Memories of Pearl Harbor attack still vivid for Lawton woman, 83 years later

Waurane Hodge was only 7 years old, but she still has vivid memories about the announcement that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor — and the immediate change the news brought to American life.

Dec. 7, 1941, was a day that will live in infamy, said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he addressed a shocked nation in the aftermath of what radio reports had been telling Americans since about 2:30 p.m. Eastern time: America was under attack.

That attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, lasted less than 90 minutes, but killed or wounded more than 3,500 American troops and civilians, and damaged or destroyed more than 20 naval vessels and 300 airplanes. Every battleship at Pearl Harbor had significant damage or was destroyed; dry docks and airfields also were destroyed.

The attack came a little before 8 a.m. Sunday morning (10 a.m. California time). Average Americans began hearing the news after White House Press Secretary Stephen Early announced the attack at 2:22 p.m. Eastern time.

“I remember where I was and what we did, and the impact,” Hodge said, of the shock the moment still provokes 83 years later. “That day I remember perfectly. Some things leave an impact on your life because it changes it so.”

The war in Europe wasn’t a mystery. Hodge said her parents kept up with the war — “They knew what was going on in Europe. We often heard them talking about what was happening in Germany, France, Italy. They talked about it quite openly.” But, the war didn’t affect the average American because it was happening “over there.”

“Americans were, as a whole, rather smug. We were protected. All of that was overseas. We thought we were safe, there were oceans between us. Pearl Harbor opened a lot of eyes,” Hodge said, adding she can still remember President Roosevelt sharing the news. “I can still hear the president’s accent — President Roosevelt had a distinctive Yankee accent. I can remember the faces of my family as we listened, very carefully. We were a very patriotic family. It didn’t matter about politics. It was our country.”

Dec. 7, 1941, was already going to be an important day in the family. Hodge’s family were country people, living on a farm that took care of their needs until her father lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929. Hodge said it took her father years to recover, “but he did.” By 1941, her father had enough money to repurchase the family farm. That particular Sunday, her father made plans to look at another farm for potential purchase before he made up his mind, and Hodge, her 4-year-old sister and the 9-year-old twins were to accompany their parents to the site.

“We (the children) were not happy, but we were going,” she said, adding while the family had a radio, it wasn’t on because it was battery-operated — electricity hadn’t yet made it to their rural Southeast Oklahoma community — so her parents only turned on the radio for specific occasions.

The family made one stop: a cousin’s house. It was there Hodge and her family heard the news on the radio about Pearl Harbor.

“It was of special interest to us all, because, immediately, my mother and dad thought of my older brother, who was 24 and a prominent member of the Oklahoma National Guard,” she said, adding her brother ultimately went to war as a member of the 45th Infantry Division that helped liberate France. “It was very somber. My parents never hid anything from us. We were not ignorant of what was happening in Europe.”

Hodge said her parents and other adults openly discussed news events in front of children, and her parents were attentive to news on the radio, while also reading magazines such as Life and Look, and the Kansas City Star newspaper.

Hodge remembers while her father went to see the farm he initially set out for that day, Dec. 7 was the end of his internal debate. She said her father never said another word about looking at the land, deciding his family would return to the family farm. That particular day, he looked at the land, returned to her cousin’s house for a quick visit and a listen to the radio, but then ushered his family home.

“All mother and daddy wanted was to go and get home,” she said.

She remembers only one thing that day that provoked humor: when the family returned home, a neighbor wanted to talk to her father about the news and her little sister, who tagged along behind her father, heard some words.

“She repeated word-for-word what Mr. Wolmack said. To this day, we laugh about it,” Hodge said, adding her mother really didn’t mind the rough language. “She had a lot on her mind.”

She remembers the rest of the day was quiet and despite the fact it was Sunday, there were no church services that night.

“Our church had a bell that rang when church services began, but no bell rang that night because everyone returned home because the president was going to speak that evening. We were all there, gathered around the radio, to hear President Roosevelt’s speech. It was a very quiet, somber group. After the speech, we talked quietly and went to bed,” she said.

More details came in the days after Roosevelt’s speech. Hodge said the following week, magazines like Time had pictures of the destruction at Pearl Harbor, graphic images that were not hidden from children. She remembers war news came in that format, or on news programs on the radio and on the occasional newsreel people watched when they went to Saturday afternoon movies.

“It was a different time, and hard to describe to people who live where they see action as it happens,” Hodge said. “Ours was a delayed reaction, and there are times I think that was better.”

Hodge said what she remembers most is that Pearl Harbor proved what was going on in Europe could happen to America.

“As I said, we were rather smug, ‘it can’t happen to us,’ it was an overseas thing,” she said. “Pearl Harbor proved it could happen. We were no longer isolated.”