75 Years on, Pearl Harbour Attack Survivors Recall Fateful Day

Lauren Bruner escaped with serious injuries during the attack, and wants his ashes to be buried at Pearl Harbour.

Lauren Bruner, one of five remaining survivors of the USS Arizona, which was attacked on 7 December 1941, holds a photo of himself from 1940. (Image: AP)

On 7 December 1941, Lauren Bruner survived one of the worst attacks of World War II that occurred on American soil. Bruner, then 21, was aboard the USS Arizona when Japanese fighter planes rained bombs on Pearl Harbour. As the ship sank within the next nine minutes, he was shot in his left leg and suffered burns all over his body, but managed to survive.

We had to sit there and take it until they were all done. The flames blew right through and cooked me right there. You’re like a chicken getting barbecued. 

Lauren Bruner, USS Arizona survivor.

Bruner is one of the five remaining survivors of the attack. Even 75 years after the attack, he winces at the memories of that 7 December. Bruner’s hands were burnt so badly that almost had to be amputated, but instead, the doctors peeled off the dead skin to let new skin grow.

He returned to service in the Navy after months of recuperation. Now 96, Bruner still finds it difficult to talk about the attack. Like several other survivors, he now wishes that his ashes be buried with his shipmates in the wreckage of the Arizona itself.

Lauren Bruner with trading cards showing his shipmates, at his home in La Mirada, California. (Image: AP)

While Bruner survived the attack, Joan Rodby and Emma Veary were schoolchildren back then who witnessed the bombings from a distance.

We could see the airplanes flying and bombing, you know, and the black smoke and fires.

Emma Veary, Pearl Harbour witness

After the Pearl Harbor attack, schools required students to carry gas masks with them at all times. (Image: AP)

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The Pearl Harbour attack is one of the deadliest assaults of World War II. The attack left 2,300 servicemen dead; more than half of them perished on the USS Arizona and many of them remain entombed on the wreckage of the battleship even today. And for people like Bruner, the wounds may have healed, but the memories of that fateful day live on.

Video Editor: Rahul Sanpui