Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Military
Forever changed the lives of Japanese-Americans
For them, the surprise attack on Hawaii was a teremendous shock
Their lives were changed overnight
From Amerian citizens, to the equal enemy, the Japanese, who carried out the attack

I was right in the area where I saw those bombings, actually saw
It just happened that because I was a welder and we were building the underground fuel storage in Pearl Harbor
We actually saw all the bombing and I actually saw Battleship Arizona getting hit the wreck
And also Battleship Oklahoma getting was hit the wreck

I was uh, first sergeant of company B of the ROTC regiment
And when that was converted into the Hawaii territory of guard
The whole organization and structure, and rank and everything
Was uh, converted into the Hawaii territory of guard
The service in the Hawaii territory of guard was quite short
You know, the Pentagon, it discovered to their horror that
Hawaii, Honolulu was being guarded by hundreds of Japs in American uniform
And uh, the 80% of the Hawaii territory of guard was discharged

Yeah I remember our company commander was a man named Nolly Smith
Uh, he was black by the way
He was the one who had to tell us that, we were being inactivated
I mean, they use that fancy word, but actually we're fired you know
But uh, the unit was inactivated
So Captain Nolly Smith gathered us and he had to tell us
And when he told us, you know, he shed tears
And of course we, we also cried too, you know
We all felt so bad