"December 8, 1941 was a memorable day on the normally quiet Caltech campus....At 10 a.m. we dutifully assembled in Culbertson Hall where our registrar, in full National Guard uniform complete with pistols, gave a most intemperate speech about the dastardly ‘Japs’....Linus Pauling was standing in the back of the hall...and interrupted the speech by bursting out with the question, ‘By what authority have you called this impromptu convocation?’ He then proceeded to remind the registrar that Caltech was known for being a place of thoughtful and factual reason, but the registrar had turned it into a place of pure hysteria. The student body stood up and clapped for Linus. The registrar dismissed the meeting and retreated in some disarray."
Doug Strain. Interview with OSU Libraries Special Collections. 2000.

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