On Wed, 8 Dec 2010 08:32:53 -0500, BAR wrote:
In article 4486b8e5-bd03-42b1-b431-
, says...
Remembering the day.
My dad was there a child of 5 along with his sister watching the planes.
His one vivid memory of that day is the face of one Japanese pilot he
saw. Also, my grand-fathers ship the USS Shaw, the famous explosion
picture, was there and my grand-mother took most of the photos in the
hours and days after that were used by the media and the government.
BAR, my wife was also a witness to the attack that day. But unlike
your dad, my wife's father didn't waste anytime and hustled all the
little ones (there were 5 of them) into his bomb shelter (yes, he
built a bomb shelter in the backyard - I guess he was way ahead of his
time)
All she remembers are the planes in the sky and the sound of
explosions. She was 5yrs 3mo old.
I have read of old timers, mostly servicemen tell about seeing the
Japanese pilots in their planes. That might be true, but I doubt if a
five-year old civilian saw the same thing. Betcha your dad kinda
embellished his recount of that day. Many old timers tend to do this.
My father-in-law later helped in the raising of some of the sunken
American ships. He was a welder and worked at PH for the duration of
the war. Right after the war he moved his family to Omao, Kauai where
he built many homes. He retired after working 20 years with the state
of Hawaii.
Eddie