PEARL HARBOR SURVIVORS
COME FULL CIRCLE
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Civilians recall Out of the smoke, fire, death and ruin of Pearl Harbor grew the effort and determination of a civilian work force that contributed to many hard-fought victories.
Dec. 7 work chaos
Shipyard workers also
Sailor who couldn't forget is honored
suffered heavy casualties
during the 1941 air attackBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comBetween Dec. 7, 1941, and Aug. 15, 1945, the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard made repairs to more than 7,000 ships and dry-docked almost 2,700. During the 44 months of the war, the civilian labor force grew until it peaked at 25,000 in June 1943, climbing from 7,300 employees just before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. By the outbreak of the Korean War, its labor force had dwindled to 3,500 civilians.
More than 300 civilians were hurt and 48 killed on Dec. 7. Some of the civilians died at or near military bases during the attack, killed by bombs or strafing. Others in Honolulu were killed by U.S. anti-aircraft shells.
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As with the warriors who survived, time is quietly erasing the stories of the civilian survivors who reported to work as usual on that Sunday morning only to witness history.Maui resident George Kahanu, 84, had been working in the Navy Yard (now known as the Pearl Harbor Shipyard) for more than a year as a welder and shipfitter on Dec. 7. He and about 10 other welders had been brought in to do emergency repairs on the gun mounts for the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco, berthed at Baker 21.
Because of the ongoing wartime preparation in 1941, Kahanu, like many of his colleagues, initially thought the explosions were part of Navy maneuvers.
"But when we looked toward Hickam Field, we saw a lot of black smoke, and there was shrapnel flying all over the place," said Kahanu, a 1937 Kamehameha School for Boys graduate.
"At one point I could see a Japanese plane with a torpedo hanging below and a red 'meatball' painted on its fuselage. The pilot dropped his torpedo and then flew off over the hills over Aiea. I could see those things, and I couldn't believe any of it. You thought you were going crazy."
Edward Chun, 78, was an apprentice pipe fitter in 1941, having graduated a few months earlier from St. Louis High School, hoping to make enough money to start the winter semester at the University of Dayton.
"I usually started work at 7 o'clock," said Chan, who now lives in Kuliouou.
"But on Sunday we normally started work an hour later, but I was living in Palolo at the time and had come to work early. It was the routine I had gotten into.
"Since I was early, I was in the shop, shooting the bull and having coffee about 1,000 feet from the 1010 dock."
Chun explained that the 1010 dock was "a large and secure facility located across the channel from Battleship Row at Ford Island.
It was where the aircraft carriers and the larger ships tied when they came to Pearl Harbor.
"The mine layer Ogala, a Navy flagship, was tied outboard of the light cruiser USS Helena."
Chun said there was no such thing as overtime at Pearl Harbor, especially since he was only an apprentice.
"I had already worked the week and Saturday, and me and this journeyman were supposed to finish up some small work on the Ogala and do some pressure testing before she went out to sea on Monday."
To this day, Chun wonders whether providence was on his side, since he originally had planned to go aboard the Ogala before the flag was raised at 8 a.m., signaling the start of the workday.
"A torpedo hit just after 8," said Chun.
"I would have been down there in the hull working, not realizing what was going on, and I know I wouldn't be here today talking to you."
As Chun watched the attack unfold before him, he recalled: "I just couldn't believe what was happening. You could see the Japanese pilots because at times they were that close. You could see the features on their face.
"When the bomb was dropped on the Arizona across the channel, the explosions and concussion was fierce. It numbed my hearing."
Chun said that explosion was one that set the channel on fire because so much oil had leaked out from other vessels.
"We had been pulling sailors out of the water from the 1010 deck, and the first couple of guys were OK. But after the water caught on fire, it was really hell."
Chun recalled that around 9 a.m., as he lay on the 1010 deck still trying to help sailors out of the water, a Japanese fighter strafed the wharf.
"I didn't realize that it happened, maybe because I was lying down on the dock. Anyway, I was just lucky I didn't get hit."
Kahanu said that after the attack ended, he spent the day hauling ammunition and worked until dusk completing the emergency repairs on the San Francisco's gun mounts. "After that we were sent into the shop and worked until midnight."
He said the "real heroes from my shop" were the guys who were sent to the battleship Oklahoma and spent two days cutting through the hull to save 32 sailors who were trapped.
He said earlier attempts to burn through the hull of the Oklahoma ended with disastrous results because of the gases and the combustible materials inside the compartments. In the end, pneumatic chipping hammers were used to cut into the hull.
Chun said he was not able to get home for two days -- he was kept at Pearl Harbor because martial law did not allow anyone out after dark, and he could not get off early enough to catch a bus home. "There were all sort of rumors, so I just felt it was safer to stay on bases. Everyone was so trigger-happy."
Chun never made it to the University of Dayton, mainly because the Navy decided his waterfront skills and those of 2,000 other pipe fitters, sheet metal workers, boilermakers, shipfitters, electricians and machinists were vitally needed.
They were drafted into the Reserves in 1943 and kept at the shipyard for a year.
When he was released by the Navy in 1944, Chun was drafted into the Army and served in the Air Corps and Air Force for 25 years before he retired as a senior master sergeant.
A Pearl Harbor survivor who was tortured with nightmares of the Japanese attack 60 years ago will lay them to rest today. Service to honor
sailor who never
forgot Dec. 7 horror
By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comNavy Gunner Mate 2nd Class Walter Joseph Lutenegger, known to his Navy buddies as "Dutch" or "High-Pockets," was to have his ashes scattered from the deck of the battleship USS Missouri this afternoon during a special memorial service.
More than 90 people, 22 of whom served with him on the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, were to attend today's service. Lutenegger will be one of seven burials that will take place at Pearl Harbor during the 60th anniversary remembrance. The Navy has conducted 30 burials so far this year at Pearl Harbor.
Friends recalled that Lutenegger suffered a flashback during ceremonies for the 40th anniversary of the attack.
As he boarded the Navy shuttle for the USS Arizona Memorial in 1981, he said he felt "the heat of flames, smelled the burning oil, sound of airplanes, explosions, gunfire, the mooring lines snapping, screams of wounded and dying crewmates."
Over the years Lutenegger, his friends say, was tortured with nightmares of the attack and would wake up saying "Diamond Head is burning. God help us."
Lutenegger was 79 when he died of cancer Aug. 18, 1999, in Burlington, Iowa. He had worked for 33 years at Burlington Northern Railroad as an electrician.
His family said it was his request that a portion of his ashes be scattered at Ford Island's Battleship Row where the Oklahoma sank on Dec. 7 and where the Missouri is now berthed.
Among those family members who weren't sure if they could make the memorial service was a son, Brian Alexander, who lost his job in the economic aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Fellow Oklahoma shipmate Paul Goodyear, 83, said there isn't an accurate count of the number of sailors who were assigned to the Oklahoma on Dec. 7.
"It was anywhere from 1,200 to 1,250 sailors," he said. "We lost 429 men in that turmoil. There are 381 unknowns from our ship, all buried in 45 graves at Punchbowl."
The Oklahoma sustained at least nine torpedo hits within the first 15 minutes of the attack. Combined with near-misses by bombs, the damage was so extensive that the ship capsized at its berth.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Lutenegger, then 21, had just taken a shower and was lying on his bunk reading the Sunday newspaper waiting to go on liberty when Japanese fighters struck. As he tried to reach his anti-aircraft gun, an exploding torpedo threw him into the harbor.
Kicking off his shoes, he swam to the USS Maryland and, using a stairway, he climbed up the side reaching its deck. From there he watched as the Oklahoma turned over, its mooring lines snapped like whips sweeping across the deck and cutting his shipmates in half.
Lutenegger said he searched for anything to shoot at the Japanese, and, when he couldn't find anything, he dove back into the burning water and swam to Ford Island.
In his underwear, barefoot, wet, covered in oil, burned and with a punctured eardrum, he made his way to a U.S. Marine facility, where his injuries were treated and he was given a uniform. He and a lieutenant wanting to get into the fight teamed up and found a World War I Lewis machine gun. Mounting the gun on a 50-gallon oil drum they shot at the attacking aircraft.
Lutenegger later recalled that Japanese pilots stared into his eyes thumbing their noses and gesturing to the sailors as they circled overhead. He felt his efforts were futile, saying, "It's like trying to knock down an elephant with peanuts."
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Survivors from the USS Arizona arrived yesterday at the memorial to the battleship where some 900 of their fallen shipmates have been entombed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years ago this week. Arizona Memorial
hosts survivors20 Arizona shipmates join others
for a solemn observanceBy Janis L. Magin
Associated PressTwenty Arizona shipmates, survivors from other ships in Pearl Harbor, and about 250 family members and friends were saluted by rows of sailors in dress whites as they entered the USS Arizona Memorial visitors center, where crowds of tourists greeted them with applause.
Later, two boats took the survivors, most in their 80s, for a solemn trip out into the harbor to the USS Arizona Memorial, which straddles the sunken battleship.
There was no service, no speaker.
"We just went out and looked," said survivor Clyde Combs, 81, of Pompano Beach, Fla.
News media was not allowed on the memorial during the trip.
At the memorial, children placed orchid leis around the survivors' necks as a rainbow rose over the bridge to Ford Island in the background.
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"That rainbow you see was specially placed for you," Rear Adm. Robert T. Conway Jr., commander of Navy Region Hawaii, told survivors and their families."The legacy that you have left ... will have to carry on," Conway told the survivors.
The Arizona represents "a nation with its guard down," he said. But the USS Missouri, anchored as a memorial behind it represents "the answer, the resolve," he said.
The Japanese surrendered aboard the Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945.
The Pearl Harbor events include a week of seminars examining a range of issues related to the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, that killed 2,390 people.
At the Pearl Harbor visitor's center, white tents are set up on the lawn at the harbor's edge for the week-long anniversary observances, which will culminate on Friday.
Young sailors and Marines gathered in a circle as retired Marine Russell McCurdy, 84, of Huntington, Ind., described what he saw from his bird's-eye perch on the rear mast of the Arizona as it was attacked.
"I've thought about this place a lot," he told them.
Earlier, Conway gestured toward young sailors and Marines who greeted the survivors with salutes. He said they should listen to the survivors and learn from their lessons.
The Arizona survivors later attended a ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
Pilots who saw action from both sides on Dec. 7, 1941, participated in forums yesterday at the Pearl Harbor 60th Anniversary Conference at a Waikiki resort hotel.
Zenji Abe recalls "cold chills went up and down my spine" as his squadron of dive bombers from the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi broke through the clouds and entered a storm of anti-aircraft fire coming up with ill intent to greet them.
Still wearing his pajamas in his haste to get airborne, Phil Rasmussen recalled aiming several plane lengths ahead of a Japanese fighter before cutting loose with his P-36 pursuit fighter's 50-caliber machine gun, "stitching the fuselage until I saw some smoke."
"Prior to the attack and after the attack, I had no animosity toward the Americans," said Abe, 85, who has returned frequently to Hawaii to participate in commemorations of Japan's Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. "I should say I had virtually no knowledge of Americans."
Rasmussen, a member of the 46th Pursuit Squadron of Wheeler Field in central Oahu, said he had gotten up Sunday morning to relieve himself when he saw a plane drop a bomb.
"This huge orange blossom came up in front of the hangar amidst the airplanes, and as the plane pulled up I saw the 'meatballs' on the wings and I knew it was Japanese," he said. "I pulled on my boots over my pajamas, put on a web belt and .45-caliber pistol with it and I raced down the flight line to see if there was anything I could do."