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Every Sunday at 6:00am with what little money Obaban (As Grandmother was called) had, we would walk to downtown Honolulu which was just a short distance away. I remember as a five year old, the shops overflowed with noise of people, bartering and negotiating prices, this was an exciting time.
At some point, I wondered why it started to rain. I asked Obaban; "Why is it raining", at which she replied in her broken English and with a spattering of Japanese words; "That's not rain, those are bullets". I heard airplanes flying, looking up, I was very excited yet in knew something was not right. Obaban had said the bullets are from those planes, I could not understand why the Americans wanted to shoot at us. When I ventured to ask this question, she immediately replied; "Those are not American planes, those are Japanese planes". I still remembered the red dot on the side of the Mistubishi Zero, that's how close they were. At five years old, I was afraid but could not truly comprehend what was about to occur.
We rushed home, Obaban grabbed every single document written in Japanese and her pictures of our family, all this was tossed together in a pile and burned. This was an ominous sign to what I saw next, black smoke billowed from a distance with sounds of explosions. The chaos came from the area that I knew was Pearl Harbor. After realizing this was an attack, I then heard the air raid sirens blare, it took that long before the military and the then US Territory civil emergency unit to turn the air raid sirens on. My uncle was a amateur ham radio operator whom would assist the US military with occasional messages, the American soldiers knew of his hobby and would frequent his home to send messages back to the US mainland. He was immediately arrested and placed in prison. My dad was led around our home with a soldier behind him that held a gun to his head. The soldier questioned of how many were living in our home and ransacked everything in search of nothing. Obaban told me to be quiet and from that point on, not to say a single word in Japanese. I was to use only english from now on.
Within days, we were relocated to an area that was far from the downtown Honolulu city area that I so enjoyed my Sunday walks with Obaban. We realized that we were living too close to Pearl Harbor, the military feared of spies and moved the Japanese population out of that perimeter. They could not rid the majority of the population of Japanese Americans to move to camps in California, that would be a huge undertaking and very costly. They did the next best thing, to move us as far away as possible from Pearl Harbor and any other military installation. What little we had, I so cherished was now a distant memory. Obaban had done what she had been doing her whole life, picking up the pieces and starting over. Her determination, discipline, positive attitude, and the love and patriotism for the United State of America the country that adopted her, gave me a stronger conviction. I would do my best as a Sansei (Son-Say) third generation of Japanese Americans, to represent with honor the Miura family name.
Allan T. Miura Sr.
December 7, 1941
We had a relative by marriage that fought during WWII. The US military felt that Japanese Americans would not fight and shoot their own, it wasn't till much later in the war that a battalion was created and made up of nothing but Japanese Americans save for their commander. This battalion was sent to Europe, till this day, they had the highest casualty rate yet also has the distinction of being the most decorated unit in the US military. I was shocked that those whom served in the military were told of the heroic accomplishments that these men gave their lives for. They even helped find the famed "Lost Battalion" in the "Battle of the Bulge". The battalion is the 442nd.
Pearl Harbor, "A day which will live in infamy" speech by FDR, the atrocities at the concentration camps in Eastern Europe, and the two atom bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII should not and never again be repeated. Yet we as a human race, continuously march into this madness. History does repeat itself, when we can learn from our past history, we can then cut out this cancerous cycle of death and destruction.
Hawaii at that time still had a small population of Hawaiian ancestry, the majority of Hawaiians died from diseases that they had no immunity to. In the end, many had intermarried and assimilated with the ever growing mix of people that made up the population in Hawaii. From that time, the majority of the population was made up of Japanese ancestry. Even the high school Mrs. Toshi and I graduated from, Mckinley High School was known as "Tokyo High". The next large segment of the population included were Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, and people from other island nations. It was common to find someone that had all the different mixes of nationality. It truly was a melting pot.
If anyone decides to go there for a vacation, throw out your diet plan. Honolulu has the best culinary experience from the East and West. Although some of the top notch restaurants are of fame, it's the local eateries that you must truly sample. Only at these places will you feel and understand what the locals call Ohana, Family!
Toshi
At some point, I wondered why it started to rain. I asked Obaban; "Why is it raining", at which she replied in her broken English and with a spattering of Japanese words; "That's not rain, those are bullets". I heard airplanes flying, looking up, I was very excited yet in knew something was not right. Obaban had said the bullets are from those planes, I could not understand why the Americans wanted to shoot at us. When I ventured to ask this question, she immediately replied; "Those are not American planes, those are Japanese planes". I still remembered the red dot on the side of the Mistubishi Zero, that's how close they were. At five years old, I was afraid but could not truly comprehend what was about to occur.
We rushed home, Obaban grabbed every single document written in Japanese and her pictures of our family, all this was tossed together in a pile and burned. This was an ominous sign to what I saw next, black smoke billowed from a distance with sounds of explosions. The chaos came from the area that I knew was Pearl Harbor. After realizing this was an attack, I then heard the air raid sirens blare, it took that long before the military and the then US Territory civil emergency unit to turn the air raid sirens on. My uncle was a amateur ham radio operator whom would assist the US military with occasional messages, the American soldiers knew of his hobby and would frequent his home to send messages back to the US mainland. He was immediately arrested and placed in prison. My dad was led around our home with a soldier behind him that held a gun to his head. The soldier questioned of how many were living in our home and ransacked everything in search of nothing. Obaban told me to be quiet and from that point on, not to say a single word in Japanese. I was to use only english from now on.
Within days, we were relocated to an area that was far from the downtown Honolulu city area that I so enjoyed my Sunday walks with Obaban. We realized that we were living too close to Pearl Harbor, the military feared of spies and moved the Japanese population out of that perimeter. They could not rid the majority of the population of Japanese Americans to move to camps in California, that would be a huge undertaking and very costly. They did the next best thing, to move us as far away as possible from Pearl Harbor and any other military installation. What little we had, I so cherished was now a distant memory. Obaban had done what she had been doing her whole life, picking up the pieces and starting over. Her determination, discipline, positive attitude, and the love and patriotism for the United State of America the country that adopted her, gave me a stronger conviction. I would do my best as a Sansei (Son-Say) third generation of Japanese Americans, to represent with honor the Miura family name.
Allan T. Miura Sr.
December 7, 1941
We had a relative by marriage that fought during WWII. The US military felt that Japanese Americans would not fight and shoot their own, it wasn't till much later in the war that a battalion was created and made up of nothing but Japanese Americans save for their commander. This battalion was sent to Europe, till this day, they had the highest casualty rate yet also has the distinction of being the most decorated unit in the US military. I was shocked that those whom served in the military were told of the heroic accomplishments that these men gave their lives for. They even helped find the famed "Lost Battalion" in the "Battle of the Bulge". The battalion is the 442nd.
Pearl Harbor, "A day which will live in infamy" speech by FDR, the atrocities at the concentration camps in Eastern Europe, and the two atom bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII should not and never again be repeated. Yet we as a human race, continuously march into this madness. History does repeat itself, when we can learn from our past history, we can then cut out this cancerous cycle of death and destruction.
Hawaii at that time still had a small population of Hawaiian ancestry, the majority of Hawaiians died from diseases that they had no immunity to. In the end, many had intermarried and assimilated with the ever growing mix of people that made up the population in Hawaii. From that time, the majority of the population was made up of Japanese ancestry. Even the high school Mrs. Toshi and I graduated from, Mckinley High School was known as "Tokyo High". The next large segment of the population included were Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, and people from other island nations. It was common to find someone that had all the different mixes of nationality. It truly was a melting pot.
If anyone decides to go there for a vacation, throw out your diet plan. Honolulu has the best culinary experience from the East and West. Although some of the top notch restaurants are of fame, it's the local eateries that you must truly sample. Only at these places will you feel and understand what the locals call Ohana, Family!
Toshi