Pearl Harbor

One eleven-year-old youth from Eau Claire experienced that attack first hand. Young Tom Barland's father was a civilian electrical engineer working for the United States government and living with his family in Hawaii at that time. Tom, who went on to become Eau Claire's Judge Tom Barland, tells us about it.

"The dive bombers came in first and they came in very low. I could see the expressions on the faces of the pilots as they passed overhead. I remember the planes being very dark and the symbol of the rising sun being very noticeable.

At first, most people (including my parents) thought it was simply our navy and army air forces engaging in simulated air combat while on maneuvers. The rising sun was to make the action more realistic.

Soon after the attack began, I got permission to ride my bicycle down to Wheeler Field. I was only a block or so from home and decided to go no further. I stopped under a corrugated steel awning for protection and, as I did this, an aircraft began strafing an automobile directly in front of me. The car stopped as the plane roared by. Three men got out of the automobile and were immediately strafed by another attacking plane. I was told by a Japanese-American that one man had been wounded in the stomach while standing in a doorway three stores up. I found out later that he died. Another plane came directly toward us and, as it went by, the gunner fired a short burst at me. The bullets hit near my feet. Later, another plane fired at me head on. The bullets hit the corrugated steel awning that I had used for protection.

Meanwhile, many planes were circling overhead, apparently preparing for their attacks. I could see the bombs on the bomb shackles slung under their wings. There was a lot of noise. They coordinated their attack and bombed and strafed the airfield. The planes on the airfield, most of which were P-40s, were easily damaged or destroyed because, the day before, they were taken from their revetments and placed in rows on the airfield. This made them easy targets for the attacking Japanese.

The reason for this was the authorities were more afraid of sabotage than an air attack. Being in rows would make them easier to guard. This anti-sabotage measure proved extremely costly for, as soon as one plane was hit, it became a fountain of fire, spreading its flames to the next plane. Because of the destruction of these planes, there were very few that rose off the ground to intercept the Japanese. The few P-36s that did get off the ground were obsolete, certainly not as up-to-date as the destroyed P-40s.

Roughly, an hour later, another wave of attackers came in and repeated pretty much what had happened earlier. This time, the civilian population stayed inside and took whatever cover they could find."

The Barland family would stay in Hawaii until July of 1942, when they were evacuated and sent back to the mainland. They returned on ships that had brought over troops to fight the Japanese enemy.