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On this day in 1941, my father, who was a Marine stationed aboard the USS Pennsylvania at Pearl Harbor, went to sleep not knowing he and other soldiers at Pearl Harbor would be awakened early in the morning by a surprise attack of the Japanese.
He said that he and his comrades were still in their bunks as the attack began. He quickly threw on his uniform and ran to the deck to man his gun.
A bomb exploding near him sent shrapnel flying and a piece of the shrapnel pierced his abdomen, wounding him not seriously, though he had a scar forever after that incident.
On 21 August, less than four months before the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, he had written his family to say that he had been to Honolulu, Waikiki, and Hilo on a liberty and had enjoyed the outing.
His letter speaks of the beauty of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the beach at Waikiki, as well as of the large groves of palms loaded with coconuts. Little did he know as he wrote the letter that the nation would soon be at war and he'd be called into active duty in the Pacific Theater for the remainder of the war.
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