Evening star., 1941-12-25
Honolulu Assumes
Full War Attitude
Within Few Hours
People Respond Quickly
To Necessity for Taking
Defensive Measures
By ROBERT ]. CASEY
Foreign Correspondent of the The Star
and CHICAGO Daily News.

aONoLOLO, DcC. a. tDcldyCu'-
About $500 funerals are finished.
Temporarily at least, there seems to
be an end to murder in Paradise.
And, visiting skeptics are pleased to
report, this frontline outpost of the
United States is getting on with the
war.
Since the ghastly morning of Dec.
7 one gets to this place only with
difficulty. Thereafter one circulates
with even greater difficulty about
this strangest and most tragically
indescribable battle-ground that the
spread Of the Nazi idea and the rls-
ing ambitions of the honorable Son
of Heaven have produced.
AS one might expect in region
where peace has been habit and OF
a people who, like their relatives
on the mainland, governed their lives
on the principle they can't do that
to U.S." the business of civil defenses
has been crammed into the public
craw with palliatives. When you
are prepared in advance for trouble,
you may contrive to hold out few
of your individual rights. When you
have not bothered to prepare you
find your personal privileges, II any.
blacked out by the general need OF
the community.
And-you go to bed at o'clock at
night in room as dark inside as
black cat-it is no solace to think
that things might have been differ
ent If you had learned anything
from what you read in the newspa-
pers about places like Rotterdam
and London and Crete.
A Real Blackout.
This, my friends, is the most COM
pletely militarized civil community
by day and the most nearly invisible
by night that you will find any
where among the warning nations OF
the world. 1t took England more
than a year to educate the home
folks in the belief that the war was
going to be of any Importance IN
their lives. France never got around
to it before the Germans came in.
Honolulu, on the other hand, was
convinced in a matter of hours. And
even If you don't know anything
about Hawaii except what you've
seen in the cinema, that should be
startling.
AS recently as two weeks ago, this
was still a land of Dolce Far
Niente" where Hollywood beauties
summed themselves on the terraces
of swank hotels and honey-voiced
ukulele players serenaded senti-
mental old ladies on the moonlit
beach and ornamental native girls
skunk about with gardenias in their
hair and wreaths of gingerblossom
about their necks. Song drifted over
the waters on the dangerous breezes
far into the perfumed night.
Today this is place Where-be-
cause of Government requisition-
you can't buy drugs over the pre-
scription counter or photo film in a
camera store, place where you
have to get permit from the Army
to buy a radio SET Movie houses
play only matinee performances.
stores close early every afternoon.
The lazy life of the decorative
beaches is finished unless it can be
compressed between daylight and 6
o'clock in the afternoon.
Sun Goes Down at 6.
The sun goes down at 6 o'clock
and then, with the abruptness of
the tropics, it is night. The main
supply switches are pulled In all
hotels, clubs and apartment build
ings. There are no street lights
not even crossing markers. Buses,
street cars and taXicabs quit rum
ming. And that is not all: in this
most complete of all blackouts no
civilian may walk abroad without
the risk of being shot. The curfew
is lust as strict as the blackout and
just as effective.
A few hotels have lighted lobbieS
where male guests, unable to 60 to
sleep at 6 or o'clock, sit about
reading old magazines, and women,
the diehard remnants of the winter
colony, do their endless knitting. All
bars and liquor stores in town are
closed as tightly as Yokohama
Specie Bank, and this time prohibi-
ton really works. You can't buy
a fashlight or f1ashlight battery
anywhere in town and even if you
aren't allowed to wander about the
darkened streets, this shortage is
serious. You have to have some
sort of torch to find your room in
the hotel.
The strict rules governing the cir
culation of civilians after nightfall
have derived, of course, from the
activities of the large and healthy
fifth column which flourished here
under the protective coloration OF
one of the largest japanese popu-
lationS in the world outside Japan
The problem of dealing with these
nationals has been made more diff
cult by the fact that there are sc
many Americana citizens Of
japanese extraction. Some of these
are passionately loyal. Some aren't
And nobody seems to know which Il
which. This has resulted IN def.