Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

In the early morning hours of December 7, 1941, Japan initiated a surprise attack of the Kane’ohe Bay Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As radar showed “a large blip” that looked like “fifty or more incoming aircraft flying” toward the island (11), 183 Japanese warplanes bombed the area. Then, a torpedo hit USS Nevada, USS Virginia, USS Oklahoma, and USS Arizona. 1,177 men died on the latter ship. Civilian areas also faced “[a] deadly hailstorm of Japanese bombs and misdirected American antiaircraft shells” (15). For the next two hours, another 167 Japanese aircraft continued a bombardment in “a kaleidoscope of horrors” (15). To witnesses, the attack “was frozen in time for the rest of their lives” (12).

In 1941, approximately a third of Hawaii’s residents were of Japanese background. They “reacted with the same stunned fury and outrage as other Americans” (16). One of them was Katsugo “Kats” Miho, a 19-year-old first-year university student and second-generation Japanese American. Kats had recently joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He was looking forward to visiting his family at the end of the semester and was “having the time of his life” (9). Kats witnessed black smoke in the sky from the attack.