Pearl Harbor

As you probably already know, today marks the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Though it happened thousands of miles away, this is still "local history" for me.  You might remember the picture below from our assignment on photographs earlier in the semester.  On the right, is my great-great-uncle, Chester Beason.  I never knew Chester.  He died when I was 4 or 5.  But he left behind a testimony of his service during the war, including his experience during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"It was only a few minutes after eight in the morning when word came over the radio that the Japanese were making an attack on Pearl Harbor," Chester wrote. "Having just sat down to breakfast, it was a moment that leaves the subconscious mind free to act quickly."  He grabbed a piece of toast, put on his uniform, and headed to Pearl.  Riding with his neighbor, they rushed through Honolulu "at almost top speed, through traffic lights."

Upon arrival, Chester saw "ships burning, planes destroyed on ground, hangars on fire and Jap planes still making passes over Pearl Harbor bombing and machine gunning the ships, navy yard and the road they went down."

"It was a long day and one that caused so many thoughts, to see and to hear so many stories of invasion on other parts of the island.  One even had flashed through one's mind of being captured within a short time and one's thoughts of the future were all mixed up against a stone wall."

Just a small section of Chester's war memoir deals with what he saw at Pearl Harbor.  In fact, Pearl Harbor was not even the most traumatic event he witnessed during the war.  He was on the USS Lexington (CV-2) when it was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942.  Thankfully, he wrote down what he went though so future generations, like me, could know his story.