Serenity Before the ‘Rising Sun’
By Eric Sowers
Believed to be the first bomb dropped on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in the sneak-attack on Dec. 7, 1941, this picture was found torn to pieces at Yokusuka Base by photographer's mate 2/C Martin J. Shemanski of Plymouth, Pa. One Japanese plane is shown pulling out of a dive near bomb eruption (center) and another the air at upper right. (AP Photo)
Supple waves gently slap against the side of the hull, harmonically in tune with the serene silence of this clear 73-degree Sunday morning. Marines and sailors below deck exchange jibes at each other in the spirit of camraderie. Built in Brooklyn, New York, the USS Arizona is their 608-foot majestic mother.
Today over 1177 crew flow through her veins as she slumbers peacefully in this Hawaiian paradise. Many of the pearls of the US Pacific fleet are nestled in the calm waters of Pearl Harbor on Oahu. The “Big E” was due back yesterday, but poor weather damaged a destroyer escorting her and delayed them on their way back from reenforcing Marines on Wake Island.
Laying in the sand, the warm sun massages your muscles as an occasional gentle breeze sways your hair from one side to the other. Humming in the distance sounds familiar as aircraft buzz around the island all the time. Looking up, only a few white puffs sail across the blue sky. As the vibrations become stronger and humming grows louder you raise your head to view the planes.
Excitement rises as a screaming aircraft descends straight down only to cringe in horror as a bomb is released striking a Hanger on Ford Island. As the shockwave pounds your chest, you jump to your feet as a fireball ascends to the sky.
Riotous white fighters and green torpedo bombers adorning big red meatballs on their wings wreak havoc as the band aboard the USS Arizona finishes playing the Star-Spangled Banner.
The USS Utah is struck several times and quickly begins listing. Heavyweight boxer and Navy cook Doris Miller dishes out hot lead from a .50 caliber anti-aircraft gun from the USS West Virginia as she is struck by multiple torpedoes.
This fight is not just for survival. Being the first Americans to have enemies in your sights meant your actions were the dawn of the retribution against the Land of the Rising Sun. Both our European Allies and soon to be Axis foes would learn of the courage and tenacity that the defenders mustered in this day that would live in infamy.
Aboard the Arizona, echoing explosions and Mitsubishi engines overhead drive men to prepare the ship for battle. An 1800-pound armor piercing bomb smashes through the deck igniting the magazine storage in a massive explosion sending the bow into the air, then splashing back down as the pyre scorches all the souls spared from the tremendous blast.
Air wafts with the smell of burning hair and flesh. Creaking steel beams screech under the weight of the collapsing deck above the doomed crewmembers. The ceiling collapses, burying them in a metal coffin forever. Men fortunate enough to ascend from the fiery depths of the ship bore charred arms with skin peeling off from being boiled in what became a hellish oven.
A manifestation of the unthinkable suffering so many would endure by the wars’ end. Smoke chokes the brazen men slowly dying as they reach down to grasp one more hand to save them from a terrifying end. Lieutenant Commander Fuqua orders sailors to abandon ship after they selflessly did all they could to recover the maimed.
Fifty feet above the ground, civilian George Walters uses his crane to swat at zeros with a long thick cable flailing through the air. His actions drew the ire of Imperial forces as they barely missed killing him with a 500-pound bomb.
Beyond the billowing dark smoke and increasingly cloudy overcast sky, more humming breaks the silence miles away as the 167 aircraft strong second wave approaches. This time anti-aircraft guns set the sky ablaze as Japanese pilots dodge molten streams of metal and flak puffs that began to send their fellow attackers into the flames of the bay.
Smoke billows from the USS Arizona in the aftermath on the attack at Pearl Harbor, while Sailors on the dock are ready to catch a line of a small boat carrying battle shocked sailors, wounded and casualties. For more on this historical photo, visit http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/december-7-1941-9-m-pearl-harbor/
Sailors John Anderson and Chester Rose manned a small boat departing Ford Island and returned to the USS Arizona in search of anyone who could still be saved.
Recovering three of their wounded shipmates, they headed to safety amid floating corpses and burning oil. Bullets rained from the sky shattering the boat into splinters. As Anderson raised his head from the water, he viewed the lifeless bodies of Rose and the three they were vying to save. They both made a choice to go headlong back into danger after surviving the broiling fireball from the Arizona’s massive explosion.
In doing so, they chose to live and die by the ethos of never leaving a man behind. Many accounts of Japanese cowardice in strafing civilian and maimed military only tempered the resolve of those survivors who would go on to see the war through to its end. As the USS Nevada was underway, Japanese planes attempted to sink her to block the mouth of the harbor. After 5 bombs struck and a fire spread aboard the ship, the Nevada was intentionally beached to prevent blocking the harbor.
Jumping into action to train up volunteers and help save the lives of the wounded, Army 1st Lieutenant Annie Fox’s actions in the heat of battle would see her become the first woman to earn the Purple Heart that would eventually be upgraded to the Bronze Star. Her bravery would lead the way as one of the 350,000 women to serve in uniform during WWII.
The Japanese military preemptively murdered 2404 US military and civilians before issuing a declaration of war. Journalist Betty McIntosh wrote an article her editor rejected since it was considered too graphic when she wrote it shortly after the attack. She witnessed countless scenes of the carnage and recovery of the deceased. Published in 2012, she wrote of the many children killed, including how “One little girl in a red sweater, barefoot, still clutched a piece of jump-rope in her hand.”
Once the attackers withdrew, America’s sons and daughters gathered the dead and mended the wounded. The days and weeks to come would haunt those who were left to pick up the pieces and reassemble the fleet that would answer Japan’s audacity.
Beginning at 0755 on December 7th 1941, the 353 aircraft raid on Pearl Harbor lasted approximately two hours. The American Pacific fleet was seriously damaged. Yet with Japan’s perceived great blow to the United States’ ability to project naval power in retaliation, there were several critical errors— One major failure was not striking the fuel storage that held enough fuel to resupply the fleet for 10 months. Another was not disabling the submarine base that berthed 4 submarines that would be some of the first to begin clenching the throat of Japan’s maritime supply lines.
Though Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo was aware the 3 carriers were not in Pearl Harbor, he still approved the launch unable to resist taking advantage of the element of surprise. The sneak attack ignited the patriotism of all Americans that would culminate in the courage and perseverance to achieve a total victory at any cost.