Ceremony Recalls the ‘Date of Infamy’

Memories of “a date that will live in infamy,” unblemished and unforgettable, filled the Navy auditorium where 342 old soldiers, Marines and sailors were honored Saturday with a medal commemorating the upcoming 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The simple ceremony was emotional and marked with healthy doses of pride and patriotism. Dozens of old warriors--some infirm and others showing signs of the wounds they suffered Dec. 7, 1941--walked to the front of the hall to receive their medals.

Navy chaplain Lt. ChC. Don Troast said the cavernous theater was filled with “memories of uncommon valor.”

“I am honored to be standing here today, invoking the presence of God in this room full of living history,” said Troast to the overflow crowd, which numbered more than 1,000.

Congress authorized the special bronze medal for the men and women who were in the military and at Pearl Harbor on that Sunday morning when waves of Japanese attack planes plunged the United States into World War II.

One side of the medal, which is about the size of a half-dollar coin, reads, “For those who served. A date that will live in infamy.” The opposite side is stamped with a likeness of a U. S. battleship from World War II, ringed by the words, “Remember Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.”

For some recipients, the medal generated a torrent of emotions. Jim Kinsella could not hold back the tears after receiving the award.

Fifty years after the surprise attack, some veterans still find it hard to forgive the Japanese. Many said they still hold animosity for their old enemy.

“I’m sorry to have to say I can never fully forgive them,” said Don Christensen of Coronado. “The Japanese government is still not telling their people the truth about how the attack led to the war.”

Christensen was an ensign on the Antares, a supply ship. On the morning of the attack, the Antares entered the harbor about an hour before the first Japanese planes attacked. Crewmen aboard the Antares saw a periscope from a Japanese mini-submarine and alerted the destroyer Ward, which was nearby.

“The Ward came in and dropped depth charges and sank the sub,” said Christensen, who retired as a captain after 28 years in the Navy.

Burton T. Yount, 68, was a young Army corporal on that fateful Sunday morning, assigned to the 9th Signal Service Company at Ft. Shafter. Yount’s unit handled communications with Washington and the Philippines and eavesdropped on Japanese radio messages.

Yount, a San Diego resident who retired as a captain after 20 years in the Army, says he believes President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall knew that an attack by Japanese naval forces was imminent.

“The code had already been broken and we used to send the tapes back to Washington by Clipper (seaplane),” Yount said. “We didn’t have the machine needed to break down the code, but Washington had the information (about the attack) well in advance. There was no way they could’ve not known.”

Yount, a former accounting instructor at San Diego City College, said that he does not hold any animosity toward the Japanese.

“It was a dastardly thing to do,” Yount said. “We weren’t at war with them. But there comes a time when you have to forgive. We forgave the Germans, and they weren’t exactly peace lovers.”

One of the biggest cheers of the day went up when Henry Cruz, one of about 200 survivors of the Battleship Arizona, was introduced. The ship exploded in the attack and remains sunk with the bodies of about 1,180 crew members.

Cruz, 71, of Chula Vista, was a cook at the time of the attack. He was the last crewman rescued from the Arizona.

“It wasn’t because I was a hero,” he said. “I was the last guy off the ship because I didn’t know how to swim. The burning oil in the water also made me afraid to jump. But I eventually jumped into a rescue boat.”

The San Diego County chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Assn. is the largest in the country. Another ceremony is scheduled today, also at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, when another 374 medals will be awarded.

For many veterans, Saturday’s ceremony brought back painful memories of dead and wounded servicemen, some who were horribly burned and mangled in the attack.

“I can still see the images of the burned and dismembered bodies. We were pulling dead and wounded guys out of ships and the water for a while,” Cruz said.