Post May 21, 1944 analysis

We stayed on EWA far longer than many of us thought we would and we attributed this to the ammo ships blowing up. Suddenly we were given extra duties, like guard duty, where we would be protecting our own from harm; plus, we guarded the assets we were taking with us. It made sense that the ammo ships had somehow delayed our involvement. We went into Honolulu a few more times, revisited Waikiki Beach and just killed time. Now, to shoot ahead about 40 years; I was reading the Seattle P.I. in the 1980s when I suddenly saw an article about the May 21 explosions! It didn't surprise me really, but those explosions caused the catastrophe to be labeled TOP SECRET and someone must have forgotten all about it, hidden away in some obscure files! I have the article but I'm going to tell this from memory; plus, just lately there was an interesting TV show that explored what happened: It turns out that besides the ammunition ships (2) blowing up there were six LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) involved. There was a loss of life of over 200 men and all of this was designated to be used in the invasion of the Mariana Islands! The figures we saw probably were bodies; the large objects going up in the air were the tanks and apparently some of the tanks were thrown onto land, where they were rusting. Although labeled top secret there were safe havens in Pearl that helped the one 2 man Japanese submarine that got through the Pearl Harbor entrance on December 7, 1941 and fired one torpedo that probably sank one of our battleships! They just found evidence that the two Japanese were to go to a safe haven in Pearl City! Probably the same with the explosions.