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A Pearl Harbor Survivor's Memory (My Father) of December 7, 1941, A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

Discussion in 'Break Room' started by Kevin Kirby, Dec 8, 2012.


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    Yesterday was the 71st anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941. My father, James C. Kirby, who passed away 5 years ago, was on the battleship Pennsylvania, which was in drydock, during the attack. He was only 20 years old at the time and was a Chief Radio Operator [radio operators specialized in sending and receiving Morse code for the captain of the battleship]. Therefore, his battle station at the time of the attack was at the very top of the ship in the Radio Room (see photo).

    Even though my father had told me stories of the Pearl Harbor attack since I was old enough to remember, I asked him, about 10 years before he died, to write a brief description of his memories of the events surrounding that horrific day so I could pass it on to my sons, their families and to all those interested in the history of this event, "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy".

    To commemorate the anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, here is a short account of the events surrounding the attack by one of the survivors.

     
  2. The real sadness is that we've still not learnt the salutary lesson your Dad did all those years ago. Well worth remembering now. Thanks for sharing this, Kevin. What did your father do after the war?
     
  3. He taught radio and television repair (in the vacuum tube era), worked at RCA (at the infancy of the transistor era), then had assorted odd jobs after that. Then, when I was growing up, my mother worked as a bookkkeeper while my father became the only "house husband" that I knew of at the time (1960's to 1970's).

    I guess being a "house husband" is more common now but, in that era, it was very rare that the father stayed at home and took care of the house and children while the mother worked. Dad cooked dinner, cleaned the house, did laundry, sewed clothes, drove us to and from our school/sports events, repaired/built furniture and the car, and, what was pretty cool to me at the time, built his own 16' outboard boat from scratch when I was about 10 years old.

    Here he is, about 25 years ago, with one of the radio control model airplanes he built for me and we flew together. That plane had one of the earliest 4-stroke engines that were being made for that size model plane at the time. Below that is his US Navy training graduation photo, taken 14 months before the Pearl Harbor attack, at age 19. He's the tall one in the back.
     
  4. Sounds like a nice guy. Count your blessings he survived the ordeal.

    All the best
    M
     
  5. I would never had been around to count any blessings if he hadn't survived. Makes you think, doesn't it?
     
  6. Here is Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous "a date which will live in infamy" speech given the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt was wheelchair-bound at the time (from polio acquired as an adult) and could only stand to give speeches with the use of leg braces.

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 22, 2016
  7. Thanks Kevin for sharing your dad's story.

    One of the reasons I enjoy my work is hearing the personal histories from many different nationalities.

    Your father sounds like he was a good bloke.

    Cheers and Merry Christmas

    Jill
     
  8. fishpod

    fishpod Well-Known Member

    Be proud of your dad a selfless brave generation my grandad was at monte casino and El Alamein thank god he lived however he never told the tale
     
  9. Rick K.

    Rick K. Active Member

    Your Dad was obviously more than fortunate. We know the USA was very fortunate to not have the carriers in port, but I had read recently that we would have been in far worse shape after the attack had the Japanese not attacked on Sunday morning when so many servicemen (like 90%) were on leave or off duty ashore. They also left the dry docks relatively undamaged and, as such, allowed for the relatively speedy repairs of many of the damaged ships, since they did not have to tow them back to the States. And they also did not destroy the petroleum reserves 5 miles away in above ground tanks. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our entire Pacific fleet fuel supply.

    And it is funny how fathers close calls come about. My father was a Navy hard hat salvage diver who was on the bottom in Korea when his ship came under fire. Standard operating procedure was to cut the lines to the divers and come away full speed, but there was a Navy Captain diving with him at the time, so they didn't cut the lines and dragged them both behind for the ride of their lives in the propeller wash. No O-6, no me, either.
     
  10. Rob Kidd

    Rob Kidd Well-Known Member

    My brother's father-in-law was one the first into one of the camps - I have forgotten which. He has never talked about it, and will not be drawn on the subject, even after a very substantial libation. He simply syas that it is in the past and that is where it is staying. Rob
     
  11. My father didn't talk about Pearl Harbor unless I asked him about it. I had to really twist his arm to get him to write the account of his Pearl Harbor memories that I provided in my first posting in this thread. I kept having to remind him that this story would be very important for my children and my children's children to know about him.

    One thing that was interesting about my father, (and probably many in my father's generation) was that he refused to buy anything made in Japan for many, many years. After years of telling him that I thought the Japanese made quality cars (since I drove Toyotas mostly), I finally got him to get a Mazda truck in about 1986 (45 years after the Pearl Harbor attack) since this was the only small truck he could fit his long legs into. After buying that Mazda truck, seeing the way it was built and feeling how it performed, I never had to again try to convince him that the Japanese made quality products. He went out looking for Japanese products to buy after that. That was all pretty funny for me to see.

    The last movie I took him to was the "Pearl Harbor" movie in 2001 with Ben Affleck. He was in a wheelchair by then due to hip and knee DJD and went into the theater wearing his "USS Pennsylvania" cap that I had gotten for him. He cried for 15 minutes during the attack scene in the theater since he said it brought back such horrible and sad memories for him (that was the first time he had ever told me about dump trucks being stacked like cord wood with the bodies of young men after the attack). However, after the movie, a few of the other people in the theater saw his hat and came up to him and thanked him for what he did for his country. That meant a lot to him....and to me.
     
  12. Peter

    Peter Well-Known Member

    I remember the film 'Tora, Tora,Tora'. I can't remember the exact words at the end, but it recounts a Japanese statesman possibly saying words akin to "we have awoken a sleeping giant, and filled him with terrible resolve", very poignant, and a timely reminder that war still surrounds the planet, and that Politicians who create them, don't fight them.
     
  13. W J Liggins

    W J Liggins Well-Known Member

    Thanks for your stories. Like your father's, mine would never talk about combat but I did manage to pull together some information from my mother, some of his comrades and the official reports. He was in 14th army which pushed south through Burma fighting the Japanese all the way. I too would not be here if he had not been rescued by the Gurkhas. The story is interesting.

    Whilst training, he pointed his (unloaded) rifle at a Gurkha who was acting as 'the enemy' and made the appropriate 'bang bang you're dead' sounds in front of one of the referees. Unfortunately the Gurkha did not agree and clouted him over the head with the brass clad butt of a Lee Enfield .303. When he woke up many hours later he discovered that the Gurkha was in disgrace amongst his comrades and was on a charge for hitting an officer. Despite a splitting headache, the old man demanded that the charge be withdrawn since the chap was guilty only of an excess of zeal.

    The Gurkhas never forgot the incident and a little later when they had been sent 'up the line' into combat, my father was ordered out on a scouting expedition and was cut off from his own lines. One can only imagine his feelings, alone in field of elephant grass, surrounded by an enemy who were not noted for their kindness to a 'spy'. The Gurkhas got to hear about the situation, and without orders, one by one, they sneaked out of camp to find him. Had they used guns, all of the Japanese in the area would have descended and massacred them, so they plied their deadly kukri knives and cut their way through to my - doubtless extremely relieved - father and brought him out. Thanks to them, I am alive today.

    Most of these Gurkhas were wartime soldiers only, and a typically grateful British government gave them the best part of sweet Fanny Arkwright in pensions. Some of these incredibly tough men, and their widows, are still alive and reliant on their families to escape destitution. Whilst I do not normally advertise my charity, I do look after a retired Gurkha via the Gurkha Welfare organisation, since for me, this is a debt of honour. It does no harm to reflect today on what we owe our fathers and their comrades because the current teaching of history (in the UK anyway), tends to slide over these inconvenient facts.

    All the best

    Bill
     
  14. It is always fascinating to read about human history, especially those that mark the great events in living times. I guess we all have experienced similar stories from our patients too - as well as those of you from your parents or grandparents. Despite all the negativity and disatisfaction surrounding podiatry we would do well to remember the honour it is to bear witness to someone who cares to pass on their own remembrances. Despite the easy access to information via the internet, there is something special and often profound when it comes instead from the lips of someone who was there. There are somethings that electronics can't convey. Hearing what it was like to go "over the top" at La Boiselle during the Somme Offensive in 1916 is something that will remain for me forever. Just as the account from a retired medic who was one of the first to go through the gates at Belsen Belsen. Or from a test pilot near my home in Lancashire who graduated from Spitfires during the Battle of Britain in 1941 to become first a Vulcan pilot carrying our nukes to more relaxed times as a test pilot for Lightnings at nearby Warton. How fortunate we all are, in many ways.

    Thanks for the stories.
     
  15. The 72nd anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is today and I'm again thinking about my father, who, as a 20 year old Radio Operator on the USS Pennsylvania, watched the whole Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor from up on the top tower of the Pennsylvania. Luckily the Pennsylvania was in dry-dock at the time of the attack so the Japanese bombers did not pay much attention to it, even though the destroyers on either side of the Pennsylvania, the Downes and Cassin, were badly damaged by the Japanese bombs.

    In the photo below, my father was near the very top of the Pennsylvania in his battle station for the radio operators during the attack. He said it was the grandest and most horrible fireworks display he had ever seen. He said the Japanese pilots were flying at eye level for him and he could see their facial expressions. He saw the Pennsylvania's sister battleship, the Arizona, explode and sink in the harbor that morning. All he could think about at the time was all the boys that were killed with the Arizona exploded.

    Remember Pearl Harbor.

     
  16. Deka08

    Deka08 Active Member

  17. Derek:

    Thanks for this note. I knew about Zamperini's death and did read the book about him which I think everyone should also read, especially those of you interested in running and World War II history. It was one of the most amazing stories I ever heard...and it is true. Hope Angelina Jolie does Zamperini justice with the new movie she is planning on making about him.

    http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163
     
  18. W J Liggins

    W J Liggins Well-Known Member

    What a man! I particularly liked his comment that the brutality at the Jap POW camp prepared him for marriage and that he enjoyed being kissed by Angelina Jolie. Great men inspire, politicians don't.

    Bill Liggins
     
  19. It's again time to remember "a day which will live in infamy" as the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which is today.

    Here is an article with a number of photos from the days around the attack, a few of which I have attached below.

    Unforgettable Photos From The Attack On Pearl Harbor, 73 Years Ago Today

    Not many survivors are still left. Therefore, it is up to those of us who are still alive to recount this terrible story to our children so that, hopefully, it never happen again.
     
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