Pearl Harbor

by Jennifer Swanson

  As the war went on, children, teenagers, and college students continued to help when and where they were needed. Older children looked after younger children when mothers volunteered for the war effort. Kids made homemade cards and cookies for the wounded soldiers in Hawaii. They knitted sweaters and socks for members of the military stationed around the world. Some high school and college students went to work at plantations, picking pineapples and sugarcane. Others worked in offices, factories, or even for the military.

  Children of all ages helped at the United Service Organizations (USO). The USO provided entertainment and relaxation to those serving in the armed forces. Civilians put on shows, dances, and dinners to help boost morale and get people’s minds off the war.

  A group of Japanese American college students who were refused enrollment in the army still wanted to help with the war effort. They formed the Varsity Victory Volunteers. These young men helped rebuild the Schofield Barracks, which were destroyed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. They dug ditches, built roads, and worked in the quarries to get stone for buildings. With so many other men heading off to war, there was a desperate need for people to perform demanding physical tasks.

  The Varsity Victory Volunteers help with war effort, circa 1943

  Throughout the war, there were many injured military men on the island, there was a constant need for blood. Many people were willing to donate blood, but the Red Cross desperately needed bottles for storage. So volunteers, many of them children, organized drives and collected bottles.

  Students are taught first aid at school during a drill in Honolulu

  Regardless of how they helped, many young people worked long hours, continuing to volunteer even after school was back in session. They kept up with their studies and supported the war effort. Their dedication and hard work stemmed from their sense of aloha and their deeply held belief in kokua. As they took on grown-up responsibilities, their experiences changed their carefree island way of life forever.

  For months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the citizens of Hawaii lived in fear of another attack. That changed in June of 1942, when American forces defeated the Japanese at Midway Island. The Battle of Midway was not the end of the war, but it was an important victory. Hawaii was no longer in constant danger of additional Japanese attacks, since the Japanese ships were no longer close by. Islanders breathed a sigh of relief. The worries of war and the rules of martial law still existed, but Hawaii felt safer.

  World War II ended in 1945. The people of Hawaii were eager to return to normal life, but that wasn’t so easy to do. Islanders had been witnesses to war. What they had seen and heard and felt was unforgettable. More than four thousand Americans of Japanese Ancestry had been held in internment camps on the islands. They returned home, but they carried their prison experiences with them. Those who survived the war were forever changed because of it.

  Today, the USS Arizona still rests at the bottom of the harbor. It is now a national historic landmark, and more than a million people from all over the world visit it each year. They come to pay their respects to the people who gave their lives on that fateful day in history: December 7, 1941.

  Archipelago — a group of islands

  Barracks — a building or group of buildings where soldiers live

  Censor — to examine letters, phone calls, books, etc., in order to remove anything considered harmful

  Civil rights — the rights every person should have, no matter what his or her race, gender, ethnicity, or religion may be

  Civilian — a person who is not a member of the military

  Discrimination — when a person or group is treated unfairly, often because of race, gender, or religion

  Diverse — made up of things different from one another

  Internment camps — areas where many Americans of Japanese Ancestry were forced to stay after the attack on Pearl Harbor, many for years, until World War II ended

  Isolated — separate; alone

  Martial law — when the military has full control of an area

  Negotiate — to discuss in order to arrive at an agreement

  Radar — a device that uses radio waves to determine the position of a moving object

  Hawaiian Terms

  Aloha (ah-LO-hah) — can mean hello, goodbye, love, affection. The aloha spirit is about showing kindness and respect to one another and accepting differences.

  Kokua (KOH-KOO-ah) — a good deed; helping others without expectation of reward or praise

  Lei (LAY) — a handmade garland of flowers, leaves, shells, or feathers

  Luau (LOO-ow) — a traditional Hawaiian celebration that marks a special occasion

  ‘Ohana (oh-HAH-nah) — family

  Tutu (TOO-too) — grandparent, usually grandmother

  Tutu Kane (TOO-too KAH-nay) — grandfather

  Allen, Gwenfread. Hawaii’s War Years: 1941–1945. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1950.

  Bailey, Beth and David Farber. The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

  Green, Thomas H. “Martial Law in Hawaii.” Martial Law in Hawaii Dec 7, 1941–April 4, 1943, 1943, doi: Library of Congress, official military document.

  Kimble, James J. Mobilizing the Home Front: War Bonds and Domestic Propaganda. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2006.

  Lord, Walter. Day of Infamy. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001.

  McKinnon, Shaun. “Attack on the USS Arizona: 14 Minutes and a Lifetime.” Pensacola News Journal, December 7, 2014. http://www.pnj.com/story/news/military/2014/12/06/uss-arizona-pearl-harbor/19986311/.

  Nicholson, Dorinda Makanaõnalani. Pearl Harbor Child: A Child’s View of Pearl Harbor: From Attack to Peace. Kansas City, Missouri: Woodson House Publishing, 2001.

  Nicholson, Dorinda Makanaõnalani. Remember World War II: Kids Who Survived Tell Their Stories. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2006.

  Oaks, Robert F. Hawaii: A History of the Big Island. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

  Odo, Franklin. No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawaii During World War II. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press, 2004.

  Prange, Gordon W. et al. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

  Richardson, K. D. Reflections of Pearl Harbor: An Oral History of December 7, 1941. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2005.

  Rodriggs, Lawrence Reginald. We Remember Pearl Harbor. Newark, California: Communications Concepts, 1991.

  Rothman, Lily. “Powerful Stories of the Japanese-American Children Who Witnessed Pearl Harbor.” Time magazine, December 6, 2016. http://www.time.com/4589051/pearl-harbor-children/.

  Scheiber, Harry N. and Jane L. Scheiber. Bayonets in Paradise: Martial Law in Hawaii During World War II. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2016.

  Tranquada, Jim and John King. The ‘Ukulele: A History. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2012.

  “A View of Daily Life at Honouliuli Internment Camp. ca. 1945 Photo by R.H. Lodge, Courtesy Hawaii’s Plantation Village. Honouliuli Internment Camp.” National Park Service, Honolulu, Hawaii. http://www.nps.gov/hono/learn/historyculture/index.htm.

  Wohlstetter, Roberta. Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1962.

  Wortman, Marc. “The Children of Pearl Harbor.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, December 5, 2016. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/children-pearl-harbor-180961290/.

  “WWII Living History Group.” WWII USO Preservation Association. http://www.ww2uso.org/history.html.

  1937 – Japan invades China, starting World War II in the Pacific

  1939 – Germany invades Poland, starting World War II in Europe

  1940 – The United States imposes sanctions and embargoes on Japan

  1941, December 7*

  7:02
a.m. – Private George Elliott notices an unusual blip on the radar machine

  7:39 a.m. – Transportation arrives to take the radar operators back to base, and the radar machine is shut down

  7:50 a.m. – The first wave of Japanese fighter planes begin the attack on Pearl Harbor

  8:06 a.m. – The USS Arizona is hit, killing thousands of men in the explosion

  10:00 a.m. – The Japanese planes retreat, leaving destruction and chaos in their wake

  10:30 a.m. – Both military personnel and civilians jump into action, taking the injured to the hospital in droves

  11:41 a.m. – All radio stations on the islands go silent

  3:00 p.m. – Hawaiian governor J. B. Poindexter declares a state of emergency

  3:30 p.m. – Radio stations come back on the air briefly to announce that the Hawaiian islands are now under martial law

  1941, December 8 – The United States joins World War II by declaring war on Japan

  1942 – American forces defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Midway, ending the threat of another attack on the islands

  1943 – The US military ban on Americans of Japanese Ancestry is lifted

  1945 – Japan formally surrenders, bringing World War II to an end

  About the Author

  Jennifer Swanson is the award-winning author of more than 30 nonfiction and fiction books for children. She has received recognition from the National Science Teachers Association, the California Reading Association, the Junior Library Guild, Booklist, and the Pennsylvania Tri-State Young Adult Review Committee. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Jennifer proudly served in the U.S. Navy for nine years and is currently a middle school science instructor.

  Read on for a sneak peek at another book in the Real Stories From My Time series: The Boston Tea Party

  December 16, 1773. As day broke in Boston, thick clouds covered the city. A bone-chilling rain kept many of its sixteen thousand residents huddled under wool blankets in their houses. One by one they rose, stoking the coals in their fireplaces to stir up a bit of heat. Soon they’d put the kettles on for cups of … something warm.

  What they really wanted was a cup of tea. Throughout the thirteen colonies, or the original thirteen states, the belly-warming brew was a favorite drink. And not just on cold winter mornings—on hot summer afternoons, too, and crisp fall evenings, and rainy spring days. Anytime was teatime for the colonists of the New World. In fact, they consumed up to one million pounds a year.

  At least, they did until all the trouble started brewing. In those days, the American colonies belonged to Britain, so they had to live by King George III’s rules, which wasn’t so bad at first. But then Britain started running out of money, so King George decided to impose all sorts of taxes on the colonists. The money the tax agents collected would go to Britain.

  But instead of giving in to King George’s demands, many colonists decided to fight back. Still, other colonists remained loyal British subjects. These people were called “friends of government.”

  Many Patriots, who were people against British control of the colonies, lived in the city of Boston. Patriots there often led loud marches protesting King George’s taxes. One tax in particular made the Patriots really angry: the tea tax. This was an extra fee the colonists had to pay for all tea shipped in from England.

  Many Patriots decided to boycott English tea, which means that they refused to buy it. Others made threats against the tax agents whose job it was to collect the tax added on to the cost of the tea.

  But tea from England kept coming, including a huge shipment that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the fall of 1773. Three ships, packed with crates of tea, sat off the docks in Boston Harbor. Because of the fight over the tea tax, no one would unload the shipment.

  All over the city, handbills were posted to trees and buildings that read, “Friends! Brethren! Countrymen! That worst of plagues, the detested TEA … is now arrived in this harbor.” For three weeks, Patriot leaders asked the ships’ captains to turn around and sail back to Britain. But the British captains wouldn’t budge.

  December 16, 1773, was the deadline. If the ships remained in the harbor, the colonists would have no choice but to pay the tea taxes—or be fined or thrown in jail. Yet the Patriots refused to back down. They believed the freedom of the colonies was at stake.

  “If we give in to this unfair tax from King George, more injustices will surely follow,” angry Patriots warned.

  As the people of Boston emerged from their houses that frigid December morning, and looked at the tea-laden ships looming in the harbor, little did they know that the events of the day, which would come to be known as the Boston Tea Party, would lead to the birth of the United States of America.

  The story of Felicity Merriman starts in 1773, just before the American Revolution. Felicity is a spunky girl growing up in the city of Williamsburg, in the colony of Virginia. She loves helping her father in his general store. Lately, though, Felicity has heard heated arguments in her father’s store. Some customers resent paying taxes to the king of England. Others believed that the colonists must obey their king no matter what. Also, many of the goods that flow into Mr. Merriman’s store from all over the world—such as tea, tableware, and fine silk—cost more now because they come from England. The higher prices make the customers unhappy.

  Hoping to speak to other importers and merchants and find a solution to this problem, Mr. Merriman and Felicity are sailing from Virginia up to the big city of Boston, Massachusetts.

  Boston Harbor is a large port, and many of the goods shipped from England to the colonies arrive first in Boston. Because of this, Boston has become the site of protests against England and the king. Little do Felicity and her father know that they are sailing into the most dangerous adventure of their lives.

  Although Felicity is a fictional character, her story will help you understand why the Boston Tea Party happened and imagine what it was like to be there.

  Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Special thanks to Dr. Derek Frisby

  Photos ©: back cover: Library of Congress; Chapter 1: Peter Hermes Furian/Alamy Stock Photo, Historical/Getty Images; Chapter 2: Hawaiian Historical Society, Chronicle of World History/Alamy Stock Photo, CPA Media-Pictures from History/The Granger Collection; Chapter 3: The Granger Collection; Chapter 4: AFP/Stringer/Getty Images, TopFoto/The Image Works; Chapter 5: Courtesy Nicholson family, Library of Congress; Chapter 6: Library of Congress, Associated Press/AP Images; Chapter 7: National Archives and Records Administration, Bettmann/Getty Images, Associates Press/AP Images; Chapter 8: Myron Davis/Getty Images, Associated Press/AP Images, Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo; Chapter 9: Pacific Stock/First Light, Associated Press/AP Images

  Illustrated by Kelley McMorris

  © 2018 American Girl. All American Girl marks, Nanea™, Nanea Mitchell™, Felicity™, and Felicity Merriman™ are trademarks of American Girl. Used under license by Scholastic Inc.

  First printing 2018

  Cover design by Suzanne LaGasa

  Cover art by Kelley McMorris

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-15227-2

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  * Times for the day of the attack are in local Hawaiian time and in some cases are estimated as closely as possible based on v
arious accounts and military reports.