However, just across the international dateline on Wake Island, it is December 8th. There its also the 70th anniversery of the beginning of the war. For the marines, navy personale, and 1,200 civilian workers, today was the begining of an experience that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.
My grandfather was on Wake Island during this turbulent time and it's his story that I am now researching.Like many who grew up during the great Depression my grandfather traveled throughout the nation in search of work. As a young man he worked in various government contracted jobs all over the US. Through his skill in plumbing and connections through work on various military installations in California, he applied for a position on Wake Island.
The opportunity Wake offered was too much for most men to turn down. The company in charge of Wake Island's base construction was Morrison Knutson and through the government contract it enjoyed, was able to offer chances for promotion, bonuses for continued service, good wages, and most importantly adventure.
Until now my grandfather's story on Wake has been left at that. However while at the Wake Island Civilian Survior Reunion in Boise Idaho, I was introduced to a book that mentions a Joe Dollar. The lady who introduced the book to me, was Karen Miner and her father was in fact a plumber on Wake Island. Although my grandfather's name was Clyndon it seemed unlikely that another Dollar working as a plumber and It turned out that there were no other Dollars on the island. We decided that The Joe Dollar of her grandfather's book probably my grandfather and the only reason John Burton had written down Joe was because he had written the book long after the fact and probably forgot my grandfathers name.
Reading through the book I became the first one in my family to hear a story about where Grandpa was when the Japanese Empire attacked.
On December 8th, 1941, my grandfather was out repairing an important fuel line with fellow plumber John Burton. At about five minutes till noon at truck came by to take them to lunch.
"We were just about to board the truck, when we heard a squadron of airplanes approaching. We looked up to see them coming out of a big blak cloud, just off from the our air field. Someone hollered, "It's our reinforcements!" Those words were just uttered when all hell broke lose! " (1)The Japanese planes strafed and bombed the installments of Wake Island.With surprisingly pinpoint precision, they destroyed Wake's barracks, mess-hall, hospital, and Pan American Clipper Hotel. Had the Japanese came five minutes later, my grandfather and most of of the civilian workers would have been in the mess hall and probably dead. 
One of the interesting parts of this story is that fact that when the Japanese attacked at 12:00pm its was a monday on Wake Island. while everyone was working like that had normally been doing, Pearl harbor had been attacked earlier in the day.
The official report has been received by the head of the marines on Wake Island, Major Deveruex at 6:50 AM, so you have to wonder whether civlians were informed of the current state of war between Japan and the US. (2)
In one account of a civilian named Jim Allen in the book, "Jim's Journey" by L.A. Magnino, the author seems to think that civilians were given no official notice of war. She notes that there was evidence however, of something not being right. Rumors were going around that something had happened, and evidence was shown through the marines battle ready condition. It didn't really sink in that something might be wrong until one of the clipper planes that was scheduled to leave for the Philippines its usual time of 10:00am returned unexpectedly. Nevertheless like my grandfather he continued to work until the attack came at a little passed noon. (3)
Looking at these stories and understanding how my grandfather fit into the narrative of World War II makes me feel a renewed sense of connection to him, even though he has been gone for nearly 15 years now. I'm reminded that our links to these kind of stories are rapidly dying off. Even in the case of Pearl Harbor, we are rapidly losing the significance and importance of these stories. We are losing the memory of the people our grandfather's and fathers became through their experiences in war. They assumed risks when they went into these professions and those risks were for a what they felt were necessary to escape the grips of poverty induced by the Great Depression.
The attacks on Wake Island and Pearl Harbor are termed "Surprise attacks" But in reality the years leading up to the war were filled with indications that we would be at war with the Japanese Empire. Knowing the risk and still going through with the actions says something profound about my grandfather and the other soliders, civilians, nurses, and others who were there on the first day of WWII. They were people of strong character, willing to travel closer to an enemy they knew one day might kill or capture them, and do a job for their country. The lessons they learned an attitudes they came out with after the war are amazing and should be remember. My grandfather in particular came back to the United States a firm pacifist. Even after my he was captured by the Japanese military and spent the remaining years of the war in a POW camp, he still never blamed the Japanese people. He knew the risk of entering a job that might be drawn into war and knew what it could do to a person. My uncle quotes him as saying, "When the gods of war are unleashed, men cannot be faulted for their actions" and I think that lesson needs to be remembered. War is hell.
I'll leave you with this thought my one of my US history professor once told me..
By 1917 Civil War soldiers on both sides were nearing the end of their lives. The life expectancy of the time was an average of 48 years (4). If the average soldier was around twenty years old during the Civil War, they would be 72 year old. Those that could remember the United States' greatest conflict were fading from memory. Younger and naively nationalistic Americans were now being faced with a new war, World War I. Maybe this significance might be lost to you but World War I was by my knowledge the most unnecessary war of all time and is the primary cause of World War II. Because our country forgot what war was really like we had forced the nation down a path of continuing war for the next century and beyond.
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| My grandfathers POW. identification he carried with him while in captivity for nearly four years |
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-George Santayana
1.John Burton,"Traveling Life's Twisting Trails",Vantage Press, New York 1992,p.60
2.Duane Shultz"Wake Island: A Galant Heroic Fight" St. Martin's Press. New York p.45
3. L.A. Magnino,"Jim's Journey: A Civilian POW's Story" Hellgate Press, p.45-46
4.http://demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html
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