In loving memory of my father, Max LeVine, a Pearl Harbor Survivor.

These Pearl Harbor photos were taken from a sailor who was on the USS Quapaw ATF-110.  They were found in an old Brownie camera in a foot locker and just recently taken to be developed.  What quality from 1941!

Isn’t it amazing how a film could last so long in a camera without disintegrating!  Taken over 68 years, these photos are fantastic!  Some of you would have to go to a museum to see what a Brownie camera looked like.  Here is a simple picture of what we are talking about:  

Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii .  By planning this attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander, Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port.  As luck would have it, the aircraft carriers and one of the battleships were not in port.  The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft.  The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and the USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United States.

In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing aircraft carriers his most important targets, Admiral Nagumo decided to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and 423 aircraft.  At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu, he launched the first wave of a two-wave attack.  Beginning at 0600 hours his first wave consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which struck at the fleet in Pearl Harbor and the air fields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa.  The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 167 aircraft, which again struck at the same targets.

At 0753 hours, the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2 ‘Kate’ torpedo bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 ‘Val’ dive bombers, 50 high altitude bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbor.  Within the next hour, the second wave arrived and continued the attack.  When it was over, the U.S. losses were:

Casualties – 2,403 KIA; 1, 178 WIA; Battleships Total Loss — USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma; USS Utah; 3 others were sunk, raised, & repaired; 3 suffered light damage; Cruisers – 1, heavily damaged; 4 lightly damaged – all repaired; Minelayer, Seaplane Tender, Repair Ship, Harbor Tug – 2 sunk, raised, & repaired; 2 severely damaged, repaired; Aircraft – 188 destroyed.