www.yourblackworld.com
Reported by Maria Lloyd
Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, marking 72 years since the Japanese attαcked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Just one day after the bοmbing, America entered World Wαr II.
For 93-year-old Nelson Mitchell, today marks 72 years since his near death experience. Mitchell’s grandparents were slαves in Georgia. He spent his youth picking cotton on his family’s farm in Texas. He joined the Navy in 1940, a time when African-Americans could only serve as cook or a captain’s steward, a life Mitchell claims was better than working on the farm. “All of the whites, they could do anything they wanted to on the ship,” Mitchell told a Peoria, AZ news station. “But we were restricted to waiting on the officers. But that was a better life than what I had working on a farm.” He was assigned to the U.S.S. Jarvis, which was stationed at Pearl Harbor at the time of the attαck.
Mitchell vividly recalls where he was and what he was doing when the Japanese strυck. ”I got up, out of my bunk, and the ship was shaking. I looked out and the whole bay was full of fire.” He immediately reported to duty. ”I didn’t have a bαttle station, but I did stay in the pantry and waited on the officers until the bοmbing was over.” Fortunately, the Jarvis wasn’t hít during the attαck and was able to get out to sea, patrolling the Hawaiian coast for a couple of weeks to scout Japanese submarines.
Mitchell walked away from the attαck physically unscathed and was reassigned; however, the fate of the crew members onboard the Jarvis that following August wasn’t as fortunate. The Japanese torpedοed and sank the submarine during the Bαttle of Guadalcanal, kílling all 233 men onboard. Mitchell retired from the Navy in 1948 and took a job working in a warehouse in California. He married and moved to Phoenix, AZ to be with his ailing father. He worked at Luke Air Force base and later as a gardener, a career he retired just three years ago. Mitchell, who will be celebrating his 94th birthday in January, boasts good health. ”It just shows that, I reckon that if you take care of yourself…so far I’ve been pretty healthy,” he said.
Mitchell believes African-Americans who are serving in the military today have a much better opportunity than he did. ”They [African-Americans] can make ranks and can do a lot of different things,” he said. “They have a great opportunity. If they don’t make it, it ain’t nobody’s fault but themselves.” He believes the training African-Americans receive in the military today is top-notch. ”When I was in the service, I was denied that type of training,” Mitchell said. “But one thing about it is, I said that whatever I do, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.”
December 8, 2013 at 9:59 am
I am 80 years old did 21 years in the Air Force and you can rest assure every dirty trick the white man can pull he does..
I was 8 when the war started and I knew a couple of men that did not come back. Of course a lot of people did not know that the military was a black and white thing.. The way we as blacks are just left out of history.. My mothers brother served the whole dame war. I went in the service Sep. 14 1951 retired 30 April 1972..Now Black History is coming an if you stay up all night you may see something blacks did other then killing each other..
Traveller
December 8, 2013 at 9:44 am
The above article about Sgt. Davis appeared yesterday in the Montogery Advertiser and was written by Alvin Benn.
Traveller
December 8, 2013 at 9:37 am
Mr. Mitchell is not the last Black American survivor. Read Below of Thomas Davis
THOMAS DAVIS remembers being on board the
Destroyer Tender USS Whitney at Pearl Harbor
when the Japanese attacked.
It was early on a Sunday morning in Hawaii and breakfast was being served to sleepy-eyed officers aboard the USS Whitney anchored at Pearl Harbor.
During a break, one of the breakfast stewards went topside on the destroyer tender to stretch his legs when he looked up to see aircraft approaching his vessel.
It was shortly before 8:00 a.m., and he didn’t think much of it at first, dismissing them as part of a military training maneuver.
Then the planes got closer, and he could see unmistakable bright red “Rising Sun” emblems on the fuselages.
The Zeroes and dive bombers began to get even closer, and the steward knew it was no drill.
Moments later, the Japanese planes began strafing the Whitney and nearby ships before moving on toward their main targets neatly lined up on Battleship Row.
It was Sunday 7 December 1941, and America was plunged into war.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt afterward described the attack the next day as “ A date which will live in infamy …”
Tommy Davis of Montgomery, Alabama, was that young steward aboard the Whitney and among the first to see the Japanese planes headed toward his ship.
“ I rushed below deck to tell the skipper what I had seen but, by then, everybody on board had been ordered to their battle stations,” said Davis, during an interview at his east Montgomery house.
He was ordered to the sick bay to help care for the wounded, but there weren’t any. The Whitney was lucky because, by the end of that dreadful day, 2,390 Americans on board ships or assigned to shore duty had died in the sneak attack that is being commemorated today.
Most of those killed were aboard the USS Arizona, a battleship that still lies beneath the waters of Pearl Harbor — a frequently visited symbol that angered and aroused a nation that would have its revenge four years later when Japan surrendered, ending World War II.
Pearl Harbor Day is observed each year but has become an event attended by a dwindling number who were there on that particular day, 7 December 1941.
The ranks have been thinned by age and illness.
What had been America’s first line of defense in the South Pacific back then is but a distant memory today.
Davis was a small part of a huge naval operation known as the 6th Fleet. By the time the last Japanese planes had returned to their carriers, the fleet had been devastated with most of the battleships sunken or badly damaged.
“ We were lucky the carriers weren’t at Pearl during the attack,” Davis said. “ That’s what they were after. They wanted the carriers, but they were out to sea.”
It was a stroke of good fortune for America. Battleships were losing their military importance and aircraft carriers were becoming major reasons for victory in the Pacific — watery takeoff and landing strips that launched thousands of aircraft that eventually brought Japan to its knees.
At the age of 93, Davis knows he doesn’t have that many years left to recount his Pearl Harbor experience, and he’s happy to oblige if anyone asks him.
“ We used to have reunions of those who were there that day but had to stop because so many had died,” he said. “I do what I can to serve as a reminder of December 7.”
He uses his two vehicles as a way to remind motorists behind him of what he went through. Each has a “ Pearl Harbor Survivor ” bumper sticker on it.
Davis also had something else that set him apart from the other soldiers, sailors and Marines who served during World War II — his color.
America’s military was segregated during those days, and black enlistees in the Navy were assigned to positions as cooks and stewards — jobs similar to the one Davis had at Pearl Harbor.
It would be another decade before the country’s military branches were ordered integrated by President Harry Truman and Davis took advantage of it.
Instead of remaining in the Navy, he transferred to the Marine Corps and rose through the ranks to become a Master Sergeant before retiring after 30 years of military service.
In addition to World War II, he also served during the Korean War and the Vietnam War, becoming a positive influence reflecting the gains made by black troops who proudly wore uniforms of their country with the end of segregation.
Unlike some Pearl Harbor survivors, Davis holds no grudge today against the Japanese. In fact, he drives a Japanese car.
“ I’ve never had a problem with Japan and what happened back then,” he said. “ I just did my duty the best way I could.”
Rear Admiral (Ret.) Clyde Marsh, state commissioner and director of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, has saluted Davis “ for his service and commitment ” to America.
“ We as a nation can never fully repay the survivors of Pearl Harbor for their arduous service and suffering they endured,” Marsh said Friday afternoon.
A Lowndes County native who is a member of Lilly Baptist Church in Montgomery, Davis acknowledges there are some things he need not do anymore. One is driving a car. His wife of 30 years does that for him.
No one needs to tell him how fortunate he was to have survived the attack at Pearl Harbor, particularly since he wasn’t assigned to the Arizona.
“ A friend of mine was,” he said. “ He asked me to spend the night with him, but I told him I’d rather spend it on my own ship.” It was a decision that probably saved his life because the night in question was 6 December 1941.
Had he accepted his friend’s invitation, he probably wouldn’t have been enjoying and appreciating 72 additional years in a long life. “ He died on that ship,” said Davis, a witness to what happened at Pearl Harbor and someone who outlived the Whitney. It was sold for scrap on 18 March 1948.