Life In Brief

DICK HIGGINS SURVIVOR OF THE PEARL HARBOUR ATTACK

Richard C “Dick” Higgins, one of the few remaining survivors of the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii during the Second World War, has died at the age of 102.

Higgins died at home in Bend, Oregon, of natural causes, his granddaughter Angela Norton said.

Higgins was a radioman assigned to a patrol squadron of seaplanes based at Pearl Harbour, on Oahu island, when Japanese planes began dropping bombs on the morning of 7 December 1941.

He recounted in a 2008 oral history interview how he was in his bunk inside a lanai, or porch, on the third floor of his barracks when the bombing began.

“I jumped out of my bunk and I ran over to the edge of the lanai and just as I got there, a plane went right over the barracks,” he said, according to the interview by the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas. “There was no doubt what was happening in my mind.”

He estimated that the plane was about 50ft to his side and 100ft above his barracks. He described “big red meatballs” on the plane, in reference to the red circular emblem painted on the wings and fuselages of the Japanese aircraft.

Norton called her grandfather a humble and kind man who would frequently visit schools to share stories about Pearl Harbour, the war and the Great Depression. Norton said he wanted to teach people history so they wouldn’t repeat it. “It was never about him,” Norton said. “The heroes were those that didn’t come home.”

Higgins was born on a farm near Mangum, Oklahoma, on 24 July 1921. He joined the Navy in 1939 and retired 20 years later. He then became an aeronautics engineer for Northrop Corporation, which later became Northrop Grumman, and other defence contractors. He worked on the B-2 Stealth Bomber.

His wife, Winnie Ruth, died in 2004 at the age of 82. They had been married for 60 years.

Not long after he went into a hospice earlier this month, Higgins told his granddaughter: “I’m ready to go see Winnie Ruth.”

Norton said: “I said, ‘It’s OK, go home. Be with Jesus and be with Winnie Ruth. It’s OK to do that. Leave us. You’ve had such a good and full life’.”

There are now 22 survivors of the attack still living, according to Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbour Survivors Association.

Farley said other survivors may still be living but not all joined the association when it was formed in 1958 and so may not be known to her. About 2,400 servicemen were killed in the bombing, which launched the US into the Second World War.

The battleship USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half of the death toll.

Higgins is survived by two children, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His body was being flown to California, where he will be buried next to his wife.

Born 24 July 1921 Died 19 March 2024