Tuesday Marks 80th Anniversary Of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor

Tuesday marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

La Grange still has a living veteran, Charlie Ripper, who witnessed some of the tragic aftermath of that bombing. He shared some of his memories with Elaine Thomas, in her book, “Veteran’s Voices.”

Here’s an excerpt:

“My arrival in Pearl Harbor was a year and seven months after it had been bombed by Japan. The devastation was shocking, but I barely had time to let it sink it.

“...When they asked for volunteers to drive a truck, three of us boys volunteered. They put us on a truck and drove into a cemetery. There, one of the officers said, ‘Okay boys, here are your trucks.’ They were wheelbarrows. Three more bodies had been found from the USS Arizona that had been sunk in the Pearl Harbor attack. We had to dig three new graves. That was hard because the volcanic ash was like rock. When we finally had dug about a foot and a half, we were told that was enough. Sadly, there wasn’t much left of the bodies.”

Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Ha waii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes.

More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.