Pearl Harbor
Surprise Attack!
On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Honolulu sky was blue and clear. Islanders were sleeping late, attending church services, or relaxing with their families. Then suddenly, without warning, Japanese planes appeared, and bombs began to fall.
Dorinda Makanaõnalani Nicholson was six years old at the time. She was sitting down to breakfast with her parents and baby brother, Ishmael, when they heard a loud explosion overhead. Dorinda and her parents raced outside to see the sky filled with planes. They were dark green with large orange-red disks: Japanese fighter planes.
They were flying very low, just above the rooftops. Dorinda could feel the hot exhaust from the plane’s engines. The roar of the engines muffled the sound of the bullets that struck the house. The kitchen caught fire. Her parents grabbed her and Ishmael and hustled them to the car.
As they drove away from Pearl Harbor, they passed military vehicles and men rushing towards the base. Finally, at the far end of the harbor, Dorinda’s father stopped the car.
Dorinda never forgot the enormous battleship upside down in the water. Other ships were burning uncontrollably. Thick black smoke rose into the air, and the water was a fireball as oil leaked from the ships and burned.
The attack happened just before 8am, by 183 Japanese planes. They bombed the unattended U.S. fighter planes that sat on the airfields. They dropped bombs on the ships docked on Battleship Row. The first wave of attack damaged every single battleship. The USS West Virginia sank and the USS Oklahoma exploded and rolled over, trapping hundreds of men inside. The USS Arizona took a direct hit to its ammunition compartment, which then exploded, breaking the ship in two and sinking in less than fifteen minutes. More than 1,100 sailors were killed on the USS Arizona.
By the time the attack was over, just before 10am, more than twenty-one U.S. Navy ships and over 300 planes had been damaged or destroyed. The surprise attack killed 2,335 military personnel and wounded 1,143.
More than sixty civilians were killed. The attack was felt across the island. Even people far away from Pearl Harbor heard the sounds of gunfire and had bombs dropped on their farms. Children huddled together with their families, terrified and wondering what was happening. They heard the planes zooming overhead, and cringed when explosions rippled through the air and fireballs surged into the sky. In less than two hours, the lives of all Hawaiians had changed.
Nanea’s Story
Nanea is frozen as one loud boom after another shatters the quiet morning. Thick columns of oily black punch bruises in the blue sky.
Suddenly, David, Nanea’s brother, flies out of the house and pulls Nanea inside. David says he has no idea what’s happening. Mom is on the sofa, and she pulls her children close. Papa turns on the radio. The announcer interrupts the program to call all army, navy, and marine corps personnel to duty.
For the next fifteen minutes, the announcer repeats his message. Everyone stays silent while listening to the radio and the noises from outside. Police officers and firefighters are ordered to report next. But the announcer never explains what’s going on.
Papa stands up. He’s going to go to the shipyard. Mom protests; Papa isn’t military. Papa is a welder at the Pearl Harbor shipyard. He figures they’ll need civilian workers, too.
Nanea looks at the clock: 8:35. This is when they’re supposed to be sitting down for her special surprise breakfast. But instead, she trembles as if she’s sitting on an icebox.
Papa has been gone five minutes when the announcer shouts over the radio, “This is no maneuver. This is the real McCoy. Enemy airplanes have attacked.”