Photo of the Day

It is December 8, 1941.

Lucille Summers is writing to her brother, Harold, a Navy signalman aboard the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor.

San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 1941.

Dear Harold,

Well, it’s come hasn’t it?

Nothing else seems to matter right now, & every man on the street can talk of nothing else.

WNYC, New York, December 8, 1941.

The first bulletin was announced at 2:25 p.m. Sun. our time and I was the only one in the house that heard it.

Bob was upstairs and I was doing the dinner dishes.

Mom washes dishes while a radio plays in the corner, California, 1940.

The minute I heard Pearl Harbor mentioned, I told them, but they wouldn’t believe me until they heard another bulletin a few minutes later.

From that time on we were glued to our radio.

At 2:22 pm on December 7, FDR's press secretary read this telegram over a three-way hook-up to the Associated Press, United Press and International New Service.

I still can’t realize all this is going on.

When they made the announcement of a ship being torpedoed we just held our breath, for you never know.

Left: USS Arizona in New York's East River, beginning her shakedown cruise, 1916. Right: The Arizona in Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row, December 7, 1941.

I suppose now it will be like that until it’s all over,

for knowing that you’re in the thick of it doesn’t help matters.

I have several gray hairs, so don’t do anything to help them on.

During the Japanese attack, eight armor-piercing bombs struck the Arizona. One penetrated its deck, causing a large explosion which destroyed the forward half of the ship and started a fire which burned for two days. Most of the Arizona’s crew members are believed to have died instantly during the explosion.

Bob & I just kept saying over & over — wondering what part you were playing,

& if you were thinking of us.

We’ve kept track of what time it is where you are,

& I wondered if you got any sleep.

The Arizona’s sides were blown out in the explosion, and the turrets, conning tower, and much of the superstructure dropped several feet into her wrecked hull.

Oh, there’s so much that went through my mind!

We took the radio to bed with us & listened until after 1 a.m.

& I turned it on again at 7:30,

& hasn’t been turned off once.

FDR delivers his "Day of Infamy" speech, asking Congress for a declaration of war, December 8, 1941.

Listened to the Pres. make the declaration of war, 

& it was both thrilling

& dreadful the way in which it was passed in such a short time. ...

Hope my other two letters arrived O.K.

& don’t have to wait too long on this one.

... Try & get word to me you’re O.K. for you know how we’ll worry ...

Navy Signalman Second Class Harold Edgar Summers (1919-1941), from Akron, Ohio.

On December 18th, Lucille will write to Harold again, telling him that the family had learned three days earlier that the Arizona had been sunk.

She tells him she is "trying to stay positive" because "no news is good news."

But her letters will be returned, unopened.

In the months following the attack, much of the Arizona’s armament and topside structure was removed, leaving the wrecked hull where she sank. In 1950, the commander of the Pacific Fleet attached a flag pole to the main mast of the Arizona, beginning a tradition of hoisting and lowering the flag. And in 1962, a permanent memorial structure was built over her midships hull. Left: The Arizona wreck on December 19, 1941. Right: Aerial view of the USS Arizona memorial.

And in February 1942, Lucille will receive notice that the Navy had declared Harold killed in action on December 7, and that his body is unrecoverable.

Harold’s younger brother, Robert, will then quit school and enlist in the Marines.

Marine sniper unit "40 Thieves" on Saipan, 1944.

He’ll fight in the Pacific and suffer injuries on Saipan and Iwo Jima, where he’ll earn the Bronze Star.

But Robert will return home.

Arkansas National Guard base canteen, with soldiers from Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. These men will cross Omaha Beach in July 1944 and fight in France, Belgium and Germany.

Sixteen million Americans served in the military during World War II.

Tech. Sgt. Harold Kretzer, age 32, was lost on August 1, 1943, during the large Allied air raid over the Nazi oil fields of Ploiești, Romania. His body was retrieved, identified and returned to his hometown of Odin, Illinois, in 2023.

This is just one family’s story.

******************************

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda