Kudos for a dedicated journalist
If it weren't for people like journalist Ah Jook Ku, we wouldn't be here today, so we're not objective when it comes to cheering when "Jookie" won the Honolulu Community Media Council's Fletcher Knebel Award for outstanding contributions to journalism.
In a time when few women and fewer Asians were working in journalism, Ku had a home at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. During the war, she became the first Asian reporter for the Associated Press and later the English editor for the Kuomintang.
She worked in public relations afterwards, but never lost her fondness for her co-workers at the Star-Bulletin. She became one of the leaders of the Save Our Star-Bulletin movement when the newspaper's survival was threatened.
On many levels, thank you, Jookie. And congratulations.
--Mary Poole