December 1941

I want to give you an idea of what was going on that December. The attack was on a Sunday. The next day, December 8, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced that the United States had declared war on Japan. After that, most of us don't give a second thought about Hawaii or daily life in Hawaii. Hawaii was unlike Mainland U.S. It was a battle zone, it had been attacked, it was under threat of invasion. Martial Law was declared and Hawaii was a Territory under siege. There were subsequent attacks on the Territory and until the Battle of Midway, June 1942, the fear of a land invasion was a realistic threat.

December 1941

December 7
The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.

December 8
U.S. declares war on Japan. All schools in Hawaii are closed until further notice. Some schools are taken over as evacuation centers, hospitals or government offices. Civil court functions are superseded by military law. Court powers are transfered to the Military Governor.

December 9
Grocery stores on Oahu are closed to avoid hoarding of food and all through Hawaii, liquor sales are banned. Three Japanese banks in Honolulu close their doors.

December 10
All Japanese bank accounts are frozen; no withdrawals were allowed.

December 11
Secretary of Navy Knox arrives in Honolulu to investigate how the Pearl Harbor attacks could have taken place.

December 14
Gas stations are closed to prepare for rationing which will begin the next day.

December 15
A Japanese submarine shelled Kahalui, Maui at 5:45 p.m.

December 16
The Matson liner Lurline is taken over by the federal government. The territorial circuit courts, supreme court, and the U.S. district courts are reopened for some civil cases.

December 17
Survivors from the Matson freighter Manini which was sunk by the Japanese about 250 miles from Honolulu are rescued. There was no rescue for most of the "brass" on Oahu. Admiral Kimmel was succeeded as Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet, by Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz; General Short, as Commanding General Hawaiian Department of the Army by Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons; Major General Frederick L. Martin, commanding Army Air Force in Hawaii by Major General Clarence L. Tinker. Mayor Petrie names rent control commission for Honolulu. The first of several groups of survivors of sunken ships (commercial) begin to arrive in Hawaii. Some ships came in under their own power through the entire month and the month of January.

December 18
The military orders the evacuation of all farms in the West Lock district.

December 19
The military orders the evacuation of all residents in the Iwilei district. (There was a fire in the Iwilei district on December 7.)

December 20
The Military Governor freezes the wages of Oahu war workers. In San Francisco, the first emergency shipment of food leaves for Hawaii.

December 21
Air-raid sirens wail in Honolulu for the first air raid alarm of the war.

December 22
A commission headed by Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts arrives in Hawaii to investigate Pearl Harbor.

December 25
The first “blackout Christmas.”

December 27
Registration and fingerprinting of all civilians begins.

December 30
The Japanese attack Hilo, Hawaii, Nawilwili, Kauai and Kahalui, Maui during the night and early morning.

PHOTO: Kalihi area of Honolulu, December 8 (HWRD)