G DIRE NILO Ta at 2 Sailors rescue a survivor as the USS West Virginia
did not know where this officer was so one sailor broke the locker open with a DAWN ATTACK metal tool The Japanese knew the best time to attack Pearl As the Japanese planes dropped bombs Harbor would be at dawn on a Sunday Prior several hit the Arizona Matthews ended up to the attack the army flew no dawn patrols in the sea but later he could not remember and Sundays were light duty days making it an especially quiet time on base When the whether he had jumped or been blown attack came most of the soldiers and sailors overboard Once he was in the water were either still asleep or eating their breakfast he swam away from the ship toward the completely unprepared to defend themselves closest mooring buoy their bases or their country The buoy was approximately 25 yards 23 m from the Arizona and Matthews hung on to the far side keeping it between himself and the ship He watched as Japanese planes attacked the US ships in the harbor and the aircraft on Ford Island As the battle raged steel pieces of wood fire and even body parts rained into the water around Matthews Eventually a series of explosions went off aboard the Arizona Matthews watched as the final blast lifted the middle of the battleship up in the water Then the ship buckled and as water poured through the broken hull the Arizona settled on the bottom of the shallow harbor It came to rest with the bridge from which the captain commanded the ship still above water level Matthews left the algae covered buoy and swam nearly a mile 1 6 km through water covered in oil and diesel fuel When he crawled onto the beach
at Ford Island his white uniform was almost black and he had to convince the marines patrolling the shore that he was not a Japanese invader T m navy I'm with the United States Navy Don't shoot he shouted Matthews spent the rest of the day helping the wounded and hauling damaged aircraft off the runways Runways littered with wrecked aircraft would be useless if the enemy returned The remaining men knew they had to be ready for a fight MASS DESTRUCTION AMERICAN THE ATTACK LOSSES Matthews was not the only one unprepared Although the two waves of Japanese attacks for a Japanese attack on the morning of lasted for less than two hours in total the United December 7 The attack caught the entire States suffered massive losses of men and equipment 2 403 people were killed of whom US military off guard 68 were civilians 1 178 people were wounded When Commander Logan C Ramsey 188 aircraft were destroyed and 21 ships looked out from the Ford Island Command were sunk damaged or destroyed including Center he thought the low flying aircraft battleships cruisers and destroyers he spotted was a careless US pilot But when a black object dropped from the plane Ramsey realized it was a bomb From the radio room he telegraphed a hasty message not even taking the time to put it in code All bases and ships received this transmission AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR THIS IS NOT DRILL With this warning the men did all they could to prepare for an attack but for many the alert came too late 12
THE FATE OF THE USS ARIZONA The USS Arizona was hit by several LIGHT LOSSES THE JAPANESE STORY bombs one of which penetrated the ship The Japanese did not expect to attack Pearl and detonated ammunition stores The Harbor without suffering any losses on their side Indeed they anticipated the destruction of up explosion ruptured the hull and gutted the to three of their six aircraft carriers Despite this front section of the ship Turrets and other their actual losses included only 29 aircraft 5 parts of the superstructure collapsed and midget submarines and 64 men killed the ship sank settling on the harbor floor Of the 1 512 men on board the Arizona at the time of the attack 1 177 died This was nearly half of the total number of US soldiers and sailors lost that day Many of the men aboard the Arizona died in the explosions or fires but others drowned trapped as the ship quickly sank Matthews's friend Stafford was one of the many men killed that day At the time of the attack the United States and Japan were not at war However leaders from both countries had been working in the background preparing for the day that war would come The Japanese had decided to attack on their terms instead of waiting for the Americans to strike the first blow 13
