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Contact Info
Home Town Honolulu
Last Address Dubuque, Iowa. Mount Calvary Cemetery.
Date of Passing May 26, 2014
Location of Interment Mount Calvary Cemetery - Dubuque, Iowa
LCdr, Dr. Newton Chun, MD Hawaii Territorial Guard and ROTC WWII, Korean War, Ret. U.S.N.R
Dr. Newton Chun was born on June 3, 1923 at Queens Hospital in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. Growing up in Hawaii made for idyllic childhood. As a boy, the lush island paradise, including a pristine and undeveloped Waikiki Beach was his backyard and playground. His father died young and his mother, a Korean picture bride*, had to struggle to raise five children on her own during the Great Depression. Wishing for them a better life, she stressed the importance of higher education.
Newton dedicated himself to the rigors of the classroom. After graduating from Farrington High School he enrolled at the University of Hawaii where he hoped to lay the academic groundwork that would enable him to pursue a medical career. However, his plans were interrupted when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
In addition to his academic responsibilities at the University of Hawaii Newton was also a member of the schools venerable Hawaii Territorial Guard. This was the only senior ROTC unit in the country to see active duty during World War II. Cadet Newton Chun assisted the U.S. Armed Forces by lending his services as an ambulance driver. Being in such close contact with wounded soldiers and civilians was a profound experience for a young pre-med student. Not only did it strengthen his resolve to become a doctor, it made him consider the possibility of making surgery his specialty.
During the war years, the University of Hawaii temporarily closed its doors, forcing Newton to abandon his studies. Realizing that the dream of one day becoming a surgeon was in jeopardy, he immediately applied to medical schools on the mainland. In the interim, he worked at nearby Ford Island as an airplane mechanic while he waited for someone in college admissions office to rubber-stamp one of his applications. He was a reporter of university's newspaper, the Ka Leo o Hawaii until 1945. His excellent grades earned him a nod from Northwestern University. It was here where he received his B.S., M.S., and M.D. degrees.
After graduation from Northwestern medical school he fulfilled his surgical residency at nearby Presbyterian Hospital. Fascinated by the rapid advances being made in heart surgery, he decided to focus his attention on this burgeoning medical field. He completed his thoracic residency at Children's Memorial Hospital and the Chicago State Tuberculosis Sanitarium, and a fellowship in cardio-vascular surgery at the world-renowned Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Brown Mills, New Jersey.
After completing his medical training, he married Dubuquer Rosemarie Peschang on December 26, 1952 at Chicago's St. Jarlath's Catholic Church. The couple's marital bliss however was cut short when Newton was drafted into the Korean war after serving on a Pacific tour as Ships Medical Officer. Stationed in San Diego, where he served at the Balboa Naval Hospital. After the war he remained in the Naval Reserve, in Dubuque IA, for 16 years. Honorably discharged, he retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander, the most senior of the junior officer ranks.
Other Comments:
Dr. Newton Chun, MD, was a board certified thoracic surgeon in Dubuque, Iowa.
Certifications & Licensure:
American Board of Thoracic Surgery, Thoracic Surgery.
American Board of Surgery, Surgery.
Awards, Honors, & Recognition:
Fellow (FACS), American College of Surgeons.
Professional Memberships:
American College of Surgeons - ACS, Member.
*The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean) in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States and Canada selecting brides from their native countries via a matchmaker, who paired bride and groom using only photographs and family recommendations of the possible candidates. This is an abbreviated form of the traditional matchmaking process, and is similar in a number of ways to the concept of the mail-order bride.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Attack on Pearl Harbor
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
December / 1941
Description The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940,[19] disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
From the 1950s, several writers alleged that parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may have let it happen (or even encouraged it) with the aim of bringing the U.S. into war. However, this advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
