“Yesterday, December 7, 1941... " -

By Rebecca McAllister

On December 7, 2024, my mother was so disappointed that neither the media nor anyone else she had heard acknowledged the “National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.” At 8 years old, she remembers hearing Roosevelt’s speech on the radio when she was home from elementary school for lunch that Monday.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, just before 0800, Japan launched a surprise attack on U.S. military bases at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, subsequently declaring war on the United States and the British Empire.

While we often hear about the ships destroyed in the harbor on that day, attacks were made in numerous places across Oahu. In the first wave of attacks, the Japanese assigned numerous fighters and bombers to suppress airbases, with fighters igniting planes using their machine guns and cannon fire while bombers targeted them with high explosives.

The second wave also focused on airfield strikes. Wheeler Army Airfield, located in central Oahu, was the main fighter base in Hawaii. Nearly two-thirds of the 140 planes stationed there, primarily P-40 and P-36 fighter aircraft, were destroyed or unable to fly. A similar proportion of B-17, B-18, and A-20 bombers at Hickam Army Airfield—adjacent to the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard—were also destroyed or damaged enough to remain grounded. Many personnel were killed at Hickam when the Japanese bombed their barracks. In addition, smaller Bellows Field in eastern Oahu suffered damage, with several P-40s destroyed, including two whose pilots bravely attempted to take off during the enemy attack.

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps air stations on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Ewa to the west of Pearl, and Kaneohe Bay near Bellows Field were heavily targeted during the raid. Ewa, which predominantly housed carrier-type bombers and fighters, saw its count drop from nearly fifty planes to less than twenty. Ford Island and Kaneohe, home to several squadrons of long-range PBY patrol seaplanes, faced massive assaults, losing about half of their planes at Ford Island and almost all at Kaneohe.

The Museum of Flight features an entire wall dedicated to the bombing of Kaneohe Bay, showcasing before-and-after pictures of a PBY Catalina (a flying boat) taken mere hours before the attack, alongside images depicting the extensive damage inflicted. Some recovered PBY Catalina aircraft components and artifacts salvaged from the aftermath are displayed on the wall. Even more impactful are the images of the ceremony, parade, and internment of those killed. It was a horrible day with tremendous historical significance, just 83 years ago. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded.

As George Santayana’s famous works from 1905 declare, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

For those interested in more details, there is an excellent visual map archive at https://1941.mapping.jp/