My grandpa and a special bear once told me that if ever there is a tomorrow when we are apart, there is something you must always remember.  You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.  But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, he'll always be with me and my mom, and my mom will always be with me, so we'll always all be together.  And when I'm sad because I think he's gone, how lucky I am to have someone who makes saying goodbye so hard.

December 7, 1941:
A Day Of Change For The Wong Family


Oahu is one of the major islands in the Hawaiian Archipelago.  It's strategic location in the Pacific Ocean in relation to other countries made it important to the United States military.  During these particular times, the early 1900's, trouble was brewing abroad.  Several European and Asian countries were at war with one another and even the United States was involved in a hostile conflict with Germany.  However, all of this seemed far away from life in Hawaii and, particularly, to Oahu's local population.  To them, Oahu was simply home.

It was a pleasant Sunday morning, the morning of December 7, 1941.  The trade winds were blowing, the sky was clear, and the sun was shining brightly.  It was a beautiful day in Waipahu, a sleepy rural town in central Oahu.

At the Wong family home in Waipahu, most of the Wong family was awake and Mother Wong Lum Shee was preparing breakfast.  She was scooping out steaming hot rice from the rice pot while keeping a watchful eye on scrambled eggs in the frying pan.

Wong Lum Shee was the only surviving parent of the family as her husband, Wong Sau, had passed away years ago, leaving her with a small farm, a store, and nine children to take care of.  All of this was a substantial burden for her to undertake and, at time, she was frustrated and disheartened.  However, as her children grew older, they were able to help, and their future looked promising and hopeful.

It was already 7:00 a.m. in the morning.  Wong Lum Shee was trying to hurry because her oldest son, Charlie, and her youngest son, Johnny, were going to town to one of their many odd jobs.  They were due to be at work by 7:30 a.m.  She was thankful that her children were hard-working and helpful with one another.  While they were eating, she prepared a sack containing rice, leftover meat, and shucai for them to eat later for lunch.  As she gave it to her oldest son, Charlie, he thanked her.  "Ganxie, Mama," he said.  He then told his younger brother, Johnny, to put the lunch in the car while he gathered up the equipment they need to take to their job.  They were going to Makiki to work on a friend's house that had been recently renovated.  It needed electrical wiring.

It was quite a thrill to ride to Makiki, a valley close to downtown Honolulu.  It wasn't often that older brother, Charlie, invited Johnny to join him.  Charlie drove his old used car up the bumpy, unpaved driveway.  They jumped out from the car, gathered their tools and greeted old Mrs. Lee as she opened the door.

"Ni hao, Mrs. Lee," said Charlie.  "You remember us, don't you?  We came back to finish wiring the house.  This should only take a few more hours."

"Ah so, Charlie.  Ni jinlai hao ma?  You finish house today?  You early.  Kewangde?  Mifan?  You wake up early  Young brother hungry?"

"We're fine, Mrs. Lee.  No, thank you, Mrs. Lee.  My mother made us breakfast already.  We'll just get to work.  Come on, Johnny," said Charlie.

The brothers took their equipment and went up to the attic.

"So, how long do you think this is going to take?" asked Johnny.

"I don't know," his brother Charlie replied, "An hour or two at the most."

"Oh, okay.  I hope it doesn't take too long.  I want to do some stuff with my friends this afternoon," Johnny said.  "Tell me what tools you need or what I have to do."

"Charlie, do you happen to know what we have for lunch?"  Johnny asked.

"How would I know?  Mom packed us something.  Anyway, you just had breakfast," Charlie replied.

"Oh, sorry," said Johnny.

The brothers started to work.  It was getting hot in the attic, and it was cramped and uncomfortable.  After a few minutes, Johnny looked up from his work and cocked his head.  He thought he heard distant thunder or some kind of explosions far away.

"What are you doing?"  Charlie asked irritably.

"I could have sworn I heard some explosions and a lot of plane engines nearby," Johnny replied.

"I don't hear anything," Charlie said.

"Try listen carefully," Johnny told him.

Charlie kept still for a moment and listened carefully.  Then he heard it  the far off sounds of something like explosions and the drone of airplane engines.  "Come on, let's go outside on the roof and look," he told Johnny.

"Okay," Johnny said, and followed his brother out of the attic.

On the roof, they saw smoke coming from the area of Pearl Harbor, an important United States naval base situated in central Oahu.  As they looked up in the clear Hawaiian sky, they saw many planes flying by.  They saw the red circle painted on the white planes that symbolized the country of Japan.  The brothers were filled with dread as they realized what was happening to the base.  They watched as water shot into the air from the Japanese bombs as they hit and exploded in the water and on the air fields and ships.

"Wow!"  Johnny exclaimed, as he watched a bomb hit an already burning battleship and destroy it even further.

"Quick, let's go back in the house and turn on the radio," Charlie said.

"Yeah, I think we should do that, too.  Betty hurry," Johnny said, as a Japanese fighter plane started toward the Makiki area and began to shoot at cars on the street.

In the house, the two brothers calmed a shaken Mrs. Lee and turned on the radio and listened to it.  The radio was blaring, "STAY INSIDE AND TAKE COVER.  THIS IS NOT A DRILL."  The brothers huddled with Mrs. Lee under a table in the dining room.

When there seemed to be a lull in the attack, Johnny and Charlie came out from under the table.  Mrs. Lee was reluctant to move out from under the table.

"Wow!  That was amazing!"  Johnny said, thinking of the explosions on the battleships in the harbor.

"Yeah," Charlie said.  "Come, let's go see what's happening."

"Okay," Johnny said.

The air raid siren stopped blaring.  Out in the street, other people came out of their homes to see what was going on.  There was a lot of smoke and a horrible smell from the burning of tires of the cars that were destroyed by the Japanese fighters.  Then, everyone looked up  they heard plane engines again.  They saw dots in the air as another Japanese wave of attack came in.  All of a sudden, the air raid siren started up again and everyone scurried back inside their homes to take cover once again.

As the sound of the airplane engines died away, people started to come out of their house again.  The sounds of the planes were becoming more distant.

Johnny yanked on his brother's sleeve.  "Let's go home.  What about mom and everybody?"  he said.

"That's probably a good idea.  Let's make sure one of the neighbors looks after Mrs. Lee under her daughter comes home.  We've got to get home."

Johnny and Charlie gathered their tools and put them in the car.  After that, they went next door to ask the neighbors if they could watch over Mrs. Lee.  Their neighbor took Mrs. Lee in and the two brothers jumped into their car and drove home to Waipahu.

It took awhile to get home; there was confusion and mayhem everywhere.  As they passed near Pearl Harbor, they could see that a few ships were still burning and a couple of ships had capsized.  Also in the harbor, they saw that the Arizona, a once great battleship, was now a burning, twisted pile of metal.  Nothing appeared to be unscathed from the Japanese warplanes.

"Wow! " Johnny said slowly as he saw the destruction.

As Charlie drove the car into the driveway of their house, their mother ran out to greet them.

"Hi Mom!"  Johnny shouted as he jumped out of the car.

"Hi Johnny!  Are you two alright?"  Wong Lum Shee asked.

"Yes, we're fine, but my car has a few bullet holes in it from the Japanese planes,"  Charlie replied.

"You and Johnny can fix that later, let's get back inside the house before the planes come back," Wong Lum Shee said, as she walked inside the house with her two sons behind her.  The rest of their brothers and sisters clamored around the brothers for details of what they saw on the way back from Makiki.

That night, the Army sent soldiers around the whole island to tell people that all lights had to be turned off by a certain time.  They were told by an Army corporal that if they wanted to have their lights on, they had to paint their windows black, so that no light could get through and show enemy planes where the islands were.  Also, the corporal told them that there was a ten o'clock curfew.  If they were out driving before that, they had to paint their headlights black except for a little slit so that only a little light could get through.

That night, the Wong family sat in the dark and listened to the radio.  Then, at ten o'clock, they all went to sleep, wondering what the next day would bring.

The next morning was December 8, 1941.  While eating breakfast, Johnny turned on the radio just in time to hear the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, declare war on Japan.  The whole Wong family listened as the president gave his speech.  Finally, after six minutes, the president finished his speech.  Johnny was the first to speak.

"Does this mean we're going to war, Mom?" he asked.

"Yes, Johnny, it does," he replied.  "Now hurry up and eat your breakfast.  We have much work to do."

Life, as Johnny and his family knew it, would change from that day on.  War had been declared and the military took over operations on the island.  Soon, what were once neat and tidy lawns were now replaced by trenches and dirt piles as people began building underground bomb shelters.  Gas alarms were placed every 1,000 feet and everybody was given a gas mask by the army.

All the money that the Wong family had, both in the store and at home, was collected by the government.  This was because if Japan should take over Hawaii, this would cause great problems in the world abroad because they have access to the use of the captured currency.  Because of this fear, the money that the islanders used was burned and replaced with bill that had "Hawaii" imprinted on the back of it.

The Wong family and other store owners were also instructed by the government to ration out their supplies.  When people purchased items, they were limited to certain quantities.

Luckily, the Wong family had a small farm where they grew vegetables for their store.  The government encouraged the people to start victory gardens wherever there was usable land so that there would be less reliance on shipped food and less pressure on rationed goods.  Wong Lum Shee and her family worked even harder on their farm to grow as much as they could.

Even the use of vehicles on the islands was somewhat controlled by the government.  The vehicles were classified according to their use and given decals indicating the monthly allotment of gas they could be given.  Drivers would have to turn in a certain amount of ration stamps every time they bought gas.  The Wong family was very careful in how often they used their car.

At all the schools, trenches were dug and the teachers and students were trained on how to jump into the trenches and put on their gas masks whenever there was an air raid alarm.  These air raid drills were conducted often.  Also, the male students that just finished high school were drafted into the military.  Many of Charlie's friends were drafted or they enlisted in the military to try and do their share of helping the country.

The once beautiful Waikiki beach, where Johnny and his family would spend many hours playing in the sand and water, was now surrounded by thick barbed wire fences.  To get to the beach, the people had to go through a small opening in the fence manned by two armed sentries who would control passage.

Personal mail was censored.  All mail had to go through censors.  A censor crossed out anything that looked like it would be of importance to the enemy, so that if the mail was intercepted by them, they wouldn't find out anything important to the security of the United States.

During the war, people had to stand in line for almost everything.  If they wanted meat, for example, they would often have to stand in line for hours.  Sometimes, they would still not get any meat.  People would spend most of the day waiting in line for such things as food staples, gas masks, gasoline coupons, liquor permits, and immunizations against small pox and typhoid fever.

The war affected not only humans, dogs were involved too!  In early 1942, a national organization called "Dogs for Defense" was formed.  That organization went around and assisted the military in finding and training dogs.  Not all dogs were accepted, the dogs had to be of proper size, and the right age of one to five years.  Luckily, the Wong's family pet was an old dog named Blackie.  He was as old as Johnny.  He was too old to serve.

The war made life hard for everyone.  The Wong family saw friends go off and never return.  Mother Wong Lum Shee passed away in the mid 1940's.  Shortly thereafter, the United States would drop atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.  Japan would then surrender to the United States and its allies.

Johnny's older brothers and sisters, who were in their teens and twenties, managed to run the farm, the store, and still hold on to jobs.  They saw their younger siblings through high school and college.  Johnny finished college and went on to law school.  He went on to become a Deputy Attorney General for the territory and then the State of Hawaii.  He is my grandfather.  Of his brothers and sisters, two became teachers, one became a restaurant owner, and the others became an architect, an accountant, and a Realtor.  Two sisters are housewives.  The Wong brothers and sisters knew that their parents would be proud of the happy and successful lives they all had made for themselves.

The United State of America

To All Who See These Presents, Greetings:  This is to certify that the President of the United States of America authorized by Executive Order 16 Jan 1969 has awarded The Meritorious Service Medal to Colonel Johnson H Wong, Infantry, U.S. Army for
Exceptionally meritorious service from 12 Feb 1978 to 30 Sept 1981 while serving as Assistant Chief of Staff, G1 and later as Assistant Chief of Staff, G4, HQ IX Corps (Augmentation), U.S. Army Western Command, Fort DeRussy, Hawaii.  Colonel Wong demonstrated exceptional management abilities by devising and reducing the strength reports and developing various recruiting, retention, and maintenance reports as management tools.  Significantly among his accomplishments was the development of a maintenance task force and property book assistance team to assist the subordinate unit.  He also established the first U.S. Army Reserve Bowling League and Intramural Sports Program.  Colonel Wong's exemplary performance and devotion reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

11 Feb 1982

The United State of America

To All Who See These Presents, Greetings:  This is to certify that the President of the United States of America authorized by Act of Congress 20 July 1942 has awarded The Legion of Merit to Colonel Johnson H Wong, Infantry, U.S. Army Reserve.

Exceptionally meritorious service from 9 July 1975 to 30 June 1984 while serving in a succession of important positions culminating in his assignment as Chief of Staff, HQ IX Corps (Augmentation), U.S. Army Western Command.  Throughout his career, Colonel Wong displayed great versatility and leadership in achieving corp objectives.  During his tenure as Commander, 1085th training exercise and maneuver group, he developed a high level of training and exercise preparation which enabled the unit to achieve outstanding results.  As Chief of Staff, he coordinated, monitored, and motivated the HQ staff to insure the successful accomplishment of all matters relating to the command.  Upon his retirement, Colonel Wong is recognized for his distinguished performance of duty which reflects great credit upon himself, this command, and the U.S. Army.


June 22, 1984
John Marsh, Secretary of the Army

Dear Holly and family,  I was very sad to read of your father's passing.  He was a very accomplished attorney--handling many landmark cases for the State.  But I think he was at his best providing advice to the staff at DLNR so we could do a better job.

Dear Betty and family, please accept my deepest sympathies on the passing of your husband, father and grandfather.  Johnson was a valued member of the AG's office for many years.  While I served as AG in the mid-1970's, Johnson played a major rule on legal issues handled by our office pertaining to the H-3 tunnel.  I remember Retired Admiral Alvey Wright, DOT Director, needed Johnson back from his army reserve summer duty in D.C. and pulled some rank to get him to return and sit in on crucial meetings here.  Needless to say, this was a huge inconvenience for Johnson, but he played the good soldier and came back to sit in with the Admiral, and, had to take the long trip back to D.C. after the meetings.  The Admiral and I were grateful to Johnson.  Again, my deepest sympathies.



To Betty and family, the passing of Johnson came as a very sad news.  I have not seen him for well over forty years.  We were both in the Army Reserve after I served on active duty.  He was such a jovial individual that made us laugh with his funny stories and yet when he wanted to be serious, it reflected his keen intelligence as one suspected to be a lawyer.  Even after all the years past since we parted, I can still recall and remember his laughter and voice.  He had a good heart and always tried to encourage others to be honest, straight forward, and live a life with a good sense of humor to be respectful and courteous at all times. Yes, he was a mentor for all of us to be professionals as  an officer in the US Army.  God Bless and thank all of you for sharing Johnson with us who knew him.

Robert Kinoshita
bob-hcsr@hawaii.rr.com

OBITUARY

Johnson H. Wong

February 14, 1930 – February 5, 2015

Borthwick Mortuary

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