Essays on Air Raid

The firsthand experiences of Hechler (187), Masterson (172) and Brittin (190) on the Pearl Harbor attacks provide an idea on the extent of the devastation inflicted by the Japanese military on the United States (US) military facilities in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with emphasis on the fate of the USS Arizona. Hechler (187) described how the US battleship USS Arizona sank due to the attacks by the Japanese military. Describing the USS Arizona as being “wracked by a tremendous explosion,” Hechler (187) spoke about how his own life was at risk of being diminished by the aerial bombs and bullets released ...

The Bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Forces on 7 December 194: From the Personal perspective of a Navy House Wife

The book edited by Paul Stillwell and titled ‘Air Raid, Pearl Harbor!: Recollections of a Day of Infamy’ depicts the events, experiences, and accounts, from a personal perspective, of several people caught up in the bombing events on Pearl Harbor. The book contains forty seven articles, each article contributed by an individual participant. The article titled “A Navy Bride Learns to Cope,” by Peggy Hughes Ryan (231-237) deals with events before and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor from the perspective of Mrs Hughes. The reactions, apprehensions, thinking and doubts of various Navy wives, as they gather around ...

In the wake of the second world war and with the entry into what would come to be known as the “nuclear age”, the world knew that nothing would be the same in the second half of the 20th century. Arguably, nobody felt the dawn of the nuclear age greater than Japan following the devastation and chaos caused by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. First-hand accounts of the bombings were frightening; people screaming, fleeing, desperate to find cover, while a blinding light and a sudden blazing heat suddenly filled the air, followed swiftly by an ominous roar, a steady rumble would follow, ...