On Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Al Beralas of Lihu‘e Camp, Kaua‘i, was a civilian worker building a fuel-storage tank with coworkers on Red Hill overlooking the harbor. From the heights of Red Hill
On Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Al Beralas of Lihu‘e Camp, Kaua‘i, was a civilian worker building a fuel-storage tank with coworkers on Red Hill overlooking the harbor.
From the heights of Red Hill they watched in astonishment as enemy aircraft zoomed overhead to bomb, strafe and torpedo ships and shore facilities at Pearl Harbor amidst thunderous explosions and towering billows of smoke.
Suddenly, one aircraft veered off and dived toward Al’s position. Instantly, he and his coworkers scrambled for cover beneath their rock-hauling truck, a reaction that likely saved their lives as large-caliber bullets ripped into the truck’s bed and cab above them.
Having survived Pearl Harbor, Al returned to Kaua‘i to work as a lookout in the evenings on the high ground above Mana, where his duty was to report violations of the island’s wartime-blackout policy.
Then in 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment, comprised almost entirely of soldiers of Filipino descent from the U.S. Mainland and territorial Hawai‘i.
Up to that time, detachments of soldiers from the regiment had penetrated the enemy-held Philippines by submarine to carry out clandestine raids, reconnaissance and intelligence missions.
But it was not until January 1945, that the 1st Filipino Infantry entered the Philippines as a unit to fight for Philippine liberation on Leyte and Samar in the Catarman, Ormoc, Allen and Llorente campaigns.
Al recently recalled mop-up operations on Samar, patrolling with his squad through thick jungle alive with poisonous snakes and crocodiles and clearing the island of its remaining fanatical enemy troops.
Among Cpl. Beralas’s military decorations is the Combat Infantryman Badge.
He and his wife, Julie, had six children. Al now resides in Lihu‘e.
