Survivors of Pearl Harbor Remember Dark Days
Charles Johnson
Fri Dec 7, 2007 at 8:33 am PST • Views: 523
Fox has an interesting article on the pervasive fear that gripped the islands of Hawaii in the days after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, at a time when war touched the personal lives of all Americans: Survivors Recall Living in Fear After Pearl Harbor Attack.
HONOLULU — Children carried gas masks to the playground. Military officers commanded civilian courts under martial law. Residents feared enemy troops would parachute into the mountains and then swarm the beaches.
This year’s 66th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor offers reminders of how the assault upended the lives of Hawaiian civilians, in addition to the severe damage inflicted on the military.
“It was scary,” said Joan Martin Rodby, who had to carry a gas mask everywhere as a 10-year-old — even as she sat for her fifth-grade class portrait in 1942. “It was more or less living in constant fear they were always going to come back.”
Annual remembrances of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack often evoke images of burning ships in Pearl Harbor and exploding planes at Hickam Field. This year’s observance will be no different. But the plight of civilians who survived the attack has attracted more attention because of deepening interest in the home front during World War II.
“Maybe the unsung heroes that we should remember and look at are the civilians that endured the attack on Pearl Harbor and the years after it,” said Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the USS Arizona Memorial.
Frank says: