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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Sunday, September 8, 2002

Book chronicles Hawai'i reaction to 9/11

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

Thom Curtis, a disaster relief worker and University of Hawai'i-Hilo associate professor of sociology, had just returned to from counseling survivors of the Sept. 11 disaster in New York when he came up with an idea for a class project.

He thought about how Sept. 11 would have the same kind of hold on people's memories as the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. He wanted to develop an archive of the memories of prominent people in Hawai'i. So he assigned his students the task of tracking down notable people and taking notes on each one's story.

In the process, about 36 junior and senior social science majors became authors of "Hawai'i Remembers September 11" (Hagoth Publishing Co., $9.95 paperback, $24.95 hardback), a collection of interviews with politicians, educators, business leaders, civil defense workers and journalists.

The book captures the shockwaves generated by the terrorist attacks as well as the ramifications specific to Hawai'i, where tourists were stranded and the military was on high alert. It also features poems written by fourth- and fifth-graders describing their feelings after the attacks.

The project became more than a school assignment, Curtis said. It allowed students the confidence to connect with prominent people, it allowed them to have scholarly work published, and it established a historical record.

Curtis, a former journalist who transformed his career into part educator, sociologist, family therapist and Red Cross disaster relief worker, dedicated the book to Red Cross workers and volunteers from Hawai'i who went to the Mainland after Sept. 11.

This tragedy was a different kind of disaster, he said. It became an American experience that touched everyone.

"I am a different person now," he said. "I think all of us are."