Over 2,000 American servicemen were killed.
And more than eight decades later, the government is still trying to identify those we lost
in the catastrophic blitz on Pearl Harbor.
On December 7, 1941, the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was subjected to a surprise
attack from 353 Japanese aircraft, hurling America into World War II.
The devastation was unprecedented.
A total of 1,177 men were killed aboard the USS Arizona alone, the greatest loss of life
of those who served aboard ships in Pearl Harbor.
Only 334 of the ship's 1,511 crewmen survived.
According to the National WWII Museum, a bomb pierced the Arizona's forward powder magazine,
creating a hellish inferno. 80 years later, one survivor told the Today show,
"Where we were, we were high, and we could see all of Pearl Harbor.
We would see the planes fly in, we'd hear the 'BOOM!'"
Of the victims on the USS Arizona, only 107 bodies could be identified.
The remaining 1070 were classified as either not found, not identifiable, or unreachable
due to where they were located within the ship.
Just months after the attacks, U.S. government officials decided that the Arizona would be
kept in place in the harbor and designated as a mass grave site since it would be too
difficult to remove the bodies with the respect and dignity the servicemen deserved.
Today, the Arizona remains at the bottom of the harbor as a sacred site of pilgrimage,
with the white, wing-like building constructed above it welcoming 1.7 million visitors per
year.
According to the National Park Service, which operates the visitors' center atop the vessel
today, the sinking of the USS Arizona represented the greatest loss of life in American naval
history.
One survivor of the attack told the History channel,
"The fire from the Arizona was so intense, these guys that fell over came up, got the
film on their bodies were like human torches."
As cruel as fate was for those who died aboard the USS Arizona — and their families – it
was in one respect even worse for the 429 sailors killed aboard the USS Oklahoma and
their survivors.
Hit by eight torpedoes in the first 10 minutes of the attack, it capsized two minutes after
the first barrage.
The USS Oklahoma then became an upside-down, pitch-black steel prison for those trapped
in its hull.
As mortician Caitlin Doughty told The Mirror,
"For the families of those that died aboard ships like the USS Oklahoma, there is no closure,
as no wreck remains of the battleship."
The remains of the men who had died trapped in her overturned hull were retrieved in haste
as the ship's parts were salvaged.
Unfortunately, this resulted in caskets that many times contained the remains of several
men jumbled together.
As for the ship itself, The Oklahoma later sank in the middle of the Pacific as it was
being towed to its final salvage point on the West Coast.
A memorial at Pearl Harbor's Ford Island dedicated to those who died aboard the overturned ship
is the only site where relatives can pay their respects to the men lost aboard the Oklahoma.
A dreadnought of the Colorado class, the West Virginia, weighing 32,000 tons, was hit by
two bombs and seven torpedoes on December 7.
As the Naval History and Heritage Command relates in its history of Pearl Harbor, although
more than one hundred men were lost in the attacks, the skillful maneuverings of the
mortally-wounded Captain Mervyn Bennion, who issued orders even as he lay dying, ensured
that the ship remained upright as it sank, sparing its crew from being trapped upside
down.
Some were nevertheless trapped in sealed compartments inside the burning ship.
According to the Dictionary of American Fighting Naval Ships, the bodies of 70 men were found
when the ship was refitted and repaired two years later.
In a chilling and macabre discovery, a calendar that was found amongst the human remains showed
that days had been marked off every day after the attack until December 23 — more than
two weeks after the attack.
Despite the loss of so many men, there were many stories of heroism from the West Virginia.
Many of the survivors were forced to dive into the oily water — which in places had
caught on fire — while one ensign who was ashore at the time of the attacks swam to
the ship to help save as many people as possible.
Sustaining hits from both torpedoes and bombs in the attack at Pearl Harbor, the USS California
nevertheless took two days to sink to the bottom of the harbor.
But her men were valiant in their attempts to fight the attacking Japanese.
No less than four sailors and one officer from the California were awarded the Medal
of Honor, the most prestigious military award in the U.S.
The National World War II Museum states that Ensign Herbert Jones, the most senior officer
aboard when the attack occurred, saved one sailor from a smoke-filled compartment before
being mortally wounded in another blast; he refused to be evacuated or attended to while
so many other men had been killed aboard the ship.
Although her salvage and repair took more than two years, this ship, which had lost
almost 100 of her sailors, returned to combat, taking part in several major battles before
the war's end.
The Utah, which had been decommissioned by the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, was targeted
in error by a Japanese pilot.
Six torpedoes were wasted on the ship – which would not have taken part in any battles in
the Pacific anyway — and 58 men were killed, either after being trapped in the hull or
when they tried to swim ashore through the burning oil atop the water.
"When they hit, they did catastrophic damage to the ship."
The Utah is one of three warships considered total losses from the attack; along with the
Arizona, she still lies in her berth in Pearl Harbor, with the bodies of some of her men
aboard.
For decades, there was no recognition whatsoever of the dead whose remains are on the ship.
According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, when Utah survivor Chief Yeoman Albert Wagner visited
the wreck in subsequent years, he stated,
"There was nothing but mud then, and no indication that there are men still aboard."
Incredibly, that was the case until 1972, when a concrete pier and memorial slab were
dedicated at the site.
Now, Navy sailors raise and lower a flag each day in respect for the fallen whose remains
are entombed there.
A direct hit on The USS Shaw became one of the iconic images of Pearl Harbor.
The Shaw, which was the target of multiple bombings from the brutal second wave of attack,
took hits to her machine gun platform, forecastle, main decks, and the crew's mess room.
Coming at 7:55 on a Sunday morning, the attacks undoubtedly killed many as they ate breakfast
onboard.
Her forward ammunition magazines were ignited approximately 30 minutes after the attacks,
resulting in an immense fireball.
The Shaw was soon engulfed in flames, and the captain subsequently ordered his men to
abandon ship.
Many leaped overboard and were able to save themselves, but 24 men succumbed as a result
of the bombings and the all-consuming fires from the explosion of the magazine.
Despite the extensive damage, the USS Shaw was back at sea in a matter of months, earning
no fewer than 11 battle stars.
The USS Pennsylvania, a sister ship to the Arizona, was much more fortunate than her
dreadnought sibling.
Sustaining few direct hits, her crew has the distinction of being some of the only servicemen
who were able to open fire and counterattack the Japanese planes that day.
A survivor from the ship said in 2021,
"It was instant confusion.
Mad scramble confusion."
The Pennsylvania was repaired so quickly that she left Pearl Harbor less than two weeks
after the attack, despite being strafed by Japanese bombers.
A bomb destroyed her entire 5-inch gun mount, killing all the crew members manning it.
Altogether the Pennsylvania lost 15 officers and men, with 14 listed as missing in action.
The Pennsylvania was able to sail to San Francisco by December 20, however, where she underwent
repairs before taking part in further action in the war.
The USS Nevada, Helena, Curtiss, Chew, Dobbin, Enterprise, Maryland, Pruitt, Sicard, Tracy,
Vestal, Downes, and Tennessee were among the other ships that sustained casualties amongst
their crews in the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, with 535 servicemen killed in all.
The Nevada, weighing 27,500 tons, was the only ship at Pearl Harbor able to get underway
after the attacks began; because of this, she was subject to furious attacks.
She beached after losing 50 officers and men, but later was able to be salvaged.
She went on to take part in the invasion of Normandy, among other notable battles.
Sadly, she was later used as part of the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll and was so radioactive
she had to be sunk.
And despite the loss of 33 men, the crew of the USS Helena had the distinction of shooting
down no less than six Japanese dive bombers after the attack began, amidst her fierce
counterattack that saw the Helena unleash an incredible 375 shells.
Many bodies recovered from the warships and the harbor after the horror of that day were
interred in Pearl Harbor's National Memorial Cemetery located near the harbor.
Later DNA tests were able to identify 70 men who had perished on the USS Arizona.
And additional testing was used to sort through the graves of victims from the USS Oklahoma
as well.
Following the attack, the government decided that all remains found on the Oklahoma be
collected into "sets" of as many bones for each skeleton as possible.
This resulted in many remains being mixed together with those from other victims.
In 2003, DNA tests were performed on one casket which was believed to hold Eldon Wyman, whose
remains were only recovered two years after the attack during a salvage operation on the
Oklahoma that recovered the remains of 381 victims.
DNA tests positively identified his remains, but also discovered that the casket actually
held the remains of 90 different servicemen.
The positive identification of Wyman's remains was a watershed moment in identifying the
remains of the Oklahoma servicemen.
First interred in small cemeteries, all the remains of the 429 dead from the USS Oklahoma
were later taken to the Central Identification Laboratory at Hawaii's Schofield Barracks
in 1947.
However, only 35 men were able to be identified at that time, using traditional methods such
as dental records and dog tags.
The creation of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in 2015 enabled many of the dead to
be identified as researchers from the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory worked
with families and descendants living all over the U.S. It's been wildly successful.
John Byrd, the lab's director, told Politico,
"We've identified over 90% of these individuals."
But the work isn't done.
The success has given hope for the eventual identification of the 45 unidentified men
whose remains were found in the USS California and the USS West Virginia.
"I don't think families ever can get closure.
But they can get answers."
Because of the great respect that must be shown to the dead whose remains are interred
forever in the Arizona and other wrecks at Pearl Harbor, only a few, specially-chosen
divers have the privilege of exploring the harbor.
Some of them are even given the somber duty of placing the ashes of servicemen who choose
to be interred in these ships along with their fallen crewmates.
PN Online, the journal of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, states that its members also dive
at the sites of the Pearl Harbor wrecks as part of an annual event to commemorate the
dead, to monitor the decay rates of the ships, and to note the position of objects in the
debris field and to check on the environmental impact of the wrecks since the Arizona is
still leaking oil.
All the Pearl Harbor shipwrecks — along with the remains of the 180 aircraft that
were lost that day — are under the auspices of the National Park Service, which ensures
that the watery graves of the brave servicemen who gave their lives that day are treated
with the proper respect.