Code of a Good American Is Theme at McKinley Exercises

Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.

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The Code of a Good American was the commencement theme of the class of 1942 at McKinley high school.

Carolyn Ogata gave the opening invocation. She asked, to be given to leaders, guidance and wisdom; for young men on the battlefronts, comfort and strength and courage; for parents, strength sufficient to bear the ordeals of war; and for "the youth of the world upon whose shoulders must fall the burden of healing and rectifying the tragedies of greed, misunderstanding and intolerance," guidance and strength.

Albert Tsukayama, giving the class history, pointed out that the class entered McKinley only a few hours after Hitler had marched into Poland and that during the three years the class had been called upon to help in the community in many ways.

"Since we had been trained for public service, the morning of December 7 found us ready to serve in the emergency," he said, and enumerated the ways in which students had helped. …

Shizuko Fujimoto spoke on Our Democratic Heritage. … "Today we are writing a tragic chapter. The responsibility rests on each member of our class and … our generation to make this a significant chapter, worthy of our heritage and of our training."

Kazuo Nishikawa followed with a talk on the Unfinished Business of Democracy. … "Now we have, perhaps, our last chance to prove that a free economy can survive and be strong," he said, "that every working man can be educated, healthy, reasonably well off, and that he can call his life his own, so long as he lives worthily within our system of government, by the consent, the cooperation and the participation of the governed." …"

What We Have Gained and Must Not Lose, was the subject of Hanah Olsen. She listed progress which has been made in giving each citizen adequate food, decent shelter, necessary medical care and education. She spoke of the progress of the Negroes. …

Pearl Field spoke for the girls of the class. …

"Women should take more responsibility of disease prevention and public sanitation. This is an urgent need, now, in Honolulu.

"We want the men who are fighting for us, men in uniforms and men in overalls, to know that we are standing with them."