Author Recounts Childhood Experience During Bombing of Pearl Harbor

By Paul Edelman

The following story was originally published in May 2017. It has been updated to reflect the current meeting date.

On Thursday, April 19 at 7 pm author Dorinda Nicholson will be presenting on her experiences during the infamous December 7^th, 1941, attack upon the United States’ naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  The attack, met with immediate declaration of war upon the Empire of Japan, enraged and inspired the U.S. populace to commit fully to World War II, which the U.S. government had not been officially entered into thus far.  As it was an unexpected attack during a supposed time of peace between the two nations, civilians caught up in the crossfire suffered greatly due to the abrupt destruction unleashed by the Japanese aerial bombardments.

Nicholson was one such civilian. She was 6 years old at the time of the Pearl Harbor

bombing and experienced the chaos firsthand.  She said her most vivid memory of the trauma was hiding among the sugarcane of the field, avoiding the destruction.

Her book, Pearl Harbor Child, explains how her house sat upon the very harbor slightly to the west of the naval base, and details firsthand the shock, devastation, and her survival.

At the Trailside Center, she will complement the site’s ongoing WWII Series, which explains and illustrates events of the costliest war in human history.  Speakers such as Nicholson are invited to present their story, and audiences range from young enterprising historians to fellow members of the Greatest Generation who lived through the war, showcasing the WWII Series’ widespread appeal of decisive events in modern American history.

If you have free time coming up, stop by the Trailside Center at 99^th and Holmes to hear for yourself exactly how civilians coped with the effect of the deadly surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor that finally encouraged the United States to enter the war, and learn of the anger that became associated with that day, and why America said “Remember Pearl Harbor!”