“Sirens were installed all over the city after the war started. And they would test them every now and them. I remember hearing the sirens going off. The radio would give us a warning, ‘this is only a test,’ don’t get alarmed and all that,” said Tsukiyama.

Tsukiyama, who’s now in his late 90s, said he isn’t surprised the sirens are coming back because Hawaii has long been a defense outpost. It’s home to the U.S. Pacific Command, the military’s headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region. “I suppose that’s necessary as a precaution, but I don’t think North Korea is gonna attack. They’d be foolish to threaten South Korea, or Japan, or the U.S.,” he said.

Make a plan

U.S. officials estimate a North Korean missile could reach Hawaii in about 20 minutes. It would take 5 minutes for authorities to determine its target, which would leave about 12-15 minutes to warn the public.

Despite the state’s public outreach and education efforts, Miyagi said there are still misconceptions.

“The first one that I’ve heard is that we shouldn’t prepare, we shouldn’t plan because it’s never going to happen, so we’re wasting our time. But again, when you see all of the things in the news, and the tests, missile launches, I can’t ignore it. So we have to continue planning as if it’s there and it may happen.”

The second misconception, he said, is fatalistic. “’There’s no use preparing, no use planning because if it’s a nuclear attack we’re all going to die.’ But based on what the threat is right now, if there is an impact there’ll be many, many survivors, 80 percent, 90 percent survivors.”

So Miyagi encouraged everyone to have a plan and know where to “shelter in place” ahead of time. Officials also recommend having enough food and water to survive for 48 hours, and supplies to last up to 14 days… just in case.