Civilian casualties at Pearl Harbor

[Louis]

At dawn on December 7, 1941, more than half of the United States Pacific Fleet, approximately 150 vessels and service craft, lay at anchor or alongside piers in Pearl Harbor. All but one of the Pacific fleet's battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. By 10:00 a.m., the tranquil Sunday calm had been shattered. Twenty-one vessels lay sunk or damaged, the fighting backbone of the fleet apparently broken. Smoke from burning planes and hangars filled the sky, while oil from sinking ships clogged the harbor. Death was everywhere.


Honolulu civilians watch what they think is a military practice on December 7, 1941, not realizing at first that this was an actual attack.

The loss of life that day wasn't restricted only to military personnel, or even to Pearl Harbor. Civilians of very different backgrounds, ages, and locations on the island of Oahu also took a heavy toll.


This private car, a victim of a strafing japanese plane.

Many civilians worked on the military bases and were present during the attack. Seven civilians were wounded and one killed during a mistaken Japanese attack on the sugar mill at Waipahu. A similar attack at the sugar mill near MCAS Ewa killed two and wounded seven, while another at Wahiawa wounded nine and killed two. One of the Japanese aircraft crashed into a house at Wahiawa.

Several civilian aircraft were in the air over Oahu on Sunday morning. At 7:51 a.m., two Shokaku fighters on their way to NAS Kaneohe fired upon a civilian trainer over the northeastern coastal town of Lai'e. At 7:54 a.m., fighters escorting dive-bombers from Shokaku attacked two civilian Piper Cub trainers. Two of the occupants of the Pipers were missing and one died after landing.


Civilian casualties lie in a makeshift first-aid center.

Perhaps the most tragic civilian casualties come from those killed by "friendly fire." Many of the 5-inch anti-aircraft rounds fired at the Japanese aircraft did not detonate properly and landed in civilian areas around Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, exploding on contact with the ground.


Strafed Fire House on Hickam Air Field with two fire trucks outside and debris from the attack.

In total, 49 civilians were killed and 35 wounded during the attack on Oahu.

Then the Territorial Governor Joseph Poindexter agreed to place the island under martial law. During the next nearly three years constitutional rights in the territory were suspended and only reinstated after numerous court challenges. Hawai‘i citizens were subjected to strict curfews – stricter still for those of japanese ancestry – as the United States military took over all territorial government functions.


Waikīkī Beach was lined with barbed wire and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was taken over by the US Navy for military R & R (rest and recreation) for the entire war.


Many civilians standing in a gas rationing line, 17 Dec 1941 .

Recopilatión from:
nps.gov
bishopmuseum.org
west-point.org

 

[Meat Grinder]

Thanks for posting this. It was certainly a wake up call for the U.S. Japan messed with the bull and got the horns.

 

[Louis]

Communication between Hawaiian Civilian Governor Poindexter and President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the declaration of martial law and suspension of the write of habeas corpus.


In declaring martial law, all forms of civilian law were suspended. An entire new system of justice and order was instituted and controlled at the absolute discretion of Lt. Gen. Short — the newly declared “Military Governor” of the islands.

Here, some new rules:

- Civilians were given strict curfews. The streets were ordered to be cleared between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. under penalty of arrest. All persons of Japanese descent had to be in their homes by 8:00 p.m.

- Everyone over the age of six years was fingerprinted, registered, and ordered to carry around military-issued ID cards. Using the extensive registration program, the military drew up intelligence reports on 450,000 Hawaiians.

- Stringent censorship of the media went into immediate effect. The Military Governor required that newspapers be made illegal unless they were granted a license to operate. All newspapers and radio stations were shut down for a time. Any publication not printed exclusively in English was denied a license and considered illegal.

- The local telephone company was taken over by the military. All outgoing mail was read and censored by the military. All long-distance telephone calls to the mainland were required to be spoken in english and censored. The military government monitored the content and morale of the population this way.

- Travel between the islands was restricted. Use of civilian short-wave radio was restricted. Photo materials were restricted to limit photography.

- The newspapers that were allowed to reopen with licenses were forced to print military orders and military-controlled news.

- Civilian ownership of firearms was prohibited except to those specially authorized. Every male islander was ordered to construct a bomb shelter. Approximately 300,000 acres of private land was confiscated by the military — land, farms, buildings.-


Soldiers surround the Hawaiian Iolani Palace with barbed wire during the rule of martial law in 1942.

- Civilians were not permitted to switch jobs, and had their wages frozen. U.S. dollars were confiscated and new money was issued — only valid in Hawaii. Citizens were not allowed to carry more than $200 on them for any reason. The wages of japanese nationals were capped at $200 per month, with the rest being forced into bank accounts, with weekly withdrawal limits of $50.

- Businesses were tightly controlled; they were ordered to shut down daily by 4:30 p.m. Goods on the shelves were inventoried by the military. Liquor sales were banned. Gasoline was rationed.


M3 Stuart light tanks in maneuvers, Beretania St. in the Honolulu business district, Hawaii, 30 Aug 1942.

- One of the more onerous measures was the nightly “blackout” of all civilian lights, ostensibly to mitigate the effectiveness of a potential enemy air raid. Every light bulb and every flame was ordered to be extinguished after dark. Even a lit cigarette, a kitchen stove burner, or an illuminated radio dial was grounds for an arrest. It was ordered that all residential doors and windows be covered. Car headlights were to be painted blue to dim the beams.

- People of Japanese descent — even American citizens — were looked at with suspicion and scorn by their government and their neighbors alike. Aside from the repressive military orders used to control their lives, thousands of Hawaiian Issei were arrested and shipped off to internment camps for the duration of the war.

Technically, martial law was terminated in Hawaii on Oct 24, 1944, in Roosevelt’s Presidential Proclamation 2627. While Roosevelt granted that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus” was restored, his declaration maintained that civilians were still thoroughly under the control of military commanders, and civilian freedoms were still heavily restricted. It was declared:

The military commander will have authority to establish blackouts and curfew periods, organize air raid precautions, regulate the conduct of enemy aliens, take anti-espionage precautions in the military area, control the possession and use of weapons, set up ports and harbors protections, regulate travel and regulate the publication of newspapers “published in a foreign language or in duel languages.” In addition he will have authority to regulate or prohibit the possession or use of radio transmission sets between the military area and points away from it. The authority conferred in the executive order will expire 30 days after the end of war with Japan.

Synthesis of policestateusa.com & infowars.com