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.
USS Barb (SS-220)
Following a brief overhaul period at New London, "Barb" departed for Pearl Harbor where she arrived in September. It was in the Pacific waters that "Barb" found lucrative hunting and went on to compile one of the outstanding submarine records of World War II. During the seven war patrols she conducted in the Pacific between March 1944 and August 1945, "Barb" is officially credited with sinking 17 enemy vessels totaling 96,628 tons, including , sunk on 17 September 1944. On 15–16 September "Barb" had rescued 14 Australian and British POW survivors of .