Attack on Pearl Harbor Read online

  For Donna Macdonald and the readers

  of Orchard School

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Ready for Battle

  Chapter 2: Symbol of the Rising Sun

  Chapter 3: Deck the Halls

  Chapter 4: Battle Stations!

  Chapter 5: Rescue Below Deck

  Chapter 6: Attack on Battleship Row

  Chapter 7: Survival in a Fiery Sea

  Chapter 8: Rescue from the Waves

  Chapter 9: Dangerous Books

  Chapter 10: Another Attack

  Chapter 11: Darkness and Smoke

  Chapter 12: Are You an American?

  Chapter 13: Too Many to Help

  Chapter 14: Hush! Hush!

  Chapter 15: The Taste of Home

  Author’s Note

  Further Reading

  Sources

  About the Author

  The Ranger In Time Series

  Don’t Miss Ranger’s First Adventure

  Copyright

  December 5, 1941

  Ben Hansen looked out over the Hawaiian shoreline from the seat of a Kingfisher seaplane. Back home in Minnesota, December meant ice, snow, and air so cold it took your breath away. But here at Pearl Harbor, nearly every day was sunny. In less than a year, the island of Oahu had come to feel like home — but with much more pleasant weather!

  Ben loved looking out at Pearl Harbor, where the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet was stationed — more than a hundred vessels, including eight huge battleships. He loved the flurry of activity along the docks of Battleship Row. He loved the sparkling Pacific Ocean and the gentle winds that rustled the palm trees of nearby Waikiki Beach. That’s where he’d spend his day off tomorrow.

  For now, though, there was work to do. Ben checked his instruments and sent an update to the pilot in the front seat. Ben was a radioman who flew scouting missions along with the Kingfisher pilots. They’d launch from their battleship, the USS Arizona, and soar over the Pacific.

  It was Ben’s job to navigate and communicate with the ship. He took care of all the electronics on the plane, too. When it was time to return to the USS Arizona, the seaplane would land in the waves and maneuver into position. Ben would need to grab a hook dangling from the battleship’s big crane, and he had to be fast! Sometimes, the waves threatened to tip him into the sea. But Ben was an expert with the hook. He’d snatch it out of the air and attach it to the plane so the crane could lift them back onto the ship.

  Today, there was no need for that. The USS Arizona was in the harbor, so instead of landing at sea, the Kingfisher touched down on the runway at Ford Island.

  “Got plans for your day of liberty tomorrow?” Ben asked Tom, the plane’s pilot, as they headed back to the ship.

  “Going into Honolulu to buy a Christmas gift for my girl back home,” said Tom.

  “I want to find something nice for my mother and sisters,” Ben said. His two younger sisters lived with his mother, a librarian, back in St. Paul. They both had blond hair and freckles, like he did. Ben’s father had died a long time ago, when he was very small, so his mother worked hard to take care of the family. As soon as he turned seventeen, Ben had signed up for the navy so he could help out. And he had to admit, he had done it for the travel, too. He’d always wanted to see some of the faraway places he’d read about in the stories his mother shared.

  Each night before Ben went to sleep in his hammock, he’d take out a poem he kept tucked in his pocket. His mother had copied it onto a card for him and laminated it so it would last longer. The poem was from Ben’s favorite book, When We Were Very Young. His mother had read it every night when he was growing up.

  Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,

  Droops on the little hands little gold head.

  Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!

  Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

  Ben held the poem in his hands. The words, penned in his mother’s handwriting, made her feel closer. He still read them to himself every night before he went to sleep.

  After breakfast the next morning, Ben took a small boat to shore with some friends and caught a ride into town. It was December sixth — less than twenty days until Christmas! He couldn’t decide on gifts for his family, but he bought some holiday cards to send home.

  Ben and the other servicemen had lunch at the Black Cat Café. Ben brought along a rubber spider he’d picked up at the general store and dropped it on his friend Jerry’s hamburger while he wasn’t looking. The poor guy jumped about a mile when he saw it. But then he laughed.

  “Every day is April Fools’ Day when your name is Ben Hansen,” Jerry said.

  After lunch, Ben and his friends split up. Jerry and Chow were in the USS Arizona’s band. Jerry was an ace at clarinet. Chow (short for Chowhound, because he loved to eat) was the best French horn player around. They wanted to be early for the Battle of Music, a competition of the ships’ bands at Bloch Arena that night. Everyone would be there! But Ben and his other friends took a few more hours to enjoy the beach. They stretched out in the sand and rode the waves until the sun sank low in the sky.

  They caught a ride back to Pearl Harbor in time to hear the bands. Ben didn’t play an instrument, but he loved tapping his feet to the music. He hummed along to “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” and “Georgia on My Mind.” At the end of the night, he watched the jitterbug contest. A little girl who’d come to see the bands with her father stole the show, dancing with a sailor from the USS Tennessee.

  It was after midnight when Ben returned to the ship and climbed into his hammock. He’d be back on duty in the morning. Even on free days, it was hard to forget the fleet’s mission in Hawaii. President Roosevelt had sent them here because of threats from Japan. Some people were even saying the Japanese might attack the fleet!

  The rumors made Ben wonder. The American navy was the best of the best. They were skilled. They were well trained. They were prepared for anything. Ben couldn’t imagine the Japanese would dare to think about an attack. But if they did, he and his fellow servicemen would be ready.

  December 7, 1941

  Paul Yamada squinted into the sun as he pulled on the oars of his family’s sixteen-foot rowboat. He made this trip every Sunday, bobbing over the waves of Pearl Harbor to Ford Island to sell eggs from the family’s chickens. It was about a mile — a long way to row so early in the morning. Paul was twelve but strong for his age, and so was his twin sister, Grace. He was glad she’d come along to help today. Once they reached Ford Island, they’d load up the pushcart they kept at the dock and go door-to-door with their eggs.

  The Yamada family grew vegetables and raised chickens in coops behind their house. It was a lot of work. Paul and Grace had an older sister named Helen who was busy learning to become a nurse, so the work of collecting eggs always fell to Paul and Grace. Each afternoon, they would pick the eggs from the coops, clean them, pack them into boxes, and deliver them to the market.

  Paul and Grace’s ojiichan, their grandfather, had been a farmer back in Japan, where he’d grown up. But farmers struggled there and had to pay high taxes. When he heard that immigrants were being hired in Hawaii, he made the journey across the sea to the island of Oahu.

  There, he found work on a sugar plantation. He saved his money until he could build the small house where the Yamada family lived today. It was in a neighborhood with many other Japanese American families, including Paul’s best friend, Jimmy Abe. Jimmy was always game to make stilts out of sticks to race Paul and Grace around the yard. When they were too tired to stilt-race anymore, they’d sit in the shade and read Captain America comic books. Paul’s favorite was the one with Captain America punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on the cover.

  Paul had heard all about the war in Europe on his father’s radio. He knew that Hitler and the German army had invaded Poland two years ago, and were storming through the rest of Europe. Paul knew that Japan was also invading other nations. Just five months ago, Japan had seized Indochina. Lately, there had been whispers that Japan might attack the United States. Maybe even here in Hawaii! He’d asked his grandmother, his obaachan, what she thought about that.

  “Oh no,” she said. “That will never, ever happen.”

  But Paul still thought about what he might do if it did. He wouldn’t be afraid. He would run into the battle and save people. He’d be a hero, like Captain America.

  Paul tugged harder on the oars. The mile to Ford Island felt extra long today. He wanted to get there and get his work done. If he and Grace could sell their eggs quickly, maybe he could ask Jimmy to bring over his latest Captain America comic that afternoon.

  “Look!” Grace said, pointing to a couple of planes flying low over the mountains.

  Paul stopped rowing for a moment to watch them. “The military must be doing exercises today.”

  “They’re flying awfully low,” Grace said.

  Paul stared at the sky as the planes approached. They looked different from the ones that normally took off from Ford Island. And they were flying low. Too low.

  As the first plane soared overhead, Paul caught a glimpse of red beneath its wing. He sucked in his breath. It was the Japanese maru, the symbol of the rising sun.

  His grandmother was wrong. The worst thing he could imagine was happening. Japan had come to attack America. And it was happening now.

  “Come on, Ranger!” Luke called as he and Sadie jumped out of the car. Ranger bounded from the back se
at into the snow. He was going with Luke and Sadie’s family to choose a Christmas tree, like they did every December.

  Ranger loved Christmas tree time. When they walked through the tree farm, Luke always threw snowballs for Ranger to catch. And when they went home, Sadie would sneak Ranger pieces of her Christmas cookies while Mom and Dad put up the tree.

  “What do you think about this one, Ranger?” Luke was pointing to a bushy pine tree when Ranger saw a flash of brown fur out of the corner of his eye.

  Squirrel!

  Ranger took off after it, bounding through the snow. He chased the squirrel between the trees and around a little shed. He chased the squirrel all the way to the edge of the woods until it disappeared up a very tall tree. It sat way up at the top, chattering down at him.

  Ranger barked at the squirrel a few times. Then he ran back to Luke and Sadie.

  “Guess you were more interested in that squirrel than our Christmas tree,” Luke said, laughing.

  It was true. Ranger loved chasing squirrels. That was the only reason he wasn’t an official search-and-rescue dog.

  Ranger had gone through all the search-and-rescue dog training with Luke and his dad. He’d learned to find missing people by following their scent. He’d practiced finding people in thick woods and grassy meadows. He’d practiced finding them in dark warehouses and fallen-down buildings. Ranger was very good at finding people and helping them.

  But he wasn’t good at ignoring squirrels. In order to be a search-and-rescue dog, you had to take a special test with lots of different challenges. You had to ignore everything except the people you were supposed to find. You had to ignore squeaky toys and juicy hot dog pieces in the grass. You also had to ignore squirrels.

  Halfway through Ranger’s test, a squirrel had run past. Ranger chased it.

  If a real person had needed help that morning, Ranger would have left the squirrel alone and helped. But he knew that this was just a pretend rescue. So he chased the squirrel — and failed the test.

  “How about this tree?” Luke’s mom asked, pointing to a tall, fat one with lots of needles. Ranger walked all around it with Luke and Sadie.

  “I like how fluffy it looks,” Sadie said.

  Luke pushed his face into the branches and breathed in. “I like how green it smells.”

  Ranger sniffed the branches. He thought it smelled good, too — fresh and sharp and winter-cool. But the needles prickled his nose. Ranger sneezed, and Luke laughed. “I think Ranger approves.”

  “Great!” Dad said. “We’ll take it!”

  They tied the tree on top of the car and drove home. Mom and Dad untied it and brought it into the living room. While they sang Christmas carols and set it in the tree stand, Ranger went to the mudroom to get a drink of water from his dish. He was about to go find Luke when he heard a humming sound. It was coming from his dog bed.

  Ranger knew that sound. He pawed at the blankets in his bed until he found the old first aid kit he’d dug up from the family’s garden one day. The humming was louder now. Ranger knew what it meant. He’d heard that sound nearly a dozen times before, always when someone far away needed his help.

  Once when the old metal box hummed, it had taken him to walk beside a boy named Sam on a long, dangerous journey. Once it had taken him to a stormy, flooded neighborhood where a girl needed help finding her grandmother. Once it had taken him to watch over a brother and sister who were running from people who wanted to hurt them.

  Now the first aid kit was humming again. Ranger pawed at the box’s worn leather strap. He lowered his head and nuzzled it until it hung around his neck. The humming grew louder and louder. It was so loud that Ranger couldn’t hear the Christmas music anymore. Light spilled from the cracks in the old box. It glowed brighter and brighter. So bright that Ranger had to close his eyes. The box grew warm at Ranger’s throat. He felt like he was being squeezed through a hole in the sky.

  Then suddenly, the humming stopped. Ranger opened his eyes. He was on some sort of big ship. Men in clean white uniforms walked briskly over the deck, passing one another with nods and good mornings.

  Then Ranger heard another humming sound. It wasn’t his first aid kit. It was a different sort of hum. It came from the sky.

  And it was getting louder.

  Ben Hansen had just finished breakfast when he heard explosions in the distance. “What was that?”

  “Probably blasting again out at Ford Island,” another sailor said. “They’ve been doing work out there.”

  “On a Sunday?” Ben shook his head. Something was wrong. He hurried to the upper deck. Jerry and Chow and the other members of the USS Arizona Band were gathered on the deck, getting ready to play for the morning flag-raising ceremony.

  On the other side of the deck, a large group of sailors stood pointing over the rail. A shaggy golden dog stood in the middle of the huddle. Everyone stared out at Ford Island. Ben ran to the rail. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  Huge fires raged, and smoke billowed up to the sky as two airplanes flew over the island.

  Airplanes! Ranger looked up just as they soared over the harbor. One swooped lower than the rest — so low that Ranger could see a man inside through the window! The crew on the deck saw him, too, and pointed.

  “Army planes are out early today,” one sailor said. “They’re probably —”

  “Army planes don’t carry torpedoes!” Ben pointed as the bomber swooped low and dropped a torpedo into the water. An instant later, the Oklahoma, two ships ahead of them, exploded into flames.

  The men on the USS Arizona started running. Ranger ran alongside a tall sailor with light hair and kind, worried eyes. Ranger was worried, too. The air smelled of seawater and fire and fear. The plane that had dropped the exploding thing was circling back now, and heading straight for them.

  Ranger barked.

  Ben stopped running and looked down at him for a moment. “Where did you come from, dog? And what’s this?” He lifted the first aid kit from Ranger’s neck. But before he could open it, Ranger barked again. He pawed at Ben’s leg and barked up at the sky.

  Ben looked up, too. He saw the plane just an instant before it dipped low over the ship.

  Then he dropped the first aid kit and shouted, “Get down!”

  The sailors around him dropped to their bellies as bullets sprayed across the wooden deck. Ben’s heart pounded. His breakfast felt hot in his stomach. But something made him look up.

  The pilot was just overhead. Ben could see the guns aiming down at them.

  “It’s the Japanese!” Ben cried. He could see the big red sun on the plane’s wing as it pulled up and away. Ben shouted, “Sound the air raid! The Japanese are attacking!”

  Clang! Clang! Clang! went the alarm.

  It was so loud it hurt Ranger’s ears.

  A booming voice came over the ship’s speakers. “Battle stations! Battle stations! This is not a drill!”

  Ben stared in a daze as men raced past him. It was really happening. They’d trained and trained for this moment, but now he felt frozen in place. The dog — where had it even come from? — nuzzled Ben’s hand. He gave the dog a pat on the head.

  Ranger sniffed at the young man’s fingers. He smelled like soap and pancakes and sausage. He would have liked for Ben to pet him some more, but it wasn’t safe on the deck of this big ship. Not with the shooting planes flying over. Not with the terrible exploding things they dropped!

  Ranger barked. He pawed at Ben until the young sailor snapped out of his daze and scrambled to his feet.

  Finally, Ben’s training kicked in. Everyone had to get to their battle stations. But what about the men who were still asleep? Did they even know they were under attack? Ben couldn’t stop thinking about the boys still in their bunks below. He started down a ladder to check on them.

  Ranger waited at the top. He didn’t like ladders, but he felt a tug to stay close to this young man, so he waited while Ben climbed down and shook his fellow sailors awake.

  “The Japanese are attacking!” Ben said.

  They thought he was joking.

  “It’s real!” Ben cried. He wished he didn’t have such a reputation as a prankster. Back home, April Fools’ Day had always been his favorite holiday. He loved playing tricks on his mother and sisters. But this was no joke. Ben ran to the porthole. He pointed at the fires engulfing the hangars on Ford Island. “Look!”