The Pau Hana years a new day for older Americans,  a time for living your host.

Bob Barker.

Hi and welcome to the program for and by the  senior citizens of Hawaiʻi.

Today on Pau Hana   Years, our guests are a husband and wife who were  fired from their jobs in 1948 for their political   beliefs after nearly 20 years of teaching  in Hawaii Public Schools.

In the post-war,   anti-labor, anti-communist atmosphere at  the beginning of the Joseph McCarthy Era,   Governor Steinbeck ordered a hearing by the  territorial commissioners of public instruction,   which led to their ousting at that time.

John  Reineke was an English and social studies teacher   at Farrington High School, and Aiko Reineke was a  fourth grade teacher at Waialae Elementary School.

About two months ago, the Board of Education  revoked that 1948 decision and restored Mr.

Reineke's teaching certificate, sent a letter of  regret to Mrs.

Reineke whose certificate was not   revoked, recommended to the state legislature that  it consider financial restitution to the Reinekes   and reaffirm Department of Education Policy  guaranteeing political and academic freedom   of all staff and students in public schools.

So now, after all these years, what is your   reaction to the board's exoneration?

Naturally, we're very much pleased.

Very pleased.

Yes, and I'm very happy about it and hope   that something like this will never happen again.

Now, you were suspended in November of 1947 but   not fired until October of 1948 What did  you do during that almost a year period?

We were very busy with our defense, since  there was no branch of the American Civil   Liberties Committee here.

Our friends organized a  Hawai'i Civil Liberties Committee and conducted a   petition drive to have us reinstated.

They were  successful in collecting 10,000 signatures.

They   also sent us on a speaking tour to all the islands  where we told our, where we took our story.

We   were befriended by our, by workers, housed, fed  and housed by them.

And they did this because   they realized that we were being victimized for  supporting their efforts to form a labor union.

I see.

Then after your after you  were dismissed, what did you do?

Almost immediately, I went to work  for the Honolulu Record.

It is,   it was a pro-labor newspaper edited by Koji  Ariyoshi.

I went out to the islands to sell   subscriptions to it, mostly to workers and  to plantation workers and to longshoremen.

And what other types of work did  you do then during that period?

Well, I went out to sell the Honolulu, not the  Honolulu Record, but the World Book, encyclopedia.

Oh, the encyclopedia, Yes, and house to house selling was very   difficult, but meeting, I enjoyed meeting mothers  and helping their children, learning how to use   the encyclopedia.

And about 1958 I started working  for Imperial Travel Service.

When my friends   planned to travel, they call me, and I make  all the necessary arrangements, reservations,   and even deliver their tickets.

And it's a  form of service that I enjoy and don't feel   there's any need to, to give it up.

Were you born here in Hawai'i?

Yes, I was born on a sugar plantation at Kahuku,  where my father was a Methodist lay preacher.

But we shared the life of the plantation  community.

And know all these hardships.

Where were you born, John?

In the state of Kansas.

In Kansas, uh-huh.

When did  you come to Hawai'i, then?

Almost exactly 50 years ago.

Well, 50 years ago.

What brought you here?

Just curiosity.

I liked it well enough to stay.

Oh, you sort of came as a tourist and then liked   it and stayed?

That’s right.

How long have you two been married?

44 years.

44 years.

How did you how did you meet?

Well, I used to live in the same cottage as her   brother.

He went away to school on the mainland  when he was a little hard up for cash, I sent him   $100 and said he would repay me 100-fold.

I  took her as security and I kept her ever since.

Never got the money, but you're  holding on to the security.

I’m holding on to the security.

John, what were your chief   interests in your education?

Study and writing.

Particularly history,  History.

But I never had the chance to get  a professional training in it.

Oh, I see.

I, uh, excuse me,   I majored in sociology, and that led me to study  the local dialect, so called Pidgin English.

You’ve, you're known for your writing on  Pidgin English.

How did that come about?

Just   through that study that you were making?

Yes, someone recommended that I make a   sociological study of the local dialect.

While the  two of us were living in the town of Honokaʻa on   the Big Island, I started digging material,  using my students as informants.

My wife,   pardon me.

My wife and I in 1934 had published  the first amateur study of the dialect,   and the following year, I presented a master's  thesis giving the historical background.

Then,   uh, 30 years later, thanks to Professor Stanley  Sasaki in the linguistics department at the   university, that thesis was published.

Did you get your Masters here at,   at the university, here?

At the University here in 1935.

But didn't you go to the mainland to school too?

Immediately after that, we went to the mainland   for two years.

Where did you...  To Yale.

Yale, uh huh.

Oh,   this was after you were married.

Then you both  went.

What did you do there at Yale, then?

Well, I was in the department of race relations,  but I continued my study of Pidgin and Creole   languages.

Creole languages, I might explain,  are pidgins which have become stabilized, that   are spoken as native languages by the population  and are not makeshift any longer.

They can be   used for literature, anything that any language is  used for them.

They have an elaborate structure.

Did you follow up on this interest  then, when you came back to Hawaiʻi?

No, I didn't, because I didn't have an academic  career, materials were hard to come by at that   time.

And then I got interested in  Labor Affairs here, and that led me   to an interest in local labor history.

Did you do some writing on that, then?

I’ve done some writing, quite a bit, in fact,  and have done a good deal more research that   hasn't been written up.

So you do have some   unpublished works in history, then?

Both published and unpublished.

The first   thing that was published was in mimeograph form  in 1939 by the Hawaiʻi Educational Association,   a teacher's organization.

It was part of a general  survey of the labor conditions in Hawaiʻi in 1938.

And among other things, a committee of us prepared  a history of the 1938 inter-island strike, which   led to the shooting at the Hilo Wharf,  where 40 or 50 people were injured.

Oh, oh yes.

And I might, uh, tell a   little of the, what happened then, just shows  attitude toward unions in those days.

Some of   the businessmen in Honolulu found out about this  section on the strike.

Copies of the report were   available for eight cents a piece in mimeograph,  but they took one copy that had come into their   hands and reproduced it in by photography  that was before the days of cheap Xerox.

Yes, And passed   it around.

Then they put pressure on the HEA to  suppress it, and it was suppressed temporarily.

The Education, Hawaii Education Association did  suppress it, then, as a result of that pressure?

Temporarily, but the conference  in 1940 reversed the officers.

Then I've done other work since.

I did a  chronological checklist of Hawaiian unions,   and I did a history of the HRT workers, the  bus drivers, also a history of local five   hotel workers.

These have been published, two  of them by the Industrial Relations Center here.

Aiko, you were born and raised here in Hawaiʻi.

What was your childhood like, and plantation was   it?

Did you grow up on a plantation?

Yes.

What was, what was that like back then?

Well, life on the plantation was very frugal.

It   was the period when there were no when there was  no electricity.

We did have running water, but not   running hot water in the kitchen, It was cold.

Yes, and cooking was on a wood stove, although we  did have a kerosene oil stove too to supplement   the wood stove.

And women went to work in  the fields, along with the men and my mother,   supervised the little daycare center where women  brought their children, their infant children   and younger ones who didn't go to school,  to be cared for.

I remember distinctly the   struggle in 1920 when the there was a Japanese  and Filipino strike, when the whole village   was evicted.

I watched the people leave with  whatever they could carry and left for Honolulu.

Oh, the workers, because they were on  strike, were kicked out of the houses   on the plantation, and they had to leave?

Yes, and from very early age, we all went   to work because wages were small, and we had  to help supplement the income to the family.

By early age, how early do you mean?

Well, I know I went to work when I was   11.

And worked when I was 11, 12, and 13.

And  when I came to high school, since there was no   high school in Kahuku, I had to come here to  Honolulu.

I worked in the pineapple cannery.

Oh, yes.

And at that time, the canneries paid only 13   cents an hour for packing pineapples into cans.

Back on the plantation.

What kind of   hours did you put in as a youngster?

Well, when you worked on the, in the fields,   it was all day work.

I don't remember how  many hours, but we started early and...  Started sun up, huh and quit sundown?

Yes, and got paid about 50 cents a day.

But even   that was necessary, earning for the family budget.

Your father, you say, was a lay minister?

Yes, but he didn't stay in it after 1913  because he couldn't raise his family of   seven children on $40 a day so... You don't mean $40 a day  $40 a month, excuse me.

And went to work for  Libby, MacNeil and Libby pineapple company  During your early years, were you  inspired to become a teacher, or was it   just one of the jobs a girl could aspire to then?

Well, I was very fortunate that in my eighth-grade   year, I had a very fine principal named Mrs.

Maude Sisson.

She was a mother to all the children   in the school.

She was interested in not only  interested in us, not only during school hours,   but after school hours.

She would invite the  children to use the school playground to come and   play and invited us to her home, where she'd read  as Shakespeare, and we loved her.

She also taught   Sunday school.

Opened up the classrooms for that.

And so, she said that if I ever became a teacher,   she would be glad to have me in her school,  and so I sort of worked toward that objective,   and I did go to teach with her at Koloa When  I first was graduated from the Normal School.

Now, are there any things that you can say  during your life or early years together that   led to developing your interest in the philosophy  of socialism.

Was, was it before you were married   that you became interested?

Or after?

Well, I would say for myself that the   experience of watching a whole camp full of people  being evicted left a deep impression.

And when my   father worked for Libby's, he was eventually  laid off when he needed the work most.

And   there was no pension and just a Christmas bonus,  which made it very difficult for our family,   because I was, by that time, a teacher, but having  to support the whole family on a little over   $100 a month.

Then as a teacher, I visited the  homes of my pupils and found how difficult it   was for many of them to make a living.

And I felt  that if we could get people actively organized   into unions where they could bargain for their  wages and living conditions, that the living,   the conditions would improve and the children  would have a better break.

And so, I felt that   we should participate in trying to help and  encourage people to better their lot.

John?

Well, with me, the interest ran back to my  college years in a very vague way, though,   I should say that it was in the early  30s, during the rise of Hitler and the   depression in this country, I became  seriously interested in social, in socialism.

Aiko told us what she did  after you were fired.

What   did you what?

What did you do to earn a living?

For about a year and a half, I worked for the   Unity House Unions under Arthur Rutledge, What kind of work were you doing?

General work, writing, research, getting material  ready for negotiations.

Then I worked off and on   for the Honolulu Record over a period of a good  many years, it ran from 1958 to 68 after it folded   up, I went to work again for Mr.

Rutledge at Unity  House, and was there for 11 and a half years.

Now, of course, your, your teaching license has  been restored, but you are now past the age of,   the retirement age, so you can't teach.

I think if I showed up in the classroom,   the students would insist on  putting me in a mummy cave.

Have you been in?

Have you folks been  involved in much community activity?

Yes, in the middle 60s, I was active in  the Hawaiʻi Women for Peace and a committee   called Committee to Stop the War in Vietnam,  which organized very effective demonstrations   against the war.

And another anti-war activity  I participated in was staffing draft counseling   office located at the Church of the Crossroads.

This was where young, young men could come and   learn what alternatives there was to the draft,  such as requirements for conscientious objectors.

John and I were, supported war resistors, and in  1970 when the servicemen found a sanctuary at the   Church at the Crossroads for about a month, we  went there every, every night to support them.

You, you, you have a interest  in hiking, I understand,  Or used to have an interest in hiking  when we were younger and more...  More active.

More active.

And did you do it just casually,  or were you into organized hiking.

We’d hike weekly, weekly hike with that Hawaiian  trail and Mountain Club, but during the Red Scare,   they expelled us, and the excuse they gave was  that, with our names on the membership rolls,   they couldn't get other people to join it.

Well, this was after you had been fired.

Yes.

Is this one of your books?

I helped edit it.

This is called Prisoner of  Conscience: Chen Yu-Hsi, it's a translation from   the Japanese.

And for a period of about six years,  we were very active in that case, I think it's   pretty well known to the Hawaiian public, Mr.

Chen  was a student at the University of Hawaiʻi who,   upon his forceful, forcible return to Taiwan,  was imprisoned there as a political prisoner,   later released and allowed to come back  here, where he's now again at the university.

You were active in the what's the  name of the local organization,   the friendship China friendship.

Yes, about four years ago, we joined Koji Ariyoshi   and others in organizing this United States China  People's Friendship Association of Honolulu,   which now has about 500 members and has conducted  tours of China.

It is a it is an educational   organization where we can learn about China, a  socialist country which has eliminated the profit   system and has been able, in less than 30 years,  to build a self-confident, spirited cooperative   society, one in which nobody suffers want and  most people feel that they are can be active and   participate in their Totawa economy.

In 1948  when we were fired, we believed in socialism.

And when it came to China.

We welcomed it,  and we still hold the same belief today.

Back there in 1948 when you were fired and  there was all this publicity and everything,   how did that affect your personal life, your  social life, your, let's say, friendships,   and your relationship to the rest of  the people.

What was the situation?

I’d say that we lost some  friends, but we gained others.

We knew what we were being fired for, so we,  we didn't become bitter about the firing,   but went on right from there to  new work and new experiences.

And   so, we've been able to enjoy life to the fullest.

You say you didn't become bitter, that's, it would   take something to not become bitter, would seem to  me, after 20 years in a job to have something like   this happen, I'm afraid that I would feel some  anger or bitter on an occasion like that.

Why do   you feel that you did not become angry or bitter?

Well, as I said, we knew why   we were being fired, and Well, didn't you resent that?

Why?

Surely, we did.

But still we, we felt that we were  right.

We hadn't done anything wrong.

And as John   said, we made new friends who supported us, and  we were able to relate to them and forget the   people who didn't want to associate  with us, and moved on to something new.

After these years, what is 28 or 29  years, what was it that brought about the,   the investigation into your case again that  resulted here a few, three or four months ago,   of your exoneration, what started that again?

What immediately touched it off as the writing   of a dissertation presented here at the  university by Dr Thomas Michael Holmes,   called the specter of communism in Hawaiʻi, oh and  among other things, he covered the Reineke case,   and a few of our friends who read that  dissertation thought that the time had come   to start a campaign to have us exonerated by the  school department.

And somewhat to our surprise,   the campaign snowballed, and we were exonerated.

To your surprise, in other words, when it started,   you really didn't expect much to come of it?

I thought we had been forgotten.

I see, that there wouldn't be that much  interest developed in this day and age.

That’s right.

Did you appear or make personal appearance   at any of these hearings these past few months?

No, the Committee for Justice for the Reineckes,   they made all their made all their appearances.

So you didn't have to go and talk or testify or   anything?

No.

And so now you feel relieved and happy that it's  all over, even though all these years have passed.

That’s right.

Well, thank you very much,   both of you for coming and visiting with  us, our guests, Aiko and John Reinecke,   who were fired from their public teaching jobs  29 years ago because of their political beliefs   and recently exonerated by the State Board of  Education.

And that's Pau Hana Years for today,   until our next program, this is Bob Barker  leaving you with this thought: From the late   Adlai Stevenson, I'm no more in favor of socialism  than anybody else, but if I don't like creeping   socialism.

There's something else I dislike  just as much, and that's galloping reaction.

Try to remember when life was so tender  that dreams were kept beside your pillow.

Deep in December It's nice to remember the fire  of September that made us mellow.

Try to remember,   and if you remember, then follow (to  follow) remember (remember) to follow.