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| Spitzer daughters a few years before Pearl Harbor |
The first wave of Japanese planes flew along the west coast at 7:55 am, followed by the second wave along the east coast at 8:40 am. A total of 353 Japanese planes was involved in the attack that lasted until 9:45 am. Eight U.S. battleships were either sunk or damaged. Luckily, the U.S. aircraft carriers, the primary target of the attack, were not in port.
A total of 2,335 U.S. servicemen were killed and 1,143 wounded. Civilian casualties totaled 68, with 35 wounded. Only 28 Japanese planes were shot down and 5 submarines sunk. The United States declared war on Japan the next day when FDR gave his famous "Day of Infamy" speech to Congress.
During the attack, the Spitzer family was at their weekend and summer vacation house on the northeast side of the island of Oahu at Punalu'u, a small fishing village on the beach. They didn't witness or hear the dropping of the bombs or its smokey aftermath. What they noticed, however, was their dog acting very frightened. It wasn't until after the horseback ride that the family learned of the attack from someone and immediately began listening to the radio.
Blackouts began the evening after the attack. A Japanese gardener lived next door in Punalu'u, and the older daughter, who was age 14 at the time, saw him that evening repeatedly opening and closing his doors. She wondered if it was some kind of signal.
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| Punalu'u coastline |
Video of present-day Punalu'u coastline:
The next day, the family drove back to their home in Honolulu, noticing again the communication or telephone wires strung along the side the road that they had seen on their way to Punalu'u at the beginning of the weekend.
The U.S. military took over various school buildings, such as the University of Hawaii. Nearby, the daughters' private K-12 school, Punahou School, on the former Oahu College campus, was commandeered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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| 1930's aerial photo of Manoa Valley with Punahou School in the center a few blocks behind the church. |
About a week or so after the schools closed, families with large homes welcomed students and teachers to hold classes in their homes until other classrooms were ready at the University of Hawaii campus. Absent from classes were children of fathers who had been upper level managers at the Bank of Sumitomo. In fact, their absence had been noticed a few days prior to the attack when the families disappeared.
One of the girls who disappeared had been a close friend of the older Spitzer daughter and they had always walked to school together. After the war, she wrote that her family had gone back to Japan and could the Spitzer family please send her some shoes. She eventually married a Japanese American who was stationed in Japan after the war. They settled in Chicago and always kept in touch through the years.
The Spitzer daughters never visited the harbor after the attack. Their older cousin, Norman Spitzer, who was 22 years old, went to Pearl Harbor right away and enlisted for armed service.
Clifford Spitzer was worried about another attack on Hawaii. He had some bags of cement he was going to use to build a chicken coop but decided instead to have a bomb shelter built. The daughters didn't feel fearful, although had they personally witnessed the attack that might have changed. They were too young to be affected by the curfews, but they didn't like the blackouts or having to go to their bomb shelter.
The two Japanese girls, Muriel and Mildred, who were servants of the Spitzer family, stayed with the family for many years as the daughters grew up. Muriel was in charge of following the girls around. Muriel and Mildred lived in the small cottage next to the main house until they married but still continued to work for the family.
After the Pearl Harbor attack and close to the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942), dependents of Navy and Army personnel were being sent back to the mainland. For that reason, and because Clifford Spitzer worried he wouldn't be able to go on buying trips to New York or California, Clifford and Violet Spitzer decided to leave Hawaii. Once they secured air flights to leave, they were forbidden to tell anyone they were leaving. A mass exodus was undesirable.
The day before their exit flights, Waikiki was evacuated. Clifford's sister, Valle (Valentine Spitzer Lewis), and her daughter, Rhoda Lewis, a deputy attorney aged 35, had to leave their home at the Niumalu Hotel in Waikiki. They came to stay with the Spitzer family. The family didn't tell them they were leaving Hawaii and didn't say goodbye.
Violet Spitzer and the daughters left during the Battle of Midway and Clifford Spitzer followed three weeks later. While waiting for Clifford, the family lived in an apartment on Nob Hill in San Francisco. The older daughter remembers walking down the hill to Munson School of Shorthand and Typewriting to improve her typing and take a shorthand class.
The older Spitzer daughter hated leaving Hawaii. Before they left, her father promised after the war he would send both daughters back to Hawaii for a summer, which he did in 1946. To them, Hawaii was more beautiful then than it is now. There were fewer people living there and fewer buildings.
After Clifford Spitzer joined the family in San Francisco, they moved to New York City where he acted as a buyer for the Hub Clothing House he had just sold and also for some other Honolulu clothing businesses. They got an apartment on the upper east side on Park Avenue. Before Clifford left Honolulu, he gave the Punalu'u vacation cottage, originally purchased for about $1,500, to his employees.
References:
Photo of Manoa Valley, http://web.punahou.edu/timelinejs/images_large/547LG_12_1930_0009.jpg
Photo of Punalu'u, http://www.hawaiigaga.com/oahu/beaches/punaluu-beach-park.aspx
Video of Punalu'u, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY8mh2fBZXk
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