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Dr. Rogers Lee Hill stated that on the morning of December 7, 1941, he went to the Halekulani Hotel in order to bring Dr. Moorehead to the Mabel Smyth Memorial Building for a lecture. They drove through Fort De Russy and by Fort Armstrong and saw flack and smoke and heard the explosions. Shortly after his arrival he met someone who told him that the war had broken. He and Dr. Moorehead discussed the matter but both rather pooh-poohed the idea. However, he returned home to see about his family, and they had already heard the news on the radio.
They then proceeded to Mabel Smyth Memorial Building for Dr. Moorehead's lecture. When he arrived at the building he was very shortly called to The Queen's Hospital, where he took care of the first casualty of the 7th so far as the civilian population was concerned. It was a man from comparatively close to the hospital who was brought in with his spleen, one kidney and liver partially shot out, and a great gaping wound in his back. They tried to give him plasma but the man did not survive. From that time on Dr. Hill, who had been placed on one of the surgical teams that was supposed to report at Schofield General Hospital, worked at Queen's Hospital with Drs. Judd, Bell, and an intern, Dr. Harold Sexton. He stated that they had a number of bilateral amputations to do, and that they lost all but the last one. As he looks back at it he feels that the operations were done too early, and that if he were confronted with the problem again he would place a tourniquet on the legs and leave it for six or eight hours, and then amputate at the site of the tourniquet, meanwhile giving the patient blood and plasma in order to make up for fluid losses. He stated that Dr. Sexton went to the ward and called for volunteers from hernias and appendices and other convalescent patients to donate plasma, as all the blood and plasma which they had had in the bank had been removed to Tripler General Hospital. He was called to go to Tripler General Hospital, but was so involved with casualties at Queen's that it was impossible for him to go. He stated that the civilian casualties were either so bad that they could not be saved, or they were comparatively minor. He mentioned a woman who was hit by a piece of shrapnel in the region of her breast bone, and the shrapnel traveled along one of the ribs, cutting off the rib down to the pleura but not perforating the pleura. The wound was cleansed and sewed up and the woman made a perfectly satisfactory recovery. He stated they were short of material at Queen's Hospital in the way of gloves and gowns, and that he and Dr. Bell and Dr. Judd took turns in operating on the severe wounds. He was busy at the hospital till dinner time.
After dinner he went home and blacked out his automobile lights. Dr. Smith called from Tripler Hospital and asked if Queen's could take care of a lieutenant with acute appendicitis, as conditions did not justify it at Tripler. Dr. Hill went down to Queen's, saw the lieutenant and decided to wait, as it did not seem to be too urgent at the time. (He removed the appendix at Queen's two days later because it did not subside.) He then went home and was called out again some time later because of a Colles' fracture of the arm which he reduced. At the same time a man was admitted with multiple fracture of ribs and a lacerated scalp. They sutured the scalp and hospitalized him for the ribs. He was in poor condition at the time of admission, and died later that night. These were accidents involving people unaccustomed to sudden blackout.
On the 8th he was ordered to report to Kamehameha School, which was the new and third General Hospital that they established that day in the Territory of Oahu. He and Dr. Bowles established a casualty clearing station in the Dispensary of Kamehameha School, and slept at the Dispensary that night. It was either on the 8th or 9th that he met Dr. F.J. Halford, and Dr. Halford secured from him some 5000 surgical needles and 5000 yards of silk for doing intestinal suturing. This was not to take care of the casualties of the 7th, but was in preparation for any all-out blitz that might occur.
He stated further that one night after the 8th he took a room at Queen's Hospital and stayed there throughout the night, because of the danger of going from his home to the hospital if he was called, due to the irresponsibility of the men who had been placed on guard duty. They were inclined to shoot and ask questions afterwards. The result was that there were a good many civilian casualties after the night of the 7th. One which he mentioned was that of a man who was walking along when his hat blew off. As he stooped to pick up his hat some guard shot and took off a large section of the front of his abdomen down to his peritoneum. This man made a satisfactory recovery.
"I have read the above report of my conversation, and it is true to the best of my knowledge and belief."
Rogers Lee Hill, M.D.
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Dr. Hing Biu Luke was awakened on the morning of December 7, 1941, by his wife telling him that Pearl Harbor was being bombed. She stated that she heard it over the radio about 8 a.m., but he is not certain as to the time that she woke him. He thought his wife was joking and turned on the bedroom radio. Upon hearing music, he was convinced that it was a joke till in a few minutes he was paged by telephone and radio to report to Tripler. He dressed and without stopping to eat breakfast rushed to The Tripler General Hospital, going by way of King Street. At the intersection of King and Middle Streets a military policeman was holding up all cars, inquiring as to their destination and routing them away from the source of trouble. This delayed him about 15 minutes in getting to The Tripler Hospital. Anti-aircraft guns were going but he heard no small arms firing. At Tripler Hospital there were some 20 wounded lying on the lawn and the army doctors were giving them tetanus antitoxin and morphine. He reported to a sergeant who asked him about his surgical classification. He lost about 15 minutes more waiting for a decision as to where he was needed most urgently. He then went to one of the wards on his own initiative. He helped a captain there with treatment of hemorrhage and shock. There were no plasma and blood but there were jars of saline. There were no sterile instruments until a nurse came and sterilized them. About 15 minutes after reaching the ward, a Japanese bomber came over quite low followed by anti-aircraft fire. The doctors and corpsmen rushed to the windows and yelled like baseball fans for the anti-aircraft men to get the bomber. However, they were disappointed.
About an hour later he went to surgery where there were a group of civilian doctors operating. However, there were a couple of army doctors there helping locate instruments and surgical dressings. By that time blood had begun to arrive. Dr. Cooper was giving blood. Drs. Cooper, Moorehead, Halpern, Strode, R.O. Brown, and K.C. Chock were among the ones he remembered being present. There was a great shortage of instruments, but they did the best they could, doing debridements and suturing wounds. He recalls Dr. Strode and Dr. R.O. Brown trying to work on an injured kidney. Work continued until about 2 o'clock when things were pretty well cleaned up and they were given a good lunch. They then went back to surgery. Upon observing conditions well controlled there, he returned to the wards where he met Dr. Yang and they poured sulfanilamide powder into and sutured many lacerations. He cannot recall having had supper, but continued working until 10 or 11 o'clock and was told to return in the morning. He went home with his lights off.
He said that the army tried to cooperate in every way, but they were short on everything. At no time did he return to his office for tools or dressings, but these began to arrive about an hour after he reached Tripler. In the wards in which he worked, beds were well set up. He did not see that much first-aid had been given to the patients, although he recalled a few tourniquets but very little splinting. Most of the cases were flesh wounds. He recalls some very badly mutilated patients; one with a compound fracture of both bones of the legs and a fracture of the arm, and a lieutenant who had a chest wound who died because they had nothing to work with except to plug the wound. He recalls the very pleading look in the lieutenant's eyes, but the lieutenant made no complaint.
"I have read the attached report of my conversation and it is true to the best of my knowledge and belief."
Hing Biu Luke, M.D.
Medicine in Hawaii: The World War II Experience
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