At Home on Ford Island on December 7, 1941
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Residents in all Ford Island neighborhoods found themselves in the center of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Most residents didn't think much about the low flying planes over their homes. That is, until they recognized the rising sun on the planes.
Many of the witnesses stories include the sound of the blast from the Nearby USS Arizona as she was torpedoed just yards away. " It was the loudest noise I have ever heard. Windows shattered and some china dishware fell out of the cabinets," said Tom Davey, a nine-year-old Nob Hill resident at the time of the attack.
As fathers ran to their duty stations, mothers and children took shelter in the former Battery Adair, which by then was the basement of Admiral Bellinger's home, Quarters K. From there they witnessed the bombing along Battleship Row, including the nearest ship, the USS Arizona, as their wood-framed houses were showered with shrapnel, debris and filled with smoke.
Residents of both housing areas, particularly the Nob Hill and CPO quarters gave refuge to Navy personnel who managed to escape from the burning ships. The burnt and injured joined the families in the BOQ and in the former Battery Adair in the "dungeon" of Quarters K. "This was my first exposure to men (sailors) covered with oil, burned, wounded and crying out in pain," Davey recalls.
Luke Field Housing residents witnessed the sinking of the USS Utah, a target-towing ship mistaken for an aircraft carrier, just offshore from their designated shelter in the adjacent Bachelor Officers Quarters.
After the attacks, the families, if they were able to return to their homes at all, were only permitted a short time to gather belongings and report to the Bachelors Officer's Quarters.
Barbara Kelly Langan, who lived in the four-plexes at the time, recounted the night of December 7, 1941 to to her daughter years later:
There wasn't anything to do in the dark but try to get some sleep. With four of us in one bed it was not an easy thing to do. We must have dozed some. All of a sudden there was machine-gun fire right outside our window. Everyone on the first floor went to the hall and against the wall. We sat there for a while and finally we were told we could go back to our rooms. Back to bed we went. Settled in once more, it wasn't very long before there was another burst of gunfire. Back to the hall again. We were up and down a few more times before morning came. No one had much sleep that first night.
The Personal Stories
Read the accounts of the Ford Island residents who witnessed the December 7, 1941 attack
Nob Hill
- Tom Davey was child living on Ford Island in the Nob Hill neighborhood (coming soon!)
- Joan Zuber Earle tells of her days as a child growing up in Quarters T in her book The Children of Battleship Row.
CPO Quarters/Fourplexes
- Barbara Kelly Langan, a thirteen-year-old girl living in the fourplexes on Ford Island. (coming soon!)
- Martin L. Anderson, Jr., an eight-year-old at the time of the attack, living with his mother and father, Martin L. Anderson Sr., a Navy Chief Radioman with a PBY patrol squadron based at Pearl Harbor. (coming soon!)
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The Nob Hill homes were hit with schrapnel and sustained damage during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The explosion of the USS Arizona shook the entire neighborhood,according to witnesses. This photo shows the neighborhood to the left shortly after the Arizona's explosion.
Photo: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
More About Ford Island
