Pearl Harbor On Dec. 7, 1941, Evelyn Marko was in her Kaimuki home when she heard on the radio that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The fear she felt nearly 60 years ago resurfaced after she watched news coverage of terrorists crashing three planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
anxiety rekindled
Isle residents find a chilling
familiarity to the attacksBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com"It was scary to me. I felt the fear that this was going to start all over again," said Marko, 87, who packed parachutes at Hickam Field during World War II.
"It's like history repeating itself," she said.
Oahu residents recalled the similarities and differences between the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and remembered the uncertainty of days to come.
"I went to work with a gas mask every day because we thought we would have an attack at that time," Marko said.
Geoffrey White, anthropology professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and senior fellow at the East-West Center, said there are political and economic differences between the two events. But the images of the attacks are parallel.
"You have two strong visual images of power blowing up," said White. The image of billowing smoke rising from the World Trade Center will remain in people's memory for the next century, he said.
Richard Fiske, a Marine bugler on the USS West Virginia, said, "In 1941, it was war. In this instance, this was strictly murder."
Aiea resident Ron Oba recalled the windows of his home rattled when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. "We thought the Army was having an exercise," said Oba, who was 18 years old when Battleship Row was bombed.
Oba realized Pearl Harbor was under attack when he witnessed the bombing of the USS Arizona. "There were drones of airplanes all over the sky," he said. At first, Oba was angered by the sneak attack.
"It's like your big brother attacking your country," said Oba, past president of the 442nd Veterans Club. "I couldn't believe it."
His anger then turned into fear. "The question was what was going to happen next."
Of the terrorist attacks, Oba said, "This is somebody you don't even know ... we're fighting an unknown element."
Psychologist Gloria Neumann of the Honolulu Police Department said hearing every detail of the terrorist attacks and the anthrax scares raises the anxiety for people.
"If you stay enmeshed in that, you feel vulnerable and victimized," said Neumann.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, people's lives were disrupted, she said. "We had a whole paradigm shift. We went from relative certainty about life to marked uncertainty."
Neumann recommends Hawaii residents keep a balance in their lives and to be productive. "There's been a real emphasis that life is fragile and short. You need to make today count."
