Admin l Sunday, December 11, 2016
PEARL HARBOUR, Hawaii – Forty-five years after the gruesome attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, veterans have continued to relieve shilling moments that the Japanese 353 jets bombarded the U.S. Naval base on December 7, 1941.
All eight U.S. battle ships were destroyed, 2, 403 Americans were killed, while 1, 178 others were wounded.
The following day, December 8, the U.S declared war on Japan, which led to the second World War, and consequent dropping of atomic bomb on Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, on August 6 and 9, 1945 , which killed 129, 000 people.
One of the veterans, Retired Navy fighter pilot Bob Batterson of Corpus Christi, Texas said sounds of Japanese torpedo planes woke him up from slumber.
“We thought it was a drill until we saw the big red meatball and a huge torpedo under each one. We had darkened ship, no movies at night, exercises all the time and we’re stripping ships … so that the gun crews wouldn’t be hazarded when a bomb or shell hit the base.
“So, I thought we were ready for war. All I could say was, ‘How in the heck could they surprise us?’”
Milton Mapou, who was on the USS Detroit when Pearl Harbor was attacked, said he was glad to be able to return to the island to pay tribute to the fallen and visit shipmates.
“I was below decks when it happened,” he said, “and I come up topside and I saw the plane coming in and I start yelling, ‘Meatball! Meatball!’ … and at that time he dropped a torpedo — went right across our bow into Ford Island.
“I had a lot of memories today and yesterday, especially going over to the Arizona, a lot of memories there,” Mapou said.
He was one of the 72 U.S soldiers carried on a chattered flight to Pearl Harbour, Hawaii to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbour.
