For years, Bill Craddock figured no one wanted to hear his war stories, even his tales of Dec. 7, 1941. And that was just fine with the El Cajon resident.
EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune
Petr Stepanek recorded John Hancock's recollection of surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Hancock, 88, of La Mesa taped his oral history yesterday at the Doubletree Hotel.
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“What the hell,” Craddock thought, “let's get on with our lives.”
But in 1991, he agreed to speak to a high school history class. Before his talk, the veteran chatted with a student and learned why his memories are critically needed.
“You're here to talk about Pearl Harbor?” the teenager asked.
“Yeah.”
“Pearl Harbor,” the student mused. “That's where they have the water-skiing finals, right?”
Remember Pearl Harbor? Some don't, and that's why about 30 witnesses to the Japanese attack on U.S. military ships and installations on Oahu, Hawaii, have spent this weekend reliving their experiences. In a Mission Valley hotel, a crew has been videotaping survivors' firsthand accounts since Friday.
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Pearl Harbor Museum and Visitor Center preview
When: 4 p.m. today
Where: Veterans Museum and Memorial Center, 2115 Park Blvd., San Diego
Admission: Free
Note: Groundbreaking for the new museum in Honolulu is set for late 2008 with completion by Dec. 7, 2010. The current museum will remain open during construction.
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The crew's swing through the West Coast included stops in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego and yielded about 50 hourlong interviews. If funding holds up, the crew may return to San Diego, home to more than 100 Pearl Harbor survivors.
The crew shouldn't wait long.
“Time is running out,” said Daniel Martinez, a National Park Service historian. “We have been losing these veterans.”
The oral histories will be archived at the Pearl Harbor Museum and Visitor Center in Honolulu, now undergoing a $52 million-plus renovation. The plans will be previewed at 4 p.m. today at San Diego's Veterans Museum and Memorial Center.
“The public is absolutely invited,” Martinez said. “They are invited not just to listen but to comment. We want to know what they like and what they are concerned about.”
The center's makeover is being underwritten by a broad cross section of American industry, from professional sports teams (the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks) and film studios (20th Century Fox) to banks (Wells Fargo, The Bank of New York Mellon, Bank of Hawaii) and defense contractors (Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon). Thousands of individuals donated, too, including more than 100 residents from San Diego County, which boasts one of the nation's highest concentrations of witnesses to the attack that launched the United States into World War II.
Seeing all this support, it might seem that America is eager to hear all about that tragic Sunday morning, 66-plus years ago.
Not so, survivors insist.
“None of my relatives are interested,” said John Hancock, 88, a retired teacher living in La Mesa, “so I don't talk about it.”
Yesterday was only the third time he had shared his story. In an 11th-floor suite at the Doubletree Hotel, he took a seat and – at cameraman Petr Stepanek's request – removed his eyeglasses. Tami Stepanek, the sound engineer and Petr's wife, powdered Hancock's lined face.
Producer Chuck Dunkerly sat down opposite Hancock and began asking questions.
The white-haired retiree returned to his youth as a National Guard artilleryman at Camp Malakole. When Japanese bombs hit Oahu, Hancock had been in his bunk, treating a cold with a bottle of Four Roses.
Rousted from his sickbed, Hancock scrambled to his anti-aircraft gun. But the second and final wave of Japanese planes had already devastated Oahu before he could fire a shell.
In horror and frustration, he watched flames and oily smoke billow from Battleship Row. He saw sailors trying to swim to safety.
“You could see guys going down,” he said. “We couldn't help them.”
When his time comes, Hancock said, he wants his ashes scattered at Pearl Harbor.
“Why?” Dunkerly asked.
That's when Hancock lost his composure.
“Maybe it's because so many of my friends lost their lives there,” he said, blinking back tears.
Many lives were lost that day. But yesterday, an old soldier and a small film crew saved a thrice-told story.
