She has everyone’s attention now. No one else has been to Hawaii and she makes it sound so exotic. Half the students didn’t even know where Pearl Harbor was. Our teacher suggests La-a pass the photos around while we continue the discussion. La-a is centre of attention and everyone is jealous of her overseas holiday. That’s the way she likes it.
I look at the photos as they reach me one by one. I’m the last to receive them so I have sat listening to everyone else exclaim over them. There’s a photo of an artist’s painting of the attack with the battleships sitting in neat rows, giving the area the name of ‘battleship row’. The class discusses the reasons behind the vessels, as well as the aircraft, being set up in a way that made it very easy to be bombed. No one expected an aerial assault.
