In December 1942, University of Hawaii Professor Carey D. Miller sent a 6-page letter to friends with a month-by-month account of what it was like in Honolulu after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into WWII.

It’s quite an interesting and informative look at the war from a very personal level. I was surprised to see that she notes the March 1942 announcement of my mother’s resignation from Miller’s UH staff.

Some excerpts:

Dec 1941: “Christmas comes and goes, dinner parties are called off and many work all day long. Each night we gather in our little blackout room and listen anxiously to the war news.”

January 1942: “Still no University classes, the faculty are all busy helping with the enumeration and finger printing of the populace. We now have indentification certificates with mch important data including four finger prints. Gas masks are issued to the entire population.”

February 1942: “There is no gaiety when the ships slip out of the harbor now, no band and no flower leis, the lei women are making camoflouge nets and one of my good Hawaiian friends is in charge of the group.”

April 1942: “There is a shortage of candy in the territory.”

June 1942: “Aademic procession all in cap and gown carrying gas masks. I wonder how many times that will happen.”

August 1942: “We have been most frugal with gasoline; to celebrate and make believe I am having a real vacation, we go over the Pali and half way round the island. The first time I have been outside the city limits of Honolulu since December 7, 1941, which now seems ages ago. Soldiers, sailors, marines, camps, airfields, guns everywhere.”

September 1942: “No one knows if we shall continue to have orange juice, so we are urging everywone to utilize the guavas for juice and juicy pulp for drinks, and for jams, marmalades and jellies.”

November 1942: “The vegetable markets seem to have less and less. The few local vegetables that appear are snatched up before we have a chance to go shopping.”

December 1942: “Haru, my 64 year old masseur, who for almost 20 years has rubbed the cricks out of my tired shoulders and soothed my headaches with her strong and supple fingers has expressed the feelings of many of us when she says, ‘I tink God verry sorry see his children fight. Erry morning I say, Aloha God, pease, war pau.’ “