Pearl Harbor, Dec 7, 1941, by Adam Fernandez
From MemoryArchive
Who: Adam Fernandez What: Pearl Harbor When: Dec. 7th, 1941 Where: Hawaii
I am writing this letter just to say that I serviced the Pearl Harbor sneak attack on December 7, 1941. Here is my true story of it.
Saturday night December the 6th, I went to bed at about 8:00 p.m. In back of where I lived, sugar plantation workers were harvesting sugar cane and making lots of noise.
Sunday morning, December 7th, I got up early hearing noises expecting to see the plantation workers out there. No one was there; they had already harvested the sugar cane. So I went out to the front door to see what was going on. What I saw were airplanes flying very low over our house, low enough to see the pilots. Then I heard over the radio broadcast that Pearl Harbor has been bombed. That was the noise I heard.
The news broadcast also requested that all Pearl Harbor employees report to work. So I got dressed to go to work, and upon getting to the main gates at Pearl Harbor, all personnel were searched before being permitted to enter the gate. My friend and I (I don't remember his name) ran from the main gate to our shop. But before we got to our shop where we worked, a bomb burst. A piece of shrapnel hit my friend’s foot. Then he hopped the rest of the way to the shop. Then another bomb was dropped and shrapnel was heard all over the roof of the building. The roof was a corrugated roof. I worked as classified labor at Pearl, assigned to dry dock No.1.
Three ships were in dry dock at that time, 2 destroyer escorts and a light or heavy cruiser. They were the USS Caisson DE, the USS Dowing DE, and the USS Pennsylvania, not sure of this ship. A bunch of other workers and myself were in the dry dock cleaning up debris. When the siren went off, everyone had to take cover. This went on for quite a while. Upon cleaning up debris, I came upon a charred body. The body was beyond recognition. It could of been a civilian or a Navy man. His hands and feet were gone. His body was like a bumper guard.
Monday morning, December 8, a search party was organized to locate dead bodies. I volunteered. The party consisted of me, another worker, and one Navy man. He was the only one who had a flash light. We all went below decks one landing down and discovered a body lying face down. Upon moving the body so we could wrap him in canvas his face peeled right off. It wasn't a pretty sight. I worked all day cleaning up. When night came, every home was to be blacked out. No lights were to be seen from the outside. A civilian defense was organized throughout the islands, making sure that every home was doing their part for safety. Driving at night was terrific. All the light that could be exposed was 1/4 inch wide x 2 inches long. I also volunteered to help the Mariners to pass the ammunition.
I was working at Pearl Harbor, Oahu Jan. 1941 through Dec. 7, 1941 and after that the war was over in 1945. I was 21 years old then. "I survived Pearl Harbor." Now I am 84 going on 85 next October. Mahalo, God Bless America and Hawaii.
