Enriching Education: Dorinda Nicholson

Dorinda Makanaōnalani Nicholson was born in Hawaii to a Hawaiian mother who taught her to hula, which then Dorinda taught her poi-dog, Hula Girl, to dance along with her. Her Scots-Irish father held her tight against him during the morning of December 7, 1941 while they stood together in their front yard watching Japanese torpedo bombers scream overhead so low that Dorinda saw the pilots’ goggles as the planes whizzed by, barely above the tree tops.

Invite “The Pearl Harbor Child” to your school, conference, or civic event!

Dorinda has been featured in People Magazine, NBC Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning News, BBC-TV, Asahi TV, Channel One, Today Show online, at the American Embassy in Prague, international schools in Indonesia, and across the U.S. Her favorite venues are the classroom and literature festivals where students can try on her child-size gas mask or touch the bullets dug out of her kitchen wall.

Get ready as Dorinda makes history come alive when she shares her eye-witness account of the attack on Pearl Harbor through the eyes of an American child of WWII!

Book a visit for this year or the 2019-2020 school year before May 30, 2019 and receive a gift of 25 autographed Pearl Harbor Child books, the DVD, and teacher’s guide!