History of Hawaii
Pearl Harbor was surprisingly attacked on December 7, 1941 by the Imperial Japanese Navy, killing 2,403 people and sinking the main American battleship fleet. Fortuitously, the four Pacific aircraft carriers were not in port and escaped damage. Hawaii was put under martial law until 1945. Unlike the West Coast of the United States in which 100,000 ethnic Japanese citizens were interned, the Japanese American population in Hawaii completely avoided such similar fate, though hundreds of pro-Japan leaders were arrested. Pearl Harbor was the U.S.' main forward base for the Pacific War. The Japanese tried to invade in summer 1942 but were defeated at the Battle of Midway. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen passed through on their way to the fighting.
Battle of Bell Island
Bell Island and Little Bell Island are one of the few locations in North America that German forces directly attacked during the Second World War. U-boats raided the island twice in 1942, sinking four ore carriers and killing more than 60 men. The Sydney to Port-aux-Basques passenger ferry SS Caribou was sunk in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the loss of 136 people, including women and children, and four ore carriers were torpedoed at anchor at Wabana, Bell Island, killing 69 men. It was later discovered that a spy was involved. On board U-518 was Werner von Janowski, an agent of Germany's Abwehr intelligence service. At the request of the Newfoundland Commission of Government, Canadian authorities developed defensive plans in case the Germans tried to capture St. John's.