WWII Hawaii Reminiscences:

Transcriptions of My Father's Stories from Hawaii during World War II

Selected as a 1996 Best Veteran/Military World Wide Website by the The American War Library
These are a series of transcriptions of reminisences by my father, William O. Innanen (WOI), on and following his 81st birthday on January 11th, 1996. The transcripts consist of me (WGI) occasionally prompting my father with questions and coments, and his responses. I've lightly edited some portions for readability, and moved some segments around to keep things more or less in sequence. These transcripts represent about 90 minutes of recorded stories.

These reminisences represent a valuable family heirloom that I want to have preserved. I've heard most of these stories many times before, and even repeated some of them. But having them transcribed prevents their loss, and more importantly prevents changes due to my faulty memory. I've put them out for public access because they cover a historic period at a historic place. These stories are World War II in the Pacific as seen through my father's eyes in Pearl Harbor and Hawaii.

Dad was a civilian, a construction superintendent and engineer for a big war-time construction consortium, Pacific Naval Air Base Construction (PNAB). He built a good bit of the additions to Pearl Harbor during the war. He and my mother, Margaret Innanen, were there from before December 7th through Christmas 1944. Dad was in Pearl Harbor for part of the air raid, and was on Midway Island during the Battle of Midway. With the war winding down, he and my mother left Hawaii about Christmas, 1944.

If you have the time, please stop by my guest book page and let me know what you think of my web pages.

Oh, yes:
All of these transcripts are Copyright © 1996 & 1998 by William G. Innanen. All rights reserved.

Index

* A short bio of Dad's eccentric friend, Vice Admiral Calhoun, COMSERVFORPAC.

Here are some photo pages to accompany the stories, from the Innanen home movies and family photos.

Bill Innanen's Home Page
Bill Innanen's Guest Book