The State of Hawaii, which was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 while still a territory of the United States, is preparing for a nuclear attack by North Korea, just in case. The nation's 50th state, which is comprised of numerous islands and has a population of 1.4 million people, was the scene of the notorious Pearl Harbor attack in which American sailors were caught off-guard, aircraft carriers were sunk, and hundreds of defenseless sailors, soldiers, Marines and civilians were killed. On a worldwide scale, fears of an all-out nuclear war have been mounting daily as the world watches and awaits the outcome of this crisis.

Not ever again

Hawaii is determined never to be caught off-guard again. Rhetoric between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, the despotic dictator of North Korea, has been escalating and international tensions have been rising steadily. Earlier this week, Pyongyang, North Korea's largest city, promised "thousand-fold" ramifications against the United States in response to severe sanctions that were imposed on the small, rogue nation. The sanctions, which cost North Korea over $1 billion, were imposed on the troubled nation because of its repeated missile tests. Some of the more recent missile tests have indicated that North Korean missiles could reach the continental United States.

A small nuclear warhead

This week it was revealed that North Korea now is capable of affixing small nuclear warheads to the missiles that it launches to points unknown. Since it has been confirmed that Hawaii is a reachable destination for Jong-un's missiles, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has been stepping up its readiness program.

In actuality, the agency began its readiness program months before the war of words between Trump and Jong-un began. The program began preparing in January of this year. Then in July of this year, North Korea successfully test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles and the world learned that the rogue nation's missiles could reach the United States and be affixed with small, nuclear warheads.

Mounting threats

In the meantime, tensions between the United States and North Korea have been mounting exponentially, and so has the rhetoric. Trump stated earlier this week that any actions by North Korea against Guam, the United States or America's allies, would result in "fire and fury" unmatched by anything ever seen in the world previously. Then later, Trump told reporters that perhaps his "fire and fury" threat was "not strong enough." Jong-un claimed that he was going to launch multiple missiles in the direction of Guam and that he would reduce American citizens to "jelly."

No diplomatic efforts

In the midst of all the threats, confusion and escalating tensions, there have been few if any attempts to solve our differences with North Korea diplomatically.

Although Trump has stated that he has made some diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, the threatening rhetoric between the two leaders has overshadowed whatever diplomatic efforts that have been made.

Fifteen minutes to get to shelter

In the event that North Korea does fire any missiles towards Hawaii, the State would only have 20 minutes to respond. And the citizens would only have 15 minutes to get to the shelter and take cover. Needless to say, the State of Hawaii is in a rush to readiness and the island state is determined never to be caught off-guard again.