On December 7, 1941, Honolulu was a one newspaper town, and that paper was the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Certainly there were other papers printed on that day—the Neighbor Islands had newspapers with healthy circulations, and the foreign language newspapers had a thriving network, but the other “big” newspaper, the Honolulu Advertiser, never put out an issue. And on the following morning, Monday, December 8, 1941 when they finally did put out a war issue, the headlines confirmed false rumors of “Saboteurs Land Here!” and “Raiders Return in Dawn Attack.”

The Advertiser’s problems didn’t start the morning of the attack, but during the dark hours of the night before when a gear sheared on their printing press, completely shutting down their operation. As soon as Henry Herrick, the department superintendent, figured out the press couldn’t be fixed, he called over to the Nippu-Jiji, the Japanese language newspaper to ask if the Advertiser could use their press. The Nippu-Jiji was close by on Bethel Street and they used similar equipment so it seemed like a good idea. The pressman at the Advertiser made asbestos mats of the complete edition and ran them over to the Nippu-Jiji.

George Chapin writes: “By the time the curved metal plates for the press had been cast, by pumping molted lead into the asbestos mats, it was about 8 a.m. Strange noises were heard from outside and the Japanese pressmen and the Advertiser people went out of the building to see what was happening. The December 7 Sunday Advertiser never went to press. Even if it had, its contents had been overtaken by one of the greatest, albeit tragic news stories in American history.” (Presstime in Paradise, page 200)

While the pressmen of the newspapers had a good working relationship, there is an irony in that the Advertiser would call on the Nippu-Jiji for assistance, given that the Advertiser had a deep anti-Japanese attitude and that that attitude was, according to Chapin, “a dominant feature of the paper’s policy.”

At the Star-Bulletin that morning, Editor Riley Allen was at his desk at the Merchant Street office. He immediately called in his reporters and production people, and within two hours of the final attack they put out three EXTRA EDITIONS.

Riley put aside newspaper rivalry and allowed the Honolulu Advertiser to use the Star-Bulletin’s presses to put out its December 8, 1941 issue. It was a gracious offer that the Advertiser editors probably regretted. On that day, the Advertiser ran the false stories of Japanese saboteurs landing on the North Shore and Japanese paratroopers


















dropping in near St. Louis Heights.

The alarm caused by that edition moved U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel K.J. Fielder, Chief of Intelligence, to summon the Advertiser’s publisher and editor to his office and announce that if there was any repetition of such irresponsible journalism, the paper would be shut down.

The Military Governor immediately imposed a severe censorship of the Hawaii newspapers. On December 11, 1941, the Japanese language papers the Nippu-Jiji and the Hawaii Hochi were shut down. They were allowed to reopen a few weeks later in January. During 1942, the Nippu-Jiji changed its name to the Hawaii Times and the Hawaii Hochi became the Hawaii Herald.

Due to the imposed evening curfew, the Advertiser’s street-sale evening edition was abolished. But business was good for the newspapers during the war. The circulation of the Advertiser zoomed from approximately 29,000 to 139,000 and the Star-Bulletin went from 45,000 to 153,000. But once peace was declared and the hunger for immediate news was abated, circulation dropped almost half (67,000) at the Advertiser and about 40% (92,000) at the Star-Bulletin.

Despite it all, both newspapers survived, and continued to survive through economic downtown and challenges of electronic-platform journalism. The Honolulu Advertiser founded in 1856 as the Pacific Commercial Advertiser continues. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is the “oldest continuously published daily newspaper in Hawaii” founded in 1882. Depending on the events of this week, both newspaers may not have survived and Honolulu may become/has become a one newspaper town.

Random Acts of Heroism

This website celebrates the spontaneous acts of kindness and heroism of “ordinary woman” of Hawaii during World War II. They each offered their best skills.

For some of us, the first impulse is to make food to console and aid: During the first week after the attack, women anonymously brought food to canteens, shelters and hospitals. Police radios announced streams of offers of food and thanks: Coffee, soup and sandwiches at 133 Liliukolani. Come for food. 1069 Ilima Drive; 664 S. King Street is has breakfast ready; Next door to them is giving food for police station meals.

On Oahu, the Salvation Army started serving doughnuts the morning of the attack. They fed volunteer workers, firefighters, police and military family evacuees.
Within hours of the attack, Mrs. A.M. Holbrook (in photo) wife of Salvation Army Major A.M. Holbrook, opened up the new fire station at Wahiawa, got the brand new stove connected, borrowed dishes and kettles, and she and her crew, got out doughnuts by the platter for twenty-four hours a day for four straight days.

Mrs. Holbrook recalls, “There never was a crumb left over. Girl Scouts helped on the night shifts, but I didn’t peel off my clothes for ten days running. I just dropped on a couch for an hour or so of rest then went back to the stove again”

For the duration of the war, Mrs. Holbrook's canteen was established in the Wahiawa Methodist Church. It was open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. In the first three weeks of operation, 18,000 doughnuts were handed out

(Note: Ten or more persons in Wahiawa were injured when planes strafed the streets of Wahiawa. One of the seventy-five planes that flew over the plantation town crashed into a row of houses; two homes were burned to the ground.)

Some of women, they worked on instinct: The report of the Public Works Officer (Pearl Harbor Yard) for December 15, 1941 reads: “Lieutenant Commander W.D. Chandler, (who occupies government quarters at No. 402 Kuahua Island, near a wharf) with the sole medical assistance of one corpsman, established a field hospital in his quarters, where for a period of approximately two hours he and his wife, Mrs. W.D. Chandler, received and gave first aid treatment to about 100 enlisted personnel from USS Oklahoma and USS West Virginia, many of whom were severely shocked or had sustained burns and some serious injuries."


Some women offered their homes: Mrs. A.A. Fernandez of Mott-Smith Drive put an ad in the paper offering to share her newly built home with someone who was evacuated under the emergency laws. She indicated a preference for needy persons with a baby.

Mrs. Victoria Bates of 3257 Kaimuki Avenue, wife of Gunner’s Mate 1st Class John Buel Bates, USN, was highly praised by the Assistant Executive Secretary of the Army and Navy YMCA. “Mrs. Bates, acting as a volunteer, and assisted by a group of fellow navy wife friends, found homes for 600 women and children in Kapahulu and Kaimuki homes.” Most of these families were navy families evacuated from the Pearl Harbor base.

Some made clothes: The first evacuation center was set up by noon of December 7, 1941 at Hemenway Hall at the University of Hawaii. Some evacuees came with no belongings. A call went out for clothes, especially clothes for children. Mrs. George Angus took it upon herself to sew pajamas for the children.



Some insisted on giving blood: On the morning of December 7, 1941, Governor Frear, his wife, and their Japanese maid were in line to give blood. When a nurse told the former governor, age 78, and his wife, age 72, that they were beyond the 50-year-old maximum age to give blood, Mrs. Frear refused to accept that. “It has to be very good blood,” she said, “It has lasted us a long time!” Her blood was accepted.
PHOTO: Mrs. Holbrook from Hawaii State Archives.

Some just did their jobs: On 7 December 1941, there was a total of eighty-two nurses serving at three Army medical facilities that infamous morning: Tripler Army Hospital, Wahiawa, and Hickam.

Lieutenant Monica E. Conter was on duty at Hickam Field during the attack. “I ran out on the third floor porch overlooking Pearl Harbor. . . I rushed downstairs and received permission from our Commanding Officer to bring the patients down from the higher floors. We were in the elevator when the electricity was cut off and we had to use the trap door to get the patients and ourselves out. All the electric clocks stopped . . . You cannot imagine the noise—aerial torpedoes bombs, machine gunning, our anti-aircraft…In the middle of this we heard the roaring of the planes coming back. One made a thirty-foot crater about twenty-feet from us. ..The next bomb fell across the street . . . smoke and fumes from the bomb came in and someone cried, ‘Gas!’ We all thought the same thing, the bombs didn’t get me but the gas will. Soon afterwards we had our masks and helmets. More casualties came…the wounded were crying for water but we didn’t give them any—we heard it had been poisoned.”

All these women did what they could.

PHOTOS: Salvation Army photo courtesy of Hawaii State Archives; USS Oklahoma courtesy of U.S. Navy; Hemeway Hall courtesy of University of Hawaii Archives; Mrs. Mary Dillingham Frear courtesy of Hawaii State Government.

What Hawaiian Time?

The only time Hawaii observed Daylight Saving Time was during World War II when President Roosevelt instituted a Federal year-round Daylight Saving Time. It was called "War Time" and was in place from February 2, 1942 to September 30, 1945. After the war, Hawaii went back to Hawaiian Standard Time.

From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law about Daylight Saving Time. After the war, each state and some municipalities chose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. Not only that, each could decide when it began and ended.

You can imagine the confusion this caused. Think about the railroad schedules--different times for different dates for different states. And, what about the radio schedules and the burgeoning airline industry?

Hawaii happily went back to (and still operates on) Hawaiian Standard Time which is six hours behind Eastern Standard Time (which is five hours behind Eastern Daylight Savings Time).

Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii and the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are the only places in the U.S. that do not observe Daylight Savings Time but instead stay on “standard time” all year long

Then of course there is "Hawaiian Time" which is----whenevah!

PHOTO: This photo is taken at the Hawaii State Library atrium.

Women of World War II Hawaii