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TI: And so when the attack was over and the planes were gone, then what happened?

HM: The thing just disappeared, the planes just disappeared. Where did they go? And they were gone. I can't tell you how long it was, but they came to do their mission and they were gone. And that's where the, you got scared. It was, you couldn't, you didn't know what to do with yourself, whether you should cry or anything, whether we're going to survive tonight or tomorrow.

TI: And when the planes had left, what sounds, what could you hear at that point?

HM: You can hear them going, going back. We didn't see them going, but you could hear the sound going toward that way, toward Kahuku way.

TI: And then when they got out of range, when you couldn't hear the planes anymore, what sounds were left? Did you hear still explosions?

HM: Yes, some explosion, and the thick oil smell. Then that, that explosion going off here and there, and then my father said, "Oh, I wonder how many guys got killed?" But then we knew it was war. It was a horrible day, horrible day. I hope nobody goes through that.

TI: So this all happened in the morning.

HM: Yeah, in blink of your eye, blink of your eye.

TI: So as the day went on, what happened next, so after the attack?

HM: Everybody was quiet. Everybody was quiet.

TI: Did people go to other houses and check on people?

HM: No. No, we didn't. Nobody in our neighborhood did. 'Cause you didn't want to dare go out because, you know, funny thing, we didn't have, we didn't have telephone and yet we heard stories. It's amazing how rumors fly, even without telephone. We heard that the Japanese gonna invade Ewa Beach, and Ewa Beach is close by, so we were afraid of that. So what my dad did is filled up the burlap bags with whatever dirt, we didn't have that much dirt in our yard. He made some burlap bags and he put it in the bedroom to protect us that night.

KN: So despite being very close to the military barracks, no one came to see you?

HM: No, nobody went out. Nobody ventured out.

KN: I mean, you didn't have visitors even come by, even military personnel come to visit you?

HM: Okay. I don't know how many days later, must've been right away, you see, my, by then the government had rationed gas, so everybody had just ten dollars, ten gallons worth of gas. So my dad still worked for the railroad, so he couldn't come home every day, so weekends he came home.

TI: Oh, so actually you're gonna go to when they do this, but let's stay right, the days right after Pearl, December 7th. So like on that day, were there, like, any military people going through the streets just checking for damage or anything?

HM: No, no, no.

TI: So there was no government officials, no police?

HM: No, no cars, no... no. I don't, when you think about it, I don't think that people knew that people ever lived in Puuloa. I don't think so. I firmly believe that, I don't think so. Maybe the families worried about their families being in Puuloa, but here again, we couldn't call my mother's family because we didn't have telephone yet.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.