Pearl Harbor 1941

A/N: I'm writing this in honor of all those who died in Pearl Harbor 70 years ago and those who died in World War II.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pearl Harbor.

The first bombs struck us around 8 in the morning…it was a day I will never forget, a day anybody who was alive and there will never forget.

I thought it was unreal…the whole Earth shook; things exploded everywhere…there was no place to hide, no place at all.

I remember waking up in my bed; I thought the noise had been part of a nightmare, only to realize that it wasn't. I had never been so scared, not once. That made me realize that we are usually lucky and don't have to worry about waking us and living the next day, it really did.

I had leaped out of bed and ran over to my window and saw the smoke and ash, it was burning everywhere.

Both my parents had been down at the dock, I was going to join them later.

I raced down and out of the house, toward where my parents were.

My heat had been pounding, sweat had been running down my face and back, and my hands had been a little unsteady.

My heart fell when I saw my parents…my mother was on the dock, her skin burned with ash…she was coughing like crazy. My dad was trying to help, but not really knowing how. I remember feeling my feet slap on the dock as I ran back to get my mother's inhaler…and rush it back to her.

I had tried to help people, but in nobody could do much, just try to wait it out.

In the state of panic I don't remember much, just smoke, ash, and fire, and lots of it. The screams of people, they are noises I will never forget as long as I live…People lay dead scattered on the ground, it was one of the worst sights I have ever seen: the place I called home, the place where I had grown up, the place that was a part of me…it was all being destroyed. I remember the roar of flightier jets as more and more soared in, dropping bombs. The greatest shock I had, after the first one, was when a torpedo hit a large navy ship, TheVirginia,as I stood not fifty meters from it…it erupted in a ball of fire, red hot, and blazing. TheTennessee was also sunk that day, a ship I saw whenever it was docked, gone, just like that.

It seamed longer than the two hours that it lasted. My parents and I had tried to find somewhere safe, and had ducked under large objects when new planes came into the horizon. You had to protect yourself from the fire and ash, but even when you tried to avoid it, it still hit you, and I will always carry the scars to prove it. There were things I saw that will forever haunt my mind. I will never be the same after seeing how cruel people can be, nobody will.

I was lucky, none of my family was killed, but others were not so lucky.

A few days after the attack, we declared war on Japan. So here I am, sitting on a boat, the sea breeze blowing at my face, and the wind rushing by me as I go over seas to fight in a war.

Only one thought is on my mind: I am only 18, that's two young to die.