What are high school students capable of? We tend not to take them seriously, but in 1943, students at McKinley High School showed us what they could do with the right motivation. They raised enough money during World War II to buy a new B-24 Liberator bomber for the military.
During the war years, Americans all over the country raised money to support the troops with war bonds. This was a way for citizens to lend money to the federal government. The money would be repaid after the war.
Our entrance into World War II affected every person and organization in the islands, including our schools. Teachers, parents and even some students enlisted. The Army Corps of Engineers took over Punahou, which held classes at the University of Hawaii.
Farrington, Saint Louis and Kamehameha School for Girls became annexes of Tripler, and their students were relocated. Saint Louis boys were moved to McKinley.
Students and faculty across the state rallied to sell war bonds. These were interest-bearing bonds that typically sold for $18.75 and could be redeemed in 10 years for $25. The U.S. raised $185 billion in war bonds during World War II. Instead of raising taxes to fight the war, a voluntary effort was chosen based on war bonds.
At the beginning of the 1942-43 school year, McKinley students and teachers set a goal of $100,000. That would be $1.25 million in today’s dollars!
The students sold war bonds to their parents, faculty and the community. More than 90 percent of the student body signed up to buy bonds each month, and by June 1943 more than $200,000 was raised.
"The overwhelming success of the savings bond drive set the students talking about purchasing a bomber for the U.S. Air Force, in April 1943," reports their school yearbook.
The principal, Dr. Miles E. Cary, was pessimistic about such a high goal, but the students thought otherwise. Back then the school had a McKinley Annex at the present site of Kaimuki Middle School.
The combined student bodies raised $333,600 ($4.2 million today) to cover the cost of a B-24 Liberator bomber. In February 1944 the plane, christened "Madame Pele," was presented to Brig. Gen. Robert Douglass Jr. at a school ceremony.
"She will go into action soon against such targets as (Micronesia states) Ponape and Truk and later on against more profitable targets closer to the inner bastion of the enemy," Douglass told the students. "I want all of you to realize, as you read of those attacks, that you contributed a share in them and have helped to make them possible."
What happened to the plane? Journalist, historian and author Burl Burlingame believes it was decommissioned after the war and recycled into pots and pans.
School students across the territory donated blood, replaced workers in the plantations who had gone to fight, volunteered with the Red Cross and even wrote letters to servicemen abroad. But how many schools can say they raised the equivalent of more than $4 million to buy a bomber?
Imagine if we kept in mind what high school students were capable of and set the bar high for their other activities!
———
Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
