SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Toni Gibson was eating breakfast with her parents in their Honolulu kitchen when she heard the noise. She was only 10, but she turned to her father and said, “It sounds like a bomb.”
It was just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, and one of her parents switched on the small radio that sat on their kitchen counter. The Hawaii Calls announcer confirmed the little girl’s fears: This was no exercise. Pearl Harbor was under attack.
Toni’s father, Frank Gibson, worked for the Dole pineapple company, and he was called in to the factory to help put out a reported fire. The child and her mother, Helene, stayed in the house all day, terrified. The rest of the day was a blur of fear.
