Pearl Harbor: From Infamy To Greatness
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Hill, Edwin Joseph.
Rank and organization: Chief Boatswain, US Navy.
Born: 4 October 1894, Philadelphia, PA.
Citation: For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage, and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. During the height of the strafing and bombing, Chief Boatswain Hill led his men of the line handling details of the USS Nevada to the quays, cast off the lines, and swam back to his ship. Later, while on the forecastle, attempting to let go the anchors, he was blown overboard and killed by the explosion of several bombs.
Jones, Herbert Charpoit.
Rank and organization: Ensign, US Naval Reserve.
Born: 21 January 1918, Los Angeles, CA.
Citation: For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Ensign Jones organized and led a party, which was supplying ammunition to the antiaircraft battery of the USS California, after the mechanical hoists were put out of action when he was fatally wounded by a bomb explosion. When two men attempted to take him from the area which was on fire, he refused to let them do so, saying in words to the effect, “Leave me alone! I am done for. Get out of here before the magazines go off.”
Kidd, Isaac Campbell.
Rank and organization: Rear Admiral, US Navy.
Born: 26 March 1884, Cleveland, OH.
Citation: For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Rear Admiral Kidd immediately went to the bridge and, as Commander, Battleship Division One, courageously discharged his duties as Senior Officer Present Afloat until the USS Arizona, his flagship, blew up from magazine explosions and a direct bomb hit on the bridge which resulted in the loss of his life.
Pharris, Jackson Charles.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, US Navy, USS California.
Born: 26 June 1912, Columbus, GA.
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while attached to the USS California during the surprise enemy Japanese aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, territory of Hawaii, 7 December 1941. In charge of the ordnance repair party on the third deck when the first Japanese torpedo struck almost directly under his station, Lieutenant (then Gunner) Pharris was stunned and severely injured by the concussion that hurled him to the overhead and back to the deck. Quickly recovering, he acted on his own initiative to set up a hand-supply ammunition train for the antiaircraft guns. With water and oil rushing in where the port bulkhead had been torn up from the deck, with many of the remaining crewmembers overcome by oil fumes, and the ship without power and listing heavily to port as a result of a second torpedo hit, Lieutenant Pharris ordered the shipfitters to counterflood. Twice rendered unconscious by the nauseous fumes and handicapped by his painful injuries, he persisted in his desperate efforts to speed up the supply of ammunition and at the same time repeatedly risked his life to enter flooding compartments and drag to safety unconscious shipmates who were gradually being submerged in oil. By his inspiring leadership, his valiant efforts, and his extreme loyalty to his ship and its crew, he saved many of his shipmates from death and was largely responsible for keeping the California in action during the attack. His heroic conduct throughout this first eventful engagement of World War II reflects the highest credit upon Lieutenant Pharris and enhances the finest traditions of the US Naval Service.
Reeves, Thomas James.
Rank and organization: Radio Electrician (Warrant Officer), US Navy.
Born: 9 December 1895, Thomaston, CT.
Citation: For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage, and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. After the mechanized ammunition hoists were put out of action on the USS California, Reeves, on his own initiative, in a burning passageway, assisted in the maintenance of an ammunition supply by hand to the antiaircraft guns until he was overcome by smoke and fire, which resulted in his death.
Ross, Donald Kirby.
Rank and organization: Machinist, US Navy, USS Nevada.
Born: 8 December 1910, Beverly, KS.
Citation: For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage, and disregard of his own life during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. When his station in the forward dynamo room of the USS Nevada became almost untenable due to smoke, steam, and heat, Machinist Ross forced his men to leave that station and performed all the duties himself until blinded and unconscious. Upon being rescued and resuscitated, he returned and secured the forward dynamo room and proceeded to the after dynamo room where he was later again rendered unconscious by exhaustion. Again recovering consciousness he returned to his station where he remained until directed to abandon it.
Scott, Robert R.
Rank and organization: Machinist’s Mate 1st Class, US Navy.
Born: 13 July 1915, Massillon, OH.
Citation: For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. The compartment in the USS California in which the air compressor, to which Scott was assigned as his battle station, was flooded as the result of a torpedo hit. The remainder of the personnel evacuated that compartment but Scott refused to leave, saying words to the effect, “This is my station and I will stay and give them air as long as the guns are going.”
Tomich, Peter.
Rank and organization: Chief Watertender, US Navy.
Born: 3 June 1893, Prolog, Austria.
Citation: For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage, and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Although realizing that the ship was capsizing as a result of enemy bombing and torpedoing, Tomich remained at his post in the engineering plant of the USS Utah until he saw that all boilers were secured and all fire room personnel had left their stations, and by so doing lost his own life.
Van Valkenburgh, Franklin.
Rank and organization: Captain, US Navy.
Born: 5 April 1888, Minneapolis, MN.
Citation: For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. As commanding officer of the USS Arizona, Captain Van Valkenburgh gallantly fought his ship until the USS Arizona blew up from magazine explosions and a direct bomb hit on the bridge that resulted in the loss of his life.
Ward, James Richard.
Rank and organization: Seaman 1st Class, US Navy.
Born: 10 September 1921, Springfield, OH.
Citation: For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. When it was seen that the USS Oklahoma was going to capsize and the order was given to abandon ship, Ward remained in a turret holding a flashlight so the remainder of the turret crew could see to escape, thereby sacrificing his own life.
Young, Cassin.
Rank and organization: Commander, US Navy.
Born: 6 March 1894, Washington, DC.
Citation: For distinguished conduct in action, outstanding heroism, and utter disregard of his own safety, above and beyond the call of duty, as commanding officer of the USS Vestal, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, territory of Hawaii, by enemy Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Commander Young proceeded to the bridge an
d later took personal command of the three-inch antiaircraft gun. When blown overboard by the blast of the forward magazine explosion of the USS Arizona, to which the USS Vestal was moored, he swam back to his ship. The entire forward part of the USS Arizona was a blazing inferno with oil afire on the water between the two ships; as a result of several bomb hits, the USS Vestal was afire in several places, was settling, and taking on a list. Despite severe enemy bombing and strafing at the time and his shocking experience of having been blown overboard, Commander Young, with extreme coolness and calmness, moved his ship to an anchorage distant from the USS Arizona and subsequently beached the USS Vestal upon determining that such action was required to save his ship.
(1) Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt watches on March 16, 1914, as the Brooklyn Navy Yard lays the keel for the ship that would be christened USS Arizona and attacked by the Japanese twenty-seven years later.
(2) Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was so conflicted about Tokyo’s rush to war that he proselytized against fighting the Allies publicly while at the same time privately threatening to resign if the navy didn’t approve his plans to attack Pearl Harbor.
(3) Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo led the First Air Fleet in its strike on Oahu, even though he’d repeatedly opposed Yamamoto’s plan and would forever after be vilified as being timid for not ordering a third strike.
(4) Details of the strike force’s targets were provided by Honolulu spy Takeo Yoshikawa. The teahouse he used for surveillance is still open for business.
(5) America’s military commanders in Hawaii, General Walter Short, left, and Admiral Husband Kimmel, right, met with Britain’s Lord Mountbatten in 1941. Short and Kimmel would shoulder the burden of blame for the Hawaiian debacle, but were never court-martialed, only retired.
(6) American secretary of state Cordell Hull, center, met regularly with Japanese ambassadors Kichisaburo Nomura and Saburo Kurusu to try to negotiate an accord between Tokyo and Washington. Afterward, Hull won the Nobel Prize as a founder of the United Nations, and double Kurusu became American slang for “betrayal.”
(7) and (8) Japan’s advanced technologies, including its battery-powered midget submarine, would fool Admiral Kimmel, who refused to believe torpedoes could be launched in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. Of the ten midget sub crewmen assigned to this mission, however, nine would die, and the only survivor would become America’s first World War II POW.
(9) and (10) Japan’s First Air Fleet prepares to launch its surprise attack on Oahu. The profound success of this battle will end the era of dreadnoughts and launch the ascendancy of flattops, aircraft carriers capable of projecting massive firepower over great distances.
(11) and (12) The attack was launched at 7:48 a.m. In less than thirty minutes, Hickam Field lay in ruins.
(13) and (14) The first minutes of the attack caught by Japanese cameras. The background smoke is Hickam in flames; left, a torpedo is visibly porpoising; dead center, a shock wave emanates from a strike on West Virginia. Moored by Ford Island, left to right: Nevada, Vestal outbound to Arizona; West Virginia outbound to Tennessee; Oklahoma outbound to Maryland; Neosho and California. The explosion in the second picture is a torpedo strike on Oklahoma.
(15) Ford Island Naval Air Station under fire. 2,403 Americans died in the attack.
(16) and (17) Hell on earth: firefighters try to save West Virginia, while a small boat attempts to rescue her crew from the water. Some trying to escape by jumping into the harbor would be suffocated or burned alive by the fuel fires raging at the water’s surface.
(18) Arizona collapses. Of more than 1,400 crewmen, merely 334 survived.
(19) and (20) The smoke of the burning harbor waters finally clears, revealing Arizona completely destroyed, and Oklahoma fully capsized.
(21) The corpse of a Japanese airman is hoisted from the water.
(22) and (23) President Roosevelt appears before a joint session of Congress on December 8 to give one of the greatest speeches in American history and ask for a declaration of war. His handwritten revisions show his desire to properly convey the momentousness of the attack.
(24) Admiral Chester Nimitz, Kimmel’s replacement, awards the Navy Cross to West Virginia’s Cook 3rd Class Doris Miller on May 27, 1942. The heroic Miller will die in action, but his valor at Pearl Harbor will make him a civil rights hero.
(25) On June 1, 1942, James Doolittle appears before America’s great secret weapon of World War II—working men and women—at the Inglewood, California, site of North American Aviation’s B-25 assembly line. When America learned that Japan had executed a group of his Raiders, the country bought more war bonds than at any other time in history.
(26) and (27) Navy divers at work on a heroic effort of salvage as Oklahoma is righted to ninety degrees by March 29, 1943, and Nevada is fully restored.
(28) Today’s Pearl Harbor, and the Arizona Memorial with its pool of black tears.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank Rick Kot at Viking for germination and Colin Harrison at Scribner for cultivation. Both are two of the best editors in the business, and over the course of this book’s half decade, I learned that Colin can heroically pull authors out of the trough of despair, for which I’m especially grateful.
Colin’s right hand is the terrifically professional Sarah Goldberg; my hardworking copy editor is Steve Boldt; my production editor, Dan Cuddy; and production manager, Olga Leonardo. Overseen by art director Jaya Miceli, the book’s eye-catching cover is by Jonathan Bush, and its handsome interior design is by Erich Hobbing. I so appreciate all of your hard work and have such great feeling for the remarkable Scribner team: Jessica Yu in publicity, Kara Watson in marketing, publisher Nan Graham, and president Susan Moldow. It is an honor to be published by you.
My titan of an agent is Stuart Krichevsky, and his fantastic team includes David Gore and Ross Harris. Mary K. Elkins creates my website, and Johanna Ramos-Boyer was my incredible publicist.
Books such as this are made through research. Thanks so much to the great aid of Andrew Scott Lewis and Christie Thompson in New York; Dylan Tokar and Normal Gleason in Washington; Dorinda Nicholson, Ryan Troxel, Andrew Teigler, and Olav Holst in Hawaii; and Miko Yamanouchi, Laura Hagler, Kuniko Kaio, Kimiko Nakatsuka, Ayaka Kuroiwa, and Maho Kawachi in Japan.
They are also made in archives, and these librarians and archivists were extraordinary: Teri Sierra, Lewis Wyman, and Suzanne Legault at the Library of Congress, Washington; Adam Berenbak, Kate Mollan, Rod Ross, and Juliet Arai at the Center for Legislative Archives, Washington; Yukako Tatsumi and Amy Wasserstrom, the Gordon Prange Collection, College Park, Maryland; Kate Flaherty, Still Picture Division, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland; Raymond Teichman and Robert Parks, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York; Yvonne Kinkaid, US Office of Air Force History, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington; and Lynn Gamma, Archivist of the Air Force, Joseph D. Caver, and Essie Roberts, Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© HELVIO FARIA
Craig Nelson is the author of The Age of Radiance and the New York Times bestseller Rocket Men, as well as several previous books, including The First Heroes, Thomas Paine (winner of the Henry Adams Prize), and Let’s Get Lost (short-listed for WHSmith’s Book of the Year). His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal, Salon, National Geographic, New England Review, Popular Science, Reader’s Digest, and a host of other publications. He has been profiled in Variety, Interview, Publishers Weekly, and Time Out. Besides working at a zoo and in Hollywood, and being an Eagle Scout and a Fuller Brush man, he was a vice president and executive editor of Harper & Row, Hyperion, and Random House, where he oversaw the publishing of twenty national bestsellers. He lives in Greenwich Village.
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ALSO BY CRAIG NELSON
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The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era
Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon
Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations
The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid—America’s First World War II Victory
Let’s Get Lost: Adventures in the Great Wide Open
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NOTES
Abbreviations
AFHRA
Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
FDR papers
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
Grew papers
Joseph Grew Papers, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.