#39. Pearl Harbor: An Eyewitness Remembers

Episode 39 -- BTS: Pearl Harbor – Episode Script

Cold Open
[Anastasia] “Do you remember being there when Pearl Harbor was attacked?”
[Carole] “Yes. Vaguely. I was a very young little girl. Maybe I was about seven. I don't know. And my mother was ironing a dress for me, getting me ready to go to church. And then she heard on the radio, that bombs were being dropped. The Japanese war planes had invaded the islands and were dropping bombs all around us.”

Episode Text
Musical jingle begins
[Narrator] Welcome to a special bonus episode of Left Behind.
My grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother were living together in Honolulu when Pearl Harbor was attacked on that day which will live in infamy -- December 7, 1941.
And in today’s special episode, I’m sharing their story.

Up to now, the only family member I’ve mentioned in the podcast is my great-grandfather Alma Salm – who, as you know, inspired “Left Behind.”
I never knew him – he died 20 years before I was born. But I did know his wife, my great-grandmother. Her name was Emily Hunt Salm, but I always knew her as Mimi, so that’s what I’ll refer to her as in this episode (because calling her anything else is just … weird for me.)
Mimi was an interesting, complex, larger-than-life woman.
She was born in 1899 and died in 2003. So, she literally experienced the entire 20th Century.
Imagine that – her father was the first in their San Francisco neighborhood to own an automobile. She was in San Francisco during the 1907 earthquake and ensuing fires which destroyed half the city (as well as experiencing the 1989 San Francico earthquake, which I also felt). And she was living in Honolulu – with her daughter and her mother – when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
(She also learned to dance the macarena in her late 90s, but that’s a story for another day.)
And Mimi agrees with my assessment of her life. She wrote:
[Mimi] “there seems little in the course of human experience that I have missed.”
In the 1980s -- when she was in her 80s -- Mimi wrote a memoir of her life up until that point . . . because writing memoirs is apparently what my family does. (And be sure to look out for my next podcast inspired by her life. Just kidding. I have no plans for that...) The memoir is long – like 1,000 pages written on a typewriter.
In it, she describes experiencing the bombings of Sunday, December 7, 1941.

But, before I dove into those 1,000 pages, I wanted to know what my Grandmother Carole, Mimi’s daughter, who was almost 10 years old during the attacks, recalls about that day. Today, she’s nearing 92 years of age and still lives on her own.
So, I rang her up:
[Anastasia] “Do you remember being there when Pearl Harbor was attacked?”
[Carole] “Yes. Vaguely. I was a very young little girl. Maybe I was about seven. I don't know. And my mother was ironing a dress for me, getting me ready to go to church. And then she heard on the radio, that bombs were being dropped. The Japanese war planes had invaded the islands and were dropping bombs all around us.”
[Narrator] She also gave me some good life advice.
[Carole] “Home cooked meals are much better.”
[Narrator] So after speaking to my grandma – and stopping to cook and eat a wholesome home-cooked meal – I sat down with Mimi’s memoir, where I found a surprise – in it was a letter and a portion of a diary written by Mimi’s own mother Edna Hunt during the December 7th attacks and the aftermath.
The result is that today – I bring to you the experiences of 3 eyewitnesses of the Pearl Harbor bombings. One written in the moment. One written 4 decades later. And one, the memories of a young child recalled 80 years later.
Also, the speaking parts are all women descended from Edna and Mimi – Mimi’s words are read by one of her granddaughters, Edna’s by my cousin, and 10-year-old Carole’s by my own 10-year-old daughter.
It’s a story told through the words and voices of 6 generations of women in my family.
Let’s jump in.

42-year-old Mimi stayed out late on Saturday night, December 6, playing bridge with some wives of other naval officers living in Honolulu. She lived not far from Waikiki Beach with her 10-year-old daughter Carole and 68-year-old mother, Edna.
Mimi was in Honolulu waiting to sail for China, where she was to join her husband. So, after a raucous night of bridge,
[Mimi] “I snuggled down in bed and fell asleep counting the days I’d soon be China-bound. This would be the second time around for duty in the Orient for us. I could imagine the shrill whistles from the busy factories dotting the riverbanks as we came up the old Yangtse … [and] trying to dodge the big seagoing vessels on the move in the crowded Shanghai harbor.”
[Narrator] She dreamed sweet dreams of her former trip to Shanghai, until she was rudely awakened shortly after 8 am.
[Carole Lou] “Mama, oh Mama, wake up—the Japs are up in the sky dropping bombs down upon us…oh, Mama…”
[Mimi] “My happy-go-lucky dream had come to an abrupt ending forever and that was how I was introduced into World War II.
“Shaken into wakefulness, upon opening my eyes I looked up into the disturbed face of my little ten-year-older bending over me. My wristwatch told me it was a few minutes past eight of what was to become a bewildering and tragic day.”
[Narrator] You may recall that my Grandmother Carole remembered her mother ironing a dress when the news of Pearl Harbor came. I don’t know how to account for the varying memories, except for the passage of time, so we’ll just roll with it.
[Mimi] “Our radios were our information Bureau during those first confused weeks, and we were told to keep them turned on at all times. This proved to be a very confusing situation for the radio was constantly blaring forth instruction after instruction, many of which were cancelled almost in the next breath.
“Mama spent all morning huddled beside the radio scribbling the latest happenings to my sister… in Oakland. Her main thought was to get the letter off on the next clipper. She was successful in this just before the censorship was put into action.”
[Narrator] “Mama”, of course, is Mimi’s mother Edna. And here’s what she was scribbling to her other daughter:
[Edna] “Honolulu, Sun Dec. 7-1941
Dear Louise:
Our peaceful Sunday morning was rudely molested with bombing. They got thru while our fleet were dozing, live bombs fell just back of the Waikiki theater, one house demolished.”
[Narrator] I believe they lived in the Waikiki area and quite close, probably too close, to that theater. My Grandmother Carole recalls that bombing near the theater vividly:
[Carole] “I was awfully young. I didn't know really what was going on or anything. My mother didn't tell me much. She didn't want to get me frightened or anything like that. And my grandmother was out there living with us also.
They bombed the Waikiki theater. And we didn't live too far away from the Waikiki theater. So we were lucky, weren’t we!”
[Narrator] Let’s go back to Edna’s letter:
[Edna] “Fifty people were injured and seven killed in our district. We saw a regular dog fight in the sky about two hours ago. Parachutists came down at Barber’s Point, near Diamond Head. I believe parachutists were killed. The final bomber of Rising Sun was shot down by our air ship. An enemy sub is off by Koko Head and two other vessels at other points, etc. pts. given in code. All kinds of bombing and sirens going on.
“All kinds of orders given over the radio such as call for doctors, all civilians remain home, no people or cars on streets or hiways, don’t use telephone unless for an emergency.
“We are getting our news over the short wave radio next door. A sampan is about to land at Navy ammunition plant, another landing party at Nanakuli and off a little way are three Jap transports. We were told over the radio to be ready for a blackout instructions this evening.
“Some people are packing and will leave on any boat they can get. They will soon begin to evacuate the people, especially women and children.”
[Narrator] Note that Edna was hearing reports of Japanese landing parties about to come ashore and larger transport ships waiting to land more forces. We know today that didn’t happen – but, well, I’m sure you’re all too familiar with what breaking news is like.
Here’s what my Grandmother Carole remembers from that morning. “She” refers to Mimi:
[Carole] “And then she heard on the radio for us not to go out. Just to stay in our, in our places where we were. I remember that day, my mother said we wouldn't be going places to stay in.
“Then later on at that time they had blackouts where they have shades. You pull your shades down and no lights could be seen. So the aircraft couldn't see lights and everything like that.
“So we just kinda sat tight and everything.”
[Narrator] They continued listening to confusing information and conflicting instructions coming through the radio. Edna wrote of the information she heard:
[Edna] “One of Pearl Harbor men [in our neighborhood] was called to work with all other male workers, and he has just returned and says the harbor is a shambles and five of our big war ships torpedoed, lying in the bay, bottoms up. Gov. House, the palace bombed but not demolished. …
“Over 400 Army killed—300 hospitalized—no count on Navy yet—they’ll be big casualty list there, they think higher than Army. Well, the fright of noise and blackout is over and over our heads noise of planes. No schools open—buildings will be used for hospitals as hospitals in town are inadequate for emergencies,”
[Narrator] Then the rumors started, rumors that infuriated Mimi:
[Mimi] “Oh, those rumors! They just about drove us up the wall. Unprepared as we were, it was difficult and time consuming to sift through information to learn what was truth and what was fiction.
“I recall the panic people experienced over Laie way on the windy side of Oahu. Some motorist, riding swiftly along the beach highway passed a cottage and saw a big sheet flapping in the wind. He tore back to town scattering the awesome report that Jap parachutes were dropping…
“And then there was that suspicious couple who lived right next door to us…He was of German extraction who spoke broken English… Oh my! Immediately as the war began, he was accused of operating some kind of complicated radio…receiving and sending mysterious messages…all so secretive—at least such was rumored about the neighborhood.”
[Narrator] Edna continued writing down the incoming news:
[Edna] “All theaters are closed. … Local casualties are now well over a hundred. A bomb that fell at Nuuanu and Kuakini killed a family of eight or nine. … No transportation between islands, either boat or plane. Just heard an army transport was torpedoed 1,300 miles west of San Francisco. I hear Guam has been taken and flying the flag of the Rising Sun, taking over our fleet there, I hope it isn’t true. From the bombing noise going on we must be downing a few Japs.”
[Narrator] It’s amazing to me how this letter reads almost like a breaking news bulletin. The attack on Pearl Harbor lasted about 2 hours, beginning at 7:55 am, and they withdrew shortly after 9 am, so it seems reports and information were just pouring in during the attack and the hours following as my great-great-grandmother Edna sat by the radio and recorded everything.

When the attack ended, life as Mimi, Carole, and Edna knew it was changed. Pearl Harbor is about 20 miles away from Honolulu’s Waikiki area, so they didn’t see the carnage of the base. But, suddenly, everything had changed. Mimi recounted:
[Mimi] “We were required to hassle with many frustrating routines in the early days of the war. First on the list were those beastly inoculations to ward off the anticipated epidemics that all wars were known to have. The Health Department of Honolulu was not going to be caught napping here. Our little trio, consisting of Mama, Carol Lou and me, became part of the long line that formed to the left where person by person we bared our arm. No one was immune.
“Then there came the day when all the citizens were ordered to assemble at one of the elementary schools. We were given gas masks and put through a rudimentary drill in order to learn the trick of putting them on in a hurry. When we were lined up there so camouflaged, Gad!, we truly resembled a bunch of jittery hogs in a stock yard awaiting slaughter—Mercy! We were ordered to carry our masks wherever we went. …
“Suddenly all the markets ran out of fresh meat. This situation really caused us clamor, and to multiply the shortage problem, construction and other war workers were arriving in droves on every mainland ship and this group could hardly be called “vegetarians” by any stretch of the imagination. They demanded meat and potatoes and the hell with the vegetables, dearie.”
[Narrator] And Waikiki Beach became less of a paradise and more of a war zone:
[Mimi] “Most of our beaches at Waikiki were now sporting barbwire fending—yards and yards of the gleaming stuff—and pacing the span was always to be seen one lone army picket, possibly stationed there on patrol to protect the populous should a Jap sub suddenly surface in our midst. I used to wonder just who the “Brass” was who thought up these ridiculous posts. So many of these so-called orders of the day proved lopsided and time wasters.
“The wire barricade left little area for swimmers to frolic and shortly it became so overcrowded it became impossible to enjoy…just one big community bathtub, it proved to be. Yet it did have its humorous angle. Mama, of course, was thoroughly disgusted. However, eventually she did give us all a good laugh. Jammed in as usual, I heard Mama’s clear soprano voice loud and clear above the din of the congested mob thrashing about us: “Will someone please pass me the soap?”
[Narrator] My forebears were hilarious. Must be where I get my dry wit.

At some point, Mimi received a letter from her husband, Alma, whom she called Al, and who, of course, was enduring WW2 in The Philippines.
[Mimi] “All the while, in-between all this unnatural existence, my thoughts were concerned with what was transpiring out in the Far East. I had only received one cable from my husband…from Manila immediately after the bombing. … Following his cable, I did receive one brief letter postmarked Manila before that deadly curtain of silence was to fall. This situation was to remain the status quo for almost three anguishing years filled with nerve-wracking uncertainties. That one letter had so many gaps from censor cutting that the missive looked like a paper hula skirt when I opened the envelope. At least the censors did leave my husband’s signature to comfort me.”
[Narrator] One thing Alma wanted was for his wife and daughter to leave Hawaii. My Grandmother Carole recalled:
[Carole] “My father wanted us to get out of there as fast as we could on the first transport steamer to take us back to the United States.”
[Narrator] But … Mimi was never one to take orders from anyone, and, instead, she waited for three months until the Navy forced her to leave in February 1942. OK, so I guess she took orders from the US Navy – but, even then, it was a close call whether she’d be a good little sailor and do as she was told:
[Mimi] “It was Thursday night at … twelve midnight. I was awakened from a deep sleep by the persistent ringing of my phone. Answering, … I recognized that it was from Naval Headquarters, calling from Pearl Harbor. … I was informed that transportation had been arranged for my mother, daughter and myself and that I was to report for departure that very day at a certain hour and at a certain pier and our stateroom was such and such.
“I recall that I attempted to remonstrate saying that I could not possibly, etc.…and my job, etc.…but I got nowhere at all. The voice became very terse and commanding…and so, yes, I bowed to the orders and listened intently to the further instructions and accepted those verbal “do’s and don’ts”. Prior to embarking I was warned not to reveal to ANYONE my departure plans. Emphatically I was told there was to be NO LEAVE TAKING.”
[Narrator] By that, I think, they were warning her to come … or else.
So, she obeyed. The three women got a ride to Pearl Harbor’s entrance, where they were stopped by guards who wouldn’t let the car into the base. Mimi explained:
[Mimi] “I asked the guards if I might drive the car down and unload at the ship but was refused point blank.
“The soldiers were certainly pacing about at a very nervous rate, alright. They acted very hardboiled indeed when Mother, thinking to relieve the tension, remarked coyly her willingness to help out on guard duty if the military needed a grandmother who was good at using a slingshot. Evidently the soldier’s sense of humor had been scared plum out of them by their new responsibility.”
[Narrator] Yeah, Edna is definitely where I get my love of the ridiculous from. Anyway, back to Mimi and her travel hardships:
[Mimi] “Yes, Mother, Carol Lou and I staggered down those seemingly endless yards of dock, dragging our gear along as best we could and finally reached our ship. Upon boarding a happy surprise awaited us. We had been assigned some of the best staterooms aboard and how we welcomed it.”
[Narrator] The ship left the next day from Pearl Harbor as part of a convoy of several transport ships taking civilians back to the US.
One thing I didn’t find in any one’s reminiscences is the story I recall hearing several times as a child of the passengers on the transport ships, including the many children on board, needing to remain extremely silent while passing out of Pearl Harbor – in case Japanese submarines were patrolling the waters. The Navy wanted the ships to travel in as near silence as possible.

Well, the three women’s happiness with their stateroom wasn’t long standing:
[Mimi] “With the gentle motion of the ship at anchor suddenly I began to feel queasy in the pit of my stomach. Perhaps, I thought, a brisk promenade about the deck would be in order and also relieve the monotony that began to descend upon me. As I counted the turns this activity gave me I had also the opportunity to learn who my next-door neighbor might be. I almost went into shock when I discovered who it was. He was our first Japanese prisoner of war, Kazuo Sakamaki.”
[Narrator] Kazuo Sakamaki was skipper of a Japanese midget sub. And … he had had a really bad day on December 7, 1941. A later Newsweek article by Bernard Krisher explained:
[Bernard] “Hours before the attack [on Pearl Harbor, 5 minisubs] were released from conventional subs, which had carried them piggy-back-style from Japan. Immediately, Sakamaki was in trouble. First it was the ballast, and he and his crewman had to crawl about for hours adjusting lead weights and filling water tanks. Then they discovered they were heading away from the harbor. Their gyroscope was not working. Desperately, they got the boat turned around and made their way to the mouth of the harbor—only to be spotted by two U.S. destroyers. The sub shuddered, hit by at least one depth charge. But Sakamaki managed to retreat to temporary safety. Then, as they heard the bombs exploding over the harbor, the craft hit a reef.
“That night, unable to rendezvous with the mother sub, they set a charge to blow up their craft and abandoned ship. The fuse fizzled out, Sakamaki’s crewman drowned and Sakamaki was washed to shore—to become the first Japanese prisoner of war.”
[Narrator] My Grandmother Carole recalled Sakamaki’s presence:
[Carole] “Right outside the door was a Japanese prisoner. And he was outside in a chair sitting there smoking. And he was guarded by the Americans. And they treated him just like he was a dear friend and everything like that. And I know my mother and grandmother thought that was terrible. He was a prisoner of war. My mother and grandmother were disgusted to see how our men treated him. Like he was just a friend of theirs. So, we didn't walk on that deck. We just walked on the deck below. I do remember that.”
[Narrator] To say Mimi and Edna were disgusted with the POW’s presence is, perhaps, an understatement. But it wasn’t just Sakamaki’s presence and treatment – it was the young girls asking for his autograph:
[Mimi] “The oriental prisoner was a good-looking, well setup Japanese with the bearing of the better class. There were, among the passengers a number of simpering, autograph-seeking young women who attempted to coax our guards into procuring the prisoner’s autograph ...
“I do not know how you dears might feel about this sort of thing. … When those young women were in quest of the Jap POW’s signature there was a war just begun and we had most cruelly been set upon in a sneak attack. 1,100 of our best young American men had just been entombed forever in 40 feet of water and ooze at the bottom of Pearl Harbor…the USS Arizona—and so a short time later, with paper and pen handy, fawning at the open doorway of the alien Jap prisoner stood these little fools. Oh My! I was so indignant by this callousness that I voiced my opinion loudly as I went by the group. I accused them of having ice water in their veins instead of red blood.”
[Narrator] I can totally hear Mimi saying this. She spoke her mind – another trait I think I inherited.

Well, other than an uncomfortable neighbor, the trip to San Francisco was uneventful. And this wouldn’t be Mimi or Edna’s final farewell to Hawaii. When the war was over, they each returned…many times. Mimi wrote:
[Mimi] “Whenever I am in Honolulu I drive out to Pearl. The Arizona Memorial has been resting in the same spot now for over forty years and when I view this site my bitterness returns. I have always been for fair play and in this instance I have never been able to turn the other cheek.
“More than 2,200 persons died when 353 Jap planes attacked Pearl Harbor and nearby military installations on December 7, 1941. At least 1,100 men were aboard the USS Arizona that Sunday morning when it was sunk in the harbor. Eighteen ships, including four battleships were sunk or damaged and 316 planes were either destroyed or damaged. Japanese losses totaled less than 100 men, 29 planes and five midget subs. … [The Arizona] sits in 38 feet of water and 40 feet of mud. The red-orange buoys mark its bow and stern. They are 608 feet apart. Standing above the sunken Arizona encasing her once proud compliment of flowering manhood, I think … that I was there in Hawaii at the holocaust and your grandfather was shortly to become a POW for thirty-three long and chilling months under the thumb of the sadist Japanese. As a result of his treatment, I was to become an early widow. When recently I saw on television where those Japanese Americans who were placed in concentration camps here in the US are to receive remuneration for their imprisonment, I feel there is something not quite just, somehow.”
[Narrator] Mimi wasn’t the only one to feel this way. During the mid-1980s, the US government began making monetary compensations to former Japanese internees. A move I, personally, respect and do think appropriate.
However, that move didn’t sit well with former POWs who had been attacked by Japanese air forces less than 12 hours after Pearl Harbor. Among them were Lester Tenny (from episode 2) and Robert Aldrich (from episode 29), who both waged public legal battles in the 1980s to receive some kind of apology or monetary recompence for their time as POWs.
The attacks in Hawaii have always overshadowed the experiences of the men in the Philippines and other Pacific islands, who were, that same day, thrust into an active, ongoing warzone. And they would continue to be overshadowed, first by the war in Europe and then by post-war peace negotiations with Japan. A peace treaty with Japan specifically stated there would be no monetary recompence for the Americans imprisoned and so mistreated and abused by Japanese captors.
Thus, none of the POW lawsuits against Japan succeeded, struck down in US courts.
But the fight for POW recognition and remembrance continues today, through the work of many individuals and organizations—among them the Philippine Scout Heritage Society – which seeks to preserve the legacy of the U.S. Army’s Philippine Scouts for present and future generations -- and the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society -- with is dedicated to promoting education about the POW experience in the Pacific during WWII and supporting programs of reconciliation. I’ve added links for both organizations to the show description.
On this solemn Pearl Harbor Day, while remembering and honoring the men and women killed that day, I hope you will take a moment to consider also the men and women in the other parts of the Pacific on December 7, whose sacrifices and experiences have so long been overshadowed by WW2’s other moments.
This is Left Behind.

Outro
Thank you for listening. You can find pictures, maps, and sources about my family’s Pearl Harbor story on the Left Behind Facebook page and website and on Instagram @leftbehindpodcast. The links are in the show description.
Left Behind is researched, written, and produced by me, Anastasia Harman.
- Voice overs by: Emily Herenberg, Reagan Harman, and Valerie Scatina
I’ll be back next time with the story of an Army nurse who escaped Corregidor’s nightmare, only to come face to face with something perhaps worse.