A flicker of humor amid the darkness

Remembering the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, is it possible to find humor?

I felt sadness when my husband Dick and I, both born right after World War II, visited Pearl Harbor and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial a few years ago. I wished I could have saved every young man who died when the battleship was sunk.

But on a personal level, the visit brought up memories of a funny man—my father.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. declared war on Japan. In a B-24, my father navigated bombing missions against the Japanese in the South Pacific.

Japanese Zeros shot my father’s plane down and half the crew was killed, including the pilot. My father was rescued and the next day he was interviewed on the Japanese patrol boat that picked him up. To his surprise, the interviewers were the Japanese pilots who had shot him down.

Dad told me, “It was an eerie situation. One pilot asked, in good English, what I thought of Japanese pilots. That was a no-brainer. I said, ‘They’re damn good! They shot us down!’”

Because of his witty compliment, the Japanese gave him a pack of cigarettes. I have to laugh remembering his remark because it was “so him.”

Have you ever seen a B-24? When I saw one at an air show years after World War II, it brought tears to my eyes.

“They sent my father and his crewmates up in that tin can? How could they?” I asked incredulously.

No wonder half the crew died when the Japanese shot their plane down. The men who managed to survive became “guests of the Emperor.”

My father undoubtedly told stories and made funny remarks during the two years he endured a Japanese prison camp. Humor was as much a part of his identity as his dog tags.

But while I was growing up, I never heard him criticize the Japanese. He told me, “Their people were suffering, too.”

Our neighbors, the Hosakawas, were Japanese and friends of my parents. The Miyasakas, who worked for Dole, were my father’s biggest clients.

My chances of being born after the war were risky at best. When my father’s plane was shot down, he could have died. When he got down to 100 pounds, he could have starved to death.

Niigata, the city where his prison camp was located, was one of four U.S. targets for the atom bomb. But clouds over Niigata on August 9, 1945, switched the target to Nagasaki.

The attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, will never be forgotten.

My father’s funny remarks will never be forgotten by me.

It’s possible his sense of humor saved his life during the prison camp years.

I like to believe that.