A Morning in December

The house was bustling with activity. As usual on a weekend morning we children were scattered through out the rooms, upstairs and down. It was cold outside, snow glistened in the bright sun light; the sky cloudless. As we each went about our own private pursuits, the cozy atmosphere was enhanced with the odors emanating from the kitchen where Mom was cooking and baking. At mid-morning a quietness had settled over the house; muted noises from the kitchen and radio were the only persistent sounds. When someone rang the door bell around 11 o'clock, the loud, jangling ring pierced our ears so forcefully that we all ran toward the door to see who it was and why. Ordinarily, a person would have just opened the door and stepped inside, rarely would anyone have rung the door bell.

Mom reached the door first. I noticed that she was wearing an apron which she had not taken time to remove before answering the door. It took a moment to recognize the caller who was wearing hunting clothes and holding out two pheasants for Mom to take. In a breathless voice he said something to the effect that he was in a terrible hurry and couldn't stay. He, his father and brother had been out hunting and on the way to our house with the two pheasants, they heard on the radio that Japan had attacked. We were speechless! To our questions of 'where?', he said he didn't know. The radio announcer only knew it was near Hawaii, some place called Pearl Harbor.

As we closed the door after him we were so stunned we just stood there for a moment, Mom with the pheasants hanging from her hands, Dad staring at the door and the rest of us not moving or saying a word. Dad immediately tuned the radio to a news station. After taking the pheasants to the kitchen, we all gathered around the radio. Since it was breaking news, reports were lacking in detail. None of us had ever heard of Pearl Harbor. Hawaii was an island, but where exactly?

Dad got out some maps and an atlas. Living in the middle of the United States, in the middle of the agricultural state of Iowa, the distant island of Hawaii was foreign to us. It was difficult to comprehend that we had been bombed by Japan. News of war and attacks that we knew about took place in Europe where the Germans and Italians were invading neighboring countries.

The Japanese attack was sudden, but the realization of how it would change our lives came slowly. Our way of life and that of the country would never be the same; the directions we took, for better or worse, were results of Japan's decision to bomb the U.S.

Mason City, Iowa Newspaper
Announcement of War on Japan Dec 8, 1941
after bombing of Pearl Harbor