On Dec 7th 1941 at 7:48 am, over three-hundred-fifty Japanese Fighter Planes attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This attack destroyed many lives and property, and started World War II.
In school as a young boy, I learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor. For you it may have been a different time and place. In fact, you may have a loved one who was there and told you of his or her personal experience that dreadful Dec morning. No matter when we learned of it, each year since the tragedy we are reminded via various media of the tragic event. As it should be, the spotlight is on the attack and the loss of lives. To my knowledge, none of the reports say anything about whether or not lighthouses were impacted. This week as I remembered Pearl Harbor, for some reason I wondered about the lighthouses.
So, did the attack on Pearl Harbor have any impact on Hawaii's lighthouses and their keepers? My research revealed several examples to the affirmative, but for brevity I'll share these few.
The Barbers Point Lighthouse pictured below, the Makapu'u Lighthouse, and Diamond Head Lighthouse are all located near Honolulu on the eastern end of the island of Oahu. These three are part of the major lighthouses mentioned below the picture. Most likely, the Keepers for each of these lighthouses saw some of the fighter planes flying overhead or nearby their lighthouse that morning.
The Head Keeper at the Barbers Point Lighthouse documented his observation of the attack. In a letter he wrote a few days later, he described several events which occurred at his light station that morning. About one of those events he wrote the following: "At 8:00 am many planes were seen overhead, both Japanese and ours. Dog fighting continued for twenty minutes, bullets hitting the ground in bursts. Then all planes headed south, our planes chasing them. Seemed to have come from the windward side, and left the island on Barbers Point side." (Credit: LighthouseFriends for the quote from Keeper's letter.)
Throughout the islands of Hawaii there are a total of forty-three (43) lighthouses. Nine (9) of them are classified as major lights and thirty-four (34) are minor lights. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, every lighthouse had its light darkened and continued dark for the duration of the war. (Credit: LighthouseFriends.)
During the war, the Keeper's Dwelling at Diamond Head Lighthouse housed a Coast Guard Radio Station.
I've been to Hawaii and visited the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, but regret I was not able to visit a lighthouse.
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