I Survived #4: I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941
Page 2
“Goodness!” Aki’s mother said with surprise. “Did he really hurt you?”
“Just my pants,” Danny said. He decided not to tell Aki’s mother how the boar almost turned Aki into a shish kebab.
“But it’s very unusual for a boar to attack,” said Aki’s mother.
“Aki got hold of one of its babies,” Danny said.
“Puppy.” Aki smiled. “My puppy!”
Aki’s mother shook her head.
“Aki sees the beauty in everything,” his mother said. “Even a wild boar. But one of these days, Aki, you’re going to end up in big trouble.”
“He’s a good kid,” Danny said, wanting to protect his new friend.
“I good boy!” Aki said, puffing out his chest.
Danny and Aki’s mother looked at each other, and they both laughed.
The sound startled Danny. He hadn’t laughed since the night Finn fell.
Aki stared at both of them, trying to see what was funny.
Then he grabbed Danny’s hand and started pulling with all his might.
“Danny come!” Aki said. “Danny come over!”
Danny opened his mouth to say “no thank you.” But Aki kept shouting, “Danny come!” and pulling on his hand, trying to haul him up the hill. For such a shrimp, the kid was a real muscleman.
“You might as well come,” Aki’s mother said. “I have lunch just about ready. And as you can see, my son doesn’t take no for an answer.”
CHAPTER 6
Before Danny really understood what was happening, Aki had dragged him up to their house, if you could call it a house. It was smaller than the Cranes’ house and made of cement, with a metal roof. Still, there was something nice about it — the white flowers climbing up one of the walls, the neat vegetable garden planted in front. Aki’s mother had introduced herself on the way up — she was Mrs. Sudo. She explained that Aki’s father was a fisherman out on a three-day trip. He’d be back tomorrow afternoon.
Mrs. Sudo had Danny sit down at a little wooden table in front of the house. Aki scrambled onto his lap. He stayed there as Mrs. Sudo served lunch. The food was weird — bowls of rice with fish in a salty sauce — but not so bad, especially the bright orange fruit for dessert. It tasted sweet as a lollipop.
After they ate, Aki curled up on Danny’s lap. Danny thought he would fall asleep, tuckered out by all of the excitement.
But then a formation of bomber planes flew over them. There were always military planes crisscrossing the skies above Pearl Harbor. There were army and navy airfields all around the harbor, not only Hickam, where Ma worked.
Aki leaped up.
“B-18!” he shrieked. A minute later, three more planes appeared.
“A-20!” he shouted.
And finally, “Danny! B-17! Flying Fortress! B-17 Aki’s favorite plane!”
“Aki knows all the planes,” Mrs. Sudo said, putting another plate of orange fruit in front of Danny. “Aki, why don’t you show Danny your book?”
Aki hopped off Danny’s lap and shot into the house. He reappeared a minute later and handed Danny a worn sketchbook. He grinned proudly as Danny opened it. Danny stared at the pages, each one filled with perfect drawings of bomber planes and warships.
“You drew these?” Danny said in amazement.
“My papa!” Aki said.
“My husband drew those,” Mrs. Sudo explained. “When he’s home, he takes Aki down to the docks. They’ll sit there for hours.”
“He’s really good,” Danny said.
“He’s an artist.” Danny could hear the pride in Mrs. Sudo’s voice. “Fishing is just his job.”
“I wish I could draw,” Danny said.
Actually he already could draw, a little bit. Mrs. Mills got him a sketchbook and told him to practice, but he never made much progress.
“My husband would love to help you learn,” Mrs. Sudo said. “Is your father in the military?”
“No,” Danny said. “It’s just me and my ma. She works as a nurse at Hickam. We moved here from New York City a couple of weeks ago.”
“Your mother’s very brave, to come all this way to start a new life.”
Danny had never really thought of it that way. Ma had looked so scared after Finn fell. But he guessed it was brave, to leave the city she’d lived in her whole life, to travel halfway around the world.
“She’s lucky to have a boy like you,” Mrs. Sudo said.
The words hung in the air a minute — a boy like you — and then they seemed to slap Danny in the face.
Tears came into Danny’s eyes, but he had no idea why.
Somehow, being here with Aki and Mrs. Sudo, some of that ice inside him had melted.
He had to get out of here.
He stood up so quickly that he dropped Aki’s book onto the floor.
“Thank you for lunch,” he said, picking up the sketch pad and handing it to Aki. “But, uh, I have to go.”
“Danny!” Aki shouted. “Stay!”
“You’re welcome to stay the afternoon,” Mrs. Sudo said. “Until your mother returns from work.”
“I’m sorry,” Danny said. “I’m sorry, but … I have to leave.”
And without even a wave good-bye, he ran down the hill and into his house.
CHAPTER 7
THE NEXT MORNING
DECEMBER 7, 1941
8:05 A.M.
Danny lay in his bed, listening to the morning birds sing outside his window.
The Carmella was leaving in two hours. He was all ready for the trip. He had packed a small bag. He had written the note to leave for Ma. And he had the entire plan laid out in his head.
Stowing away on the Carmella would be easy — one of Earl’s guys did it once when he was younger: stowed away to Cuba to track down an old girlfriend. You had to be smart about it — dress nice, wash up, pretend you were visiting some passengers. Then, when the bell rang for all the visitors to leave, you had to find a good hiding place, like a storage closet, or a lifeboat, if you could sneak in without someone seeing you. Anywhere you could stay out of sight for at least a day, until the ship was far out to sea.
After that, if you got caught, there wasn’t much the crew could do. They wouldn’t toss Danny overboard. He’d already figured out his sob story: He was an orphan, trying to get back to New York to be with his cousin Finn. He might even mention the name Earl Gasky.
People had heard of Earl, even outside of New York. Danny heard that he was even friends with some guys in the FBI. Earl could get people to do all kinds of things, even give a kid a ride across the Pacific.
The trip would get trickier when the boat docked in San Francisco. Danny would have to slip away before the police got there. He’d have to get himself to the freight train yards. Riding freight cars wasn’t so easy. Danny had heard bad stories about the “yard bulls,” the guards who searched the sidings for train jumpers. They’d beat you up and then toss you through the doorway of the police station.
But none of this scared Danny.
So what was he doing still in bed?
He should have gone to the Honolulu port right after Ma left for work at 7:00.
But he couldn’t bring himself to leave. All night, he’d been hearing Mrs. Sudo’s voice in his head.
Your mother is lucky to have a boy like you.
A boy like Danny.
What kind of boy was he?
A boy who didn’t turn his back on his best friend.
But did that mean he was a boy who would leave his ma?
All these weeks he’d been thinking about doing what was right for Finn, but now he couldn’t stop thinking about Ma. What would she do when she discovered that Danny was gone? He couldn’t even imagine it, how frantic she’d be.
All night he’d been tossing in his bed, feeling torn in two.
He was lying there, his thoughts seesawing back and forth, when a familiar voice rang out.
“Danny! Danny, come!”
Aki was outside again.
/> Now his plans would really be messed up!
Danny climbed out of bed. He quickly dressed and went to the door. Aki was standing there by himself.
“Aki,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
The kid wasn’t wearing his crazy monkey grin. His face looked dead serious.
He pointed up to the sky and said in a soft and scared voice, “Airplanes.”
CHAPTER 8
“Come on,” Danny said, picking Aki up. “We need to get you back home. Your mama will be very worried.”
“Airplanes,” Aki said, looking into the sky.
“Aki, you have to go home, come on, you have to …”
Aki put his hand on Danny’s mouth, silencing him.
“Shhh!” he said. “Airplanes.”
Danny almost pulled Aki’s sticky hand off his face.
But then he heard a sound he’d never heard before.
A buzzing sound, like there was a giant swarm of bees closing in.
Danny followed Aki’s pointed finger. And then he saw it in the distance — what looked to be an enormous flock of gray birds flying toward Pearl Harbor.
As the gray spots grew larger, Danny could see that Aki was right. They were airplanes. More than Danny had ever seen. And then he saw even more, coming in from another direction.
There must be a drill going on. The navy and army were always practicing. There had been a drill at Hickam last week, when fifty sailors had to pretend to be wounded. Ma came home exhausted and covered in fake blood.
Whatever game these planes were playing, Danny didn’t have time to watch them, not if he planned to catch the Carmella. He’d already wasted too much time bellyaching in bed.
“Come on,” Danny said, holding out his hand. If he hurried, he’d get Aki home and then be able to hitchhike to Honolulu. He could still make it to the port in time.
Then, when they were almost up the hill, an enormous BOOM shook the ground.
And then another.
Danny stopped short.
“Fire!” Aki shouted.
Flames were rising from one of the battleships.
What kind of drill was this? Had a pilot crashed or dropped a bomb by mistake?
Danny stopped moving. Aki wrapped his arms around Danny’s neck. Danny could feel the little boy’s heart beating, like tiny running footsteps.
Together they stared at the scene over the harbor.
The planes were flying so low they seemed to skim the tops of the taller ships.
Kaboom!
Another explosion rang out.
Sirens began to howl.
Boom … boom … BOOM … BOOM!
The sky was filling with black smoke.
“My ships,” Aki whispered.
A feeling of dread came up through Danny, a black and swirling feeling, like on that night with Finn, when he’d first heard the metal of the fire escape start to give way. He knew something horrible was happening, something beyond his worst nightmares.
He gripped Aki tighter.
“Aki,” Danny said. “Are those B-17s?”
Aki shook his head.
“Are they B-18s?”
Again Aki shook his head.
“A-20s?”
“Not Aki’s planes.”
And that’s when Danny knew.
It was Hitler! Germany was attacking! Just like Mrs. Mills had said it would!
More explosions rang out. The air filled up with a horrible smell.
A voice rang out.
“Aki!”
Mrs. Sudo came running down the hill.
“Thank goodness!” she cried, grabbing Aki and hugging him.
“The Germans are attacking us,” Danny said.
Mrs. Sudo turned to Danny.
She had tears in her eyes.
“No, Danny,” she said. “Those are not Germany’s planes.”
“Who else could it be?” Danny said. Who else was crazy enough to bomb Pearl Harbor?
“Those are Japanese planes,” Mrs. Sudo said.
Japan?
What had America done to Japan?
Why would they want to destroy all of those ships?
There were no answers, just more explosions, more of that black, bloody-looking smoke.
Aki was crying.
“Come,” Mrs. Sudo said, grabbing Danny’s hand. “I know somewhere we can go, in case …”
Danny knew what she wasn’t saying: In case the planes started bombing their houses too.
They hurried up and around the back of the Sudos’ little house. Danny helped Mrs. Sudo open the wooden door that led to her root cellar — not much more than a hole in the dirt. Mrs. Sudo went down the narrow wooden stairs first, and Danny handed Aki to her.
“Come, Danny,” Mrs. Sudo said.
But Danny was staring out over the smoke and flames.
Somewhere in the middle of all that was Hickam.
And somewhere at Hickam was Ma.
“I need to find my mother,” he said.
“No! Your mother would want you here! Please stay! She would want you to be safe!”
Danny knew that was true.
But he ran away anyway, down the hill, toward the fires, toward Ma.
CHAPTER 9
As Danny hurried past his house, he barely recognized his new neighborhood.
Cars sped by. People were running through the streets, shouting. A truck rumbled past with a man hanging out the passenger window. He was yelling through a bullhorn.
“All military personnel! Report to your posts! We are under attack! We are under attack! This is not a drill! America is under attack by Japan!”
Military men were rushing out of their front doors, buttoning their uniform shirts as they ran, calling out good-byes to their wives and children.
“Take the kids up to the cane fields!” one yelled. “Hide if you have to! I’ll find you when this is over!”
Some of the ladies stood in the doorways and cried.
Danny ran across the street to the beach. Through a curtain of smoke across the harbor, Danny could see the planes pummeling the battleships, flying low, firing their guns, and then circling back for another attack.
The noises pounded in Danny’s ears.
Boom. Boom. Boom. BOOM!
Rat, tat, tat, tat.
Keeeee POW!
Where was Ma?
Was she safe in the hospital, or were the Japanese trying to blow that up too?
How would he get to her?
Tears came into Danny’s eyes.
And then suddenly something appeared through the smoke. One of the planes had peeled away and was heading his way.
Danny expected it to loop around and head back to the harbor.
But it was coming toward the beach.
Straight for Danny.
Danny stood there, frozen by fear. He watched as the plane got closer and closer, until he could see the pilot. The man looked very young. He had a white rag tied around his head. He wore goggles. His plane had big red circles on both sides.
Danny remembered Mrs. Mills’s classroom. She had pictures of all the flags of the world lined up. Japan’s was a white flag with a red ball in the middle.
The red ball was supposed to be the rising sun, Mrs. Mills said.
But now all Danny could think of was a ball of fire.
There was a terrible roaring sound.
Rat, tat, tat, tat.
Rat tat tat tat.
Sand flew up all around Danny. Machine-gun fire! Why was the pilot shooting at Danny?
Danny ran across the sand. But there was nowhere to hide.
The roar of the plane got louder as Danny ran.
Rat, tat, tat, tat.
Rat tat tat tat.
Behind him, there was an explosion so enormous that the ground beneath Danny seemed to rise up.
His head smashed against the sand.
And then he couldn’t see anything at all.
CHAPTER 10
8:45 A.M.
His head felt like it had been split in two.
His hands and knees throbbed.
His mind swirled.
His mouth was filled with sand and blood; he’d bitten his tongue. His ears were ringing.
But he was all in one piece.
He had no idea how much time had passed since that plane appeared.
The plane was gone now. The attack seemed to be over.
As his mind cleared, he managed to sit up. Over the harbor, one of the battleships was a ball of fire. That was the huge explosion: An entire battleship had been blown apart.
That’s what had knocked him down.
Danny finally struggled to his feet and staggered across the beach toward the road.
He saw a car parked at the edge of the beach, the front end partially hidden in a prickly bush. It was covered with bullet holes. The back window was shattered. He didn’t see anyone; probably the driver had run away. Danny wondered if the guy would mind if he borrowed it. Earl had not only taught Danny and Finn how to drive. He’d shared a secret for starting a car engine without a key.
But as Danny got closer to the car, a man’s face appeared through the shattered driver’s window.
“Hey, kid,” he called. “You okay?”
Danny couldn’t believe his eyes. It was his mother’s friend, Mack.
“Dan!” Mack said. “Is that really you? Are you okay? Were you hit?”
“I’m okay,” Danny said.
“Where is your mother?” Mack asked.
“She’s at the hospital,” Danny said, his voice shaky. “At the base. I think it was hit. I need to get there.”
Mack looked nothing like a fancy Sutton Place man trying to impress Danny’s mother. His expression was fierce and determined.
“Let’s go,” he said. “That’s where I’m heading. You come with me. We’ll find her.”
When Danny got into the car, he noticed blood spattered on the doors. Mack’s arm was bleeding badly.
“You’re hurt,” Danny said.
Mack glanced at his arm. “I got grazed by a bullet,” he said. “I’ve had worse.”