On Dec. 7, 1941, in the early morning hours on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Oahu, Dorinda Makanaonalani was eating breakfast with her family when they heard the sounds of low-flying planes; then, almost immediately, loud explosions, followed by more planes passing directly over their house.
Her father remarked that it was “unusual” for the military to do maneuvers on a Sunday, and he bolted into the front yard, with his young daughter running close behind.
“We looked up into the orange-red emblem of the Rising Sun and we could see the pilots’ faces and even the goggles that covered their eyes” she recalled. “The sounds of the bullets were muffled by the roar of the engines; we could not hear them, but the incendiary bullets found their targets, and parts of our house caught on fire. The front door of our neighbor’s house was so bullet-ridden from the strafing, it fell from the hinges.”…