10:28 AM

Welcome back to my blog!

I am still working on  My To Do List and I am making some progress on number one and two.

1.     Rewriting up my salesmans’ visit to Boston and thanking my Massachusetts Scholar
2.      Compiling a list for permission to use quotes from the RG Dun & Co. collection  I've done this    before- it just takes time and I respect their rules (between us, it is the best resource I have ever used...shhhhhh....well worth the two hour drive one way and tank of gas to use)  Guide
 I printed out my salesman's journal and it is 12,800 words. I will be reading and editing it and revising the section in Boston this week- (keeping my fingers crossed).
Also, I finally emailed an introduction letter to Ms Fox notifying Harvard Business School (Baker Library, Rare Books) of my request for permission for quoting the RG Dun & Co - After I get approval I can begin writing up my consignee drafts. It is important to learn how to write letters. I am not the best letter writer, but I keep at it until its right. 
Two of my mentors were my father and Dr. James M. FurukawMy father was a teacher and said it didn't matter what subject it was he taught- he graded on the ability to try and keep trying- that was an important skill to continue when you keep failing. My second mentor was my statistics professor at Towson State University and I was one of his many teaching assistant in Child Psychology. His Ph.D. study at Johns Hopkins was that normal IQ students went further in College than those with high IQ's - he proved just like my father believed, if students are used to not succeeding on the first try, they won't give up. 
I've outgrown several other mentors, but never these two and I guess their philosophy makes me the person I am today and reminds me when trying to find a specific document, I told Mike Myers at the National Archives, "It doesn't matter how many times I am wrong, I only have to be right once." 
I Googled Dr. Furukaw and posted two articles at the bottom of this blog- the first in the Baltimore Sun newspaper abt his method teaching reading and an interview for the Library of Congress' about his experience in WWII as a Japanese America and how he looked at everything that happened in a positive light. I never knew he was just a construction worker and struggled supporting his family and the GI Bill allowed him to go to one of the top ten schools in the nation. I miss him dearly and although I knew he was in the WWII, it gave me lump in my throat.


Enjoy reading my letter to Ms Fox.-

Elizabeth B Isenburg
MY ADDRESS

Katherine Fox
Associate Director, Public Services
Baker Library Historical Collections
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163

May 24, 2010

Dear Ms. Fox,

I understand that you are the liaison between Harvard Business School and Dun & Bradstreet firm and again I need to request permission to use citations from the R. G. Dun & Co. Collection. Previously, I was granted permission for quotations by Nicole M. Hayes and Timothy Mahoney for an article in the 2004 Daguerreian Annual, titled McAllister, Crane & co., An 1850s Chain Store on the Emigrant Trail. Pg 277-295.

Because of the vast use of the R G Dun & co. collection for my project, they advised me to continue requesting more citations back in 2003 to avoid a long delay. So, rather late, I am following their suggestion and ask for your opinion how your present contact at Dun & Bradstreet prefers the request submitted (number of citations), besides the full quote and citation format (Ohio, Vol. 3, p. 29, R.G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School). I am under no deadlines but would like to complete these requests in six months, if possible.

My research pertains to documenting 1850s businesses involved with the Steamboat Arabia and these will be published in a book and kept on file at the museum for use in future exhibits. The Steamboat Arabia Museum is located in Kansas City, Missouri and the 200 tons of merchandise is considered the best random sample going to stock 51 stores at 17 landings stretching 600 miles up the Missouri River. My research at Harvard Business School began about 1995 exclusively using the R.G. Dun & Co. collection and I greatly appreciate the ledgers are available for scholarly research.

I expect it will take several weeks to prepare my request and I will have to make several visits to Baker Library to verify I am asking for the correct pages since these early records are often renumbered. I can be reached at MY PHONE NUMBER if you have any questions or would be happy to meet you at Baker Library to discuss my project further.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Isenburg
Historian for the Steamboat Arabia Museum











CPC Way of teaching reading Method: Towson University Professor James M. Furukawa's learning 'system' goes against many of the rules put forward by educators who push systematic phonics.
EDUCATION BEAT
June 14, 1998|By Mike Bowler | Mike Bowler,SUN STAFF
AT THE Jonestown Day Care Center in inner-city Baltimore, children are learning to read the James M. Furukawa way.
That isn't what the 72-year-old professor at Towson University calls it. The "CPC Way" is the title he's given to the learning "system" he has been trying to perfect for much of his adult life.
Perhaps because Furukawa is a psychologist, his methods violate many of the rules laid down by the deadly serious educators who push systematic phonics.
Five-year-olds start out in the CPC Way with a heavy dose of old-fashioned spelling. They learn all the letters of the alphabet in the first 16 days of instruction. One of the first words they learn is "fox" -- a clear violation of the rules of phonics instruction, "x" being a troublesome letter that isn't taken up until later.
Other aspects of the CPC Way: Beginners learn three words a day. The first sentence they learn is: "The quick brown fox jumps over my big lazy dog." (Touch typists will recognize this from keyboarding drills. It contains all the letters of the alphabet.)
Nor does Furukawa shy away from "context clues," such as illustrations, that help children learn new words. Guess, the professor urges. Visually oriented children need such clues, he says.
His program seems well-suited for a day care center like Jonestown, which is located amid the housing projects of East Baltimore. Many Jonestown youngsters have health and learning problems that require "much more than baby-sitting," says Ann Lofton, center director.
"Jim and I met years ago," Lofton says. "He was interested in helping our children become better achievers, and that was right up my alley. So we sat down and talked, and he showed me his program. I brought it to the attention of my teachers, and we decided it was what we wanted."
Lofton says Furukawa's method is superior to other beginning reading approaches used in the past at the 16-year-old center. "It's simple, very simple. There's not a lot of frilly stuff, and the children like it. It takes a step-by-step approach. They don't move to another step until they've mastered the material."
The CPC Way, Furukawa says, is derived from years of studying how children learn. Its "C" is for capacity. Children aren't asked to learn things in amounts that exceed their capacity -- that is, how much they can be expected to memorize. (Thus, three words a day at the beginning.)
Library of Congress Experiencing War- Stories from the Veterans History Project
Outline of Interview with JAMES MTTSUO FURUKAW on July 10, 2003, JAPANESE AMERICAN VETERANS ASSOCIATION ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
I. PRE-WWII
A. PRELUDE
Date of Interview: July 10, 2003; Place of interview: Lutherville, MD 21093-6113; Interviewer: Terry T. Shima; Name of cameraman: Grant Hirabayashi; Name: James Mitsuo Furukawa, July 27,1925; Military Intelligence; Major; basic training in Wahiawa and went in for invasion of Okinawa after a 32-day ocean voyage on an LST.
B. Parents 1. Mother. Koto Ikeda a. Kamoto-gun, Kumamoto-ken, Kyushu, Japan b. Arrived in Hawaii: 1903 c. Occupation: Housewife, cook for sugar plantation manager and for single workers. Had a tofu business.
2. Father. Gentaro Furukawa a. Kamoto-gun, Kumamoto-ken, Kyushu, Japan b. Carpenter c. Arrived in Hawaii: Late 1890's and went to Maui to build sugar plantation worker's homes 3. Family returned to Japan in 1920; however, they decided Hawaii was best for the family. They returned to Hawaii in 1924. Since the choice was Hawaii, all sons had to convert to be American citizens (dual citizenships with Japan terminated).
4. Father's illness and mother's loss of cooking job caused me to leave school at 14 to support family. In the 1930's, practically everyone was poor; we were no exceptions.
C. Schools. Attended a Japanese school in Hana, Maui, HI, after English school, one hour daily (M-F) and on Saturday morning. The curriculum is a vague memory, but it did include reading and writing. In any case, I was not a serious student. [In later years, I regretted not having tried my best. Also, in retrospect, my entire adult-life hinged on the fact that I had attended Japanese school. During WWII as an interpreter-corpsman for doctors and even later it helped in obtaining a direct commission to second lieutenant.]
D. Discrimination. No discrimination felt in small district of plantation workers and farmers. Our English school teachers included Hawaiian, white, and orientals.
E. Scoutmaster: He was a Japanese-American and was also our elementary school science teacher. A positive factor in my life.
H. WARTIME BEFORE MILITARY SERVICE
A. Pearl Harbor attack. On the morning of December 7,1941, I was on my way to the hospital at Hickam Air Force base for treatment. On the previous day, as a construction worker, I had fallen from a scaffold and had stitches across my left eyebrow and the bridge of my nose.
B. Feelings. Feeling: In retrospect, I was happy to have been in Hawaii before and prior to the war. In other words, I was not sent to a relocation camp as were the Japanese in many of the continental U.S. I remember feeling deprived, however, because I was a Sea Scout Mate with a ship that could not be sailed. The restriction was accepted as necessary because of wartime conditions.
C. Actions: Served as a civil defense block warden; helped form a Scout troop at a local school; and became its assistant scoutmaster (too young to be Scoutmaster)
D. Schools: Both English and Japanese schools were miles away, because I had moved to Oahu from Maui and had quit both in 1939 after grade 9.
E. Executive Order 9066 did not affect me as far as relocation camps were concerned. Ironically, we built barracks to house internees in Hawaii.
F. Anecdotes.
1. December 7, 1941. Watched planes fly overhead and heard explosions. It was assumed that another military exercise was being conducted. Since the planes flying overhead had red circles, I expected them to be followed by blue planes. When informed of the attack, I looked at the smoke rising from Pearl Harbor and decided to go to a local hospital: The nurse's reaction when I entered the emergency room, My lord, another casualty. All Japanese-Americans were kept off the military base (Hickam Air Base) for several days. Later, when we were allowed access to the base, military guards with bayonets followed groups of construction workers. The effectiveness of the guards was questionable, for they were unable to climb to the roof of the huge barracks and hangars where repairs were needed.
Food and gas rationing were a part of life.
G. Draft classifications: I don't remember my exact category; however, I was exempt as a civil-defense worker.
H. Drafted in November 1, 1944 I. Family objections. There were no objections voiced on my being drafted.
J. Three experiences:
1. Racial differences: We had to wear badges with a black border and not allowed into "restricted" areas such as naval bases.
2. Blackouts. As a block warden, we periodically checked to see that no lights could be seen from the exterior of a home. The local civil defense headquarters became a "social" club for members.
3. Casualties. The losses at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere are clearly remembered.
III. MILITARY SERVICE
A. Induction. Date amp; process of induction. November 1,1944, Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii B. First night. It is not remembered distinctly but about 50 recruits slept on folding cots in a barracks, one of many that housed the 3,000 or so draftees.
C. Training. Trained in pineapple fields of Halemanu, Oahu, Hawaii.
D. Company. About 300 of us formed a pool of Japanese language interpreters.
E. Treatment. Travel, training, or content: normal (out drill sergeant was of Hawaiian ancestry). We marched up and down valleys of the training area, rain or shine, muddy or dusty. It was a somewhat ludicrous sight to see, with rifles and soldiers sliding separately down the hills, and the company commander yelling at us to stay together.
F. Military assignments 1. From basic training in Hawaii, we went by ship (32 days?)for the invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945 2. Numerous military assignments, including: Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS), Tokyo; Repatriation Detachment, Hakodate, Hokkaido, and Maizuru, Honshu; 34th Infantry Regiment, Sasebo; 24th Division Headquarters Language Detachment, Kokura, Kyushu; Ft. Holabird; Pentagon; 441 Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), Osaka, Japan; Armored School, Fort Knox; 441 CIC Detachment, Tokyo, Japan; Advanced Military Intelligence (MI) School, Fort Holabird; MI detachment, Korea; and Fort Holabird.
3. Combat or frontline experience. Landed and stationed at Kadena air base, Okinawa, at a Military Government field hospital. It burned during an air raid; therefore, those of us who were in the hospital detachment were evacuated North to Kin, Okinawa. Our detachment went on a rescue operation of another military government unit, but everything was under control by the time we arrived. Went on mop-up operations with infantry unit. (Etched indelibly in memory are the swarms of fleas in the caves). Japanese language training and first aid training (Boy Scout) were invaluable assets.
4. Medals: Bronze Star for Valor in rescuing patients from hospital and establishing order in Kadena town. I felt honored, however, I shall always remember a little boy who wanted to find his missing mother. When I found her dead lying in bed, with a trickle of blood at the base of her neck..
G. Treatment from local populace 1. Locals during wartime. a. They were happy to see us because we understood what they were saying and what they needed; thus, we acted as a bridge between US forces and the civilian population.. b. Served as a corpsman and interpreter for a medical doctor treating civilians.
2. Locals reaction, postwar a. They we happy to have us build a museum to safeguard their national treasures; revise and distribute educational materials; and provide for the artists and stage performers. Many years later (1993), I was invited back by the Okinawan government to a conference to recover missing cultural artifacts. b. They were pleased to have me accompany and act as a master of ceremonies for a group of performers to introduce Okinawan culture to US servicemen. c. On disarmament trip after the war, the people made us (Nisei) welcome. We shared each other's food and drink.
3. Locals during occupation a. Welcomed and respected us. b. Personally, I was fortunate enough to meet several relatives (half-brother) and a maternal grandmother. c. Learned from them about Japanese customs and traditions.
4. Humorous incidents a. I was asked to interpret for a visitor representing the Library of Congress. When I asked for a preview of quotations that might be used, the answer was "No quotes." During the talk, however, the quotation, "Fog crept in on cat's paws" was used.
b. While interpreting for a general, the local official did not understand a question. After a discussion of several minutes, I turned to the general and said that the answer was "No!"
c. When engaged in liaison with Japanese government officials, I frequently used a private club. The club was for the Furukawa electric company. However, one night, the manager learned that I was not related to the Furukawa electric family. Service was not as good thereafter.
d. We Nisei love Japanese food. The town where we were stationed was famous for dried cuttlefish (ika). During a Saturday morning inspection, the company commander opened the emergency fire extinguisher hose box; and out fell an Unauthorized bundle of ika.
5. Topics of discussion during social gatherings a. Family. Home, girlfriends, and wives b. Daily experiences c. Food d. Future 6. Entertainment a. Movies b. Cards c. Dining out.
7. Gripes a. GI food b. No comforts of home c. Wartime: buddy system with a white person d. Physical condition. Being either dusty or muddy.
8. Communication a. Wrote letters in English, with my sister explaining to my parents. b. Sent photographs home.
H. Korea and Vietnam 1. Korean War. As soon as the war began, I was ordered to Japan from the Pentagon. After three days in Japan, orders sending me to Korea were received. When I reported in at headquarters, I learned that someone had erred and returned to Osaka Stationed in Osaka for two years. Returned for further training with the Armor branch of service. After Armored school, overseas orders were received, but, again, I was stationed in Japan for four years. Finally went to Korea in 1961.
2. Vietnam War. Stationed in U.S.
I. Military experience had a profound effect on my life 1. Okinawa. My CO was Lieutenant Commander Willard Hanna, a Ph.D. at an early age. His colleagues that I met were also well educated. I was tremendously impressed when he submitted an application for a job by merely stating that his qualifications in brief were BA, MA, and Ph.D.
2. Began educational quest: Ended military service with a high school diploma, BS, M.Ed., Advanced Certificate in Education, J.D., and on the GI Bill earned a Ph.D.
3. Professor: Towson University.
J. Changes. Became more sophisticated and humane
IV. POST-MILITARY SERVICE
A. Date of discharge: September 1,1966 1. Service. 22 years (briefly interrupted by about a three-month hiatus as a reservist.)
2. Completed law degree before retirement and immediately began Ph.D. work at Johns Hopkins University while on leave from the Army.
3. After initial discharge, I met parents at home. They were, naturally, happy and proud to have me home.
4. After initial discharge, I resumed work, among other things, as a construction worker, I decided that I wonted more out of life.
B. Life after discharge 1. Initial discharge in 1946. I was unprepared for life. Pursued Ph.D. after second discharge and became a lecturer at Towson State College.
2. Significant contributions. Over a hundred and fifty papers and publications, including the development of a learning principle. It has been proven to be universally applicable in improving achievement in all grades and subject matter.
3. United States Armed Forces Institute and the GI Bill made meaningful life possible for me.
4. GI insurance continued. I also have health insurance with Kaiser Permanente from Maryland State, Medicare, and US Family Health Plan.
C. Family 1. Retirement pay contributed to the education of my children and even provided an opportunity for them to travel.
2. Permanent relations forged. A few persons have become very close (like family), beyond Xmas cards and occasional meetings.
D. Assimilation 1. Before WWII. I was active in the Boy Scouts and had made many friends.
2. After WWII a. Professional colleagues and numerous former students b. Helped form a Japanese Friendship Society and worked with Baltimore City and Maryland State in cultural exchange programs with Kawasaki City and Kanagawa prefecture, respectively. c. Began an Asian Arts Advisory Board for Towson University. d. Resurrected the Psi Chi honor society for psychologist at Towson University and served as its faculty advisor for many years. e. I have some very close friends in Hawaii 3. JAVA membership. Membership should be open to anyone qualified to join.
4. War resisters. All persons have to march to the beat of their personal drummer. Although not particular pleased with draft dodgers, I recognize their right to be different.