Council Bluffs, Iowa Man Recalls Pearl Harbor on the USS California

On Dec. 6, 1941, Erven Rasmussen said that many of his shipmates on the USS California planned to go ashore and do some exploring on Pearl Harbor after the sun rose the next day.

But the only rising sun most people would remember the next day was the insignia of the Japanese flag on the side of its Zero fighter and bomber aircraft as they swarmed and effectively took out the mainstay of the U.S. Navy's fleet on Battleship Row.

The road to war between the two countries began after differences over China drove them apart in the 1930s. After that, Japan began a campaign that started with conquering Manchuria, and eventually - but unsuccessfully - the rest of China.

Rasmussen never knew he was to become a part of history when he enlisted in the Navy in 1938, when he was assigned to the California, a battleship, to work in gunnery and later in engineering.

What he did know was that a week or so before the attack, the U.S. government had laid down some type of ultimatum for the Japanese.

"You just had a gut feeling that something was screwy, that they were going to do something," he said.

In the spring of 1941, Japanese carrier pilots began to train in the special tactics needed for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Rasmussen recalled hearing the story of a Marine at one of Pearl Harbor's radar stations who heard the sound of "unidentified planes" but was told they were American fighter planes.

That sound of unidentified planes was actually the roar of the first wave of 181 planes launched from six Japanese carriers that hit American ships and military installations on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

"We were eating breakfast (on the California) when our (ship's) chaplains came down (to the mess hall) and said, 'It's the real thing, boys!'"

The USS California was one of the first ships hit during the attack. Rasmussen and his crew went down to their battle stations. The Japanese torpedoes, however, knocked out the ship's power, and they were without electricity for about two hours.

One torpedo tore through, near the engine room. It was a dud, Rasmussen said, because if it ignited, they would have all drowned.

"Finally, the call came to abandon ship," Rasmussen said, but they were sent back down before they were called up again to evacuate.

What he saw will never leave him. Rasmussen said he watched as the USS Oklahoma which was hit by as many as a dozen torpedoes, and the USS Arizona, struck by an armor-piercing munition, begin to sink.

Ironically, Rasmussen said, the California was preparing to head out to sea Monday.

"They (Japanese) must have known what was going on - that we were going back out," he said.

But it was a mixed blessing. The California didn't sink, but was in no condition to leave for its next destination, Wake Island.

As Rasmussen found out, the Japanese had seized control of the islands; and the California would have met up with some heavy Japanese naval resistance.

The California didn't suffer the losses of the Arizona, which lost 1,177 crewmen, but Rasmussen said they had their share of loss from an attack that "put us to war against them."

Until he separated from the Navy in October 1945, Rasmussen would continue to serve aboard the USS Tangier, and eventually put in for a request for a land assignment, which he received at Bremerton, Wash.

But he never forgot the day that will go down as the "day of infamy" - a day where the United States lost the battle but would go on to win the war.

GOD BLESS OUR MILITARY
AND
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Keep Our Republic Free

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com

STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER and say THANKS to Jim Robinson!
IT'S IN THE BREAKING NEWS SIDEBAR
THANKS!

Thank you so much. My uncle, Edward Racisz, died on the California that morning, fifteen years before I was born. I will be forwarding this article to my family.

But it was a mixed blessing. The California didn't sink, but was in no condition to leave for its next destination, Wake Island.

Actually, CALIFORNIA did sink, but in shallow enough water that she was able to be salvaged. She was repaired and returned to service in January 1944.

I'm not sure, but I seem to recall Mr. Rasmussen's name from a Memorial Day service at Fort Snelling Cemetary two years back.

That day, they honored the Pearl survivors and the 911 veterans. Senator Wellstone, as usual, showed up to flack. His speech sorta went...'and all of these heroic men and women would be for a national health care plan...blah, blah, blah.'

His applause was cool, disjointed and sparse. The crowd hated that he used that podium to push something so obviously political and socialistic. What an idiot.

Wellstone, of course, isn't buried at Fort Snelling.

Korea earlier, then China and ultimately the U.S..
Japan was as aggressive a country as there ever was.
japan committed many horrific attrocities for which they never paid a price.
Fact is Japan has turned its collective backs on their past and preach to their students that it all was really no big deal. That they weren't the aggressor.
Japan friend?
NOt mine.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.