Joe Honish Naval Hospital in the Naval Shipyard at Pearl Harbor

I was a 3rd class Pharmacist Mate assigned to the Naval Hospital in the Naval Shipyard at Pearl Harbor the weekend of December 6th and 7th, 1941.  I had the weekend duty (no liberty).  Sunday morning, December 7th, a buddy and I took the shuttle bus from the hospital to the Block Recreation Center at Fleet Landing.  We were going to attend 8:00 am Mass at the center.  (The shipyard did not have a chapel at this time).  Approximately at 7:45 am, my buddy and I were walking up the sidewalk to the center when a group of Japanese planes flew over and started strafing us as they were apparently on their way to Battleship Row. We saw a lady get hit and was knocked down by the bullets as she was approaching through the gate from the Dependent Housing across the street.  We ran to help her and saw that she has a "big hunk" of her right thigh blown off.  We tore off part of her petticoat and made a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.  Then we commandeered a car and took her to the Naval Hospital.  As we passed the Main Gate, we saw the Marines on duty firing their .45s at the Japanese planes. Upon my return to the hospital, I then went to work at the emergency ward treating the burn patients, spraying their "flash burns" with tannic acid.  There were so many patients (about 350) that they had to be treated lying on the grass outside the ward.  I helped move the bodies of some of those who died to a temporary morgue which had been set up in the former Nurses' Quarters.  In the Commanding Officer's report to the Commandant, Naval District 14, he stated:  "A number of patients who died in the hospital as a result of extensive body burns would probably not have died, had they been wearing more clothes when injured". About 10:30 am, I was called to return to duty at the Food Service where I was in charge of the storeroom. (I had the keys).  I spent the rest of the day supplying food to the galley and acting as Master-at-Arms, 4,500 persons were served at the noon day meal.  The large number was composed of Army, Navy, and Marine defense units in the vicinity plus a considerable number of men from lost ships. After the evening meal, I was in the office of the Food Service Officer (a Chief Warrant Officer).  He opened a desk drawer and took out a half bottle of rum, which he had saved from Thanksgiving for the Christmas fruitcake.  "Honish", he said, "I thing we could use a little glass of this to raise our spirits".  I agreed.  A while later we again heard planes flying toward the Ford Island Naval Station and heard Army anti-aircraft guns in the vicinity firing at them.  We did not know whose planes they were, but thought they were the Japanese again.  I then went to the Corpsmen's Quarters, jumped into my bunk and slept. After reveille the next morning, the radio was on in the Quarters and I heard Kate Smith singing "God Bless America".  To this day it brings tears to my eyes.  I then also learned the planes from the last night were ours and some personnel from the planes had been hit and were patients in the hospital. I was also able to write a note on a small index card to my Mom and Dad in Kansas.  Before my mother died, she gave the card back to me.  The card is postmarked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 8th, 1941.  It is also marked Naval Censor and has a 20 cent canceled airmail stamp: "Dear Mom and Dad,           Just a line to let you know that I am all right and feeling fine.  I will write more when I get a chance but don't worry if you don't hear from me right away.           Love to all,           Your son,                     Joe"

Information provided by Joe Honish.