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Chapter 10 The Decade NTHE EARLY 1940s there were an estimated 60,000 deaf persons in this country; one deaf person for every 2,150. Deaf persons were classified as congenitally (born) deaf and adventitiously deaf (deafened later). The term "deaf-mute" was used liberally in the press and the term "partly deaf" was used to define hard of hearing persons. Scarlet fever, spinal meningitis, brain fever, colds, malarial fever, and influenza were still leading causes of deafness. There were 20,367 pupils enrolled in 312 schools for the deaf. Of that number 65 were public residential schools which had a collective enrollment of 4,800; and 20 were denominational or private schools with an enrollment of 1,000. "Superior facilities" was given as the reason for the popularity of the public residential schools. Economics , no doubt, also played an important role in attendance at these tax-supported schools because this country was just emerging from the worst depression in its history and money was tight. A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to establish a Bureau of the Deaf within the Department of Labor. The bill called for the establishment of a department under the direction of a chief who would report to the Secretary of Labor. This Bureau, it was proposed, would be responSible for maintaining records on deaf people; studying fields of employment available to them and creating new areas of employment; promoting the capabilities of The 19405 deaf workers among prospective employers; expanding employment opportunities in the publk service area and cooperating with vocational rehabilitation agencies. Unfortunately, the bill did not pass. In the pre-war days of April, 1941, you could purchase a Cadillac coupe in Detroit for $1345 or, if you preferred , buy a Hudson, Studebaker, Nash or DeSoto for less than $900. "Holeproof" nylon socks were ad vertised for fifty cents a pair; white shirts were $2.95 and women's three-piece suits sold for $39.75. You could fly from New York City to Washington, D.C. on Eastern for $12.20 or take the train from New York Oty to St. Louis for $21.15, and if you had the urge to get away from it all-and $70-you could take a four-day cruise to Bermuda. Winston Churchill's book, Blood, Sweat alld Tears, was being advertised as a bestseller and sold for $3,00 hardbound . General Motors stock was going for $38.12 a share, and Camel cigarettes claimed 28 percent less nicotine than the other four leading brands. And, then the war came and many things changed. Pearl Harbor Eight-year-old Bill Sugiyama and his schoolmates at the Diamond Head School for the Deaf on Oahu in the Hawaii Islands had just finished breakfast that bright, sunny Sunday morning of December 7, 1941 . While most of the students went outside to play Bill decided to stay in the dormitory and read Life maga219 zine. Suddenly, he started feeling vibrations and thought his schoolmates, elsewhere in the dorm, were making a racket and really roughing it up. Ln reality, the "racket" was being made by members of tht' Japanese Imperial Air Force who, at that very moment, were bombing Pearl Harbor some ten miles from the school. Few of the students and their supervisors believed what was happening until a stray shell whistled overhead and exploded in a shed two blocks away. Alden C. Ravn, a deaf teacher, was working in the school's woodwork shop early that morning when he was informed of the Japanese attack. He had not been aware of the bombing in the distance, but he had hea rd the shell that had whined over the school and struck the shed. About mid-morning the school's principal came to tell Ravn that he had heard over the radio that the United States had declared war against Japan. That afternoon the school's principal instructed the older boys to take heavy tables from the dormitories and put them around the porches and cover them with mattresses. These areas became the school's bomb shelters until underground shelters could be dug on thc campus. That night the students and teachers could see the fires glow from Pearl Harbor and the first of many nightly blackouts began. All windows were covered completely and lights were turned out before outside doors were opened. Food was rationed, drinking water was boiled and everyone was required to carry a gas mask wherever they went. Children...

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