On that beautiful morning of December 7, 1941, I got up early and put on my best white uniform. My brother Earl had the weekend duty and I had to stay on the base. He was looking forward to playing baseball before going on watch. We had not gone to breakfast yet and some of the men were still asleep. Others were getting ready to go on watch at our seaplane hangar or on the launching ramp to guard the aircraft. A few men were waiting for the motor launch to take them out to the four aircraft that were tied up to the buoys in the bay so they could relieve the aircraft crews for breakfast. Others were getting ready to attend Sunday worship services.

Suddenly, between 0745 and 0750, we heard the sound of fighter type aircraft flying low over our base then heard the sound of machine gun and cannon fire. These planes seemed to come from the northwest. Someone in the barracks had earlier remarked that they might be Army fighter planes from Bellows Field, which was south if us, giving us a wake up call because a series joint military maneuvers had just been completed. When we saw the red ball insignia on the sides of theseA6M2 Zero fighters we knew they were Japanese. Of course we wondered how the aircraft got there and why they were attacking us. We weren’t at war and negotiations were still going on between the Japanese Ambassador, Admiral Nomura, and our Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and we were certainly not prepared to fight.

Unlike the crews of the ships we did not hear the order to go to our battle stations. At that time we had no assigned battle stations, air raid shelters, fox holes, or stationary gun emplacements. We could only think of running down to the armory to get a gun and shoot back at the invaders.

The eleven Zeros that were commanded by LT. Tadashi and LT. Masco Sato from the aircraft carries Shokaku and Zuikaku completely surprised us and were firing incendiary 7.7mm machine gun bullets and20mm cannon projectiles. The Zeros were flying so low we could see the smiling faces of their pilots very clearly. These were skilled airmen who had much prior experience fighting in China. Their first Kaneohe Bay targets were the four PBYS that were moored in the bay, which they promptly machine gunned and damaged or destroyed, with their incendiary bullets and cannon fire projectiles. Some of the men on board those PBY aircraft managed to swim ashore or were injured or killed. They never had a chance to fire a weapon in their defense.

Groups of men streamed down to the armory or to the hangars dodging bullets and cannon fire and many were hit and carried to the dispensary. I was caught behind an automobile and a group of us managed to run into the firehouse that had brick walls. The only fire truck that was on the station and it was standing outside the firehouse. It was machine gunned and destroyed. At that time an officer called Pearl Harbor and asked for some help because Japanese aircraft was attacking us. The reply was brief; they were being attacked themselves.

The Zero pilots flew back and forth, west to east, firing at stationary aircraft that were on the launching ramp and at other targets. A group of us then attempted to dodge bullets and get to the armory. By the time we did so, there were no more guns to be issued. Sometime during the first attack the six aircraft commanded by Lt. Tadashi Kaneko flew over to Bellows Field and strafed their aircraft. This first wave lasted about forty-five minutes and the remaining Zeros flew of in a southerly direction.

We had about a twenty-minute reprieve and my brother and I, together with officers and other enlisted men trying to extinguish fires in the burning aircraft and moving the less damaged aircraft to locations where they would not be near the spilled fuel and flames. We tried to launch one of the aircraft, which had sustained only minor damage to search for the Japanese aircraft carriers that we were sure were out there. But, before we could get it safely in the bay we were attacked again by 17 Zeros commanded by Lt. Fusata Iida and Lt. Sumio Nono from the aircraft carriers Soryu and Hiryu.

When this new wave of fighters first attacked we were ordered to run and take shelter from the strafing. Most of us ran to the nearest steel hangar that our squadron used for maintenance on our PBYS. At this time I became separated from my brother. Earlier, we attempted to put out the fire on a burning aircraft when I was ordered to help attach some fire hose from the hangar because our lone fire engine had already been destroyed.

Three of us got into the hangar safely while one mans hand was severely injured when he opened the nearby door and it slammed shut by a bomb blast outside the hangar. There were no bombs dropped during the first attack and we didn’t expect any this time. Several bombs were dropped by a group of eighteen bombers, which were commanded by Lt. Tatsuo Ichiharo and Lt. Tautsoma Hagiwara and their concussions set of the sprinkler system in our hangar and started a fire in another. Several of the bombs missed their targets; nevertheless, they still accounted for a terrific amount of damage.

The danger of this bomb attack made us aware that the hangar was not a safe place to be and many of the men ran out to find some other form of refuge. Again, no shelter or ditches could be found. Several of us ran north to an abandon officer’s club and hid under it until it too was machine-gunned. I managed to crawl out and took of my white uniform, because I was told that men in whites were targets. I then crawled under a large thorny bush, which caused some long scratch marks on my body, but for some reason I felt much safer at this point than I had during the attack.

While both fighters and bombers were attacking us some of the enemy planes flew out of our area and attacked Bellows Field again. The entire attack lasted about two hours and fifteen minutes. All the Japanese aircraft left our area and headed in a southerly direction. A friend told me that my brother Earl had been severely injured by bomb shrapnel and that several friends had been killed and many others wounded. Our station Commanding Officer later mentioned in a message to the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, "that his station had a high percentage of new men and they, without exception, lived up to the best traditions of the service. If anything, there their conduct was a trifle too reckless and their disregard for danger undoubtedly increased the number of casualties. It was necessary to constantly to urge the men to scatter and take cover because many of them were so intent on repulsing the attack that they were disregarding the enemy’s fire.

The attack was over although we expected more attacks by air and/or sea. I then ran up to the dispensary to find my brother. I had trouble locating him because of all the injured, dying, and covered bodies in the hallways with much blood and torn clothing on the floors. (This was a dispensary and not a hospital)

Soon after the attack we were told that Japanese parachute forces were now invading the island and they were wearing blue dungarees. We were then ordered to report to an area near the mess hall where large vats of coffee that had not been consumed that morning were wheeled out and we were told to immerse our white uniforms into the coffee to dye them to a brown color so that the color of our uniforms would not be different from that of the invading Japanese parachutists. Years later we learned that a Japanese aircraft disabled a small non-military airplane that was flown by a private pilot who jumped out with a parachute and that he was wearing blue coveralls with red logo of an oil company on the back.

One zero crashed in Kailua Bay and another flown by Lt. Fusata Iida was damaged by U. S. gun fire and crashed on the station. Other aircraft were streaming fuel when they left and it is doubtful that they all rejoined their carrier. Seventeen of our men were killed, sixty-seven were injured and all thirty-three of our aircraft were damaged or destroyed.

The next day we buried our dead (along with Lt. Iida) near Mokapu Point. All of them received full military honors. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on that same day, 8 December 1941.

Preparations for a full-scale war were started, fortifications and anti-aircraft emplacements were built and manned and squadrons from Newfoundland soon supplemented our squadrons. Liberty was granted infrequently and I was fortunate to be assigned a week later to a supply replacement detail to Pearl Harbor where I witnessed the devastation of the United States Fleet. I will never forget!

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