by Sarah M. Sogi

Sarah Sogi kindly sent us her recollection of Dec. 7, 1941, which had been printed in New York Nichibei, a local paper, when it called for readers to send in their recollections of Dec. 7, 1941 

 With trembling hands, I pointed a shaky camera out the window to take camera out the window to take a picture. It was December 7, 1941, early on a Sunday morning, and the block of houses across from ours was burning very fiercely. I had heard over the radio that "This is the real McCoy! This is not a drill!". 

Hawaii had been attacked by the Japanese!

We found out later that our own anti-aircraft shells had fallen short over Honolulu. Mckully & King Streets was one of the unfortunate places that had been hit. It was right across the street from our home and I was very scared as  I took the pictures.

I had begun my freshman year at the University of Hawaii. Sundays were treasured days for sleeping late but t was not to be on his fatal day. We stayed close to home and hosed down the house, as it was very hot from the flames across the street. I saw a woman crawling out of the flames. It was hours before any fire engines or ambulances came, for they were all busy at Pearl Harbor.

War years at the University were a drag with all the male students not around. They were all out on ROTC duty, or with the Territorial Guard from which they were summarily dismissed if they were Japanese Americans. The disappointed and restless young students formed a Varsity Victory Volunteer Corps, which joined the famous 442nd Battalion of Japanese Americans all. The volunteers were eager to help in any way they could to help with the war effort, even if it meant digging ditches or any menial work, which much of it turned out to be. They were the cream of the crop of the campus and it emptied the campus of most males - a most lonesome and discouraging aspect for all of the female students.

As the last of six kids going off to the big city from a home in Kona, Hawaii, we left the two elderly folks  alone to cope as best they could. What they felt we do not know. We were not able to travel then, but our parents continued their humble lives without much upheaval. They were not rounded up into camps as were their counterparts on the west coast of the U.S., even though Hawaii was the very front of World War II at the time. They raised all of us to be good Christian American citizens, to be good hardworking, honest and moral children. Three of us finished the university, while the two eldest helped us out. One married in mid-university days and was married to the first Japanese American to become an Army Chaplain. He served in Europe with the 442nd boys.

#57 Parkway Vol.6 No.6 December 1992