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The Year in Retrospect LASELLE GILMAN E The old cliché to the effect that “you wouldn’t know the old place now” applies today to Hawaii perhaps more fully than to any other American community. After the first year of war in the Pacific, the Islands have been turned upside down—revolutionized. It has been a bloodless, social revolution (bloodless, that is, except for the opening day), but it has changed not only the manners and customs of the people , and their mental and physical habits, but it has also altered the very face of Hawaii itself to an extent that would probably astonish any Mainland resident who had ever visited the Territory in the past. Former tourists and business visitors, who once arrived in Honolulu and received all the traditional trimmings of a big boat-day aloha—the off-port greetings, leis, the band, hula girls—would have a difficult time reconciling themselves to the welcome they would receive these days, if they were fortunate enough to be able to obtain passage to the Islands at all by the strictly-war-business Army Transport Service. There are, of course, no pleasure tourists at all, now. The few who arrive from the coast are grim war workers, or transportloads of troops. Even established Island residents who happened to be traveling on the Mainland when war began have been unable to return home unless their presence here was proved “necessary to the war effort.” They have settled down in rather disconsolate little colonies along the west coast, apparently for the duration. Travel to Hawaii is by convoy and involves no frills. There are no gay send-off parties, no lights at night, no frivolities. And when the ships slip into port at the end of a quiet, nervous voyage, they discharge passengers and war cargoes hastily, and as hastily reload for the return trip.The new arrival, whether here for his first or his tenth visit, faces a Hawaii of which he had not dreamed, even though he has been a careful reader of newspaper accounts during the past year. 100 First published December 1942. Hawaii was not changed all of a sudden on that sunny December morning last year when the gray planes of Japan, with their identifying circular blood spots on the wings, dove without warning from over the Waianaes and Koolaus to drop death and destruction on Pearl Harbor. The change had been going on for more than a year. It probably started when the Pacific Fleet, without much fanfare, moved into Hawaiian waters and made headquarters here. It was given momentum by the creation of a national emergency. The war in Europe had broken the spell, and for many months between September 1939 and December 1941 Hawaii was going through a metamorphosis. The nature of the city of Honolulu was gradually changing with the slow, steady influx of war workers (we called them defense workers then), soldiers, and sailors. Big defense construction projects were being started. But the war did not touch Hawaii except by passing travelers ’ tales.There were various alarms, particularly because of Hawaii’s geographical position midway between America and the war-torn Orient . The Islands kept their eyes on Japan. Hawaii knows Japan better than does most of America because of her close proximity and because of the thousands of Japanese residents here. In the autumn of 1941 there was an intensification of defense preparations, particularly through the creation of a civilian emergency program in which volunteers were enlisted for key jobs should anything happen. But even the most pessimistic did not really expect the thing to happen as it actually did. Hawaii was in the position of knowing pretty well that a storm was coming, but when the torrent suddenly began to fall, her umbrella was still folded. The facts of December 7—a black Sunday in the history of the Islands—are too well known to bear much repetition now. The attack was made, and there was a terrific toll taken in lives and property, especially at Pearl Harbor, which bore the brunt, and its vicinity. A few bombs, mainly incendiaries, were scattered across the city, starting fires, but the residential areas were largely spared, and the deaths were mainly among Navy personnel.The Army also suffered, but civilian casualties were comparatively light. The attack stunned every person in the Islands. Yet they had made their preparations for it carefully, and when it came, residents almost automatically went to work with...

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