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Warning—Take Heed TIM WARREN E It was a blustery morning in March 1942. The hour was 2:15 A.M. In the dead hours. A silver moon rode high above the scudding clouds. Blackout. A large majority of folks were asleep. Out of the deep night came a muffled rumble, accompanied by a quake. Another muffled rumble, more like an explosion than its predecessor. A third, even more pronounced, with doors rattling, walls creaking, and through it all the swishing of rushing air. Scene is Honolulu. More immediate scene, the slopes of Tantalus. Immediate result: mystery. Came the daylight hours, and residents living within a mile of Roosevelt High School talked and speculated on what they had heard and felt. Residents in the immediate vicinity of Roosevelt High School were taking inventory. Some found shell fragments on their porches and in their yards. One man said he scooped up some powder. Wandering a little farther from the doorsteps, they located newly made craters. Trees were torn apart. Branches were nipped off. The underbrush was parted, disentangled, pushed over. More craters—one, two, three—and then the fourth. Army officers inspected the new holes in the Tantalus terrain.They were strung along, separated by short distances. They examined the fragments of metal that littered the scene. Undoubtedly a plane had been overhead. It had been flying high. A lone raider. Or was it alone? At least, only one got over the island. Searchlights had probed the sky. Residents had heard the hum of motors. But the unknown visitor went on his way. Where did he come from? Where did he go? Lucky for Honolulu that the bombs fell in the woods and brush of the mountain. Lucky for Honolulu that clouds were floating between the plane and his supposed objectives. Lucky for all of us that the city 52 First published April 1942. was blacked out completely. But a warning—a serious warning—that if one enemy bomber could slip in over the city in the dead hours, others may attempt to do likewise. Not that the plane surprised the authorities. The army and navy expect almost anything to happen. The fact that it got through does not mean that the trick can be repeated with facility. Nevertheless, we have had our warning. However, that was one of scores of warnings. Every day brings a new caution, a new signal, something else again to whet our preparedness. Everything that is happening in Java, in the Philippines, in New Guinea, and in Australia is a warning fully as vital and as important as that of an enemy plane flying over our islands. Nobody doubts for a single moment but that Japan, unless crushed meantime, or crippled badly, will attempt an invasion of Hawaii. Every success in the Pacific Southwest brings her just that much nearer. We may not like to look at it in this manner, but the truth cannot be easily disputed. All opposition out of his way in Malaya, Burma, and the Netherland East Indies, why will the enemy hesitate to attack Hawaii? He will not hesitate, unless our islands are so strongly fortified and guarded by land and sea and in the air that any enemy would hesitate to come against them. Every appearance of Japanese submarines in the Eastern Pacific constitutes a warning. Every movement of Japanese armed forces in China is a warning. The United States Army is not being fooled. The United States Navy is alert. No matter what force the Nipponese will send this way, it will be met savagely, squarely, and in devastating thoroughness. Don’t get any other idea. The army and navy need no warning. It is the complacency that exists among certain residents that should be jolted into a realization of what portends. “It happened once. It can never happen again,” is a common expression . Perhaps so—and we hope so—even believe so—but we can’t take anything for granted. The army and navy are not taking anything for granted. A majority of civilians are not taking anything for granted either. To those few who are, we would say: We are at War. We are in a strategic spot. The enemy desires that we be eliminated. Be on the alert. Be ready for anything. When warned, take heed.” War!—1942 53 ...

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