Joined
·
2,139 Posts
My mother was born in Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii and she remembered when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She was 14 yrs. old. She said at first they heard the planes and looked overhead and she thought some of them were so low that they would hit the trees. The whole family stood in amazement at the number of planes. The finally saw the red circles on the planes and didn't realize what was going on until the bombs started exploding, yet they really didn't realize what was going on. Grandpa told them to run to the church across the street. Then the second wave of planes came over and they stood in the church while more bombing went on. They waited for a 3rd wave of planes but none came. They went home that night and Grandpa was told to not turn on the lights, paint the windows black and then they lit candles for light. He had an old rusty shotgun that stood by the door with only a couple of rounds and he was up all night waiting for more to happen. Later on, and I don't remember how long she said, the government was rounding up a lot of their Japanese friends telling them to take a little clothing because they were moving. They knew not where they were going, but would be leaving soon. They had little time to say good bye and then they were gone. They kept the windows black and for a long time they used candles for light at night. Hard to believe that friends were gone and so was the peaceful life style they used to have. Next day Pres. Roosevelt announced that we were at war. Hopefully this will never happen again. Yet it did- we call it 9-11-01.
Tommy
Tommy
