Reunited boyhood pals recall spinning tops at strike's start

By Ben Wood

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 14, 2012

~~AS I WAS walking toward the Neiman Marcus exit on Dec. 7, a man called my name. He was Jie Sing "Sonny" Chun, one of the kids I grew up with in Makiki when I attended Lincoln Elementary. Sonny lived on the corner of Piikoi and Davenport streets and I lived across the street. Early on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor, I was spinning tops with brothers Hank and Mark Auerbach on Piikoi, steps away from where Sonny and I lived. Sonny was watching from his front steps. What a coincidence! Here we were, meeting up again on Dec. 7, 71 years later. We had not seen each other in years. On that dreadful morning in 1941, another neighbor came running across the street calling out to my mom to tell her of the attack. After hearing the news, the Auerbach boys ran to their home up the street. In 1941, Hank and I were 10, Mark and Sonny were 8.
Catching up with Sonny last Friday was a pleasure. He said he reads "Wood Craft" regularly (hooray). He and wife Gertrude have two sons, Mark and Philip, who are golf pros. Mark Chun and his wife, Lori, live in the old Chun family house on Piikoi and Davenport. Sonny and I discussed what a loss it was for our group when the Auerbach boys, including older brother Shay, 12, were taken to the mainland by their mom for safety reasons soon after the attack. Sonny reminded me that Phyllis Zerbe, who lived next to the Auerbachs on Piikoi, was still around after they left. That's right. But shucks, Phyllis was a girl. Who wanted to play with girls? …
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AS I WAS walking toward the Neiman Marcus exit on Dec. 7, a man called my name. He was Jie Sing "Sonny" Chun, one of the kids I grew up with in Makiki when I attended Lincoln Elementary. Sonny lived on the corner of Piikoi and Davenport streets and I lived across the street. Early on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor, I was spinning tops with brothers Hank and Mark Auerbach on Piikoi, steps away from where Sonny and I lived. Sonny was watching from his front steps. What a coincidence! Here we were, meeting up again on Dec. 7, 71 years later. We had not seen each other in years. On that dreadful morning in 1941, another neighbor came running across the street calling out to my mom to tell her of the attack. After hearing the news, the Auerbach boys ran to their home up the street. In 1941, Hank and I were 10, Mark and Sonny were 8.

Catching up with Sonny last Friday was a pleasure. He said he reads "Wood Craft" regularly (hooray). He and wife Gertrude have two sons, Mark and Philip, who are golf pros. Mark Chun and his wife, Lori, live in the old Chun family house on Piikoi and Davenport. Sonny and I discussed what a loss it was for our group when the Auerbach boys, including older brother Shay, 12, were taken to the mainland by their mom for safety reasons soon after the attack. Sonny reminded me that Phyllis Zerbe, who lived next to the Auerbachs on Piikoi, was still around after they left. That's right. But shucks, Phyllis was a girl. Who wanted to play with girls? … Login for more...