Pearl Harbor Day Day 341 of 2007 24 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “A battle attack, then sleep at mid day.”

DECEMBER 7, 1941: There are far better places to understand what the attack on Pearl Harbor did to Maui, Hawaii, the country and the world, than this website. Whole writing careers have been made investigating the day.

If you live on Maui and haven’t visited Pearl harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, well, it’s about time you did so.

Some items of interest about the day and how it affected Maui which you might not know include:

• All planes and interisland transportation were shut down. You could not even take a private boat to another island. The Navy would sink you and ask questions later.
• The word went out that Japanese saboteurs had landed on Oahu and were going to land on Maui. Neither report turned out to be true.
• All grocery stores and supply depots were ordered shut by marshal law. The military wanted to know what the supplies were. Stores were to inventory their stock, report to the government, and apply for a license to do business during wartime. The military got first dibs.
• Kahoolawe was immediately seized by the military for target practice. The first shelling took place December 8.
• Military tribunals replaced all civilian courts.

Today, we don’t even know if FDR knew about the attack before and let it happen, to ease the country’s way into war.