R.H. "Harry" Lodge, Division Overseer of Oahu Sugar Company tells his story of December 7, 1941 Lodge was also a brilliant photographer, and many of his works fill the publication Waipahu at War, which he compiled.

Prologue. December 2, 1948

TO ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS:

Present plans being made by the Major Disaster Council in Honolulu to prepare us for any eventuality, brought to mind a report we made up in September, 1942 in reply to a request of the HSPA that each plantation prepare a factual history relative to their participation in the war0

You may recall that each Department Head was asked to prepare a statement setting forth, as it affects his department, occurrences since December 7th that have upset or changed conditions such as labor shortages, damages, possible future crop losses or other losses, effect of the blackout and Military Orders on the efficiency of employees, occupation of areas by the military, shortages of materials, cane fires, recovery of unexploded shells etc., anything that might be of interest.

These reports which are now a part of history, make interesting reading and we are presenting each of you with a copy of them.

Signed H. L'Orange

Ronda Lodge Pickett, Lodge's daughter, recently sent me these comments, which fit nicely into the report her father made.

As always, Dad was never without a camera. He took many pictures at that time. He dropped them off at his regular photo shop the next day, and when he went to pck them up, found that all 12/7 photos had been picked up from every shop all over Hawaii…never to be seen again. I didn't know until decades later that I could have written to Washinton D.C. and perhaps retrieved them. All 12/7 photos in Waipahu at War are compliments of Uncle Sam.

On 12/7, we were sitting at the breakfast table listening to the sound of explosions and airplanes. My parents were debating whether to send me to Sunday School, a rotating event which was to be at the Fayes' home that Sunday. My mother's exact words were, "My, but these are realistic maneuvers."

At that very moment a plane with the rising sun flew very low over our house, the goggled pilot looking straight down at us through the window. We ran to turn the radio on and heard the announcer gasping over the news. Note: I did not go to Sunday School that day.

Dad tore out the front door and took off in his work car. I tore out the back door, climbed the fence, ran through Erskine's yard (next door to Fleeners) and arrived at the hole in the road just ahead of my father. I got paddled and sent home.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came as a sudden shock to all of us. How the military could have been so unprepared is one of the puzzling aspects that has not yet been solved. Months prior to the attack, the F.B.I., Army and Navy Intelligence had made studies and census of the plantation workers living on the perimeter of Pearl Harbor which was part of the Waipio Peninsula under my supervision. A few of these workers were Japanese, the balance Filipinos. It appeared obvious that the reason for the study was to plan the evacuation of these people in case of attack. Yet the military, particularly the Navy was caught totally unprepared.

My wife, daughter, and I were having breakfast a few minutes before 8 o'clock when the sound of explosions and the roar of airplanes broke the peace and quiet of that Sunday morning. At the time we were not greatly concerned because there had been many realistic war games prior to this. However we soon realized this was something different. We went outside for a better look. A lone plane buzzed the area and strafed the sugar mill. It had the rising sun on the fuselage. My wife dashed in the house and turned on the radio in time to hear the announcer repeat several times that we were under attack. About this time there were several explosions in the cane field in front of our house which later proved to be exploding shells from our own guns. A sudden blast shook the house as shell blew a hole in the paved road back of us, (in front of Fleener's) and showered our house with gravel. Our dog was hit by a piece of shrapnel.

The phone rang and I was told to evacuate all the employees living in the Pearl Harbor area. After locating a couple of truck drivers, we took the old bus used by the Oahu Sugar Co. athletic teams, and a labor truck and hurried to the Waipio peninsula with me leading the parade in my car. The plantation road follows the shore line and Japanese planes were coming in waves, crossing directly over us and blasting away at shipping and installations on Ford Island and Pearl Harbor. Several bursts of machine gun bullets sprayed the road just ahead of my car. The air was thick with shrapnel but by some miracle nobody was hit although all three vehicles had a few dents. With the help of my water luna, E.M. Faye, we rounded up the men with some difficulty as many had taken cover in the cane fields.

Once the men were evacuated I took shelter under one of the many old keawe trees that leaned out over the shore line. By this time it appeared that every battleship, cruiser and destroyer was either afire, exploding or already on the bottom with their superstructure leaning at a crazy angle above water. Great columns of black smoke belched upwards from both warships and shore installations, and a row of planes parked on Ford Island blazed in a holocaust of flaming gasoline as the attacking planes caught them like sitting ducks. The noise of exploding bombs and gunfire was deafening.

The battleship Nevada which was still afloat passed a few hundred yards in front of me heading for the Harbor mouth. When almost opposite, it was hit by a torpedo carried under the fuselage of one of the attacking planes. There was a terrific blast which blew a hole in the bow of the ship big enough to drive a car through. Simultaneously several bombs appeared to hit the deck, and the great battleship began to sink.

To show how unprepared the navy was, there was not one commissioned officer aboard. The ranking sailor on the Nevada was a chief Petty Officer who immediately beached the ship in comparatively shallow water. She settled on the bottom with the decks awash. This was the first ship to be salvaged in the weeks following the attack.

Shortly after this incident, a Japanese plane was hit by gunfire and came crashing through a gnarled old keawe tree not far from where I crouched. The pilot was literally torn to fragments. This was the only plane I saw shot down in this area.

The men returned to work on December 11th. and we gradually resumed normal operations. There was no great damage to my section of the plantation but for a long time we were locating unexploded shells in the cane fields. Some time after the attack I found an unexploded bomb on the edge of the cane field bordering Pearl Harbor. I called one of my irrigators and told him to guard it until I returned with a naval officer from a nearby installation. He was not to handle it and under no circumstances allow anyone else to touch it. I was about ten minutes getting back with the officer. As we rounded the corner of the cane field, my irrigator was hefting the weight of the bomb in his two hands. When he saw us, he hurriedly dropped it. Fortunately this was one of those times when the bomb did not explode.

In conclusion it should be stated that there was no act of sabotage by the local Japanese.

(signed) R.H. Lodge

Note from Bob Pickett, Ronda's husband: I am not sure if you know this, but Ronda, our sons and our grandchildren are all registered as persons of Hawaiian descent. (Ronda's mother was English/Hawaiian, and her father, R.H. Lodge was English.) When each grandchild finishes fifth grade, we send him/her to summer camp at Kamahameha School to learn about a proud Hawaiian heritage. Some of our happiest moments are when our kids perform Hawaiian chants and dances at "graduation".