THE LAST TIME I saw Bill Tapia perform was in August of last year at the Halekulani’s House Without a Key when Puamana was the guest group. Hawaii-born Bill, who had a remarkable career playing ukulele and guitar and singing, died last Friday at his home in Westminster, Calif. He would have turned 104 on Jan. 1. Mihana Souza of Puamana was Bill’s dear friend and he often called her to come to the mainland and perform with him. He may have realized his time was finally running out, and he called Mihana to fly up to visit him last month.

“I stayed with him and his caretaker friends, Pat and Nancy Enos, for a week,” Mihana said over lunch at Murphy’s Monday. “He got dressed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He had 12 people come for dinner for three days to eat stew and rice that I had cooked. He was very talkative. He talked about bands and musicians of the 1930s and ’40s, including my uncle Carl Farden. He said Chinatown was loaded with clubs and everyone came out and danced. He added that after work on Saturday nights the musicians would get into a caravan of convertibles and cars with rumble seats and play music as they drove through the Diamond Head area on the way to Sandy Beach.” They had a good time there enjoying themselves playing music and singing. Mihana said a celebration of his life will be held in California this month and burial will be here in February … Sorry to learn of longtime singer Bill Kaiwa’s death Nov. 29. Mihana sang for him at a hospice on Nov. 27 and 28, the two days before he died…

FEW COUPLES are able to have ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro put on a concert at their home during a dinner party to mark their 15th wedding anniversary, but Tiana and Nobu Torii managed to pull it off on Nov. 26. And that wasn’t all. It was an Asian-themed party and Iona dancers in Asian-inspired costumes greeted the two dozen guests. Then lion dances brought good luck to the party. The dinner of sea bass with caviar and lamb was catered by Le Bistro. The Toriis’ guests included Thomas and Mi Kosasa, Marc and Paulina Cutter, Kevin and Joyce Aoki, Kelvin and Shelley Bloom, Al and Joyce Tomonari, Teimour and Marjan Riahi, Jeff and Jamie Long, Kristi Komeya, Charlyn Masini and Herb Conley …

EVERYONE who is old enough remembers where they were the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. I was on Piikoi Street near the Davenport intersection with best friends Hank and Mark Auerbach. We were spinning tops. A middle-aged Japanese family friend rushed across the street to tell my family that Japan was attacking Pearl Harbor. The Hawaii-born neighbor always had a good tan but that morning his face was white.

The war changed everyone’s life in Hawaii. Martial law was declared. There were curfews, blackouts and gasoline rationing. Food and beverage shortages prevailed. Hank, Mark and I were at Lincoln Elementary. Trenches were dug across the street from Lincoln at Thomas Square to protect students in case of more bombing attacks. Families built bomb shelters in their yards. The Auerbach boys’ mom took them and their older brother, Shay, to the mainland for safety. My three best friends were gone. That was my personal tragedy. Hey, I was 10. Two years later I began my newspaper career by selling the Star-Bulletin on the streets of Honolulu …