Pearl Harbor remembered
By Tim Gallagher Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, January 07, 2007
HONOLULU -- Robert Bishop was 20 years old Dec. 7, 1941, serving aboard the USS Tennessee battleship when Japanese bombers struck Pearl Harbor.
Sixty-five years later he returned to the site to mourn his fellow soldiers while celebrating his good fortune.
"I'm probably not going to return," said Bishop, now 86 and living in West Austintown, Ohio. "This was to be our last recognized reunion. The reason behind that was there were would be a lot of people who wouldn't be able to return in five years. Our numbers (Pearl Harbor Survivors) have dropped significantly."
Bishop figured that at one point there were nearly 50,000 men among the ranks of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. There are now about 5,600. Of that total, about 500 took part in the 65th reunion of the attack responsible for the United States' entry into World War II.
Bishop was there. We caught up with him as he was having his picture taken with dozens of tourists. Nearly all of them Japanese.
"I've been here for six reunions and I don't ever remember having my picture taken with Japanese before," he said. "They wanted their picture taken with a Pearl Harbor survivor. Some of the people spoke a little English, but the ones I tried to communicate with, it wasn't easy. Maybe I didn't speak English too well.
"It's kind of strange," he added. "But they're (Japanese) our friends now. I'm glad they're here."
Japanese visitors comprise a healthy percentage of the 1.5 million visitors to Pearl Harbor each year. Even pilots of old Japanese dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters came here a month ago to pay their respects to the American dead which numbered 2,403.
One pilot embraced a U.S. veteran, each saying they were soldiers following orders. Japan, it was noted, lost 29 planes and 185 men in the surprise attack. And dive bomber pilot Zenji Abe, the Associated Press reported, has apologized to American survivors for the sudden attack, ashamed his government failed to deliver a declaration of war in time for the assault.
The Japanese would ultimately suffer defeat, along with an estimated 2.6 million casualties (military and civilian) in World War II. The battleship the Japanese signed surrender papers upon, the USS Missouri, is moored here as well, a matching bookend to the Arizona, symbols of the start and end of the war.
Memories of Dec. 7
Robert Bishop graduated from high school in Ohio in 1939. One summer later he remembered being in awe of his buddies home on leave from the U.S. Navy.
"They looked so sharp and, of course, they told me the good things about the Navy," he said. "It was peacetime then."
So Bishop entered the service Sept. 16, 1940. He arrived at Pearl Harbor, assigned to fire control division, aboard the USS Tennessee.
"Fire control dealt with compiling data on a target," he said. "I didn't know what I was getting into."
He learned shortly after 7:55 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. He was cleaning his living compartment when the general alarm sounded. He was at his battle station within two minutes.
"I went through one doorway and slid down a long ladder to another ladder to go into the main battery fire control plotting room," he remembered. "I really didn't see any of the attack. I was in one of the best protected areas of the ship, below the water line."
More than 90 ships were at anchor in Pearl Harbor, including eight U.S. battleships, the primary target for the Japanese who wished to control the Pacific for, among other things, oil.
Seven battleships were moored like sitting ducks on Battleship Row. The USS West Virginia and USS Oklahoma were hit and sank quickly. At about 8:10 a.m. an armor-piercing bomb weighing 1,760 pounds was dropped on the USS Arizona, igniting the ship's forward ammunition magazine. The explosion sank the ship in nine minutes, killing 1,177 crewmen aboard. The ship still rests upon the floor of the harbor, bubbles of air and oil floating to the surface each day.
The Arizona Memorial Museum stands atop the ship, looking out over gun turrets which still rise above water level.
All told, 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged that morning.
Bishop didn't see the sky until noon. His ship, which lost five men in the attack, was hit and damaged by two bombs. The USS Tennessee was also credited with shooting down six Japanese bombers.
"When I got topside at noon, the sight was unbelievable," he said. "There was smoke and fire everywhere. The Arizona and West Virginia, which was next to us, were burning badly. You could see other ships damaged, too. The heat was so intense with fire and oil on the water that it penetrated the hull of our ship. We did our best to push the fire away from the ship.
"All of a sudden we were at war," he added.
His living compartment was soon filled with men injured as other U.S. planes circled the harbor, some of them fired upon by ships wary of another attack.
"That night I was assigned to an anti-aircraft director," he said. "I was up there when planes were coming in and a lot were firing at them. Our battery officer kept shouting, 'Cease fire! Friendly planes!'"
Three, he said, were knocked from the sky.
The Tennessee managed to pull out of the harbor on his 21st birthday. Once the stern was re-sealed, the ship went to sea and began patrolling between Hawaii and the United States.
"We made 13 amphibious operations and one major sea battle," he said. "I fired the main battery for a battle that lasted 12 minutes, 50 seconds."
The U.S. won that fight, taking out two Japanese battleships, two cruisers and four destroyers.
There were losses aboard the Tennessee later when a suicide bomber at Okinawa swept the length of the starboard side. "We buried 23 people that night," said Bishop.
Returns to Washington
With his wife, Doris, expecting their first child back home in Ohio, Bishop left the Tennessee on May 24, 1945. He was given the choice of jumping to chief petty officer aboard the ship or serving a billet in Washington, D.C.
"I would have liked to have made chief, but it was more important to be home when our baby was born," he said. "I was also tired of boxed lunches, air raids and such."
Bishop served in Washington and then helped build the USS Rochester at a shipyard in Massachusetts. His enlistment was up in September 1946 and he came home two months later. He then joined the Reserves.
"I did my Korean Conflict service in the Mediterranean Sea, which wasn't bad," he said. "But I did have to leave Doris and our two little girls at home. That was hard."
Eventually, he came back to West Austintown in March 1952. He and Doris had another daughter, built a home and raised their girls. All three daughters became registered nurses.
"We still live in that home," he said.
The man who celebrated his 21st birthday by heading away from Pearl Harbor blew out 86 candles Dec. 19 while recovering from a heart procedure. Bishop said he's getting along just fine and continues to work each day in the purchasing department for McDonald Steel. The company, he said, is working on an economical furnace unit and he'd like to see the project through before his retirement.
His life, he added, has been good and he has no regrets. He also thinks his sixth trek back to Pearl Harbor was his last. He reunited with five crewmen of the Tennessee this year, including one who, like Bishop, was assigned the fire control division.
"But this man ended up being a boatswain's mate," Bishop said, pausing. "I'll never forget seeing him out in a wheelboat two days after Pearl Harbor, picking up bodies."
He added, "I'm sure that day will not be forgotten."
Sixty-five years later he returned to the site to mourn his fellow soldiers while celebrating his good fortune.
"I'm probably not going to return," said Bishop, now 86 and living in West Austintown, Ohio. "This was to be our last recognized reunion. The reason behind that was there were would be a lot of people who wouldn't be able to return in five years. Our numbers (Pearl Harbor Survivors) have dropped significantly."
Bishop figured that at one point there were nearly 50,000 men among the ranks of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. There are now about 5,600. Of that total, about 500 took part in the 65th reunion of the attack responsible for the United States' entry into World War II.
Bishop was there. We caught up with him as he was having his picture taken with dozens of tourists. Nearly all of them Japanese.
"I've been here for six reunions and I don't ever remember having my picture taken with Japanese before," he said. "They wanted their picture taken with a Pearl Harbor survivor. Some of the people spoke a little English, but the ones I tried to communicate with, it wasn't easy. Maybe I didn't speak English too well.
"It's kind of strange," he added. "But they're (Japanese) our friends now. I'm glad they're here."
Japanese visitors comprise a healthy percentage of the 1.5 million visitors to Pearl Harbor each year. Even pilots of old Japanese dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters came here a month ago to pay their respects to the American dead which numbered 2,403.
One pilot embraced a U.S. veteran, each saying they were soldiers following orders. Japan, it was noted, lost 29 planes and 185 men in the surprise attack. And dive bomber pilot Zenji Abe, the Associated Press reported, has apologized to American survivors for the sudden attack, ashamed his government failed to deliver a declaration of war in time for the assault.
The Japanese would ultimately suffer defeat, along with an estimated 2.6 million casualties (military and civilian) in World War II. The battleship the Japanese signed surrender papers upon, the USS Missouri, is moored here as well, a matching bookend to the Arizona, symbols of the start and end of the war.
Memories of Dec. 7
Robert Bishop graduated from high school in Ohio in 1939. One summer later he remembered being in awe of his buddies home on leave from the U.S. Navy.
"They looked so sharp and, of course, they told me the good things about the Navy," he said. "It was peacetime then."
So Bishop entered the service Sept. 16, 1940. He arrived at Pearl Harbor, assigned to fire control division, aboard the USS Tennessee.
"Fire control dealt with compiling data on a target," he said. "I didn't know what I was getting into."
He learned shortly after 7:55 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. He was cleaning his living compartment when the general alarm sounded. He was at his battle station within two minutes.
"I went through one doorway and slid down a long ladder to another ladder to go into the main battery fire control plotting room," he remembered. "I really didn't see any of the attack. I was in one of the best protected areas of the ship, below the water line."
More than 90 ships were at anchor in Pearl Harbor, including eight U.S. battleships, the primary target for the Japanese who wished to control the Pacific for, among other things, oil.
Seven battleships were moored like sitting ducks on Battleship Row. The USS West Virginia and USS Oklahoma were hit and sank quickly. At about 8:10 a.m. an armor-piercing bomb weighing 1,760 pounds was dropped on the USS Arizona, igniting the ship's forward ammunition magazine. The explosion sank the ship in nine minutes, killing 1,177 crewmen aboard. The ship still rests upon the floor of the harbor, bubbles of air and oil floating to the surface each day.
The Arizona Memorial Museum stands atop the ship, looking out over gun turrets which still rise above water level.
All told, 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged that morning.
Bishop didn't see the sky until noon. His ship, which lost five men in the attack, was hit and damaged by two bombs. The USS Tennessee was also credited with shooting down six Japanese bombers.
"When I got topside at noon, the sight was unbelievable," he said. "There was smoke and fire everywhere. The Arizona and West Virginia, which was next to us, were burning badly. You could see other ships damaged, too. The heat was so intense with fire and oil on the water that it penetrated the hull of our ship. We did our best to push the fire away from the ship.
"All of a sudden we were at war," he added.
His living compartment was soon filled with men injured as other U.S. planes circled the harbor, some of them fired upon by ships wary of another attack.
"That night I was assigned to an anti-aircraft director," he said. "I was up there when planes were coming in and a lot were firing at them. Our battery officer kept shouting, 'Cease fire! Friendly planes!'"
Three, he said, were knocked from the sky.
The Tennessee managed to pull out of the harbor on his 21st birthday. Once the stern was re-sealed, the ship went to sea and began patrolling between Hawaii and the United States.
"We made 13 amphibious operations and one major sea battle," he said. "I fired the main battery for a battle that lasted 12 minutes, 50 seconds."
The U.S. won that fight, taking out two Japanese battleships, two cruisers and four destroyers.
There were losses aboard the Tennessee later when a suicide bomber at Okinawa swept the length of the starboard side. "We buried 23 people that night," said Bishop.
Returns to Washington
With his wife, Doris, expecting their first child back home in Ohio, Bishop left the Tennessee on May 24, 1945. He was given the choice of jumping to chief petty officer aboard the ship or serving a billet in Washington, D.C.
"I would have liked to have made chief, but it was more important to be home when our baby was born," he said. "I was also tired of boxed lunches, air raids and such."
Bishop served in Washington and then helped build the USS Rochester at a shipyard in Massachusetts. His enlistment was up in September 1946 and he came home two months later. He then joined the Reserves.
"I did my Korean Conflict service in the Mediterranean Sea, which wasn't bad," he said. "But I did have to leave Doris and our two little girls at home. That was hard."
Eventually, he came back to West Austintown in March 1952. He and Doris had another daughter, built a home and raised their girls. All three daughters became registered nurses.
"We still live in that home," he said.
The man who celebrated his 21st birthday by heading away from Pearl Harbor blew out 86 candles Dec. 19 while recovering from a heart procedure. Bishop said he's getting along just fine and continues to work each day in the purchasing department for McDonald Steel. The company, he said, is working on an economical furnace unit and he'd like to see the project through before his retirement.
His life, he added, has been good and he has no regrets. He also thinks his sixth trek back to Pearl Harbor was his last. He reunited with five crewmen of the Tennessee this year, including one who, like Bishop, was assigned the fire control division.
"But this man ended up being a boatswain's mate," Bishop said, pausing. "I'll never forget seeing him out in a wheelboat two days after Pearl Harbor, picking up bodies."
He added, "I'm sure that day will not be forgotten."
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Richard Hummel wrote on Jan 7, 2007 10:05 AM: