GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Everett Carlson, left, displayed a Life Magazine containing photos of the attack on Pearl Harbor yesterday to civilian survivor Henry T.H. Ching, Helen Perreira and her husband, civilian survivor Manuel Perreira, prior to ceremonies at Punchbowl marking the 62nd anniversary of the attack.
Civilian heroism in
’41 raid is recalledA Punchbowl tribute recognizes
the valor of those who aided
Pearl Harbor sailors
Just hours after the morning attack on Pearl Harbor 62 years ago, boats full of rescued sailors started pouring into Robert Lee's back yard at the Aiea boat landing.
"They were covered with oil," said Lee, who was one of those honored yesterday at a ceremony on the grounds of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl for the civilian survivors of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.
"We washed them down and moved them to a hospital ship."
More than 200 attended the tribute for the firefighters, police officers, shipyard workers, nurses and residents who helped the injured, carried away the dead and rebuilt the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet.
"It was more than service, it was sacrifice," Navy Region Hawaii Commander Rear Adm. Barry McCullough told the crowd. "Their sacrifice does not go unrecognized."
McCullough recounted a number of stories of civilian bravery: three firefighters who died and another six who were injured while trying to douse a ship ablaze; a civil serviceman who rescued 32 sailors by following their tapping inside the USS Oklahoma's hull; a young dockworker who picked up his .22-caliber rifle during the attack and started firing at the Japanese planes overhead.
"There were civilians who, in the midst of the attack, pulled men out of the water, men covered with oil," he said.
The ceremony moved many to tears.
As "Amazing Grace" and taps played in the background, Navy sailors read the names of the 49 civilians who died in the attack and placed a rose for each at the cemetery.
The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the Honolulu Fire and Police departments laid wreaths for those who were lost. A number of attendees said the recognition for civilians was a first.
"I have respect for any man who fights for freedom," said Maria Theresa Gorak, a Polish refugee who was so moved when she visited the USS Arizona Memorial that she decided to attend the tribute yesterday.
Edward Chun was also stirred by the tribute.
In the early 1940s he was an apprentice pipe fitter for the Navy's ships at Pearl Harbor. When he saw the first wave of Japanese planes flying overhead just before 8 a.m. on a quiet Sunday in 1941, he "didn't know what was going on."
Chun, who would later be drafted and serve in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, said, "We thought they were practicing maneuvers" until the bombs started to fall.
Once the planes were gone, Chun saw hundreds of sailors swimming in the harbor for safety through fuel oil that was ablaze in places.
He said he got down on his stomach on the deck and started pulling men to safety, some of whom had "skin falling off their arms like a latex glove.
"I can still hear their screams," he said.
