Pearl Harbor
anniversary
observed with
many services
The Japanese attack killed 2,338
By Gregg K. Kakesako
military personnel and civilians
Star-BulletinThe 57th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other Oahu military installations will be observed next Monday with numerous services.
On the USS Arizona Memorial, Rear Adm. William G. Sutton, Pearl Harbor Naval Base commander, will be the guest speaker shortly after 8 a.m.
The National Park Service will hold a special one-hour ceremony beginning at 7:45 a.m. on the waterfront lawn of the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center overlooking Pearl Harbor and the battleship Arizona.
Donald G. Stratton, a battleship Arizona survivor, will be the keynote speaker. Pearl Harbor survivors will be assisted by children from Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary School in presenting wreaths.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, guests will be invited to drop a flower into the waters of Pearl Harbor.
The Navy's Pacific Fleet Band will perform a 45-minute concert at 4 p.m. on the visitor center's waterfront lawn.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, sank 21 American warships, killed 2,338 military personnel and civilians, destroyed 165 planes and ushered America's entry into World War II.
At Kaneohe Bay, where the Japanese bombed and strafed what was then Kaneohe Naval Air Station 10 minutes before the raid on Pearl Harbor, two memorial observances will be held on Monday beginning at 11 a.m.
The morning Marine Corps ceremony at the commanding general's headquarters will involve a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the 18 sailors and one civilian killed during the Japanese attack.
At 2 p.m. the Japanese Federation Society will hold a memorial ceremony at a marker on the Makapu Peninsula base on Reed Road near Puu Hawaii Loa, where Lt. Fusata Iida crashed in a futile attempt to take out Hangar 10, the base's primary hangar facility in 1941.
Kaneohe Marine Corps officials believe that the marker is the only one on a U.S. military installation dedicated to an enemy soldier.
Iida was commander of the Japanese Imperial Navy's Third Patrol and led the attack on Kaneohe, designed to disable the military's long-range reconnaissance abilities by knocking out the PBY Catalina seaplanes stationed there.
Twenty-seven of the Catalinas housed at Kaneohe were destroyed; six others were heavily damaged. Only three escaped destruction, but they were unable to get off the ground that day because of the wreckage on the runways.
Iida was buried in the Heleloa burial area near the mass burial site where the 18 sailors killed in the attack were interred. His remains were later disinterred and returned to Japan.
At Hickam Air Force Base, members of "Grey Geese" -- the 11th Bomb Group Association -- will participate in what will probably be the group's last Pearl Harbor observance. The association disbanded in September.
The 11th Bomb Group was activated on what was then called Hickam Field on Feb. 1, 1940, and lost 44 of its airmen during the Dec. 7 attack. The unit fought in the Pacific throughout the war, ending the campaign with raids on Japan.
Each year, unit members have attended Hickam's ceremonies in front of the flagpole at the 15th Air Base Wing's headquarters building. This year's ceremony will begin at 7:45 a.m. and will feature an F-15 flyover and a wreath-laying ceremony.
Robert May, a member of the 11th Bomb Group, will be the guest speaker.
The National Park Service also will be hosting several interpretive tours of Pearl Harbor and around Ford Island. The one-hour tours are free but reservations are recommended. Deadline for signing up is Friday, and reservations can be made by calling ranger Skip Wheeler at 422-2771, ext. 134.
The tours are:
9:30 and 11 a.m. -- The history of Pearl Harbor, from fishponds to battleships.
