75 Years After Pearl Harbor, Brothers Will Be Reunited

4K to gather at commemoration ceremony in Hawaii
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 7, 2016 8:53 AM CST
75 Years After Pearl Harbor, Brothers Will Be Reunited
A small boat rescues a seaman from the USS West Virginia in this Dec. 7, 1941 photo.   (U.S. Navy via AP, File)

When bombs began raining from the sky at Pearl Harbor, John Anderson—in a turret aboard the USS Arizona—thought immediately of his twin brother, Jake, on deck. It appears Jake never left his mind. Forced into a rescue boat, Anderson reached shore only to grab a spare boat and return to the Arizona to search for his brother, to no avail. Anderson did pick up three survivors, but then his boat was blown apart and "I was the only one left alive," he later said, per the Washington Post. Anderson was told Jake was killed by gunfire, but his body was never recovered from the Arizona, which sank. Yet on the 75th anniversary of the attack, John Anderson will be reunited with his brother at last as his ashes are to be interred on the wreck of the ship following his death last year. More coverage:

  • Former Navy fireman Edward Waszkiewicz, 95, recalls seeing the Arizona get hit, per the Ventura County Star. "I thought the end of the world was coming. Pieces of the ship fell everywhere," he says. "Then all hell broke loose."
  • With a book excerpt, Time dives into the "downright spooky" mystery of an ad published in the New Yorker two weeks before the attack that might have been a warning.

  • At the Post, historians describe how Pearl Harbor "absolutely shattered Americans' image of themselves," yet also crafted a world power of the 21st century.
  • In a separate piece, the Post probes what might have happened if the Japanese hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor, concluding "it's quite likely that the two sides would have still clashed."
  • NBC News notes some 4,000 people are expected to attend a commemoration ceremony at Pearl Harbor on Wednesday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will become the first Japanese leader to visit the site later this month.
  • Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune notes this anniversary is different for one Illinois woman: The remains of her uncle, who was 22 when he died at Pearl Harbor, have finally been identified. Efforts to identify other remains and return them to loved ones are ongoing.
(More Pearl Harbor stories.)

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