The Machinery of Night

One Sunday Morning

"I remember very well the day World War II came to Hawaii.

My sister and I were waiting for the bus to church. Suddenly there were explosions! We didn't know what was going on. I put my Bible up to shield my eyes from the sun, to see what was going on, and a piece of shrapnel hit it. If I had not put my Bible there, the shrapnel would have cut my face, or my eye.

A policeman came by and told us to get home, but we said, "We can't, we must get to our mother. She's waiting for us at church. " She was a Sunday school teacher. He said all right, but when we find her we must go home immediately.

The bus came, and the bus driver let us on. He told us it was an attack. He said, "Everybody get down low," and he drove wildly until we got to the church. We found our mother there, but she made us go home without her, because she had to stay with her students."

---Tour guide at the Iolani Palace, Honolulu, to me; Jan 8, 2002 (From memory, so it might not be 100% accurate)