Mom, Dad, my baby brother and me in our front yard before the attack.

Writes Pearl Harbor Child author Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson:

“It was so close to the harbor that Mom could walk to her new job at the Pan American World Airways Clipper Base. On work days, she could come home for lunch with my baby brother, Ishmael and our dog, Hula Girl. I was away in kindergarten at Sacred Hearts Convent, and Dad was at work at the Honolulu Post Office. The year was l940.

“In those days, children and their parents who came to Hawaii by airplane flew directly to Pearl Harbor’s waters and landed right on the water in a seaplane. The seaplanes, called “China Clippers,” looked like flying boats, with four enormous propellers. After the seaplane landed, it would taxi up to a pier just like a motor boat. It would anchor just like a boat, and the passengers would get off onto a rough wooden dock. Mom could clearly see the seaplanes in the harbor from her desk in the library of the Pan American World Airways offices.

The huge Pan American seaplanes landed right on the calm waters of Pearl Harbor, just a few hundred yards from our home

“To be a child of the harbor was special. My friends and I would take our nets down to the piers where the airplanes were moored, and drop them into the shiny water to catch crabs. The best bait was fish heads, and we tied them to the center of the circular net to lure the crabs. I wanted the best bait, aku heads, so I could attract the most crabs, and especially Samoan crabs, which were the largest of all.

“In the fall of l94l, I began first grade at Sacred Hearts Convent in Nu’uanu. But I wouldn’t finish out the year there, because of events that were beyond my control, even beyond imagining!

“Meanwhile, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, the ships of Japanese Admiral Nagumo’s Kido Butai (striking force) were making their way eastward through heavy weather and tossing wintry seas toward the Hawaiian Islands.

“In that armada, four aircraft carriers would provide a portable airfield for 350 bombers, torpedo planes and Zero fighters. Their deadly mission – to attack the American fleet, peacefully anchored in Pearl Harbor, a few hundred yards from my home!”

Next: The Attack