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23 1 THE BOMBING OF PEARL HARBOR “Like a thunderbolt out of the blue” literally describes the news of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Near the end of 1941, the situation between Japan and the United States had become serious, but most of the people in Hawaii believed something would be done at the last moment and war would be avoided. This was the thinking not only of Japanese here, but also of high-ranking military officials. At around nine o’clock in the morning on December 7 (December 8 in Japan), I was sitting on my porch, relaxing in a yukata (cotton kimono) and reading a magazine as was my habit on Sundays. The telephone rang. It was a coworker calling to say that Japanese planes were attacking Pearl Harbor and that war had broken out. “That’s ridiculous. It must be a training exercise,” I replied, refusing to discuss it further. Sensing that something unusual was up, however, I ran upstairs to the second-floor veranda and looked toward Pearl Harbor, several miles away.1 Antiaircraft guns were roaring; every burst of fire blackened the sky with smoke, which temporarily froze, then formed big, dark clouds. At first I thought these were smoke screens. Huge columns of water were erupting everywhere, just like the ones I had seen during a torpedo exercise on the Sumida River when I was a child.The ghastly black smoke grew thicker and began covering the sky over the harbor. I could hear the thunder of cannon fire. This was quite a bit different from the usual military maneuvers. Soon a big fire was raging near the McCully Tract. More black smoke rose and red flames shot up, but no fire engines rushed to the scene as expected. I 1. Soga lived in a residential area east of downtown Honolulu known as Kaimuki. It is located approximately twelve miles from Pearl Harbor. 24 soga felt this was very strange. About an hour later the news confirmed that the Japanese naval force had launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor at 7:55 that morning. The fire in McCully had been caused by a shell from an American antiaircraft gun. All the fire engines in the city were called to the naval port, so nothing was done about the blaze in town. Several dozen children and adults, most of them Japanese, were killed or injured by shell fragments at the Hawaii Chuo Gakuin (a Japanese language school) in Nuuanu and other places. Many Hawaii Japanese suffered that day.2 I ran down the stairs immediately and switched on the radio. Both KGU and KGMB stations were already broadcasting news about the attack. It must be the real thing, I thought to myself, but I was still not convinced. When I heard “The enemy airplanes bore the mark of the Rising Sun,” my heart began to pound. At the same time, I thought that perhaps they had been German planes in disguise or that the Japanese naval artisans had attacked rashly. I listened to the radio, straining my ears. Orders from the military were read in succession by the announcer. One was for doctors in the city to report at once to various hospitals. Dr. Miyamoto and other Nisei physicians were among those called.3 The orders continued. Civilians were not allowed to use telephones or cars. Although some Japanese had been taken into custody, there was no need for panic because not all Japanese were under arrest. Listeners were advised to boil drinking water because Japanese paratroopers might have poisoned the reservoirs. Finally, it was announced that Governor Poindexter had proclaimed martial law and that it was effective immediately.4 By this time, one of the biggest news stories of the century—the outbreak of war between the United States and Japan—had been broadcast not only in Hawaii, but all over the world. At about 10:00, as I was reading the first extra edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (brought to me by Mr. A of Yokohama Specie Bank), I had a premonition that something was going to happen to me. I usually wore a kimono on Sundays, but I changed to a suit 2. According to documents in the Hawai‘i War Records Depository at the University of Hawai‘i, approximately seventy-two civilians were killed as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack, all by American antiaircraft fire. Thirty-two had Japanese surnames. 3. Dr. Miyamoto was...

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