Posted on: Friday, June 7, 2002
Diploma brings war vet back to school
By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer
It took 61 years, but Purvis Orso finally received an honorary high school diploma from the Hawaiian Mission Academy during its commencement exercises Sunday.
The 80-year-old Hilo man never finished his senior year at the private school after he witnessed the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and the military declared all Hawai'i schools closed.
Hawaiian Mission Academy and public schools were closed for the next three months, and when they reopened again on Feb. 2, 1942, Orso said school was the last thing on his mind.
"Things went by so fast after the attack, and we became so absorbed in the war," Orso said. "We weren't thinking about how valuable education is, you know, because we were working and making money. When young kids get money they think they have everything."
Orso paused. "It was after the war when you face the fact that you don't have that diploma, and it looks right at you," he said softly. "Without that diploma, you can't make any progress."
Greg Knudsen, spokes-man for the Department of Education, said private school students were not the only ones who sacrificed their education.
"The public schools lost nearly a fourth of their teaching staff and most of the high school seniors because they were devoted to the war efforts or they entered the work force," Knudsen said.
A large percentage of the public schools' facilities were also used as military hospitals, barracks and offices throughout the war, Knudsen said.
The war prevented many Hawai'i high school students from completing their studies.
But under a 2-year-old Department of Education program, World War II veterans who didn't get their high school diplomas because of their service can apply for one. So far, only one person who attended McKinley High School obtained an honorary diploma.
"As a young person, we became essential to the war," Orso said.
Looking back at the day of the attack, Orso said he just finished his night shift as a part-time welder at the harbor's shipyard and was leaving, when he saw a plane strike a ship.
"That same plane turned, and started shooting at me," Orso said. "I started to run, I threw my welding rods on the ground and ran maybe 100 yards before I dove under a truck. I was so lucky they didn't hit the gas tank."
Orso said he ran back to the shipyard where he and other workers heard President Franklin Roosevelt's declaration of war on the radio.
There also was a second announcement on the radio that called for all shipyard workers on Dock 1010 to "please help," Orso said.
"From there I grabbed my helmet and when we got down to the Arizona, it was flaming," Orso said. "It was capsizing, and we had no diving equipment, but five of us guys dived down there and found a door ... and managed to open it and pull some guys out. Some were dead."
When World War II ended in 1946, Orso decided to keep his job as a welder and work full time. In 1949, he met his future wife, Kanakolo, at a picnic at Ala Moana Park. She told him to quit his job at the shipyard.
"She kept telling me if I got my high school equivalent, I could better myself," Orso said.
Two years later, he moved with his new wife to Tennessee and received a General Education Development certification, a high school equivalency certificate.
Orso, however, did not stop there. He applied to James Madison College and graduated with a bachelor of arts in Industrial Electricity in 1956.
"My sweetheart, she was the one who always was there to tell me, 'you can do it!' " Orso said.
When Orso's wife died last September, he called Hawaiian Mission Academy, her alma mater, to inform the school of her passing.
"Within that conversation we found out Purvis was also a former student at Hawaiian Mission Academy who never graduated his senior year," said Josue Rosado, principal of Hawaiian Mission Academy.
Further research by Joyce Garrigus, Hawaiian Mission Academy's development director, also indicated that of 24 students in the class of 1942, two other students, twin sisters Janet Aoki and Janis Chee, did not receive their diplomas because they went to work during the war.
Because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Rosado said that the class of 2002 shares a similar experience with the class of 1942 because each group dealt with terrifying blows to the United States.
"By honoring Orso and his two other fellow classmates with diplomas at the same time of the 2002 commencement, we thought it would bring about a sense of healing and validation for their contributions to our state and our communities," Rosado said.
Rosado said Aoki and Chee were unable to attend the ceremonies because of health reasons, but that he would hand-deliver their diplomas next week.
Orso retired in 1977 from a government job working with nuclear submarines in California, and moved to Hilo in 1985. He spends most of his days fishing and working in the yard.
Orso said that he is still in shock that he received a high school diploma after all these years.
"At one point of my life, I felt so inferior, I felt as if I could never do it and get my diploma," Orso said. "But, I realized the more challenges you face in this life, the more you have to do something about it. Education is one solid thing in life, and you'll never get anything if you don't step up."
Reach Shayna Coleon at 525-8004 or scoleon@honoluluadver
tiser.com
