Pearl Harbor

Table of Contents

• Island Paradise
  • Nanea’s Story
• The Melting Pot
  • Nanea’s Story
• Celebrations and Negotiations
  • Nanea’s Story
• A Daring Plan
  • Nanea’s Story
• Surprise Attack!
  • Nanea’s Story
• An Island on Fire
  • Nanea’s Story
• Under Military Control
  • Nanea’s Story
• Americans of Japanese Ancestry
  • Nanea’s Story
• Kokua
  • Nanea’s Story
• Epilogue

Island Paradise

When most people think of Hawaii, they imagine lush tropics, beaches, and palm trees. This is actually pretty accurate. But that’s only part of Hawaii’s beauty. The islands also have majestic mountains, crashing waterfalls, tropical rain forests, and ancient volcanoes. It boasts warm, sunny weather year-round, and is a great place to live and take a vacation.

The people of Hawaii are also warm and welcoming. They call their attitude the aloha spirit. The word aloha can mean many things: hello, goodbye, love, affection. But the aloha spirit is about showing respect and kindness to one another and respecting differences. It means treating others with care and compassion.

Hawaii is an archipelago, which means it’s a group of islands. It is spread across the Pacific Ocean halfway between the United States and Asia. There are 132 islands, but seven of them hold most of the population: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and the Big Island. All of the islands are relatively close to each other, but they’re fairly isolated from the rest of the world. The nearest U.S. neighbor is California, over 2,300 miles away.

Due to Hawaii’s location in the Pacific Ocean, it became the perfect spot for a U.S. naval base. In 1900, Hawaii was a U.S. territory. This meant the U.S. military could build a naval station there. And in 1908, Oahu became the home of naval station Pearl Harbor. This allowed U.S. ships to refill on their way to Asia.

By 1940, although World War II was raging in Europe and Asia, the U.S. was not involved. Although they used Pearl Harbor to practice maneuvers and prepare, in case they were needed, the war felt very far away from them. So they were surprised when the war came to Pearl Harbor instead.

Nanea’s Story

Rose Momi has been Nanea Mitchell’s next-door neighbor for so long that she’s considered part of Nanea’s ‘ohana. Nanea calls her Auntie Rose, and so do Nanea’s best friends, Lily and Donna. Auntie Rose makes beautiful lei, which she sells to tourists on the pier. Today, Auntie Rose is giving Donna a lesson in making lei, and Lily and Nanea are sitting in the lesson.

Auntie Rose hands each girl a basket of flowers, a needle, and crochet thread. She guides the girls through how to slide their needle through the eye of the bloom. While they work, Auntie Rose tells them stories of what it was like to grow up on Oahu when she was a girl, and how she learned to make lei from her tutu, or grandmother.

Donna says one of her favorite things about Hawaii is how people take time to talk. Nanea agrees. They’ve all grown up talking story. Auntie Rose explains that their ancestors didn’t write down their stories. Instead, they told them to one another. Talking story helps keep their past alive, and gives them time to really get to know one another. It’s the way of aloha.

Donna likes it. She says when she’s Auntie Rose’s age, she’s going to talk story to her children and grandchildren about living in Honolulu. But maybe she’ll leave out how badly she makes lei.

Auntie Rose chuckles. There’s a lot of aloha in Donna’s lei.