remember pearl harbor
this is a song writen in 1942. it was when americans were still mad at japan because of pearl harbor. please do not take offense at this. just disregard what is offensive. remember the time it was made. i just want people to
remember pearl harbor .
enjoy
“everything you’ve heard about pearl harbor is what i saw, ” he said .
pearl harbor survivors share the valuable lessons that future generations can take away from the attacks .
pearl harbor survivor stuart hedley visits the burial site of those killed during the 1941 attack .
i made a commitment when i joined this navy to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. i was stickin' till the end ,
he said .
it' s an honor to be back here to remember those that gave their lives so that i can have the freedom i have... . remember pearl harbor .
he was sent to pearl harbor after the bombings and he said the devastation was heart - breaking .
ray chavez, who at 104 years old is the oldest living survivor of the japanese attack on pearl harbor .
he joined jefferson’s american legion albert gordon post no. 56 in 1946 and also joined a local pearl harbor survivors club, where he marched in parades in atlanta and gainesville, bearing a banner that read “pearl harbor survivors. ”
as reminders, a pearl harbor survivor license plate and war medals adorn a wall in carter’s home near downtown jefferson .
every dec. 7, downing attends a pearl harbor remembrance, he said. he will attend saturday’s ceremony in colorado springs .
* interviews with pearl harbor survivors conducted by the world war ii foundation, including 4 survivors of the uss arizona (just 6 are still alive) * interview with historian daniel martinez * interview with civilian witness barbara kotinek * rare interview with japanese pilot mitsuo fuchida, flight leader of the attack on pearl harbor * filming on location at pearl harbor * interview with author craig shirley who wrote the epic story of pearl harbor titled december 1941. * interviews with other veterans and their recollections of where they were when they heard about the attack on december 7, 1941 * rare video of fuchida’s return to pearl harbor to attend ceremonies at the uss arizona memorial
donnie edwards, vice president of the greatest generations foundation, said it was important to get this particular group to pearl harbor together .
pearl harbor survivors aaron chabin (l .) and clark simmons (r .) attend wreath - laying ceremony aboard the u. s. navy ship intrepid on the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. (howard simmons / new york daily news )
“pretty soon the first sergeant came out and he says pearl harbor is getting bombed. we’re being attacked by the japanese, ” says parry .
having lived a little more than 100 years, and surviving the attack on pearl harbor unscathed, downing said he knows the meaning of existence .
' s burning bridge and listing mast and superstructure were photographed in the aftermath of the japanese attack, and news of her sinking was emblazoned on the front page of newspapers across the land. the photograph symbolized the destruction of the united states pacific fleet at pearl harbor and the start of a war that was to take many thousands of american lives. indelibly impressed into the national memory, the image could be recalled by most americans when they heard the battle cry ,
remember pearl harbor .
vernon carter still remembers seeing the smiling face of a japanese pilot as the attack on pearl harbor unfolded the morning of dec. 7, 1941 .
“we had two raids, about a half an hour apart, the first was pearl harbor, (and) the second was hickam field. ”
the focus of this film is on the military and civilian survivors of pearl harbor, all of whom had totally different experiences on december 7, 1941 .
no one asked navy lt. james downing to hurriedly memorize the names on the dog tags of the dead and injured during the attack on pearl harbor .
two pearl harbor survivors commemorated the 75th anniversary of the attack during a ceremony wednesday at the intrepid sea, air & space museum on the west side .
“i just had to come up and see pearl harbor. if i ever get out of this i’m looking at a piece of history, ” says parry .
and while he can no longer attend reunions with other pearl harbor survivors, there is a good chance that today his thoughts may drift back to that morning .
of the west virginia’s crew of 1, 441, 106 were killed. keith, now 88, remembers them and other pearl harbor casualties every year on dec. 7 .
three u. s. battleships are hit from the air during the japanese attack on pearl harbor on dec. 7, 1941. japan’s bombing of u. s. military bases at pearl harbor brings the u. s. into world war ii. from left are: uss west virginia, severely damaged; uss tennessee, damaged; and uss arizona, sunk .
the memory of that morning — the unmistakable hum of aircrafts overhead, bombs falling, engulfing pearl harbor in a fiery deluge, and the sight of his comrades dying — remains with carter .
americans old enough to remember that day certainly remember it vividly, but there are fewer and fewer of them around. for most of the american public this month' s tv documentaries and commemorative ceremonies will be very much like the other documentaries and ceremonies we periodically see. within the past two years the news media, ever alert to anniversaries, have invited the united states to take a look at vietnam fifteen years after the fall of saigon, at the space program twenty years after men first walked on the moon, and at germany fifty years after hitler rolled into poland. this month we' ll look back at japan—with magazine features, a speech by president george bush at pearl harbor, and a commemorative postage stamp—and then we' ll move on to something else .
carter, 90, said there are only an estimated 100 pearl harbor survivors still alive today in georgia. and, as far as carter knows, he is the only living survivor in jackson county .
the japanese were bombing pearl harbor. hundreds of japanese fighter planes swarmed the skies above eight enormous battleships. hedley was a 20 - year - old seaman, first class, assigned to the third division .
not every recent japanese article about u. s. - japanese relations has begun with a phrase like
as the clock ticks toward the anniversary of pearl harbor ...
but a lot of them seem to start that way. last summer a magazine called foresight told readers about an ominous statistical indicator. in the previous forty - nine years a total of eighty - six books about pearl harbor had been published in the united states, but fifteen were scheduled for publication in 1991 alone .
a bipartisan bill has been submitted to congress to set dec. 7 aside as a national memorial day ,
foresight said .
there is no doubt that the 50 - year anniversary of pearl harbor is the big event for both japanese and americans .
shukan gendai, a very popular weekly magazine, reminded readers that bush was going to pearl harbor, and said ,
today marks the 68th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor — the day that president franklin d. roosevelt said “will live in infamy, ” and the event that propelled the u. s. into world war ii .
it means a lot to him because he has his family and his friends around. he' s been through a lot after world war ii and pearl harbor ,
said clark simmons' daughter, claudette simmons .
sorensen, of sacramento, is 100 years old, born on the day germany invaded belgium in the war to end all wars. twenty - seven years later, he looked to a sky filled with warplanes above hickam field and pearl harbor, hawaii, and watched as the world changed again. ceremonies sunday will honor those lost on dec. 7, 1941, the day the japanese navy launched the massive surprise attack on pearl harbor that thrust the united states into war .
hedley, now 95, estimated that this trip was his 25th back to visit pearl harbor. after arriving saturday, he participated in various activities including a visit to a burial ground for sailors as well as the navy hale keiki school .
to mark the 75th anniversary of the attack, hedley and about 15 other pearl harbor survivors traveled back to hawaii. their journey was organized by the greatest generations foundation, an organization that honors veterans by helping them return to their former battlegrounds .
pearl harbor survivor stuart hedley speaks to students at the navy hale keiki school in honolulu. hedley was a 20 - year - old seaman, first class, assigned to the third division when the japanese attacked on dec. 7, 1941 .
john anderson was aboard the uss arizona on dec. 7, 1941, when the japanese bombed the battleship at pearl harbor, a pivotal moment in history, but one that struck anderson to his core. there, he lost his twin brother .
martinez says that another seldom recognized aspect of the story is the number of dead and wounded in the areas surrounding the attack, beyond the military facilities. “the civilian population was affected in honolulu; 49 were killed, ” he says. “many were affected by friendly fire. and of course, you had airmen and pilots killed at the airfield. that adds to the 2, 390 that made up the casualties for that day. ” in addition to several events leading up to the 70th anniversary of the pearl harbor attacks on dec. 7, martinez is organizing a 70th anniversary pearl harbor attack symposium on dec. 2 - 5 at the wwii valor in the pacific national monument located at the pearl harbor visitor center. the already sold - out event will include a premier of the history channel’s documentary, “pearl harbor: 24 hours after, ” and tours of the attack sites and historic boats. subsequent commemorative events will be held on dec. 7 - 8 at the monument and related sites .
after wwii, on his way to a posting in korea he stopped back at pearl harbor. a platform marked the wreckage of the uss arizona. conter and others in his group boarded a boat to go out to the platform and see his old ship .
remember pearl harbor (reid - kaye) swing and sway with sammy kaye, vocal by the glee club this patriotic march was recorded only ten days after the december 7th attack and climbed to # 3 on the billboard charts by early february ’42. tip: click this link to browse through all 128 videos of the 1942 hits archive collection, alphabetically arranged in the convenient youtube playlist format: urltoken the 1942 hits archive - here in one place, a good - quality library of best - sellers and songs that made an impact, presented in the original - release versions (no remakes, alternate takes, or “re - processed stereo”) musicprof78 facebook page: urltoken
“never a day goes by for all these many years when i haven’t thought about it, ” stratton, one of nine still - living pearl harbor survivors, tells people magazine. “i don’t talk about it too much, but when december rolls around i do. it’s important the american people don’t forget. ” now 92, stratton managed to survive the japanese surprise attack on pearl harbor on the morning of dec. 7, 1941, an event that destroyed much of the u. s. pacific fleet and catapulted the nation into world war ii. this past week, stratton gathered at the naval station near honolulu with his few remaining comrades to remember and pay homage to the more than 2, 500 soldiers who died that day. “every time i think back on it, ” he says, “i just thank the good lord that i survived and i say a little prayer for the sailors and marines who didn’t make it. ”
rest on the silt of pearl harbor, just as they settled on december 7, 1941. the ship was one of many casualties from the deadly attack by the japanese on a quiet sunday that president franklin roosevelt called
a date which will live in infamy .
the
conter was 20 when he escaped the burning wreckage of the uss arizona in pearl harbor. he tried to save as many injured crewmen as he could, but when the sun set on dec. 7, 1941, he was one of just 335 sailors who did not perish .
barbara kotinek was six years old and living with her family on the base at pearl harbor. her dad worked on the ships there. on december 7th she awoke to the sounds of japanese planes strafing the harbor. even at the age of 6 her memories of that day were very vivid and remain with her today. she has some incredible stories to tell of the opening moments of the attack and the immediate days following .
lou conter was on the quarter deck finishing a change of watch when the uss arizona was attacked by japanese forces at pearl harbor. after the attack he went on to become a naval pilot and spent the remainder of the war in the south pacific conducting night air raids on japanese ships .
“my grandfather, harlan gray, was a miner and a navy federal worker, ” says martinez. “he was a foreman for the famous red hill project, which were underground storage tanks for fuel that are still used today. that morning, he was just getting off work at pearl harbor .
on 7 dec 1941, in command of all attacking aircraft over pearl harbor, hawaii, united states, mitsuo fuchida flew a type 97 model 3 torpedo bomber with the first attack wave as an air observer. he flew down the eastern coast of the island of oahu, then turned west into the harbor. at 0740 hours, seeing the americans were not responding, he slid open his canopy and fired a green flare to signal to all pilots that the attack was to begin as planned. at 0753 hours, fuchida had his pilot lieutenant mitsuo matsuzaki send the radio signal “tora! tora! tora! ” to flagship akagi, indicating that the attack was to commence with complete surprise to the enemy; tora was the acronym for totsugeki raigeki, “torpedo attack”. matsuzaki would go on to assist in the attack that would sink battleship uss arizona with fuchida on board. the aircraft remained over pearl harbor through the end of the second attack in order to observe the degree of damage. upon his return, he noted that his aircraft had been hit by 21 times by anti - aircraft fire. the success at pearl harbor earned him a personal audience with emperor showa. a rare post - war interview of fuchida on the merv griffin show and video of fuchida’s return to pearl harbor to visit the uss arizona memorial is also part of this documentary .
“‘i jumped up and looked out towards pearl harbor and saw the dive bombers diving at the big oil storage tanks. several of them went up in flames and smoke, ’” carter said, reading from a letter he wrote to his parents, j. z. and nora carter, soon after the attack .
“we were going to make a turn to the north and we almost ran into the submarine that was trying to get into the harbor, ” said chavez .
“get your ass in gear! we’re at war! ” were the words that roused the 19 - year - old u. s. army private from ware from his bunk in the barracks at fort schofield on oahu, hawaii. japanese dive bombers and fighter planes were flying overhead, striking the american airbase at adjacent wheeler field as part of the surprise attack on the u. s. naval fleet at pearl harbor, and strafing the barracks on the way. “you could see the smoke coming out of pearl harbor” about eight miles away, mr. urban recalled. from the battleship uss arizona the smoke could be seen “going hundreds of feet in the air. ”
the pearl harbor attack, which killed or wounded more than 3, 500 americans on what president franklin d. roosevelt described as a “date which will live in infamy, ” propelled the united states into world war ii. mr. urban, who had enlisted in the army at age 18 in 1940, wouldn’t come home again till 1945 .
this is, like, the last of the last of the pearl harbor survivors ,
said edwards, whose grandfather was in the 25th infantry division during the attack and later was buried in hawaii .
it gives the guys an opportunity to share this experience with their brothers and to also continue the legacy of their fallen brothers .
bill keith left high school and joined the navy in august, 1941. four months later, on dec. 7, 1941, he was 19, aboard the battleship uss west virginia at pearl harbor when japanese planes attacked. his ship sank; he escaped with hundreds of other crewmen when sailors managed to open a hatch. many shipmates died .
narrated by tom selleck: sunday, december 7, 1941 was a beautiful morning on the hawaiian island of oahu. a few sailors and soldiers were already up and playing a game of football near pearl harbor. others were sleeping in their barracks or aboard ships after a late night of partying in honolulu. an unlucky few were wiping the sleep from their eyes and reporting for duty aboard their ship anchored off ford island in pearl harbor. still others headed for adjacent hickam field or up north to wheeler field. ship decks were being washed, planes wiped down and hangars swept. it was just another day in paradise. at 7: 48 a. m. all that changed as the first japanese planes dropped their bombs and started firing their guns at stunned american soldiers and sailors. the united states had been violently thrown into world war ii. every sailor, airman, soldier and civilian who was in or near pearl harbor on december 7, 1941 has their own individual story of courage, fear, heroics or tragedy. no two ...
“one of the great myths about pearl harbor is that it was solely an attack on [ the base ], ” says martinez. “rather, it was a comprehensive strike on all military installations, primarily the airfields throughout the island. in order for the japanese attack to be successful, they had to take out our airfields so that we couldn’t respond. ”
however the united states responds to the pearl harbor observances, it cannot possibly meet the expectations that have been building up in japan. indeed, by far the most interesting part of the fiftieth anniversary is the way japan' s opinion - making class—its popular press and foreign - policy specialists—has prepared the public to cringe in dread of u. s. outbursts this month .
his wife of five months, morena, was cooking sunday morning breakfast for a few servicemen in the couple’s home near the harbor when they heard explosions in the distance, downing said .
taken the side of the western allies in world war ii, as she had done in world war i, or had she remained neutral, as she had been before pearl harbor, her prewar attempts at establishing a regional hegemony and her wartime violations of human rights might have subsequently been condoned in the context of the cold war, as was the case with many asian countries .
within the japanese military government, the case for attacking pearl harbor was that america would sooner or later intervene to push japan back in asia. if war was inevitable, japan' s best chance lay with a first strike. some japanese strategists thought that even after pearl harbor the united states would lack the stomach for a long war, and would agree to a kind of demarcation line down the middle of the pacific, separating japanese and american zones of influence. for the japanese, then, the tragedy of pearl harbor was that it indicated their inability to avoid a direct showdown with the united states, in addition to being a disastrous miscalculation of how america would respond to a sneak attack. each of these was a failure for japan; neither, in the general japanese view, was an unpardonable sin. even in the days of total humiliation immediately after the war, emperor hirohito expressed deep
regret
but declined to
apologize
to general douglas macarthur, saying ,
it was not clear to me that our course was unjustified. even now i am not sure how future historians will allocate the responsibility for the war .
the worst damage occurred during the first 11 minutes of the attack. the drive to the harbor took about 20 minutes, so when downing arrived, he witnessed a scene of fiery destruction .
anderson always talks about his brother, delbert “jake” anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship. not long after he returned to pearl harbor near the end of the war, anderson searched out some of the battle reports from dec. 7, 1941. he knew his brother hadn’t made it off the arizona alive, but he didn’t know much else .
but something more must be involved. japan has less to be apologetic about this month than it did, say, four years ago, during the fiftieth anniversary of the
rape of nanking .
( at least 100, 000 chinese were killed in nanking, as compared with fewer than 3, 500 americans at pearl harbor, and the chinese were nearly all civilians. this anniversary passed almost unnoticed in japan .) the way the japanese imperial army fought was sometimes atrocious, and japan' s relations with china, in particular, are still colored by both sides' awareness of this record. americans tend to lump the attack on pearl harbor with japan' s war crimes in asia, and to equate japan' s aggression with hitler' s. few people in japan see it that way .
the u. s. complaint about pearl harbor involves one very specific and one sweeping charge. the specific complaint is that the attack began while japanese emissaries in washington were still purporting to negotiate in good faith. for this the japanese government has freely apologized. the broader complaint is that japan brought america into the war by striking first. the japanese response to this charge is a much more complicated matter .
“the only way i was going to get into the national park service [ permanently ] was to be versatile, ” says martinez. “i started at the memorial as a law enforcement ranger / interpreter for four years. then i became the interpretive specialist and in 1989, i became the first historian. the position was created then, two years prior to the 50th anniversary of pearl harbor. ” - california state university
woven into their stories is the perspective of daniel martinez, chief historian of the valor in the pacific monument at pearl harbor and author of the acclaimed book december 1941, craig shirley. this is not a film about strategy of the attack and why it happened or assigning blame 75 years later, but rather the personal stories of those who were there and witnessed history being made. it is an impartial documentary chronicling december 7, 1941 in the words of those who actually were there and took part .
in the harbor around him, ships were ablaze and black smoke blanketed the sky as japanese bombers circled high overhead. suddenly, the ship was rocked by a bomb blast so powerful it lifted the 32, 000 - ton battleship six feet out of the water .
for provoking the united states to fight, japanese officials have often expressed
regret .
the regret is understandable and sincere, since the consequence was a war that turned out, as emperor hirohito tactfully put it in his surrender message ,
not necessarily to japan' s advantage .
but there has been nothing like an outright
apology
for pearl harbor, and there is not likely to be one this month, because of the widespread japanese view that the main thing to regret about the
pacific war
is that the country unwisely took on a much more powerful foe .
he ran to the anti - aircraft battery, his battle station, but there was no ammunition ready. he could see the planes were flying too low for his guns anyway, but before his crew could figure out their next move, an armor - piercing bomb detonated near the powder magazine beneath the no. 2 gun turret. haerry felt the entire ship life out of the water. as it fell, he was thrown from the ship into the harbor. he half - swam, half - walked the 70 yards to ford island and manned a mounted machine gun. he spent the rest of the day retrieving bodies from the harbor .
but perhaps the most powerful explanation lies in another japanese instinct—the
victim consciousness ,
or higaisha ishiki, that governs many of japan' s relations with great powers from the outside world, which for the past century has meant the united states. japanese leaders of the tokugawa era felt victimized by commodore perry' s arrival; the leaders of the 1930s felt victimized by american and british determination to deny japan its place in the sun. over the past twenty years the japanese press has emphasized the country' s victimization by american demands to open up the market. the preparation for pearl harbor is essentially a warning that japan is about to be victimized again .
shukan themis, another weekly (shukan means
weekly
), carried an article saying that
fearful white anglo saxon protestants, led by president bush, have launched a retaliation against japan... . the wasp is a white supremacist. he cannot tolerate non - whites taking the initiative in a single area .
shukan shincho reported on the success of a recent american book called the coming war with japan, which, like most books on u. s. - japanese relations, is vastly more interesting to japanese readers than to americans. the magazine said that sales of the translated version of the book should reach 350, 000 copies by pearl harbor day .
he told abc news that he was able to salvage only two items from that fateful day: a pearl buckle and a half penny that had been given to him by a british sailor. his friends in the third division were killed. he, however, continued to fight in nearly 13 battles aboard the san francisco, including bougainville, new guinea and the battle of guadalcanal .
it was almost three years ago, near the beginning of 1989, when i was living in japan, that friends started to mention the
upcoming anniversary .
i didn' t know what they were talking about, but since i often didn' t know what was happening around me in japan, i decided to wait for enlightenment. i began to get the point when someone mentioned
the upcoming fiftieth anniversary ,
which he then nailed down with a date: december 8, 1991. by japanese reckoning that is the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. as americans will be reminded this month, the japanese planes came in on a sunday morning, when u. s. sailors could be expected to be hung over and sleeping in. by that time it was already monday, december 8, in japan .
for all their excesses, the magazines do shape public opinion, leaving the japanese reader with the impression that americans are waiting to run amok in december and meanwhile telling incomprehensible jokes. the pearl harbor mania in the weeklies seems to parallel more - respectable views. every time i have interviewed a japanese official in the past year, he has asked me how i thought americans would react to the upcoming anniversary. a year ago in tokyo a japanese politician summoned me to his office. after we' d sipped tea for forty minutes, he said ,
by the way
—the phrase that in practice means
now let' s get to the point .
what do you think about the reaction... ?
i' ve enjoyed looking for stories in the u. s. press about the countdown. they are almost always by correspondents in tokyo who get the
by the way
treatment from nervous japanese contacts every day .
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donald stratton still can’t shake the memory of it all – the deafening explosions, searing heat, machine gun blasts and heart - wrenching screams of his friends – from his head .
on the morning it happened, stratton had just left the “chow hall” on the battleship arizona when he heard a commotion up on the deck. it was a few minutes after 8 a. m. a group of fellow sailors were shouting, pointing out over the water at a cluster of planes .
“i watched one of them bank and saw the rising sun symbol under the wings and thought, ‘boy, that’s the japanese, and they’re bombing us, ’ ” he says .
within seconds, the 19 - year - old nebraskan scrambled 60 feet up a series of ladders and joined a group of other sailors manning a five - inch, 25 - caliber anti - aircraft gun .
“we were just firing away at all those planes, ” he recalls. “they were coming in so close i could see the pilots when they went by. some were waving and some were grinning. ”
“a 600 - foot fireball just engulfed us, burning all of us real bad, ” says stratton, whose flesh literally slid off his arms. “after that it was all about self - preservation, buddy. we weren’t thinking about anything but getting the hell off of there. ”
fire raged all around him as a sailor from another ship managed to toss a rope to the trapped men that they secured and stretched between the two vessels. one after another, stratton and five other men muscled their way, hand over hand, across 100 feet of rope as the fuel - coated water beneath them burned. “my hands were burned so badly i don’t have any fingerprints, ” stratton says, “so it was pretty painful. ”
by the end of the day, 1, 177 of his crew mates were dead. he spent the next 10 months in a series of military hospitals, recovering from the burns that covered almost 70 percent of his body. a year after his medical discharge from the navy, stratton, who was still recuperating at home, marched back into a military recruiting office to announce that he wanted back in the war .
“people were saying, ‘what the hell did you do that for? didn’t you get enough? ’ ” stratton says. “but i wanted to go back out to sea. besides, there wasn’t much to do in nebraska. ”
the west virginia was rebuilt and returned to service, taking part in the battles of leyte gulf, iwo jima and okinawa .
after the attack, keith was assigned to the heavy cruiser uss chester, which came under attack in the battle of the coral sea in may 1942. he later took training as a hospital corpsman, was discharged from the service in march 1945 and was married three months later .
the 19 - year - old hospital corpsman was getting ready for a leisurely day with his navy buddies. within minutes he was among hundreds trapped and struggling to escape the sinking vessel, after at least seven aerial torpedoes blew open the midships and forward portions of the hull .
but he’s not sure if most americans pay much attention to the day that president franklin d. roosevelt said would “live in infamy. ”
lawrence parry, an army motor mechanic stationed on the island oahu, was playing football when the bombs and torpedoes fell .
“i looked up in the air and there were hundreds and hundreds of planes, ” says parry .
it was more planes than he had ever seen and moments later, he learned where they came from .
parry’s commanding officer ordered him to deliver ammunition to the troops, but he took a short detour .
what he saw immediately brought him to tears. the surprise military strike had destroyed all of the eight us navy battleships .
“every one of them. that was our line of defense. i don’t think people ever realized that. with them gone we had nothing, ” says parry .
“what a mess, ” parry recalled. “that beautiful fleet … i looked down and i could see this one big battleship … it was the (uss) arizona. i just sat there and cried, ” he said .
carter, who was stationed at hickam field in hawaii with the u. s. 7th army air corps, awoke at 8 a. m. that day to a war zone outside his barracks .
as he hurriedly tried to get to his office, carter, who was 21 at the time, said a japanese plane flew toward him, buzzing the barracks .
“i backed up under the eave of the barracks, and of course he wasn’t trying to shoot me, but as he went by, just barely over the top of the barracks, he looked down and grinned at me, ” carter said .
japan’s aerial assault, now well - documented in an untold number of history books, began shortly before 8 a. m. and ended less than two hours later. in that time, 2, 403 americans lost their lives, including 68 civilians, while another 1, 178 were injured, according to u. s. department of defense records .
twenty - one of the u. s. pacific fleet’s ships were either sunk or damaged in the attack, and 188 aircraft were destroyed and 159 damaged, according to records .
a letter carter wrote home to his parents, dated dec. 7, 1941, is perhaps the most telling account of his experience in hawaii .
the letter, penned in cursive writing, describes the horror that carter and others endured that day on hickam field .
last week, at the urging of his wife, ruth, carter reread the letter he sent home so many years ago .
“‘the dead was piled all around. some of the boys in the barracks were blown to pieces, they couldn’t identify them, ’” he read from the letter to his parents. “‘it was so quick, we didn’t know what happened. ’”
carter’s letter also notes that a shell crashed through his room, just 3 feet from his bed, and the closest bomb fell 500 yards from him. hickam field, he wrote, was “pretty well wrecked. ”
“we had our planes lined up side by side and we thought that maybe that’d protect them from sabotage, but of course the japanese planes came in just barely over the top of the runway there and they destroyed our planes and started bombing the hangars and barracks, ” he said .
the attack happened not long after carter arrived in hawaii. knowing he was going to be drafted, carter voluntarily joined the u. s. army air corps to avoid the infantry .
the lifelong jefferson resident was sent to hawaii in june 1941 and remained in the hickam field ordnance, stationed at the army air corps’ hickam field, for four years .
immediately following the attack, carter said u. s. forces remained on edge, anticipating another assault .
“it was several days before we realized that maybe they weren’t coming back, ” he said .
“anybody that was over there, i’m sure they will never forget that day and what they saw, ” he said. “it don’t leave, it just don’t leave you. ” - gainesville times
glenn sorensen was wiping down his car that december morning on oahu, a 1937 buick that, to this day, was the best he’d ever driven. that black sedan even took a bullet for him. three, in fact. he’s holding one of them now, squeezing it between the fingers of his left hand, and he’ll tell you he’s the luckiest man he knows .
on a recent friday at the airy sacramento home he designed 35 years ago with his late wife, vernice, sorensen apologizes that he doesn’t hear as well as he once did, the likely toll of dozens of bombing missions and nearly 60 years in the cockpit (“nobody knows the western u. s. by air better than me, ” he boasts). sorensen was 80 when he reluctantly gave up flying 20 years ago .
his voice was quiet but strong, his tone gracious but circumspect about that morning so long ago, when he was a young army air corps lieutenant at hickam field, a b - 17 pilot just months out of flight school .
“i look up in the sky and it’s full of japanese airplanes, ” he said from his recliner tucked in a corner of his living room. after the first attack, sorensen climbed into his buick, speeding for the flight line and awaiting aircraft. a dozen brand - new boeing b - 17 flying fortresses were arriving that day. he was too late. “all of our planes and hangars were destroyed. i was strafed during the second attack, ” sorensen continued. “they were also dropping bombs and strafing the field. ”
three of those rounds struck sorensen’s sedan, but somehow missed him. from his recliner 73 years later, sorensen reached for a small manila pouch. typed in tiny print on its face, the pouch reads in part: “this bullet was lodged in lt. glenn sorensen’s 1937 buick. ”
“it was the greatest car i ever owned, ” he said. and it likely saved his life .
many others were not as fortunate. by the end of the day, more than 2, 400 service members were dead, another 1, 400 or more wounded, much of the united states’ pacific fleet in flames or sunk. the next day, dec. 8, america was at war .
“we lost quite a few people. i was lucky to get through, ” sorensen said. “the navy was hit very, very hard. ” sorensen flew missions for days after the attacks, searching for the wounded and the dead .
he would go on to fly 84 bombing missions in the south pacific as a member of the army air corps’ 42nd bombardment squadron. they included sorties during 1942’s pivotal battle of midway, during which sorensen was awarded the silver star – the nation’s third - highest military honor for valor .
on this friday, he mentioned the honor almost in passing, then sent his son glenn jr. to fetch an aged glass case from a hallway wall .
inside the case was the silver star, distinguished flying cross and air medal .
“it’s the whole tom brokaw thing – the greatest generation, ” said sorensen jr. “it’s a title that still works. ”
the elder sorensen endured the jungles of guadalcanal, a “terrible six to seven months of my life” where his squadron battled the enemy and the elements .
dengue fever finally sent sorensen stateside in 1943. many others in the 42nd didn’t come home .
“more than half of my squadron was shot down, ” sorensen said quietly. “we lost a lot of people. ”
after the war, sorensen returned to california, first to los angeles, then to san francisco, and finally sacramento .
he met vernice devoe, the girl of his dreams, over a plate of waffles in 1943. she became his wife just months later. he started a family, founded, then grew a business. by the time sorensen retired in 1978, his company, california liquid gas corp. , had 500 retail dealers in 11 western states – plenty of territory over which to fly his beloved beechcraft travelair. he and his wife celebrated 68 years of marriage before she died in 2011 .
“i’ve had more luck in this life than anybody i know, ” sorensen said. “i don’t know of anybody who has had more good luck than me. ”
but sorensen’s son recalled that his father, like many of his generation, spoke little of his time in world war ii .
“growing up, he was someone who was always looking ahead instead of looking backward, ” the younger sorensen said. “everybody who was in that situation was tested. he wouldn’t want to be a part of history, but he is. he didn’t choose to be a part of history, but he is. ” - sacramento bee
as chief historian at the uss arizona memorial in honolulu, daniel martinez oversees the interpretation of the attack by the japanese that ignited united states involvement in world war ii. as such, the los angeles native often has an opportunity to uncover layers of lost history and personal testimony that complete the story .
in addition to renowned historians and authors from japan and the united states, martinez has invited a number of military and civilians survivors of the attacks to share their experiences at the symposium. the value he attaches to such personal histories stems from his experience as an undergraduate at csu dominguez hills when he interviewed his maternal grandfather about the events of dec. 7, 1941 for a course on oral histories taught by judson grenier, emeritus professor of history .
“it was normal for the foreman to meet the foreman coming on the next shift to talk about what had transpired the day before. it was during those discussions that the planes flew over my grandfather’s head at 100 feet. those were the torpedo planes headed for battleship row. at first, they thought it was a drill. then when the explosion occurred and the insignia of japan was noted on the aircraft, my grandfather said something to the effect that ‘it’s war! ’ yelling to his workers as they began to take cover. ”
martinez recalls that his grandfather interrupted the interview several times, as overcome with emotion, he had to step away for a few minutes .
“my grandfather survived but witnessed this horrifying thing, the explosion of the uss arizona, ” says martinez. “the workers were kept on duty. when the raid, which lasted two hours, was over, they had the unenviable job to go out on boats to retrieve the dead out of the water. those bodies were laid out on a narrow pier called aiea landing to be identified. he said… that he never got over how young the faces were .
“during that interview, my grandfather got up and walked away from the recording four times, and i couldn’t understand why that was happening, ” says martinez. “later when i became a historian for the national park service at the uss arizona memorial, that also occurred with other [ interviewees ]. the experience of recording [ these experiences ] showed what pain was in their hearts and how difficult it was to recall these memories. i found out that my grandfather had never been asked in detail what happened. and, that was true of the [ survivors ] that i would interview. i soon learned that these oral histories were very private moments and generally not disclosed to family members. i recall the emotions of grown men and women who were in their 60s, weeping. ”
martinez’s family history in the midst of wwii also extends to his father’s side. he says that his parents met in lone pine, calif. , where gray had sent his family in order to protect them from the dangers of the war in hawaii; he joined them after the red hill project was completed in 1944. martinez began his career with the national park service while still attending csu dominguez hills, as a seasonal park ranger at the little big horn battlefield national monument in crow agency, mont. when a position opened up at the uss arizona memorial in 1985, he jumped at the opportunity. he started out as a law enforcement ranger / interpreter .
haerry ran away from home to join the navy. he grew up in new jersey and after high school, enrolled at mit in boston. he was smart enough to excel, but started cutting classes not long after the start of his first semester. he and a buddy would sneak off campus and hop freight trains to see how far they could get. he missed enough of his classes that he was finally asked to leave. as soon as he turned 18, he enlisted in the navy .
on the arizona, he worked on the deck crew. he cleaned and painted day after day, but he also operated the motor boats used to ferry crew members to shore, a job that let him leave the ship periodically .
haerry had made two runs to shore on the morning of dec. 7, 1941. it was sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. he was eating breakfast when he heard the first pops of the attack planes strafing battleship row .
“we got halfway there and i told them to turn around, ” conter said. “i wasn’t going out there. i couldn’t. ”
remember pearl harbor is a 1942 american drama film directed by joseph santley and written by malcolm stuart boylan and isabel dawn . the film stars don " red " barry , alan curtis , fay mckenzie , sig ruman , ian keith and rhys williams . the film was released on may 18 , 1942 , by republic pictures . 
remember pearl harbor is a 1942 american drama film directed by joseph santley and written by malcolm stuart boylan and isabel dawn. the film stars don " red " barry, alan curtis, fay mckenzie, sig ruman, ian keith and rhys williams. the film was released on may 18, 1942, by republic pictures.
remember pearl harbor is a 1942 american drama film directed by joseph santley and written by malcolm stuart boylan and isabel dawn. the film stars don " red " barry, alan curtis, fay mckenzie, sig ruman, ian keith and rhys williams. the film was released on may 18, 1942, by republic pictures.