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Nile C. Kinnick High School in Japan correspondence and photographs, 1960-1968
1968-05-26: Page 01
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(To Dick Lamb) Omaha, Nebraska May 26, 1968 Dear Dick: Enclosed are some sheets from three different Year Books of the High School in Yokohama. I hope you will find a useful picture of the building. I believe there are seven different buildings used in all of the grades of the school. I can replace the sheets in the books when you return them. The note books I spoke of constitutes a wonderful diary of Nile's day to day life while in training, not only of what he was doing and the people he was working with but also of what he was thinking and reading. The last note book is replete with expressions of his beliefs and current thinking on government, politics, social and economic problems, world affairs, and his own philosophy of what a man should be and do. Interesting reading? You would love it! As for something to quote from the note books, I would suggest the first entry, which is as follows: Wednesday, Dec. 3, 1941 "Tomorrow I report at Kansas City for elimination training in the U.S. Naval Reserve Air Corps. I am looking forward with enthusiasm to this new experience. I am fully award that this country is on the brink of a shooting war in two oceans, and that I might, in a very short while, find myself in the thick of very serious combat work. But what should be done, can be done, and the best way is always through not around. Every man whom I have admired in history has willingly and courageously served in his country's armed forces in times of danger. It is not only a duty, but an honor, to follow their example as best I know how. May God give me the courage and the ability to so conduct myself in every situation that my country, my family, and my friends will be proud of me." The following morning, December 4th, he and Ken Pettit, who had stayed all night with us, drove to Kansas City to begin that training, and the entries following the one above cover the daily happenings of training, how they spent their off hours and his thinking on a multitude of topics. I was reminded of Judge Rutledge's appraisal of Nile's mental capacities in his speech before the Bar Association in Chicago. After Fairfax Field in Kansas City, Nile's group went to Pensacola, then to Miami, Jacksonville, Quonset Point and then to Norfolk where they boarded the new Lexington Carrier, and began the shakedown cruise which ended for him in the Gulf of Paria. While in the South I am sure Nile must have had a greater exposure to the race problems than previously, and his comments in the last notebook frequently touch on the racial inequalities. He always had a strong feeling for the under-fellow, dating from an experience in the first grade in school. I'll tell you about it sometime. On May 7, 1943, this is one question among many in the entry covering two pages, "How to meet the Negro problem?" On May 10th is this entry, "It is not enough for the privileged to treat the less fortunate, or the whites to treat the colored people, with kindly tolerance and indulgent paternalism. All people of whatever creed, nationality or color, must be accorded equal dignity and human worth. Both Christianity and true democracy demand this fundamental acknowledgment. Social
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(To Dick Lamb) Omaha, Nebraska May 26, 1968 Dear Dick: Enclosed are some sheets from three different Year Books of the High School in Yokohama. I hope you will find a useful picture of the building. I believe there are seven different buildings used in all of the grades of the school. I can replace the sheets in the books when you return them. The note books I spoke of constitutes a wonderful diary of Nile's day to day life while in training, not only of what he was doing and the people he was working with but also of what he was thinking and reading. The last note book is replete with expressions of his beliefs and current thinking on government, politics, social and economic problems, world affairs, and his own philosophy of what a man should be and do. Interesting reading? You would love it! As for something to quote from the note books, I would suggest the first entry, which is as follows: Wednesday, Dec. 3, 1941 "Tomorrow I report at Kansas City for elimination training in the U.S. Naval Reserve Air Corps. I am looking forward with enthusiasm to this new experience. I am fully award that this country is on the brink of a shooting war in two oceans, and that I might, in a very short while, find myself in the thick of very serious combat work. But what should be done, can be done, and the best way is always through not around. Every man whom I have admired in history has willingly and courageously served in his country's armed forces in times of danger. It is not only a duty, but an honor, to follow their example as best I know how. May God give me the courage and the ability to so conduct myself in every situation that my country, my family, and my friends will be proud of me." The following morning, December 4th, he and Ken Pettit, who had stayed all night with us, drove to Kansas City to begin that training, and the entries following the one above cover the daily happenings of training, how they spent their off hours and his thinking on a multitude of topics. I was reminded of Judge Rutledge's appraisal of Nile's mental capacities in his speech before the Bar Association in Chicago. After Fairfax Field in Kansas City, Nile's group went to Pensacola, then to Miami, Jacksonville, Quonset Point and then to Norfolk where they boarded the new Lexington Carrier, and began the shakedown cruise which ended for him in the Gulf of Paria. While in the South I am sure Nile must have had a greater exposure to the race problems than previously, and his comments in the last notebook frequently touch on the racial inequalities. He always had a strong feeling for the under-fellow, dating from an experience in the first grade in school. I'll tell you about it sometime. On May 7, 1943, this is one question among many in the entry covering two pages, "How to meet the Negro problem?" On May 10th is this entry, "It is not enough for the privileged to treat the less fortunate, or the whites to treat the colored people, with kindly tolerance and indulgent paternalism. All people of whatever creed, nationality or color, must be accorded equal dignity and human worth. Both Christianity and true democracy demand this fundamental acknowledgment. Social
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