To mark Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting some of the unsung heroes of World War II. Across the Hawaiian Islands, over a hundred women took part in a top-secret program called the Women’s Air Raid Defense, or WARD.
They were tasked with plotting radar reports and moving potential anomalies up the chain of command. In 2018, we spoke to A. Kam Napier, who wrote a 1991 book entitled “Shuffleboard Pilots: The History of the Women's Air Raid Defense in Hawaii, 1941 - 1945."
Now, a new historian has taken up the mantle of telling their story. She's expanded her search to all of Hawaiʻi’s underappreciated women at war.
King’s College London lecturer and World War II historian Sarah-Louise Miller wrote a piece for the British Journal for Military History about the parallels between the Women's Air Raid Defense and a similar program in England.
Miller spoke to The Conversation about why few today remember these women’s heroic contributions. When she went looking for more information after her initial discovery at the University of Hawaiʻi, she found Napier's book — but not much else.
Miller is working on an upcoming book called "Hawaii's Women at War."
This story aired on The Conversation on March 21, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
