World War II veterans will be remembered

A group of alumni at last August's War years reunion decided to build a memorial to the 75 Oberlin students who were killed in the Second World War. A committee was established and an architect was commissioned. But the committee could find no record of the men who had died.

"It's a much more difficult task than you might imagine," said Danforth Professor of History Geoffrey Blodgett OC `53, member of the War Memorial sponsoring committee.

The College did not maintain a list of those who were killed. Or so everyone belived.

"They found a cardfile," said alum Margret Erickson, director of on-campus alumni activities. "It was buried in uncataloged materials."

The cardfiles, which had once belonged to Oberlin's seventh president, Ernest Hatch Wilkins, contained information on every student and alumnus who served in the Armed Forces during the war.

Wilkins was one of Oberlin's most ardent pacifists. Wilkins served as a patron of the Oberlin Peace Society and gained a national reputation as a spokesman for pacifism. After December 7, 1941, Wilkins began to rethink his position.

"When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Wilkins told us in chapel that however much individually we may have hated war, it was important to work together," said Bill Warren OC `48, chair of the War Memorial sponsoring committee.

By 1945, 3,900 Oberlin students and alumni had followed Wilkins' advice and joined the armed forces. Wilkins maintained correspondence with everyone.

"He kept at it," Warren said. "He kept in touch. He sent birthday and Christmas cards. His office became a post office so if I wanted to send a letter to a friend but I couldn't find him, the President's office could locate the guy."

Wilkins kept information on every student and alum on typewritten 3x5 index cards. Each card included the service person's address, class and major, with changes penciled in. The cards were sorted into 19 boxes. The final section of the last box contained the cards of the men that were killed.

Don Van Dyke OC'47, began to search the archives for information on the men. "He worked for three or four months," Tammy Martin, secretary of archives, said. "He would call up with 12 or 15 names and we would pull the files for him."

The names of the 75 men will appear on the World War II Memorial, which will be located south of Finney Chapel. According to Blodgett, there was no record of any women associated with Oberlin who died in the war.

The men who will be memorialized spanned 31 classes, and together represented every branch of the armed forces. One man, Masaru Nakamura, was killed while serving in the Imperial Army of Japan.

Nakamura returned to Japan from the Oberlin School of Theology to join the Japanese Imperial Navy. Blodgett said of Nakamura, "The committee debated a lot of issues and came to virtually the unanimous conclusion to include his name."

Acccording to President Nancy Dye, members of the Oberlin branch of Veterans of Foreign Wars felt the inclusion of Nakamura's name was not sufficiently patriotic. Dye said she disagreed with this assessment.

The memorial was designed by James S. McKnight and is intended to complement Finney Chapel architecturally. The memorial will include a quote from Wilkins, delivered at the 1946 Memorial Day service held in Finney, "It is not enough just to remember. ...Their lives in a sense will continue as they are fulfilled through you."

According to Warren, response to the project has been enthusiastic. "Oberlin in general likes continuing awards rather than memorials," Warren said, "But the response has been good". Over 300 alumni have made contributions to the Memorial fund.

The groundbreaking for the Memorial will take place Saturday at 2:00. The project is slated for completion by early September.