Attack on Pearl Harbor Page 5

  The morning after their dance, everything would change. A Japanese aircraft carrier had crossed the ocean undetected and moved into place to stage an attack on Pearl Harbor. The first wave of planes took off from the carrier before sunrise on December 7. Less than two hours later, they arrived at Pearl Harbor, and the raid began. The Japanese planes dropped bombs and torpedoes that devastated the American battleships and nearby Hickam Field on Ford Island. Just after eight o’clock that morning, a bomb hit the USS Arizona and destroyed its forward magazine, where the ship’s ammunition was stored. It exploded, killing nearly a thousand men.

  Ben Hansen’s story was inspired by oral histories from several survivors of the Arizona, including Master Chief Glen Harvey Lane, who was on board when the bomb hit. Like Ben, he was blasted from the ship and ended up in the oil-covered sea. Lane was rescued by fellow sailors and ended up on another ship, the Nevada, which was also under attack. He survived — and went on to spend another thirty years in the military. When Lane died in 2011, his ashes were interred on the sunken ship — an honor offered to survivors of the USS Arizona so they can share the final resting place of so many of their friends who died in the attack. If you visit Pearl Harbor today, you can see the memorial that’s been built over the remains of the ship to honor them.

  When I was doing research for this book, I relied on the stories told by American servicemen and others in Hawaii who lived through the attack. Many of these stories have been archived as oral histories by the National Park Service. I was also fortunate enough to spend some time with Pearl Harbor survivor Everett Hyland when I visited the memorial in December 2018. He served on the battleship USS Pennsylvania and was wounded when a bomb exploded not far from his battle station on the morning of December 7, 1941. After nine months of recovery, he returned to military service. When he retired, he became a science teacher and also spent time volunteering at the USS Arizona Memorial, telling his story.

  I’m grateful for the time Mr. Hyland spent talking with me during my visit. National Park Service volunteer James Lee was also most helpful in sharing his recollections of December 7, 1941. Lee was eleven years old and remembers sitting on the railroad tracks near his home, watching the planes that morning. Like many others, at first, he thought it was a drill and didn’t realize it was an attack that would lead to the United States entering World War II.

  The attack on Pearl Harbor happened in two waves that morning. By the time it was over, 2,403 Americans had been killed and another 1,178 wounded. The bombings sank or seriously damaged eighteen ships and more than three hundred planes.

  The casualties included people who lived in Honolulu as well as members of the military. Some of the American antiaircraft shells being fired at the Japanese planes fell on the city instead. There were explosions all over Honolulu, and many buildings were destroyed or damaged.

  The morning of December 7 was only the beginning of the trouble for Japanese Americans who lived in Hawaii. Many were questioned or arrested, suspected of being Japanese spies, even though they were American citizens who had lived in Hawaii their whole lives. In February 1942, President Roosevelt issued an order to send more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to prison camps. These were temporary prisons where people were held, even though most of them had been born in America. These Japanese families spent an average of three years imprisoned before being released. Despite this unfair treatment, more than 30,000 Japanese American men chose to enlist in the US Army and served with distinction during the war. Many were part of a segregated unit called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. After the war, President Truman honored those Japanese American veterans with a special ceremony at the White House. “You fought not only the enemy,” Truman said, “but you fought prejudice — and you have won.”

  Yet it would be many more years before America apologized for the way the nation treated Japanese Americans at the start of the war. Finally, in 1988, President Reagan signed a law to compensate more than 100,000 people who were sent to the prison camps. He called it “a policy motivated by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

  If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Pearl Harbor National Memorial on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, you should jump at the chance. The site includes not only the USS Arizona Memorial but also an extensive visitor center with displays about everything from the years leading up to the attack, through the morning of December 7, 1941, and the months that followed. Nearby are several related sites with more to see and learn about World War II — the Battleship Missouri Memorial, the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.

  The Pearl Harbor National Memorial also has an excellent website. Many of the Pearl Harbor oral histories collected by the National Park Service are available at https://www.nps.gov/valr/learn/historyculture/stories.htm.

  Here are some other books and websites you might find interesting if you’d like to learn more about Pearl Harbor, the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and working dogs like Ranger:

  Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, illustrated by Dom Lee (Lee & Low Books, 1993).

  Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002).

  I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 by Lauren Tarshis (Scholastic, 2011).

  “Attack on Pearl Harbor” from National Geographic Kids: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/pearl-harbor.

  Remember Pearl Harbor: American and Japanese Survivors Tell Their Stories by Thomas B. Allen (National Geographic, 2015).

  Sniffer Dogs: How Dogs (and Their Noses) Save the World by Nancy Castaldo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).

  What Was Pearl Harbor? by Patricia Brennan Demuth (Penguin Workshop, 2013).

  I’m grateful to the staff and volunteers at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, especially Everett Hyland and James Lee, for answering my many questions and sharing their stories, and to my friend and fellow author Debbi Michiko Florence, for serving as an early reader for this book. The following sources were also most helpful:

  Clarke, Thurston. Pearl Harbor Ghosts: The Legacy of December 7, 1941. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

  Hyland, Everett. Personal Interview. 23 December, 2018.

  Jasper, Joy Waldron, James P. Delgado, and Jim Adams. The USS Arizona: The Ship, the Men, the Pearl Harbor Attack, and the Symbol That Aroused America. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.

  Jones, Meg. “75 Years Later, USS Arizona Band Remembered.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 6, 2016. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/special-reports/pearl-harbor/2016/12/06/75-years-later-uss-arizona-band-remembered/94626818.

  Lee, James. Personal Interview. 23 December, 2018.

  The Editors of LIFE. Pearl Harbor 75 Years Later: A Day of Infamy and Its Legacy. New York: Liberty Street, 2016.

  McWilliams, Bill. Sunday in Hell: Pearl Harbor Minute by Minute. New York: Open Road, 2011.

  National Park Service Pearl Harbor National Memorial. Oral Histories: https://www.nps.gov/valr/learn/historyculture/oral-history-interviews.htm:

  A. H. Mortensen, USS Oklahoma

  Albert Luco Fickel, USS Pennsylvania

  Amy Kimura

  Bill Guerin, USS Arizona

  C. E. Thompson, Assistant Fire Chief at Navy Yard

  Clinton Westbrook, USS Arizona

  Donald Stratton, USS Arizona

  Etsuo Sayama, Kapalama Heights, Oahu

  Glen Lane, USS Arizona

  Harriet Kuwamoto, Kaimuki, Oahu

  Harry Goda

  Jim Green, USS Arizona

  Jim Miller, USS Arizona

  John Anderson, USS Arizona

  John David Harris, USS Arizona

  John Evans, USS Arizona

  John Harry “Jack” McCarron, USS Arizona

  Loraine Yamada, Honolulu, Oahu

  Masao Asada, Kailua, Oahu

  Michael M. Ganitch, USS Pennsylvania

  Milton Tom Hurst, USS Ar
izona

  Ruth Yamaguchi, Pearl City, Oahu

  Ralph William Landreth, USS Arizona

  Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau. “USS Pennsylvania: The Day the Music Died.” https://visitpearlharbor.org/uss-pennsylvania-day-music-died.

  Stratton, Donald, and Ken Gire. All the Gallant Men: The First Memoir by a USS Arizona Survivor. New York: William Morrow, 2016.

  Twomey, Steve. Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016.

  Kate Messner is the author of Breakout; The Seventh Wish; All the Answers; The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z., recipient of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers; Capture the Flag, a New York Times Notable Children’s Book; and the Ranger in Time and Marty McGuire chapter book series. A former middle-school English teacher, Kate lives on Lake Champlain with her family and loves reading, walking in the woods, and traveling. Visit her online at katemessner.com.

  Rescue on the Oregon Trail

  Danger in Ancient Rome

  Long Road to Freedom

  Race to the South Pole

  Journey through Ash and Smoke

  Escape from the Great Earthquake

  D-Day: Battle on the Beach

  Hurricane Katrina Rescue

  Disaster on the Titanic

  Night of Soldiers and Spies

  Escape from the Twin Towers

  Attack on Pearl Harbor

  He’s a golden retriever who has been trained as a search-and-rescue dog but can’t officially pass the test because he’s always getting distracted by squirrels during exercises. One day, he finds a mysterious first aid kit in the garden and is transported to the year 1850, where he meets a young boy named Sam Abbott. Sam’s family is heading west on the Oregon Trail, which can be dangerous. It’s up to Ranger to make sure the Abbotts get to Oregon safely! Turn the page for a sneak peek!

  Sam Abbott lugged another sack of bacon to the wagon and sat down to wipe his forehead.

  “Two more to go!” Pa swung the bacon into place beside a barrel of flour. “Mr. Palmer says we need seventy-five pounds for each adult.”

  “Too bad Mr. Palmer isn’t here to help us carry it,” Sam said.

  Mr. Palmer had written the guidebook their father held as close as the Bible these days. It told the story of his trip to the Oregon Territory and gave suggestions for how other folks could make the same journey to the fresh air and rich farmland of the Willamette Valley. Most, like Sam’s family, traveled to Independence, Missouri, or one of the other jumping-off points first. There, they could get supplies and meet up with a wagon train. Traveling together was safer. For each adult on the journey, Mr. Palmer said to pack:

  200 pounds of flour

  75 pounds of bacon

  30 pounds of pilot bread

  10 pounds of rice

  Sam and his father had packed some of that before the family set out from their farm near Boonville, Missouri, six days ago. When they arrived in Independence, they’d purchased the rest at a busy trading post. Now they had to finish loading it into the wagon.

  Sam’s arms ached. How was he going to make it two thousand miles to Oregon when he was already tuckered out just from loading supplies?

  And how was he going to make it without Scout? They’d left their farm hound behind in Boonville with Uncle Jim and Aunt Cecelia. Pa said poor Scout was too old to come so far. He said it wouldn’t be fair. Sam didn’t think it was fair to make him go, either. But nobody seemed to care about that. They were setting out on the trail this morning, now that the grass had grown enough for the oxen and horses to eat along the route.

  “Sam, are you looking after Amelia?” his mother called from the wagon. She and Sam’s older sister, Lizzie, were packing herbs and medicine into a small wooden chest.

  “She’s here, playing with Mabel and Peg.” Sam slid off the back of the wagon and shuffled past his three-year-old sister. Amelia was making her rag doll dance for the chickens they’d brought to lay eggs along the way.

  Sam was about to grab another sack of bacon when he heard a shout.

  “Whoa!”

  A horse had broken away from its owner and was tearing through the square. It reared up every time someone snatched at its reins. It raced this way and that, kicking up dust and knocking over barrels. Finally, the owner got it tied up to a post and turned his attention to an auction happening by the courthouse.

  “Twenty dollars!”

  “Twenty there! Do I hear twenty-five now? Twenty-five? He’s a fine, strong mule, gentlemen.”

  “Twenty-five!”

  Independence was full of travelers passing through. Some, like Sam’s family, were making the trip to the Oregon Territory for better farmland. Others were going to California to search for gold. When some of them heard stories about disease, starvation, and snowstorms along the route, they decided they weren’t up for the trip after all. Then they started auctioning off their mules to the highest bidders.

  Sam sat down on a heap of sacks and watched. He wondered what it would be like to set off on his own to find gold in a mountain stream.

  “Sam!” Pa called from the wagon. “We can’t eat your daydreams out on the trail. Load the rest of that bacon!”

  Sam stood up and sighed. He shoved a hand into his pocket and felt the folded-up friendship quilt squares his cousins had made. They hadn’t finished in time to include them in the big quilt that Aunt Cecelia put together for their family, but they gave them to Sam anyway. He was glad. He liked having three small squares of home in his pocket. One had a picture of Scout, carefully outlined in thread. Another square showed the crooked apple tree by the fence. The third showed the Abbotts’ farmhouse and barn, pieced together with colorful scraps of fabric. Sam already missed home so much.

  Pa said it was all right to be sad. “But your heart has room to love more than one place,” he’d promised. Pa said the Oregon Territory was a land of milk and honey. He said it would be one of those places to love for sure. Still, Sam couldn’t help worrying it would be like Independence — a land of dust, smelly animals, and stale bread.

  At least they’d have bacon. He hugged another sack to his chest.

  “Amelia!” Sam’s mother called out. She was searching around the wagon frantically. “Amelia!” Her eyes landed on Sam. “Where is she?”

  “I was watching her, but …” Sam ran to where his sister had been. Her doll lay in the dirt next to the chicken coop. Sam picked it up and looked around.

  Amelia was gone.

  Text copyright © 2020 by Kate Messner

  Illustrations by Kelley McMorris, copyright © 2020 Scholastic Inc.

  This book is being published simultaneously in hardcover by Scholastic Press.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  While inspired by real events and historical characters, this is a work of fiction and does not claim to be historically accurate or portray factual events or relationships. Please keep in mind that references to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales may not be factually accurate, but rather fictionalized by the author.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Messner, Kate, author. | McMorris, Kelley, illustrator. | Messner, Kate. Ranger in time ; 12.

  Title: Attack on Pearl Harbor / Kate Messner ; illustrated by Kelley McMorris.

  Description: New York : Scholastic Inc., 2020. | Series: Ranger in time; book 12 | Includes bibliographical references. | Audience: Ages 7-10 | Audience: Grades 4-6 | Audience: Ages 7-10 | Audience: Grades 4-6 | Summary: This time Ranger, the time-travelling Golden retriever finds himself transported to the deck of the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941, where he rescues the young sailor Ben Hansen
who is badly burned when the ship explodes — and there is a Japanese-American boy and girl in a rowboat who also need his help to find their father amid the chaos of the attack.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019022884 (print) | LCCN 2019022885 (ebook) | ISBN 9781338537963 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781338537970 (library binding) | ISBN 9781338538144 (ebk)

  Subjects: LCSH: Golden retriever — Juvenile fiction. | Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941 — Juvenile fiction. | Time travel — Juvenile fiction. | Rescues — Juvenile fiction. | Japanese Americans — Juvenile fiction. | Hawaii — History — 1900-1959 — Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Golden retriever — Fiction. | Dogs — Fiction. | Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941 — Fiction. | Time travel — Fiction. | Rescues — Fiction. | Japanese Americans — Fiction. | Hawaii — History — 1900-1959 — Fiction. | LCGFT: Action and adventure fiction. | Historical fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.M5615 At 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.M5615 (ebook) |DDC 813.6 [Fic] — dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019022884

  First printing 2020

  Cover art by Kelley McMorris, © 2020 Scholastic Inc.

  Cover design by Ellen Duda and Stephanie Yang

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-53814-4

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.