father thought that they were practicing but then it became so intense that we were certain it wasn’t just practicing after all.

Did you see any Japanese airplanes?

We heard them. They were just zooming down on Pearl Harbor. And it sounded like a terrible earthquake. There was an unusual story that I remember. There is a little tiny island among the island around the group of islands called Ni-i-ouh and someone had said that this Jap, Japanese soldier landed there by mistake. One of the planes landed there. Just a small, they had a name for them, I can’t remember the name for them, the little Japanese planes. But this huge Hawaiian man heard what had happened and he picked up the Japanese man and just threw him down and killed him. Whether that was the truth or not, I don’t know. But that tell you how civilians, how the people in Hawaii felt. The Hawaiian people. And the Chinese, Portuguese. It is quite a melting pot nationalities there, but the majority are Japanese.

When you finally realized the attack wasn’t coming by the end of the day and the numbers began coming in from the dead and wounded, did you have any people who you knew personally who had died?

Yes, there were soldiers, sailors, see our church right after, at that time, I believe Hawaii was populated with more service men just before the war, there was some anticipation of something because there were so many service personnel in Hawaii. And we got to know a lot of service men. And sailors and soldiers and many of them were killed.

Are there anyone particularly that touched your heart than another?

I’m trying to think. See, I was very young. It is hard to remember, but there was a soldier who had a very beautiful voice and his name was so strange. His first name was Justin and his last name was Tune. Justin Tune. And he had a beautiful tenor voice, red haired soldier. And I feel like I’m going to cry now but I sang with him.

In the church?

In the church. And he was killed. At Hickam Field. Of course, Schofield was hit too. That was another big barracks that was in that area. So it was a sad time.

When the attack had come and you realized. Well, let me ask you this. Did you hear the president announce his famous December 7^th, 1941 speech?

Roosevelt. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Can you tell me what was going through your mind?

I’m trying to remember what he said.

“A date that will live in infamy.”

Right. A date that will live in infamy. He was a very wonderful speaker as you know. And I worshipped him. I really did. And he was a great president for our country at that time. He seemed to know what to do in this great emergency. So I can’t remember his exact words but I’ve heard them and read them since then…

How did it make you feel?

It was comforting. He was comforting to me. And I think the soldiers and sailors and marines who heard him were encouraged to serve the United States.

Right after the attack, had your brother already joined the navy?

He joined right after the attack.

Can you tell me about him and about you realizing that he was going into harm’s way?

Well, he was in the navy and he was shipped out. I believe he, I’m trying to think where he went. I think he went to Guam. And he was an officer in the navy, a Lieutenant. And my parents were very worried about him. He was about thirty about then. He was ten years older than I. And he was married and it was just a very difficult time to feel that he was in harm’s way. He was stationed in the Pacific area. He did come eventually to see us and we felt better about that. But we worried about him.

End of part 1

My other brother. He had just graduated from Berkley in California. We didn’t know where he was. He had joined the Merchant Marines. We weren’t really sure where he was. But later we found, we got in touch with him. And later he was in the Philippines. So we got in touch with him.

Did you ever have any worries about Japanese subs sinking one of the boats he was a merchant marine on?

Yes we did.

And did you ever get any letter or anything that may have made you anxious….

Yes. He wrote to us faithfully. The letters did not always get to us right away, but he wrote to us. He was concerned, so it was a difficult time.

After the attack and within the next couple of weeks, did your life change?

Very definitely. I dropped out of University of Hawaii. I had no, I felt I was in imprison because we had to be very careful. My mother, my parents really didn’t want me to walk around for fear something would happen to me. I didn’t know what to do. And our life just sort of stood still for about two weeks, for a good two weeks to about a month after the Pearl Harbor attack because we didn’t know what was going to happen after that. Many of our friends, who were in the church and living in Honolulu, came back to the United States because they came back to the main land. They were afraid to stay in Hawaii. And my father chose to stay there. And I also chose to stay with my parents.

You were given an option to leave?

I could have left, yes. I could have gone to California and stayed with relatives, but I decided I wanted to stay with my parents. And I am glad I did now.

After that first month of so called terror, how did your life change? Did you go into some type of work?

Well, I was a singer. I have sung all my life. I started out singing in church when I was about five years old. I sang solos. And I understood the U.S.O., the United Service Organization was looking for singers. And someone mentioned my name. I had sung so much in the church, people knew that I sang. And so I was encouraged to go help the U.S.O. to go sing. So that’s what I did.

Do you remember your audition or interview?

Well, I really don’t remember having an audition. I believe I had auditioned by singing so much because I would direct sings-parations at church, that’s what we called them. And I was singing all over Honolulu at the time the war broke out. So I was pretty well known that way. And I didn’t audition as such and people knew me heard me sing who. I sang for civic clubs and so forth before the war.

How did it feel to actually go into war work with the U.S.O. in their shows?

It was, it was unusual. I had always been in schools singing in operas, operatic productions, glee clubs and so forth in school and in church. And here I was thrown out in singing out in camps to army personnel on a make shift stage in the woods. And in rather crude surroundings. But I, I received a lot of inner joy from it, because I felt I was giving maybe a little happiness to these service men. And I sang for hundreds and hundreds of service personnel, army, navy, marines.

Do you remember any particular camp meeting you went to that you can describe for us today?

Well, there were so many all around Honolulu you know. Service personnel just pored in there. I went to Schofield, which was a base not too far outside the city of Honolulu and sang. They had big mess halls they would turn into a stage and I’d sing there. A lot of chaplains were looking for singers. And there were, we had some very fine chaplains in the United States army and navy at that time.

Were they the ones who approached you?

They approached me and I sang for them at their worship services on Sunday.

And did you get paid for this work?

Well, I was paid through the U.S.O. I didn’t actually get paid by the chaplains. The U.S.O. put me on salary. And I didn’t make a lot of money, but it was something, just a little something for me to do.

So did the U.S.O. begin to book you all over the place?

Yes. Yes, I sang in all the outer islands. Kahawaii, the garden island. I went there for four or five days and sang with a group that was called the Music Box Review, one of the first productions we had. And there was a man by the name of Robin McQuestin who was a very fine musician. He played the violin beautifully. He was hired by the U.S.O. and he headed a group I happen to be in. And he put on these musicals, the Victor Herbert Review, a Sigmond Romberg Review and....

And what were these reviews? Were they comedy, singing?

Well they were, no, they, he would take excerpts of operas by Sigmond Romberg or Victor Herbert and I sang All Sweetness of Life and Italian sweet song. All the main songs in those productions. And he was wonderful. We would rehearse during the day. We would go during the day and at night and rehearse for the coming productions we were in.

Had you become independent by this time apart from your family?

Oh no, not by any means. I was a ‘mama’s girl.’ I stayed very close to home. And I worked with my father in the church. And I, he had a gigantic job on his hands during wartime. We had service personnel come into our church. And on Sunday evenings we would have a big party for the men after the church service. We had dinners for them. And I would lead sings-sparations singing with them. We were just geared to the service personnel.

Did your mother do anything special?

My mother was a singer before I was born. She traveled with my father and sang as an evangelist all over the eastern portion of the United States and on into California. And she was very instrumental in cooking with all the ladies and ladies aide you know in the church. It was a large church, beautiful church. The word Lenaii means porch. And the church was encircled by a Lenaii, opening out to all, to the out of doors so plush with greenery. And she would work with the ladies in entertaining the service men.

Do you remember hearing about any great battles being fought?

Yes. I’ll tell you, I wasn’t too in tune with the news. I don’t think many young people are. But I was aware of Midway, and all the various, Iwo Jima, all the various battles that were going on.

And during those battle times, when you heard about them, was there more security or how did your life change?

Well, we were frightened. We stayed frightened. All during the war years, after the Pearl Harbor was attacked, we were on guard even though I was a little more relaxed singing, going out singing, but we were very careful. And you just don’t have that free feeling that you have in the United States. Right now, the terrorists hanging over us was sort of like the Japanese hanging over us at that time.

Did you have any concerns about what the Germans were doing in Europe?

Yes, but I didn’t know a lot about it because I was in Pacific. I know, since I have been here in Virginia a lot of my friends were in Europe at that time and were fighting the war but I was very aware of Hitler before I went to Hawaii, I wasn’t personally involved, but I was aware of that situation too.

Did you think that by working for the U.S.O. or did it ever come into your mind that you might be shipped off those islands to some other places?

Well, I never thought that would happen because when you are working with the U.S.O. you’re more of an independent. You can do what you want to. If you want to sing you can, if you don’t, it just so happened I was involved in all their productions and I sang and I felt as though I was needed. And not just for singing in church, for the chaplains but in the various musicals I was in. And I had the lead in The Mikado, the Japanese Opera by Gilbert and Sullivan. I had the part of Yum Yum. And they put a black wig on me and slanted my blue eyes. I didn’t look very Japanese, but it was a big production. Maurice Evans helped direct that and Boris Karloff through the special service department at the University of Hawaii and it ran for.

End of part 2

The service men loved it.

Do you think that as a civilian or as a woman that you were ever treated differently than how you would have liked to have been treated during those years?

Well, I don’t feel as I was. Actually, I was very popular in Hawaii. I was a howley, a waike, wahinie girl and I was very popular. I was sought after to sing. And I was treated very well.

How did the native Hawaiians and Japanese Hawaiians looked towards you, that you could tell, besides you explained how you viewed them, did you get a sense that they viewed you differently after the attack?

No. The Hawaiian people in Hawaii were very sweet and wonderful people. Of course, there were very few true Hawaiians. There were Hawaiian Chinese, Japanese, a mixture. But I was treated very well.

Did you know any Japanese Americans who were taken to internments camps that became notorious in the future?

I knew of them but I didn’t know any personally.

Mrs. Mason, could you describe to me the public reaction to the Mikado performance?

Well, of course, the Mikado is a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, operetta, on Japanese people. And at that time, the Japanese were not our favorite people in Hawaii as you can well understand. And this opera was put on at the University of Hawaii in the main auditorium, huge auditorium, and civilians as well as all service personnel attended. And it ran for three months. And the attendance was magnificent. Mikado was a huge hit in Hawaii. People loved it. The service men thought it was great because they could feel the connection between the Japanese who had bombed Pearl Harbor and the Mikado. It was sort of, there was a lot of sarcasms in it, it was a G.I. production. I had the part of Yum Yum, the Japanese lead. And the men howled with laughter at various things the emperor would say and various Japanese people in the cast. The people, they were not Japanese people, but they were made up as Japanese people. And it was very well received. And the civilians enjoyed it too. I think it was a release for their anger. The Hawaiian, the people in Hawaii felt they had been very badly hurt by the Japanese people, by the bombing, the destruction at Pearl Harbor. And they hated them. They just wanted to do something back to them. And I believe this, this Mikado vented their anger.

Did you see the wreckage after the battle, after the war?

I couldn’t right afterwards. They, it was all abandoned area that we could not get into. But then eventually I saw. But they had cleaned up quite a bit. But it was a mess.

After Mikado, what else, what other performance did you do?

Well, the Honolulu symphony and the community theater joined hands to put on H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. And I had the lead of Josephine. And it’s a nautical opera. And it was given in downtown Honolulu for the service personnel and also for civilians. And it also was a big hit. The people loved it. The music is so tuneful and the lyrics are so interesting. I think it was, it was a relief for them to have something funny, it is a comical opera. And I enjoyed that a lot. I think the people did too.

During World War II, I know you were an actress and singer, but did you come up against the shortages and bond drives? Can you explain or describe how you felt?

Well, there were a lot of shortages. We had, you couldn’t get gasoline. We had difficulty getting food all the time. I think my mother had some kind of coupons that she used that were through the government. We had so many ration tickets that we had at that time for various foods. But that was easier as time went on.

Did you have to deal with that any personally or was that through your mother?

My mother. I lived at home. So, I was not cooking at that time.

Did you get any benefits for being part of the U.S.O. that maybe…?

I got benefits because I was married to an army officer. And I could go to the P.X.

Could you tell me about your marriage and why you…

End part 3

He graduated from University of Virginia in Law. His name was Julian Mason. We were married on July 14, 1943 in Hawaii. My parents were very opposed to the wedding, to our marriage because they felt it was wartime and he would be killed and be sent overseas. Which happened. He was not killed, but, we were married for two weeks and he was gone for two and one-half years. He, right after, when we were getting married he said that he would be gone for six months. Well, six months went into a year, and a year went into two years, then two and a half years. He started as a private. He’s from Colonial Beach Virginia. His family is F.F.V. from Gunston Hall, George Mason of Gunston Hall. His father was an attorney. His brother, an attorney. Now his nephew is in Colonial Beach now, George Mason III, and he’s an attorney. But Julian, I was singing at one of the programs, he came back stage to take me home. And from then on, he called me every night. We talked on the phone. And he would come to see me with his gas mask. And he would have to walk from where he got off his bus downtown in Honolulu up to Manoa Valley. And he had to leave by ten o’clock. If he didn’t he’d have to hide behind the bushes so no one would see him as a car went by because of the curfew. But we were married in my father’s church. My father gave me away. Chaplain Mitchell married us. And many of Julian’s friends, who were in the Judge Advocate at that time, were there. And it was a beautiful wedding. And, but he was gone for two and a half years.

Did he write you while he was gone?

Yes he did. And I would get like twelve, fourteen letters at a time. And it was, I, I would often think that he had been killed. My father said, “You shouldn’t marry this man. He going to killed when he’s over…” But he went to New Guinea. He went to Australia first then New Guinea. And then on to Leyte, the Philippines. And he helped the civilians there with their law. He was in charge of the legal side of settling the civilians in the war…

So he wasn’t a private’s rank anymore at that time?

Pardon?

He wasn’t a private by that time?

Oh, he went up to a major from a private, because when he first went into the army he was not drafted, he joined. And he was sent overseas to Hawaii. And when I first met him he had just went into, he had become a 1^st Lieutenant. And then, Colonel Carpenter, who was with the 24^th Infantry Division was in charge of the Judge Advocate in Hawaii at that time, since Julian was a graduate from William and Mary and University of Virginia, he wanted him with him. And so they went overseas there into the Philippines and he became a major.

Did he see any shooting that he ever told you about?

Oh, yes. Yes, he spent his share of times in fox holes in pools of water. And got that terrible foot rot. Couldn’t take off his shoes or socks. And he, he was with Macarthur in the Philippines. And going a shore, a terrible time, he, I have his memoirs, he writes about that. And it was a frightening time for him. So, he had his share of the war.

So your husband was gone for two and a half years. Did you continue to perform?

Yes, that was my savings grace. I sang all day and all night practically. I was in so many productions. Actually, I was in the Pinafore after he left. And it ran for quite a while. And I continued singing for U.S.O. and my father’s church. I directed the choir there in the Christian Church. And I got up the bulletin and I helped the young people in sings-sparations, Sunday school, so forth.

When V-J Day came, victory over Japan, can you describe the events and your feelings on that day?

Well, it was a wonderful feeling. I was ecstatic, everybody was thrilled. It was a dream come true. We all wanted that to happen, as you know. And we hoped to get back to a more normal existence, although I must say, I did not suffer personally so much during the war. I know there were men killed and there was a lot of sadness by people that I knew. I was so fortunate that my husband came back safely, and my two brothers came back safely. But a lot of families were torn a part. But it was just a wonderful feeling to finally have that war over.

Did you celebrate in some manner that day?

Yes. I went out for dinner. And I…

Can you recall the restaurant?

I really. I’m trying to think exactly what I did. But it was happy time. And, it was a long war, as you know. My husband was overseas, altogether, four and a half years. That’s a long time.

Can you describe the day that you saw him return?

That was a wonderful time. He called me, or he wrote to me and said he was going to San Francisco and wanted me to meet him. So I got on a clipper. My mother got my clothes all ready helped me and my father and took me, I flew in a clipper. That’s a plane shaped oblong and you sleep in it, stretch out and sleep in it. And I arrived in San Francisco hoping my husband was there and he wasn’t. My younger brother met me. He was out of the Merchant Marines then. He was with his wife and little baby girl. And I stayed with them up in Martinas California, northern California. And my husband, I finally heard from him. He called me. I had given my brother’s phone number to him. And he was in Riverside at Camp Hahn which was just outside Riverside California where I was raised. After I left Los Angeles I moved to Riverside California. So he was right down where I was from. And he said he would meet me in Virginia. So my brother got me on a train and I went on a troop train. Sat up the whole way. Could not sleep from southern California to Washington D.C. and I was met by my husband’s family. His uncle met me. His uncle Jack Miller. Then I met his mother who was very southern. I think she was socked that I wasn’t in a hula skirt. I think she was very, I think she was not so crazy of my husband marrying a person from Hawaii. She was F.F.V., very old Virginia. And she was very surprised I looked like a normal white girl. She and her sister-in-law met me and took me to Colonial Beach. And I waited there to hear from Julian. And finally he called and he was at a camp at, I can’t remember exactly, in a hospital, and I had to meet him. So, this was in North Carolina. I’m trying to think, Fayetteville, Fayetteville, North Carolina. I hadn’t thought of that place for a long time. But I got a train to Fayetteville and a cab to his hospital. And I was walking down the corridor, and he said that when he heard those heals clicking down the corridor he knew it was Carolyn, his wife. And he was suffering from a spastic colon from being overseas so long, sleeping in trenches and so forth. He was in the Judge Advocate but he saw a lot of battle too.

Is there one thought about your wartime experience that you’d like to share with future generations?

Well, I think freedom is very precious. And when the United States is hit in any way, by terrorists, by the Japanese and we are, our young men are killed and our lives are changed, that quite a blow to our society and our everyday life. And I think we should all be very conscious of our freedom. And the United States is such a wonderful place to live.

And thank you, Mrs. Mason for your interview. It will be appreciated by our future.

Thank you.