Like many Americans, Goodrich native Jeanette Pierson first heard the shocking news of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 in a radio report.
‘It was unreal about the attack on Pearl Harbor,? said Pierson, who was 21-years-old at the time. ‘It was all so unexpected and such a surprise. My second cousin, Fred Zimmerman who lived near Fargo, North Dakota was on the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor when it was sunk. As far as I know, he’s still there.?
Pierson, now 86, remembers the day and hearing the news of Zimmerman, a coxswain in the Navy.
‘I recall visiting Fred and the family, he was my father’s cousin and they were farmers.?
Pierson, is just one of millions of citizens who still remember the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The single meticulously planned and well-executed attack devastated the United States Navy’s battleship force in the south Pacific as a strategic event in the aggressive Japanese Empire’s southward expansion.
The Japanese Navy aircraft carrier force covertly crossed the Pacific with an aerial strike force attacking the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Sunday morning just before 8 a.m. Within a short time, five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and more than 2,400 Americans were dead, according to reports.
News of the attack, which brought America into the Second World War as a full combatant, arrived in the Eastern Time zone late on Sunday afternoon. Now, 65 years later, area residents recall their thoughts regarding the events of Dec.7, 1941.
Katie Hobson was 19-years-old on Dec. 7, 1941, and a resident of Pontiac when she heard the news.
‘Roosevelt came on the radio the next day,? said Hobson. ‘It was a shock, we were pretty upset at the time but felt safe, never afraid. Soon after, they were rounding up the Japanese throughout the country and detained them.?
The attack became reality a few days later when a girlfriend of Hobson’s reported her brother was onboard a ship near the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked.
‘We received news a few weeks later that he survived the attack. But it was quite tense, waiting to know.?
Marjorie Keller, the daughter of a Canadian farmer near Saltcoats, Saskatchewan was 13-years-old when the news of Pearl Harbor arrived in the small western Canada prairie town.
‘We had no electricity out on the farm,? said Keller, now 78 and a Brandon Township resident. ‘My dad used batteries and we heard the news on a radio station from Yorkton, a town about 30 miles away. Soon after Pearl Harbor, my brother signed up for the Army. A few years later, he was killed during the invasion of France on D-Day with the Canadian Army.?
Helen Carlton was 10-years-old and a resident of Wilmington, Del. when reports of the Pearl Harbor attack reached the eastern United States.
‘We lived in an apartment in Wilmington and I remember we had air raid warnings and had to pull down the shades and turn out the lights at night,? said Carlton, now 75 and a Brandon Township resident.
‘They captured a Japanese submarine and had it onshore near Wilmington,? she said. ‘My dad took us down there and we looked at it.?
Nancy Dugas was an 11-year-old Burton resident when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred.
‘Everyone was shocked,? said Dugas, now 76, an Atlas Township resident since 1959. ‘My whole family was all there and we listened to Roosevelt address Congress, and war was declared. It was almost unbelievable when it happened. We watched the attack a few weeks later on newsreels at the movies. Following the attack, several family members enlisted or were drafted.?
On the afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941, Earl Snow, a Detroit native, then 14, was riding home from a movie with his parents when news of Pearl Harbor came over the radio.
‘I thought it was just another war, the attack did not bother me,? said Snow, 79, now an Ortonville resident. ‘But later that week, when the adults were worried, it sunk in. I had no idea what it was all about’the attack on 9-11 was much worse.?
Snow joined the war efforts in late 1945 and served in the 11th Airborne in the Pacific including some time on the Japan mainland.