Published in the Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury, Tuesday, 11 August 1942
Courtesy of Charles H. Bogart
A vivid and stirring word picture of the terrific havoc wreaked by the Japanese warplanes on the U.S. vaunted “Gibraltar of the Pacific,” Pearl Harbor, was given by Mr. Kichitaro Sekiya, pioneer Japanese in Hawaii for nine years was playing a greengrocer’s trade, and who arrived here yesterday aboard the Japanese exchange lines Asama Maru.
Mr. Sekiya whose residence in Wahiawa, was near the U.S. Army Schofield Barracks, largest military post in the entire U.S., and also near Wheeler Field, was an eyewitness of the dazzling Japanese attack, watching the dramatic spectacle from a window. Mr. Sekiya had been interned by the U.S. authorities since the outbreak of the war.
Opening his vivid description of the momentous day of the outbreak of the war, Mr. Sekiya declared, “It was on the morning of December 7, which is December 8 Japan time that I suddenly felt the ground shake, accompanied by terrific detonations.
“Almost immediately I heard the people around me saying war. I dashed out of the house and looked astounded up at the sky where I saw a number of airplanes flashing by with bullet-like speed. The Rising Sun insignia was clearly visible on the wings and fuselage of the planes.
“Hurrying upstairs I looked out of the window and saw Wheeler Field already enveloped in dense clouds of black smoke. I stood rooted at the window as the Japanese planes ripped through the air and made repeated screaming dives on the airfield.
“As I watched building after building on the airfield sent up in flames, thirty-nine years of American ways fell off me instantly, as the intrepid young airmen of Nippon giving all for their Fatherland.
“Tears welled in my eyes and my lips formed a prayer for these eaglets of Japan and cheers for His Majesty the Emperor.
“As I watched the airmen smashing down on their objectives with clock-like regularity it reminded me of the time in 1940 when I returned to Japan on the occasion of the celebrations commemorating the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Empire, when I witnessed spectacular drills by Japanese fighters and bombers at the Tachikawa airfield. The performance I was witnessing was not different in the least from the drills which I saw at Tachikawa.
“So sudden and so complete was the Japanese attack that not a single American plane met the Japanese attackers. It was some time after the initial attack that American antiaircraft batteries commenced firing irregularly against the Japanese aircraft.
“When I turned my eyes toward Pearl Harbor I saw with wonderment much thicker clouds of smoke billowing skyward. As I watched the whole house shook repeatedly while the ground rocked under continuous explosions.
“At that moment a U.S. Army sergeant rushed into my store and demanded whiskey, but as it was Sunday I refused to sell the liquor. The sergeant dashed out and returned a moment later with a policeman who asked me to sell the liquor on his guarantee.
“The sergeant explained that the dining room in Wheeler Field had been severely bombed and more than 700 American soldiers were killed outright. The whiskey, he explained, was to bolster the morale of the remaining American troopers. He took two dozen bottles.
“At approximately 5:00 p.m. three officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation appeared and, after handcuffing me, questioned me briefly and pushed me into the waiting car. We drove to the direction of Pearl Harbor.
“Not anxious about myself I wanted only to know the fate of the highly-touted U.S. fleet which I had seen peacefully anchored in Pearl Harbor only the previous day. As we drove on, the stench of burning oil almost suffocated me. I peered through the car window but could see little.
“We arrived at the beach. A sight which greeted my eyes was one which I will never forget, for before me lay the remains of the once-proud American fleet. Japan’s warplanes had certainly done the work well.
“In dumbfounded amazement I looked at the mass destruction which only modern warfare could bring about. What had been the powerful American fleet mightily arrayed the day before, now was a mass of scrap iron.
“Through the smoke which was still rolling skyward, I saw the twisted, crumpled masts, smashed funnels and gaping holes in the sides of the American men-of-war, and giant battleships lying on their sides, the red-painted bottoms showing clearly.
“Everywhere I looked there was wreckage. The harbor was a mass of flames as the oil which belched from the bellies of the warships burned steadily. As I watched the awful spectacle, I saw the American flag fall into the sea.
“I asked myself if this could be an omen, a fateful sign of a crumbling United States. On that very night in the internment camp on Sand Island I heard another thunderous roar from the direction of Pearl Harbor. The roar was followed by an incessant pound of anti-aircraft guns. Closing my eyes I breathed a silent prayer for victory for my Fatherland.
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| The body of a Japanese Lieutenant who crashed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941 is buried with military honors by U.S. troops on 8 December 1941. |
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