The background to this is that my high school got various years to "remember" their upbringing as well as school mates and the following is part of it's "lure:"

Pearl Harbor Memories Rerun:

The late and great Geezer Bob Wilson sent in this piece a year or so ago. It was his wife’s memories of the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Bob wrote: I liked the picture of those youngsters in the December 7, 1941 photo. My wife Mary was born and raised in Honolulu and was a freshman on that day. The night before that Sunday, all the Navy ships in port got their ship's bands to participate in "The Battle of the Bands", at BLOCH ARENA in Pearl Harbor, to determine which ship had the best band.

Mary attended quite often as one of her good friends was the daughter of a Navy Captain who was the skipper of the Navy Hospital Ship docked in Pearl and so Mary was a regular at The Battle of the Bands concerts.

She and five friends had been invited to spend the night at Ford Island with her friend. This is where the Battleships anchored while in port. At the last minute her father decided that six girls for an overnight stay was too much for anyone to handle so he arranged to pick up three girls and take them home.

Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, was like any other Sunday morning until Navy maneuvers (or so they thought) were taking place around eight a.m. It was a lot louder that ever heard before with many aircraft in the skies over Honolulu. Their home in Manoa Valley was blocked from looking toward Pearl Harbor, but the Honolulu City view was great. A relative living in Nuuanu Valley had a wonderful view of the area around Pearl Harbor and called Mary's dad to say the sky was covered with airplanes and Pearl Harbor was hidden from view by smoke and flames and something was seriously wrong and to turn the radio on.

The radio had Hawaii's Governor speaking (crying) and telling all citizens to stay put.... that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor with many ships sunk and thousands dead.

The Japanese sent in their second flight of planes, however by that time the Navy was returning fire against the Japanese air force and many shells landed in downtown Honolulu, causing some damage and a few deaths. This led to the rumor that Honolulu was being bombed.

A strict curfew was put in effect and no lights were permitted to show in case the Japanese came back to invade Hawaii. It was a very uneasy night for Hawaii.

The military set up Martial Law with severe penalties including the possibility of being shot by the military during curfew hours.

The newspapers were loaded with news, rumors, and pictures of the attack that basically scared the hell of residents. Schools and businesses were closed on Monday and residents were warned to stay home or face consequences of military law. Later that week schools and businesses were opened.
Mary's school, Punahou, had been taken over by the military. They had mistaken Punahou for The University of Hawaii and were settled and wouldn't move. Mary had to finish high school in other facilities and graduated in 1944.

The reason for this ancient history is to relate how my wife changed the history of Saturday night, December 6, 1941.

During 1990, a best classmate living on the mainland came to Hawaii for a visit and wanted to tour Pearl Harbor and see the Arizona Memorial.

While on the tour, the guide pointed out that so many were lost on the Arizona because they had won the Battle of Bands and were sleeping in. Mary looked at her friend, Audrey, and they both agreed that the Arizona had NOT won the band contest.

Their guide said that no one had a copy of the Battle of Bands for December 6th so they (historians) were unaware of the proceedings that night.

Both Mary and Audrey had the programs in their scrapbooks.

Mary had all the songs played that night and her comments on who had the best music written on her program along with the winners. Her copy was donated to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and Audrey donated her program to the Arizona Memorial in Arizona.

Due to that history, Mary and I were invited to the 50th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor and were so called honored guests when it was announced what Mary donated. It was formal attire which I'm still getting over. Many of the Pearl Harbor survivors talked with Mary about the "old days" and we had a ball.

Enjoy.