I SURVIVED PEARL HARBOUR
On the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the US naval base in Hawaii, Donald Stratton recalls the horrors of that day which left over 2,000 Americans dead
TSin Los Angeles HE memories are etched into his mind – the deafening explosions, machine gun blasts, and the cries of his dying friends – and scarred deep into his flesh. “Never a day goes by for all these many years when I haven’t thought about it,” says Donald Stratton, one of only five remaining survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, which propelled America into the Second World War.
“I was burned over 70 per cent of my body and I carry the memories with me on my skin. How could I ever forget?”
As Stratton, aged 94, returns to Pearl Harbour today to honour the 2,403 Americans (2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians) who were killed in the surprise attack 75 years ago, he has penned the first memoir of the event ever written by a survivor.
All The Gallant Men recounts the battle that destroyed the US Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941, as it lay anchored at Pearl Harbour in Honolulu, Hawaii. Seaman 1st Class Donald Stratton, then aged 19, was aboard the battleship USS Arizona when it was bombed and exploded in flames. He escaped with a handful of his gunnery team by climbing across a 70-foot rope stretched between two boats, above flaming oil-slicked water.
The attack killed 1,177 of his Arizona crew-mates, and Stratton spent a year recovering in hospital, undergoing skin grafts and learning to walk again before rejoining the Navy to fight in the bloodiest battles of the Pacific.
“That was a hell of a day,” recalls Stratton, his voice gruff but strong, as he packs his bags at home in Colorado, preparing for his sombre return to Pearl Harbour. “I was burned on my face, shoulders, arms, legs, everywhere. All my hair was burned off and part of an ear was gone. It’s a miracle I survived.”
It was a clear and calm Sunday morning in Hawaii, with the war raging in Europe 7,650 miles away, when 353 Japanese bombers, fighter planes and torpedo planes launched from six aircraft carriers, targeting Pearl Harbour. Shortly after 8am the bombs began raining down, badly damaging eight US Navy battleships, sinking four. TRATTON, from smalltown Red Cloud, Nebraska, had just left the “chow hall” when he saw a group of crew-mates pointing at planes in the distance.
“I watched one of them bank and saw the rising sun symbol under the wings and thought: ‘Boy, that’s the Japanese, and they’re bombing us,’” he says. Within seconds he had clambered 60 feet up ladders to man his anti-aircraft gun.
“They were coming in so close I could see the pilots… some were waving and some were grinning.”
Around him ships exploded and black smoke filled the sky. He watched the USS Oklahoma sink and the USS Pennsylvania explode in flames.
“The entire fleet was being destroyed before my eyes,” he says. “Bombs were going off everywhere… It seemed the whole harbour was in flames. One explosion followed another. You could hear twisted metal writhing. Machinegun bullets ricocheted off metal.”
The Arizona was hit repeatedly, until finally an armour-piercing bomb hit the forward powder magazine’s million pounds of explosives, lifting the 32,000-ton vessel six feet out of the water.
“A 600ft fireball just engulfed us, burning all of us real bad,” says Stratton, who watched the flesh slide off his arms. “I was burned all to hell. After that it was all about self-preservation. We weren’t thinking about anything but getting the hell out of there.”
As fire engulfed them, Joe George, a sailor on a ship alongside the Arizona, threw a rope to the survivors, which they stretched tight between the two vessels. With five fellow crewmen Stratton inched across the rope, while the fuel-soaked ocean blazed beneath.
“I didn’t have much choice so I just started pulling myself hand over hand. I had to have a lot of help from the Good Lord. It was quite a feat, especially when your hands were as raw as mine were.
“My hands were burned so badly I don’t have any fingerprints so it was pretty painful. I never did lose consciousness.”
Eventually a shore boat arrived to take the survivors to hospital, many hideously burned. Not all made it. Of the five who escaped with Stratton, he recalls: “Two died of their wounds that night.”
The following day, America declared war on Japan. Stratton spent nine months in a burns unit, his weight plummeting from 170 to 92lb, his left arm and leg barely functioning.
“Every time I think back on it, I just thank God that I survived and I say a little prayer for the sailors and Marines who didn’t make it.”
After a year recovering, given a medical discharge from the Navy, Stratton re-enlisted and went on to fight in five crucial invasions in the Pacific theatre, including battles in New Guinea, the Philippines and Okinawa.
“I was there at the beginning, and I was there at the end,” he says. After the war ended Stratton returned to civilian life.
“I ran a beer truck, worked as a bartender at my father’s tavern, worked offshore as a merchant seaman, then worked deep-sea operations from Alaska to Kuwait to Colombia.”
Long-retired, he still carries the physical and psychological scars of the attack but remains stoic.
“I have the aches and pains you’d expect being 94 years old,” he says. “I can’t blame Pearl Harbour for those.”
BUT he keeps his nightmares to himself. There is no false heroism in Stratton’s recollections and he admits he would rather have not been there when the world exploded around him.
“What do you think?” he says. “Would you want to be bombed and burned like that? Of course not.”
Each year on this day he makes a poignant pilgrimage to Pearl Harbour, reuniting with a dwindling group of fellow survivors.
“There’s only five of us left who were there that day. It looks like the end of that pretty soon.”
Not surprisingly the Pearl Harbour attack still haunts him. “I think about it every day. I have no animosity against the Japanese people but I can’t forget what happened.”
He has refused to shake hands with Japanese Second World War pilots who have attended past reunions.
“I don’t do that,” he says. “I never will do that. There’s a thousand men down on the ship that I was on and I’m sure they wouldn’t want me to do it.”
Stratton wants the US Navy to posthumously honour Joe George, the sailor who threw the rope that saved him and five crew-mates. Instead, George was reprimanded for disobeying a commanding officer’s order to cut the line as his ship was under fire and needed to flee the harbour.
“He should have the Navy Cross,” rages Stratton. “He saved six people’s lives and didn’t get a thing.”
As long as his health allows Stratton will continue to return to Pearl Harbour, which is now a national monument and the final resting place for many who died that day.
“It’s important people don’t forget,” he says.
To pre-order All The Gallant Men, by Donald Stratton (Harper Collins, £20) published December 29 call the Express Bookshop with card details on 01872 562310. Or send a cheque/PO to Stratton Offer PO Box 200, Falmouth TR11 4WJ or visit www.expressbookshop.com. UK delivery is free.