‘The beautiful islands were at peace again’: a sailor’s memories of Pearl Harbor

Virginia Smith was rummaging through a box filled with love letters and other keepsakes when she came across an item she didn’t recognize.

It appeared to be a journal, or a narrative of some kind, pecked out in single-space lines on a manual typewriter.

“Does this belong to you?” she asked, handing the yellowed pages to her husband.

David Smith looked at the date.

Aug. 15, 1945.

The title: “The End of the War at Pearl Harbor.”

With welling emotion, the World War II veteran read the opening line of a story that recounts one of the most meaningful moments of his life.

I was there when it ended, at the place where it all began back on that bleak December day when the warlords of Japan decided they could conquer the universe …

The 90-year-old North Richland Hills resident and former educator hadn’t seen the account, written when he was a young Navy sailor, in decades. He had searched high and low for the story while preparing to write his memoir and assumed it was lost — “long gone” — until his spouse, the love of his life for 67 years, made the discovery in 2014.

“Couldn’t believe it!” Smith said, his strong voice rising.

“I was flabbergasted.”

‘Honored to serve my country’

On that infamous day, 75 years ago, the Japanese military launched a full-scale aerial attack on the U.S. naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

An armor-piercing bomb sank the USS Arizona, killing 1,177 crew members, many of whom were trapped inside. The battleship Oklahoma capsized. The California sank. So did the West Virginia; 188 aircraft were destroyed.

The surprise assault on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, took the lives of more than 2,300 Americans, wounded 1,000 others and led to the U.S. entry into World War II.

“Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us,” President Franklin Roosevelt vowed in a somber address to Congress the next day. “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”

At the time Smith couldn’t begin to comprehend the significance of the world-changing event that occurred 3,500 miles from home. On Dec. 7, a quiet Sunday in Northeast Texas, the Gainesville High School sophomore was focused on finishing research for a school paper.

“I’d never heard of Pearl Harbor,” he recalled.

Smith finished high school in the spring of 1944 and joined the Navy in September, four days before his 18th birthday.

“I was honored to serve my country,” Smith said, 72 years later, voicing the patriotic sentiment shared by fellow members of what is nobly called America’s “Greatest Generation.”

“I would do it all over again — in a minute.”

After boot camp, Smith attended an electricians’ school in Gulfport, Miss., and found himself aboard the S.S. Zoella Lykes, an old refitted merchant transport ship, chugging toward the Philippines.

As fate would have it, the ship broke down en route and was anchored for repairs at Pearl Harbor when, according to Smith’s written account, the joyous news of Japan’s surrender “reached our ears.”

‘Islands were at peace again’

The sailor, an electrician’s mate third class, chronicled what he saw, heard and felt while standing on deck, eyes turned to the summer sky.

The sirens on the Island were the first to open up, then the horns and whistles on every ship in the harbor joined in …

Suddenly the darkened sky was lit up with many beautiful colors. I looked around and saw that from each ship high-powered flares were being shot high into the air. Many huge search lights, operated by the rejoicing sailors, spread their large beams of white light across the sky forming innumerable intricate patterns …

As I watched this magnificent spectacle, I heard above the blast from numerous horns the blended melody of many voices. A group of sailors on board the Zoella had formed a chorus and were singing the stirring songs of American history. … They sang “Anchors Away.” “The Marine Hymn” and “America” with stirring feeling.

I suddenly felt funny inside; a lump swelled up in my throat. Yes, I thought, ‘America is the greatest country on earth and always will be.’ Their voices died away into the night with “Remember Pearl Harbor.”

In closing, the 18-year-old wrote:

The beautiful islands were at peace again — at peace with the world. Here had begun the most disastrous war ever forced upon the peoples of the earth; and, it had ended— not as it began at the hands of the tyrant aggressor, but instead by the combined efforts of the democracies of civilization.

It was as it should be — God Himself had willed it. Evil cannot conquer God and righteousness.

The war over, his 2-year duty done, Smith received formal letters of commendation from President Harry Truman and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal thanking him for his military service.

Smith to this day feels he owes a debt of gratitude to his homeland. As a veteran he received funds through the G.I. Bill that allowed him to attend the University of North Texas and become the first person in his family to earn a college degree.

Smith later found his calling at Browning Heights Elementary School in the Birdville school district, where he devotedly served as principal for 34 years.

On Pearl Harbor Day, Smith will follow his heart back to the school, which in 1988 was renamed David E. Smith Elementary in his honor.

As he did last December, and every December since retirement, the former seaman, a great-grandfather now, will lovingly read the timeless poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas to the children in every classroom.

This story was originally published December 6, 2016 at 10:59 AM with the headline "‘The beautiful islands were at peace again’: a sailor’s memories of Pearl Harbor."