Pearl Remembered
Submitted by Thomas Veil on December 7, 2010 – 11:13 pm
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy.
The front page of the Monday morning Extra edition of the Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1941.
The USS ARIZONA burning after the Japanese attack.
USS WEST VIRGINIA aflame Dec. 7, 1941.
USS DOWNES at left and USS CASSIN at right. In the rear is the USS PENNSYLVANIA, 33,100-ton flagship of the Pacific Fleet, which suffered only light damage. Navy photo attributed to CPhoM.H.S. Fawcett.
Captured Japanese photograph taken aboard a Japanese carrier before the attack.
Captured Japanese photograph taken during the attack. In the distance, the smoke rises from Hickam Field.
USS WEST VIRGINIA aflame Dec. 7, 1941.
I thought this was going to be about a programming language. Maybe check the spelling of your headline?
It is truly amazing to see these images. The thought of being the photographer on that day is outrageous.
The image taken of the cheering Japanese is really chilling. Especially considering what they were about to go out and do.
My grandfather was later the Executive Officer (XO) of the Pennsylvania, nicknamed “old falling-apart” because when she lit up her guns, there was so much fire and smoke that reports of her being on fire and sinking came more than once. She delivered (if I remember right) something like 22,000 tons of ordnance while she was afloat — more than any other vessel before or since — and was key to the US victory at Leyte Gulf*
What fascinates me about photography like this, is that some people, instead of running for their lives, hoist a camera to their waist or face, and take pictures. Given the technology of the time, they would have had to run through the fundamentals of their exposure in their head — aperture, shutter speed, film speed, light levels — and set the camera properly. I’m not sure I would be able to concentrate that hard. Would you?
*Leyte Gulf was home to the largest naval battle of the second world war, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Once captured by the Allies, the islands in the Gulf became bases for the B-29′s that bombed Japan in 1945.[Wikipedia]
I couldn’t agree more.
To think that 1st, they would be able to the calculations needed in this day of do everything for you digitally is amazing but, 2nd, that they could do it under the threat of bombs and Japanese Zero’s strafing the ground.
I want to be like those photographers when I grow up.