Whenever I watch Waianae’s Asa Stevens box, I think about Paul Inamine.

The Brian Viloria experience was the same thing for me at that age, and will probably repeat when the next amateur standout tries to make money off his skills.

Asa Stevens is a 21-year-old decorated amateur two fights into his career, hoping to match or exceed the world titles that Viloria accumulated. He is in the same place in his career, activity aside, that Inamine was when he died suddenly during the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Inamine’s end is as tragic, probably more, as Al Konnick’s because Konnick signed up for it. Inamine, who won his second professional bout two days earlier, was minding his business outside a saimin stand.

That’s when, around 10:30 a.m., an anti-aircraft shell fell from the sky and obliterated the Cherry Blossom saimin stand in front of celebrated boxer Toy Tamanaha’s house.

Inamine, 19, was killed instantly and teammates Freddy Higa, 21, and James Koba, 20, had their bodies identified shortly after. Tamanaha lost both of his legs to spell the end of a pro career with a 15-5 record and two points losses to future world champion Dado Marino a month earlier. Danny Laverne, a 25-year-old main event fighter from Puerto Rico with a 42-13-14 record and a four-fight winning streak, died the same day near Red Hill.

Navy says 68 civilian lives lost that day

In all, the Navy says 68 civilians died that day and 12 — including three children — in the Cherry Blossom bombing. Saint Louis athletic director Stephen McCabe’s brother Joseph was one of them, falling when an anti-aircraft shell dropped on his Packard sedan on Judd Street around the same time that Inamine and his friends were bombed.

Stephen McCabe was on Kauai with the Crusaders football team at the time.

Nearly every one of the 2,403 Americans who died on that fateful day had a tie to athletics, especially baseball and football. One of those was Private Jerry Angelich of Montana.

Angelich was probably the most accomplished baseball player to die that day, according to baseballsgreatestsacrifice.com, as Konnick and Japanese midget sub crewman Sadamu Uyeda never progressed past high school.

Angelich, 25, who was stuck down on Hickam Field trying to operate a machine gun in a wrecked airplane, pitched preseason exhibition games for the Class AA Sacramento Senators before joining the Army four months before his demise. His greatest day on the baseball field came when he was 19 and Sacramento manager Kettle Wirts chose him to pitch against a touring team from Japan.

His mound opponent was Eiji Sawamura, who found fame the previous year by striking out Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmy Foxx in succession in a 2-1 loss. Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award is named after Sawamura, who died in 1944 when his transport ship was sunk by an American submarine.

Sawamura out-dueled Angelich 2-1 and Sacramento released him five days later. He played semipro ball until enlisting, but when his foot locker was cleaned out, a glove and two baseballs were among his personal effects.

Angelich’s baseball story was probably already written, but he was one of many young people whose futures were snuffed out. It is impossible to tell, but Inamine’s future was one of the brightest.

Inamine boxed at Soldier Field

Just over a year before Pearl Harbor day, Inamine represented Hawaii in front of 30,258 rain-soaked fans at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1940. He was one of only three Hawaii fighters to earn a victory when he beat future world champion Harold Dade on points. The Chicago Tribune reported that Inamine “overcame a handicap in height and reach with greater stamina” and rewarded him with a prominent picture on the front of its sports section the next day.

Inamine also had multiple victories over Marino to his credit, so who knows what his future held? Marino was just five years older than Inamine and crafted a record of 57-15 on his way to becoming a legend in the game.

Inamine didn’t fit the profile of a fighting man in his youth, traveling to Honolulu to represent Waiakea-uka in science fairs for Future Farmers of America and demonstrating a vaccination for hog cholera when he was 16. He returned to Oahu the next year to win the CYO’s novice flyweight title but didn’t fight for the next two years when the Amateur Athletics Union took his title for being under its age limit.

After he made two trips to nationals in Chicago, Inamine’s pro debut was delayed for more seasoning and he was barely a month into his career when he died. He knocked out Filomenia “Kid” Rustia in the third round of his pro debut at the Civic Auditorium just five days after closing his amateur career with a decision over Kaoru Fujiyama in the same building.

As soon as the news about Paul Inamine was confirmed, Hilo Tribune-Herald columnist Bert Nakaji spilled a tale of a life lost too early.

“The name of Paul Inamine will always have a place, as clear as day, both in our mind and heart. He was one of our own … he was a pugilist who fought for the love of the game and for which the sport stands.”