South Brunswick residents recall what they were doing when they learned of Japanese attack 62 years ago.
By: Sharlee Joy DiMenichi
News of some historic events is so stunning that it can leave a permanent mark on those who live through it.
Such is the case for some South Brunswick residents who say they remember exactly what they were doing the moment they heard of the attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 62 years ago.
"I was standing in my kitchen feeding my children," recalled Katherine Sullivan, 96, of South Brunswick, who heard a radio report about the attack.
The Japanese attack on U.S. Navy ships on Dec. 7, 1941, killed more than 2,300 Americans and ushered the U.S. Armed Forces into World War II. The event also created a climate of fear for those on the home front who faced the imminent departure of loved ones headed for battle in Europe and Asia.
Township resident Jean Starks, 80, was a first-year student at the University of Florida at Tallahassee in 1941. Ms. Starks said she was walking across campus when someone told her of the attack.
"I was beyond stunned because I was born in Honolulu and my father was a Naval officer so I knew this was going to change all of our lives," Ms. Starks said.
Ms. Sullivan said the young women of the Bronx neighborhood where she lived immediately feared for their boyfriends, who they expected to be shipped abroad to fight. They came to her for comfort.
"All the young girls, all the teenagers, came crying," Ms. Sullivan said.
Ms. Sullivan’s husband, the late Michael Sullivan, was rejected by the military because the couple had two young children, Ms. Sullivan said. Mr. Sullivan worked in a shipyard building Navy ships, she said. Ms. Sullivan said the strike on Pearl Harbor indirectly led to several-day stretches without her husband, who was inundated with work after the United States military entered the war.
Ms. Sullivan and Ms. Starks said they remember the strain of wartime rationing, which restricted shoe purchases to one or two pair per person annually and regulated the distribution of limited food supplies.
"Even a pound of butter, you couldn’t get a pound of butter. You’d get a quarter pound of butter and you had to wait in line two hours to get that," Ms. Sullivan said.
Ms. Sullivan said she has saved her ration cards, which were used to claim her family’s share of scarce foods, as souvenirs.
Donald Stewart, now of South Brunswick, said Pearl Harbor ultimately led him to enlist in the Army where he became second lieutenant bombardier and navigator.
Mr. Stern said he had settled in to listen to the radio in his Bayside, Long Island, N.Y., home when he learned of the strike on Pearl Harbor.
"I turned on the football game I think it was at Yankee Stadium so I didn’t hear the first announcement, but I heard plenty of announcements after that," Mr. Stern said.
"I know I kept my ear to that radio for the rest of the day and into the night," Mr. Stern said.
Fear of another attack grew in the months following Pearl Harbor and lasted for the duration of the war, residents said. Ms. Sullivan said Bronx residents had to stay at least three blocks away from the ocean, for fear of an invasion. Fear of becoming a target led civilians to alter even ordinary chores such as washing clothes, Ms. Sullivan said.
"We couldn’t hang any white clothes out at night. We were so afraid of being bombed," Ms. Sullivan said.
Amid fears of a Japanese attack on the West Coast and a German strike on the Eastern Seaboard, Mr. Stern took twice-weekly classes in crowd control and extinguishing brush fires.
"In the event of an air raid, if parts of Bayside would be bombed, I would assist the fire department," Mr. Stern said.
Equipped with a white helmet with red insignia, and a matching armband, Mr. Stern practiced staffing a post near one of the fire alarm boxes that stood on nearly every corner. Although the bombing of Pearl Harbor ultimately led to danger, loneliness and privation for Ms. Sullivan, Ms. Starks and Mr. Stern, they said they did not harbor any ill will toward the Japanese people or their government.
Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Stern said they did not have strong opinions on the American internment camps in which about 120,000 Japanese-Americans were held during the war. Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Stern said they had been much more focused on the war in Europe than on combat in Asia or domestic happenings such as the camps.
Ms. Starks, however, said she opposed the detention centers.
"I didn’t approve of putting the Japanese in the camps, taking them from their homes in California and putting them in the camps. I didn’t approve of that at all," Ms. Starks said.