Helen & Koichi Maeda:
Witnesses to Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. This attack led to the United States entry into World War II.
Helen and Koichi were interviewed to better understand exactly what life was like in the days leading up to the attack as well as the aftermath that affected so many individuals.
Helen and Koichi now recount their own personal memories of the past to us. Helen was a very young girl when the attack occurred, however, she was able to recount everything vividly. She remembers hearing the sound of planes as they flew over the island but never saw any in the sky.
As she was reminiscing on the effects of the war, she had remembered she still had her identification card that was given to her.
Koichi was also very young when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. He was also required to work at a very young age and like anyone else he to felt the affects of having to ration food. That excluded simple toiletries that we usually take advantage of, anything from newspapers were used as a replacement.
Helen - luckily - was never a subject of discrimination, although she did recall a sense of “uneasiness” when she later moved to Chicago, because she was an uncommon spectacle for many mainland citizens being an Asian-American.
Helen was born on August 14, 1931 in Honolulu, Hawaii. However, her life changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor when she was only 10 years old, which proved to be a major turning point in her life. In this chapter of her childhood, she took several blood tests on various occasions, received an identification card, and - like many citizens - was given a gas mask. In her protection, she was transferred to air raid shelters or “half domes,” and under the current circumstances, food had been rationed. Deprivation of certain materials such as toilet paper became a commonality, and canned food became a ubiquitous source of sustenance. In other phases of her life, attending school was exempt at times so that schoolchildren would work in fields to produce food (e.g. pineapples). With the halt of the war, Helen moved to Chicago where she attained a job, and later managed to settle in California, where she currently resides at 84 years of age.
Koichi was born on November 21, 1927 in Maui, Hawaii. At just 14 years old, the attack on Pearl Harbor showcased the gravity of World War II, and how it would model his future. Similarly to Helen’s story, Koichi had to ration food and became deprived of luxuries many would consider imperative to their daily lives. Working had also been implemented to replace some school days, and he became bound to join the U.S. Army. Serving in the army, he became an occupational troop (or a combatant deployed in a foreign country) following the turn of the war, in U.S.-owned garrisons established in Japan. As turmoil had regressed, Koichi settled back on U.S. soil, in California, where he lives at 88 years of age. Koichi was young as well when Pearl Harbor happened, and the effects of the attack dramatically affected not only him but everyone else rationing food and having to work at such a young age. When Helen was asked about life prior to the bombardment on Pearl Harbor everything seemed to be serene and ordinary to her.