Right in their own backyards

“We all (few wives) slept in the living room, huddled on the floor with kitchen knives in our hands.”June Ades, 18-year-old wife, Pear Harbor Navy wife.


In the previous post I asked you to take notice of how close the land was behind the Arizona Memorial. In the video, you saw the memorial and a small boat in front of it.

OK, now take a look that the photo above. It's shot from a Japanese plane on December 7, 1941. "Battleship Row" is the row of battleships surrounding Ford Island. At the time, Ford Island was an active Naval Air Station, including housing.
(Military housing still exists there.) If you look toward the left side of the photo, you can see the rooftops of homes near the shore.














So, when you hear the expression "I watched the war start in my own backyard," most of the time it's a bit of artistic license, however, for the navy families living on Ford Island, it was the literal truth.

I took the above photos from the backyard of an existing home on Ford Island. The house is about 10 yards behind me.

This photo is taken from the baseball field in the same housing area. When you see these photos, it's easy to imagine sailors swimming to shore through burning water. It's also easy to understand how families on Ford Island were part of the rescue and evacuation.

A REPORT FROM THE PUBLIC WORKS OFFICER AT PEARL HARBOR
From: Public Works Officer (Yard)
Date: 15 December 1941
Subject: Report of Air Raid
"Lieut. Comdr. W.D. Chandler (CEC), USN. This officer (who occupies government quarters at No. 402 Kuahua Island, near a wharf) with the sole medical assistance of one corpsman, established a field hospital in his quarters, where for a period of approximately two hours he and his wife, Mrs. W.D. Chandler, received and gave first aid treatment to about 100 enlisted personnel from USS Oklahoma and USS West Virginia, many of whom were severely shocked or had sustained burns and some serious injuries."

Women of World War II Hawaii