By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Dorinda Nicholson shows Kevin Twomey, a Punahou student,
a gas mask as part of her talk there. She has written a book
about her experiences on Dec. 7, 1941.
"We had been repeatedly told to expect the invasion," said Nicholson, who now lives in Kansas City. "We had thought that by the time the sun came up the next day, we would have to surrender. That night we thought the Japanese had returned."
Nicholson, who had earlier witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese from the front yard of her Pearl City peninsula home, watched with awe with her family as the darkened skies over Pearl Harbor were suddenly illuminated.
"I didn't learn until 50 years later what the explosions were all about," she said. "Until then it was always confusing to me since I could never figure it out."
"Following the attack on Pearl Harbor," Nicholson said. "we weren't allowed to return to our home. We took refuge at a sugar plantation in Waipahu that night. Because of the blackout we could see for miles ... then all of a sudden the entire harbor light up."
In 1991, during the celebration surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she met a World War II naval aviator who retired in the islands and had an explanation for the explosions.
"The pilot was one of six who had been sent to Pearl Harbor from the aircraft USS Enterprise, which had been kept from returning to Pearl Harbor because of the weather," Nicholson said.
"In the confusion following the attack, we shot down six of our own planes as they returned to Pearl Harbor. The pilot was the one who was able to land on Ford Island - the others crashed."
Nicholson was in first grade at Sacred Hearts Convent in 1941.
After the attack, Sacred Hearts was converted to a military hospital, so she attended St. Andrew's Priory until the seventh grade, when she transferred to Punahou School and graduated in 1953.
On Monday, Nicholson returned to her alma mater and shared her World War II experiences with Punahou's fifth- and sixth-graders. Much of her tale comes from a book she authored in 1993 -- "Pearl Harbor Child" -- and which is now in its third printing with 20,000 copies.
Her family lived on the finger of land that extends into Pearl Harbor because her mother, Pansy, worked for Pan American World Airways, which maintained its base there. The Pacific Fleet and battleship row were anchored peacefully only several hundred yards from her front door.
"On Sunday morning, Dec. 7th," Nicholson told the elementary school class, "we like a lot of people thought at first that it was a practice ... it was not.
"We watched with utter disbelief ... the pilots were flying so low so that we could see their goggles."
Her Pearl Harbor home was strafed by Japanese dive bombers and set on fire. One of the items Nicholson showed the students was an incendiary bullet that her father dug out of the wall of their burnt kitchen.
"The front door of our neighbor's home was so bullet ridden from the strafing," Nicholson said, "that it fell apart."
After the talk, Punahou sixth-grader Jenna Seki said she was surprised to learn that paper money issued here during the war had "Hawaii" engraved on it.
"I knew a little about the surprise attack," Seki said, "but I didn't know how carefully the Japanese prepared for it."
Kevin Twomey, 12, said he came away from the presentation learning "how much fear was caused by the war."
"There was so much information that was kept from the public because of censorship," Twomey said.
Nicholson will be at the Arizona Memorial bookstore from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Three sailors who survived the sinking of the battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor 55 years ago will return to their ship to be buried. Ashes of three Arizona crewmen
will be interredFrank Campbell, James William Green and Norman Coplin will be interred in turret four of the World War II battleship in private ceremonies Saturday.
The ashes of 10 sailors already have been buried in a similar manner during the past 55 years in the gun turret located near the stern of the ship.
A total of 1,177 of their shipmates were killed during the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. As many as 900 are believed to be entombed in the Arizona, trapped following the bombing.
Nearly 1,000 Pearl Harbor survivors, spouses and friends began arriving yesterday for the 55th reunion of the attack that began World War II for the United States.
It may be one of the last of these every-five-year pilgrimages because of the age, health and financial situations of these World War II veterans.
They will participate in business meetings of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association at the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel and other activities, culminating with memorial services at the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center and the National Cemetery of the Pacific on Saturday.
Don Howell, the association's Hawaii state chairman, estimated that 450 survivors are expected to attend.
Dec. 7 ceremonies
7:00 a.m. -- National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl