"Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
The battleship above is the USS California on the morning of December 7th, 1941. I once knew a man who was on that ship during the attack. Actually, he was my step-grandfather, Alvin Edward Pyan Sr. His eldest son, Al Jr., married my mother back in 1976. I only knew Mr. Pyan from helping him tear down old furniture at his upholstery shop in Marathon City. He passed away in 1988, full military funeral with honors, taps and rifle salute.
Interestingly, it was sort of a second death for him. In the confusion at the time he was declared MIA, then KIA, for a few weeks following the attack. As the story goes, when Al discovered this, he immediately sent a telegram to his parents that simply stated "Al is OK."
Al was a troubled man who battled with depression and alcoholism for the remainder of his life, but he was always kind to me. I'm pretty sure he saw action in the South Pacific after Pearl Harbor on account that I once saw an old photograph of him in a jungle holding a captured Japanese flag. He never spoke to me about that action, but he did share his personal story about Pearl Harbor's fateful day, presenting me with a model of the USS Arizona for helping him at his shop.
Al was on the ship's deck, preparing for the morning colors, when he first saw planes zooming around. Like everyone else that morning, he assumed they were U.S. aircraft participating in a mock attack. Then, as Al recalled, ships began exploding all around the harbor. At some point he was forced to abandon ship and swam to Ford Island through a layer of burning oil from the California floating on the water's surface.
That's the California engulfed in smoke and flames. The ship was struck by two aerial torpedoes and a bomb, which caused extensive flooding, exacerbated by open watertight doors as the crew prepared for an inspection. Despite heroic efforts to keep her afloat, the ship gradually settled to the harbor floor over three days, resulting in the tragic loss of over 100 crew members.
Some of the more well-known photographs of the attack.
Al was interviewed regularly by Wausau's local television stations on the attack's anniversary. He was generally a man of few words but would always remind viewers to "keep defenses high" because you never know when and where things like this might happen again.
World War II Photo Archives