Pearl Harbor Day

Since I was the usual object of interest for the annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day festivities, I suppose the responsibility falls upon me to explain to the uninformed reader just what it meant to be an Asian or, as in my case, a half-Japanese Aggie on December 7th.

At dawn on December 7th, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Forces struck the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was a surprise attack, a truly henious act, to which Aggies at the time took great exception. In the following years, on the December 7th anniversary of that fateful attack, Aggies traditionally honor the memory of that event by inviting all the Japanese Aggies to an "outing". We called the little get together...a QUADING!!!

The grassy area outside our Corps of Cadets dormitories was called the Quadrangle...what quadrangle means I haven't a clue, but it was an open area with beautiful live oak trees and shrubs. We affectionately called it the "Quad". It was normally a beautiful and peaceful place...except at dawn on December 7th!

I remember my first December 7th as an Aggie. It was a wet winter morning, a cold rain drizzled down all night and I was fast asleep in my rack (kind of like a bed only harder), snug as a Japanese bug in a tatami mat you might say. Squadron 11, or Heaven's Eleven, lived on the 3rd and 4th floors of Dorm 3. Near dawn, as the winter sky lighten to a mournful grey, I was aroused from my dreamy sleep by a ominous droning. It sounded like a thousand bees swarming outside my door, or the continuous rumble of a horrific earthquake deep within the earth, the deep resonating hum grew louder, and louder, and LOUDER!

"Holy teriyaki chicken! What the hell was that horrible humming sound?" I wondered. Then I realized! It was airplanes! At least 40 of them in attack formation, their wings spread wide and visible now...a stark contrast to the grey walls of the dorm. Their engines screamed in anger as they dove out of the hallway and into my hole. I was under attack! A surprise attack! Before I could cry, "California roll!", I was being swept away by a horde of white guys playing Douglas Dive Bomber.

I was carried high above the droning heads, down four flights of stairs and out the front door into the damp chilly morning. We were going to the QUAD! As my abductors were honorable men, I was allowed to don my Banzai head scarf with the rising sun emblazoned on the front. I was now ready for my fate. The rains had stopped, but the Quad was awash in large pools of standing water. My captors circled in search of the perfect ditching area, the constant droning of their engines was unnerving. Finally, they found what they were looking for, a vast pond of water at least four inches deep and a half acre wide.

The order was given to "prepare the Nip for ditching" and, with at least six guys holding my arms and legs, I was lowered to within feet of the ground...belly down and limbs spread like an X. The flight circled and built up airspeed and, with the whole squadron behind us, we headed for the water. Faster and faster we flew, it was exhilarating! And then I remembered, it was I who was about to meet his doom! Faster and faster still....I could see the water hole approaching...FASTER and FASTER we went...."PICKLE, PICKLE, BOMBS AWAY!" I heard the flight leader yell. For a beautiful few seconds, I seemed to be rocketing just above the frigid water, like an albatross shooting over the wave tops just inches from the surface. Then KAWHOOOMM!!!

They say hitting water at Mach 1 is like hitting concrete, it's true. Actually, it's worse. At least with concrete you don't get a ton of water and mud forced down your throat. As the shock wore off, I sat in the freezing water in my BVD's and watched as the squadron of dive bombers flew over the horizon in search of their next Asian target. Soon the terrible droning was gone.
Every year the ritual was the same, perhaps the Quading slightly different. Sometimes it was a 21 water bucket attack as I was tied to a bench, or a dousing from the 4th floor as I was held down on the pavement below. This annual event happened to me every year for five years...yes, even in my fifth year when I was living off campus...the fish threw me into the apartment complex swimming pool.

Now a non-Aggie might think this ritual is HORRIBLE! How racist! How discriminatory! But actually, it was "good bull" as we say at Aggieland. In fact, it wasn't discriminatory at all! EVERY Asian went to the Quad on December 7th, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, even A.J Kwan would go, one of our upperclassman, and I think he was Korean! So there you have it, Pearl Harbor Day at TAMU.

Twitch Mitchell