More Than Eight Decades Later, Pearl Harbor Survivor Harry Chandler’s Memories Endure

On this day in 1941, the imperial Japanese launched an assault on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that would propel our nation into World War II. Eighty-three years later, a survivor of the “date which will live in infamy” remembered how a tropical paradise became a hellish inferno. And now as we mark the 84th anniversary, we reflect on his memories.

Harry Chandler’s comments were published in the Palm Beach Post last year, a little less than a year before he passed away at over 102 years of age. While Chandler did not survive to see the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack one more time, his memories are as sobering and relevant today as when he shared them. We must never forget our history.

More than eight decades after Dec. 7, 1941, Chandler, a great-great-grandfather, still had the events of that famous day etched in his memory. Navy medic Chandler, who was fulfilling his childhood dream of wearing a U.S. sailor’s uniform in Hawaii, had raised the U.S. flag at a spot a little north of the harbor, 'Aiea Heights, when planes flew overhead that he thought were American aircrafts from the mainland. Then the bombs began to fall.

he planes were Japanese, and the devastation they unleashed unfolded with horrifying rapidity before young Chandler’s eyes. “I saw the Arizona (blow) up … and then I saw the Oklahoma capsizing and Nevada trying to take off into the opening to get out of the harbor,” Chandler recalled. “It was unbelievable. I couldn't understand what was happening until I saw the sunburst on the (plane) wings and I knew we were being attacked by Japan.”

But Chandler didn’t have much time to process the horrific scene around him. He was soon helping the injured. “Working and trying to help the sailors who were in the water is what kept us going,” he explained. “I was just thinking about helping people. That was my job, and it was what I was trained for.”

The worst part was the knowledge that he just couldn’t save every single sailor. “I wanted to save everybody, but I just couldn't. I tried, but I couldn’t,” he mourned.

Chandler was so busy first with rescuing sailors and then will helping treat them at Naval Mobile Hospital No. 2 that he didn’t really have time to understand the magnitude of what had occurred until the first rush of the massive emergency was over. “I realized that I could have been killed or injured, but nothing happened to me. I thank the Lord for taking care of me while I was doing all of those things. He didn’t make me scared while I was helping,” he said.

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Chandler was one of the fortunate men who survived. During the Pearl Harbor attack, the imperial Japanese struck around 20 warships and 300 aircraft, also killing over 2,400 men (including some civilians), all in less than two hours. A huge percentage of the casualties were from the USS Arizona.

It was one of many mass war crimes committed by the genocidal Japanese during World War II, and the one Americans most clearly remember. It was the only significant attack of the war on the United States itself, and was the beginning of our bloody work to take down the evil regimes then running Germany, Italy, and Japan.

A popular song during World War II made memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor a rallying cry for Americans: “Let’s remember Pearl Harbor as we go to meet the foe. Let’s remember Pearl Harbor as we did the Alamo.” Let us remember Pearl Harbor in honor of Chandler and all the brave men—both those who survived the attack and those who perished in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

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