On December 7, 1941, a surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shocked America. These are the stories of veterans who were at the naval base that morning.
Just before eight o’clock on a Sunday morning in December 7, 1941, a Japanese plane appeared in the skies over Pearl Harbor, signalling the beginning of the devastating surprise attack on the U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii.
By the time Japan’s forces withdrew, they had managed to destroy or damage more than 300 American planes and nearly 20 naval vessels, including eight battleships. The attack killed more than 2,300 American service members, with total U.S. casualty figures topping 3,400.
The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
In these videos, drawn from the 2016 History Channel special “The Last Word: 75 Years After Pearl Harbor,” U.S. Navy veterans share their first-hand experiences during the historic attack and the war that followed. They discuss their motivations for joining the Navy, their first impressions of the naval base at Pearl Harbor and the many ways in which their lives—and the world—were changed irrevocably by the events of December 7, 1941.
Paths to Pearl Harbor
With the country mired in the Great Depression, Ed Schuler, Jack Rogo and Nelson Mitchell joined the Navy in part for financial reasons. Some followed boyhood dreams of adventure: Jim Garner quit high school to join, and remembers he was “looking for something exciting.” Texan Jack Holder recalls being thrilled with the opportunity to go to Hawaii, while Bob Fernandez wanted to make some extra money and see the world. “What did I get into?” he says. “War.”