Ellen Good was among the first Allegheny County mothers to get a soon-to-be- dreaded notice from the U.S. government.

Her 25-year-old son, Staff Sgt. Joseph K. Good, had been one of the more than 2,400 Americans killed Dec. 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

"In the mellifluous language of Hawaii, the word 'aloha' means both 'hello' and 'goodbye,' " the Post-Gazette reported on Dec. 10. "But yesterday it had no sweet sound and only one awful meaning. ...

" 'Aloha' was the last word Mrs. Good had received from her soldier son ... when the War Department informed her that he had been killed in Sunday's surprise Japanese raid."

A graduate of Oliver High School and a resident of the North Side, Sgt. Good had enlisted in the Army Air Corps in June 1939 and hadn't been home since. In a letter written on Thanksgiving Day, he told his mother he expected a long stay in Hawaii. He assured her the military was taking precautions to protect the giant naval base against air raids.

He closed with this paragraph, according to the Post-Gazette: " 'I hear the blackout signal is going to sound soon,' he wrote in a hurried finish to the letter Mrs. Good received a week ago, 'so I must say aloha.' "

"Sunday I had a feeling something was wrong," Mrs. Good told a reporter shortly after getting word that her son had been killed. "And yesterday I saw his face before me all day long."

By the time World War II ended almost four years later, about 4,000 Allegheny County families would receive the sad news that a loved one had been killed or died while in the armed services.

While the Japanese attack meant immediate heartache for people like Mrs. Good, the Post-Gazette found that many Pittsburghers reacted stoically.

"Calm Pervades City On War's Outbreak," the newspaper reported the day after the Japanese attack.

"For all the clash of men and steel far off in the Pacific, it was just like another pre-Christmas Sunday in Pittsburgh," reporter Charles H. Allard wrote. "Automobiles streamed through the streets, crowds alighted from street cars and packed about the windows of the stores, so the children could better see the marionettes."

While the United States remained at peace with Nazi Germany for several days after the Japanese attack, one young resident realized his country was likely to face foes both in Asia and in Europe.

"A girl of about 20 mentions 'Japs' to her brother, a lad of about 12 in long pants," Allard wrote. "With a smirk on his face, he did an imitation goose step up Fifth Avenue as she laughed beside him."

Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States on Dec. 11.

"Over in the Pennsylvania railroad station a youngster of 4 walked up and down the aisles, shaking hands with uniformed soldiers waiting for their trains.

"Five carefree young men came walking along together. The fair-skinned blond kid of 20 said to his companions: What will we do -- enlist tomorrow?"

They may have.

"Local Offices Are Swamped by Applicants For Armed Forces," the paper reported Dec. 9. A total of 1,255 Pittsburgh-area men sought to enlist in the Army, Navy, Marines or Air Corps the day after the Japanese attack. Another 1,190 signed up on Dec. 9 and 1,365 more joined the ranks on Dec. 10.

" 'I quit a good job to fight for my country,' said a young Marine Corps applicant, putting the whole thing just as concisely as anyone could ..." Reporter Charles H. Brown wrote that the recruit was "smiling somewhat self-consciously because he was afraid he might be accused of over-dramatizing himself."

The would-be Marine hoped to become one of about 900,000 men and more than 20,000 women from Pennsylvania who served in the armed forces during the war.

"The job has to be done, and we're going to get it over with," another young man seeking to join the Naval Reserve told Brown. "That's why we're here."