The World War II Diary of Manuel Lemes: Civilian Life In Hawaii During World War II

Manuel Lemes was an engineer the Hawaiian Electric Company’s Waiau Power House in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. The events of that day changed his life forever. Manuel was a poet, a dreamer and a keen observer of life. Over the course of the War in the Pacific, he compiled a diary that detailed what civilian life was in Honolulu during those years. Now, for the first time since it was written, it is presented here as a time capsule of a man’s life. By today’s standards some of this diary not an easy read. It mirrors the thoughts, prejudices and reality of those times, but it clearly tells the compelling story of the defining moment in Hawaiian and United States history.