75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor:
Ewa Field, Ewa Village, Hawaii took Zero fire, too
An airfield gets
its due during a ceremony recalling Dec. 7, 1941
Kiyoshi Ikeda ran to his home in Ewa Villages when he saw the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor 69 years ago and was closing the door to his kitchen when a
Japanese fighter pilot fired a round that landed two feet from him.
"Bakatare!"
Ikeda yelled back at the pilot as other Japanese Zeros were already strafing Ewa
Field just a mile from Ikeda's home, killing four Marines and wounding 11 more
in three waves of attack, according to the 14th Naval District Command
history.
Yesterday, Ikeda
returned to the abandoned and weed-covered remains of Ewa Field for a sunny
ceremony honoring one of the lesser-known sites of the Japanese attack that
propelled America into World War II.
The ceremony was
one of several held over the last few days that lead up to tomorrow's Dec. 7
commemoration.
World War II
historians at the old Ewa Field yesterday wanted to honor the actions of the
Marines that day -- and to bring attention to the forgotten airfield, which had
once been the hub of Oahu military flight operations on the Ewa plain.
It drew modern-day
Marines who presented the colors, along with historians from the Hawaii Historic
Arms Association and Hawaii Military Vehicle Presentation Association who stood
in for World War II-era sailors, soldiers and Marines and wore World War II-era
uniforms.
The groups also
brought an M-1943 Willys Jeep, an M-2-4 International 1 1/2 -ton truck, a 1944
WC51 Dodge three-quarter-ton truck and a 1943 Ford M20 armored utility car to
give the event more World War II authenticity, said Jeffrey Wang, president of
the Hawaii Military Vehicle Presentation Association and a board member of the
Hawaii Historic Arms Association.
Before it was
renamed Ewa Marine Corps Air Station, Ewa Field was carved out of a
3,000-by-3,000-foot patch of sugar field to tether dirigibles in the 1920s,
according to Navy history.
On the eve of the
Japanese attack, an estimated 700 Marines were stationed at Ewa Field, whose
landing strip was designed like an aircraft carrier flight deck for Marine Air
Group 21, which flew fighters, tactical bombers and scout planes.
Ikeda was a
14-year-old freshman at Waipahu High School and had gotten used to U.S. pilots
making touch-and-go landings on the mock carrier flight deck day and night.
So when he saw
Japanese Zeros flying overhead on Dec. 7, 1941, Ikeda assumed they were
Americans training for battle.
Then he saw the
attack unfold over Pearl Harbor and ran home, only to be shot at by a plane
bearing an unmistakable red circle on its wings and body.
While five or six
Japanese bullets pierced his neighborhood and one landed near Ikeda's feet,
another Japanese fighter pilot merely waved harmlessly at another boy in the
neighborhood, Ikeda said.
"I don't know why
but that pilot shot at me," Ikeda said.
Single-seat
Japanese fighter planes began the first attack on Ewa Field at 7:55 a.m., firing
incendiary, explosive and armor-piercing 7.7 mm and 20 mm rounds in low-level
strafing runs over Runway 1 1/2 9, according to the Navy.
By the time the
first attack ended at 8:20 a.m., the Zeros had destroyed or damaged tactical
bombers and fighters parked on Runway 11's tie-down area and warm-up platform,
according to the Navy.
Zero pilots also
killed the officer of the day as he tried to call the camp to arms from the Ewa
Gate guardhouse, according to the Navy.
The second and
third attacks lasted from 8:35 to 9:15 a.m. and consisted of heavy strafing by
rear gunners flying in Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes that were
retreating from the Pearl Harbor attack.
The Japanese tail
gunners killed three Marines who were firing back from disabled planes,
according to the Navy, and wounded 11 other Marines who were trying to
extinguish U.S. planes burning along the flight line.
Ikeda was not old
enough to join the all-nissei 442nd Regimental Combat Team or the 100th
Battalion that were formed after the Japanese attack, but he showed up at
yesterday's ceremony at Ewa Field because the events of Dec. 7 had a profound
effect on the rest of his life.
Ikeda went on to a
career as a sociology professor at the University of Hawaii but was forever
touched by the efforts of the Americans who joined the fight after the attack on
Pearl Harbor and the lesser-known battle of Ewa Field.
"It developed a
model for me of what a good citizen should be," Ikeda said.
