James Lee was born in 1930 on Oahu [Annotator's Note: Oahu, Hawaii] in a little community called Kalauao. It is no longer on the map, but it was right near Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. He lived on the shoreline of Pearl Harbor and could see everything. They lived on a farm. His grandparents had come there from China. They had chickens, pigs, and cattle. It was a real country life outdoors. It was exciting but he had chores even as a young kid. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], they would see planes because they had a lot of war games going on there. It was routine. It was interesting but not scary. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Lee to talk about the morning of 7 December 1941.] He was a rascally little kid full of mischief. He was an 11-year-old by then and his chore was to feed the pigs. All of a sudden, the planes came over at treetop level. There was a roar of propellors, guns, and cannons. He could see the pilot and the bottom of the plane. It looked kind of funny with the red circle. He did not know what it was. There were hundreds of planes all over. He ran onto the railroad tracks and watched from a front row seat. He was not afraid at all. The bombing, the fireworks, and explosions were fascinating. There was so much going on there was not enough time to be scared. He lived about a mile away. There were many ships, but it seemed like the attack was on the island. He saw a ship get hit around eight o'clock. He saw torpedo planes dropping the torpedoes. He looked real and he wondered what kind of game this was. He saw a huge explosion that he later learned was the Arizona [Annotator's Note: the USS Arizona (BB-39)]. He saw planes blow up in the sky. It was still exciting. Today, your screen in your living room is maybe 60 inches wide. His screen that day was 15 miles wide. Pearl Harbor was not the only place hit. The island of Oahu was hit, and six air bases were hit. He could see the planes miles away. Not one bomb or shot came his way. Right above there were planes flying that were not shot down at all. They were Japanese planes filming the attack. Some shells fired in the sky did not explode, fell on Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii], and then exploded. The Japanese did not bomb Honolulu, it was friendly fire. There were 49 civilians killed. One of the most exciting things he saw was a ship [Annotator's Note: USS Nevada (BB-36)] next to the Arizona that was on fire trying to escape. It came close to his home, and he watched it being attacked. It beached itself on the shores of Pearl Harbor in order to not block the channel. Lee lost track of time. He heard over a loudspeaker that they were at war, and they said that Japanese troops had landed. That is when fear set in. He went home and his family fled into the mountains [Annotator's Note: near the Waimalu Valley]. They hid out in the caves. This was just about two hours later. They could hear the attack but could not see it from there. Suddenly the planes disappeared, and they went back home about three hours after they left. The attack was over. The saddest thing was seeing all of the smoke and flames. All around Battleship Row, small boats were going around picking up survivors and dead bodies. That was a sight to see. The Arizona burned for two and a half days. At night they could hear jackhammers pounding. He will never forget the sound of the explosion of the Arizona. They found out the pounding was trying to make holes in the Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: the USS Oklahoma (BB-37)] to rescue the men inside.

Right after the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], martial law was declared. James Lee was 11, and was no longer a kid and not a rascal because he had to behave. There was a camp of military troops right next to his home. They had blackouts, curfews, rationing, and censorship. They were strict. Before the attack, they could go into the waters of Pearl Harbor. After the attack, they could no longer get crabs and fish for food. The kids would go into the water anyway. He was caught many times by the sentries. They had to eat. They were a territory at that time and the only place in the United States with martial law. They lived like that from 7 December 1941 to October 1944. His father was a smoker. Their house was old and had cracks and things. They got arrested many times for not following the blackouts. One of the rules for the blackouts was not having any lights on or the windows had to be covered. They had candles and kerosene lamps. Their car lights were shaded. They could not have fires, but they used wood to cook. They had to change habits. They could not move around much. His job was to milk the cows in the morning and the cows do not care about curfews. The cows were tied up near the cane fields. He brought the cows out before the curfew and was met by a sentry who put a bayonet to his throat. Lee was so scared. Later on, when he got to know the soldier, he told Lee he was scared and did not know who was coming out of the bushes. Lee grew up and learned it was their way with "no ifs, or buts." It was that way for a couple of years. He felt very safe with the military there. The Japanese were forced away from the shoreline. Because Lee's family were farmers, they were not forced out. They did not have next door neighbors. There were small communities nearby of Puerto Ricans, Filipinos, and Japanese. They were all friends and took care of each other. They had to dig bomb shelters. They were never enemies, but they were never that close either until martial law came about. They were all scared.

James Lee says censorship was the worst thing about martial law [Annotator's Note: after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They could not say certain things. They could not talk much about what they saw. They did not know what was happening and a lot of rumors started. As the war progressed, troop ships and planes were coming, and they did not know if they were American or not. Later they would learn there were big battles. One night there would be ships in the harbor, and the next day they would be gone. Martial law became less strict. In October 1944, martial law was lifted. In May 1944, there were huge explosions in the harbor [Annotator's Note: The West Loch Disaster was a maritime accident during World War 2 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii on Sunday, 21 May 1944]. Nothing was said and they did not know if the Japanese were coming in again. Years later he learned ships loading ammunition blew up in an accident. He was too young to be in the military, but he went to school. As a seventh grader, he worked in the pineapple fields. He bought war bonds. They took gas masks to school, and they had air raid practice. His parents felt that he was doing too many bad things and sent him to live with his aunt downtown. They had a restaurant in Chinatown [Annotator's Note: in Honolulu, Hawaii], which was a vicious place to be. There was so much military, and he saw all of the fights and vices. He observed it all and it lives in his mind. On 14 August [Annotator's Note: 14 August 1945], Lee was downtown and heard that thousands of Japanese had been killed because of one or two bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945]. It was always tense in town. After the news, they were waiting for retaliation. They heard sounds of bells and whistles and learned the war ended. That was one of the happiest days of his life. VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945] was wild. His brothers and relatives were now coming home from battle. He will never forget it.

James Lee could not fight in World War 2, but when the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] came about, it was his turn. He later studied to be a veterinarian at the University of Hawaii [Annotator's Note: in Honolulu, Hawaii] but when the war came around, he volunteered to be a pilot. He graduated high school June 1949. In 1950, the Korean War started. He joined the Hawaiian National Guard [Annotator's Note: Hawaii Air National Guard]. He had to wait until called so he went to the University of Hawaii. He was drafted into the Army. It seemed like he had been put in prison. He fought the Army. Then he learned to go along with it and liked it. Having seen the attack and what life was like, he felt he should join them. He trained for combat. He went to advanced training and then was sent to Officers Training School in Oklahoma. All the people he had trained with were in Korea. He felt left out. He went to the school four of six months and resigned to be in combat with his friends. The military sent him to Europe instead for the occupation of Germany. Being a young kid in the minority and being the only Chinese person in his outfit, he felt out of place. He was surprised by the camaraderie. He grew up under martial law. He did not like history but after all of his experience, he encourages people to learn history. He felt stupid for resigning from Officers Training School and he tells people not to give up. He saw Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany]. He wanted to make the military his career.

James Lee went to Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany] on a tour. He can remember the smell even from 1952 or 1953. He returned five or six years ago, and he could still smell it. It was all mental. He went to the Holocaust Museum [Annotator's Note: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.] and looking at the pictures, he could still smell it. He had gone on his own to Dachau. He was fortunate to be on the staff and faculty of a school and was able to travel throughout the southern part of Germany. He was in administration as an assistant in training and a jack-of-all-trades [Annotator's Note: in the Army]. When he went to meet with Germans, they would give him a look. When he said he came from Hawaii, he was greeted with open arms. Later he found out it was because the 442nd [Annotator's Note: 442nd Regimental Combat Team (Separate)] and 100th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 100th Infantry Battalion (Nisei)] came by. They were Japanese but those people did not know. The Germans treated him like royalty. He did not smoke but he gave each German he saw one cigarette. He never felt threatened. At first, they gave him a mean look. He was in Germany for almost a year. His father died and he had to return to Hawaii. He got out for a while to take care of the farm. He wanted to get married and was told his wife would not go anywhere other than Hawaii. He went into the Army Reserve program and retired from that.

James Lee was in the Reserve [Annotator's Note: Army Reserve] program and got to serve in certain parts of the world. He retired with over 40 years' service. He worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in the whole Pacific area. He did not like history and did not like to read. He was able to get out into the combat areas and talk to the natives and hear from them what happened. He went to the Mariana Islands where the atomic bomb was assembled. Talking to the natives was more worthwhile than reading about it. He was able to go to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and see the results [Annotator's Note: of the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945]. All of these were lessons learned. He tries to encourage folks that number one it is something to hear it from somebody rather than reading about it. People forget, especially Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. At one time, there was only interest in the attack and what happened. Later comes the why and what do you do about that. How do you prevent something like that?

When James Lee was a young kid, he was close buddies with a Japanese boy whose name was Toshi Yamamoto. They were inseparable. On 6 December [Annotator's Note: 6 December 1941], they were playing hide-and-seek and helping his dad catch fish. On 7 December [Annotator's Note: after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Lee did not see him. Lee and his family went up in the hills and hid in the caves. When he came back, Lee went to look for him but could not find him. From 7 December until years later, he looked for him. He would send notes to newspapers hoping he would read them. For 71 years, he did this. There were rumors that his family were spies, since Yamamoto [Annotator's Note: Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Marshal Admiral of the Japanese Imperial Navy; Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet] planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. On 7 December 2012, Lee was at the commemoration [Annotator's Note: of the Pearl Harbor attack] and was on the radio. He told the story about his friend. A phone call came in and the person said that Toshi was his father. Lee was crying and speechless. The name Yamamoto is like Smith in English, but it was the same family as his friend. On 14 December [Annotator's Note: 14 December 2012] the son told Lee that his father had died years before and told him where he was buried. Lee found the grave and was able to say goodbye. On 20 December he met Toshi's son and grandkids, and they went to the old house. During the war years, many of the Japanese were relocated. There were about 140,000 Japanese in Hawaii. When they came home that day, they were met by soldiers who aimed machine guns at them. They were ordered to get out within 20 minutes with whatever they could take away from the shoreline. The old house was just abandoned when he took Toshi's relatives to see it. His parents knew but were busy with the farm. They told him not worry about them and they had to take care of themselves. His parents did wonder what happened.

James Lee's parents said the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] was another war game. After the attack, they told him it was war. There was fear in their life. Because they had a farm and were not Japanese, they were allowed to live there. They were never in danger or forced to move. They were not mistaken for the Japanese. They all had identification and different color badges. He never looked at them as being Japanese. Lee's father was a great cook, and they had a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown [Annotator's Note: in Honolulu, Hawaii]. Hotel Street had all the bars and vices. The troops congregated there. This was when Lee was between 12 and 15. There were so many fights. A Chinese family had about three boys and nine girls. There were fights all the time over women. Curfew was often lifted. Across from their restaurant, was a gym. The servicemen would be half-drunk and get beaten up. His aunt was in the alley behind the restaurant. Lee saw a sailor boy hit her butt and went laughing. His aunt chased him with a butcher knife. Around the Chinese neighborhood were houses of prostitution. He used to watch them. He asked a sailor what they were doing and said to come up with him. The lady there told him to get the hell out of there. There was a lot of gambling and Lee's father loved to gamble and drink. There was a Chinese Syndicate [Annotator's Note: Chinese organized crime] in that area. His dad got drunk and called one of them a crook. He slashed his father's face with a knife. Lee got the police, but the guys were gone. The police asked Lee where the gambling joints were. He told them and they had one of the biggest raids in Chinatown. It was a notorious area. Lee's father did some undercover work for opium and Lee delivered opium not knowing what it was. He would get tips. He experienced murder in that area. He attended a private school on the good side of town.

During the war years, James Lee went to USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organization] shows and saw guys like Bing Crosby [Annotator's Note: Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby; American singer, comedian, actor] and Joe Louis [Annotator's Note: Joseph Louis Barrow, professional boxer]. They were all free. They were for the military, but he could go see it. They did not follow the war news too much. Only when he got to be an adult, did he care. Lee hated the enemy but not the local Japanese. A lot of his neighbors went into the military, died and never made it back home. The Japanese schools were closed. There were a lot of Japanese in the United States who were relocated to ten different centers [Annotator's Note: forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration camps in the United States from 19 February 1942 to 20 March 1946]. Hawaii was different. Before the war started, there were about 430 Japanese on a list to be arrested immediately if the United States was ever attacked. Within 48 hours of the attack, about 380 of them were arrested. The Japanese who were naturalized were Nisei [Annotator's Note: first generation Japanese-American]. The Isseis [Annotator's Note: Japanese emigrants not eligible for citizenship] were arrested first. The Nisei who were born in Hawaii, went to Japan and returned were called Kibeis. A lot of them came back as men of status and were on the list. A classmate of Lee's father was arrested as soon as the attack happened. They even closed Lee's school to make it into a hospital. The majority in his school were Chinese and Japanese. He worked on a pineapple plantation. He was in a private school and had to work some days during the school week. Picking pineapples was hard work and was miserable. They bought savings stamps for war bonds [Annotator's Note: debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war] with what they made. He had quite a number of them. After 40 to 50 years he found out they were worth quite a bit. His sisters worked and his brothers were all in the military. They kept their farm and used the livestock for their restaurant.

James Lee's most memorable experience of World War 2 is the attack itself [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and of growing up under martial law. When the war ended, he was suddenly free, but it was time to think about what really happened and what he would do with that experience. The war changed his life in that it made him grow up. It made him realize that life is important. As he ages, he tries to encourage the young people to understand what happened and to not let it happen again. He is a volunteer with the National Park Service and on the Missouri [Annotator's Note: the USS Missouri (BB-63)]. Lee thinks the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is very valuable. He is a member of the Army Museum in Washington [Annotator's Note: The National Museum of the United States Army in Washington, D.C.]. What is out there is mostly about Europe. The idea is to get people to understand it.