Video: Watch original Pearl Harbor footage from 1941

Eva Terry
·2 min read
44
In this U.S. Navy photo, the USS Shaw explodes after being hit by bombs during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.
In this U.S. Navy photo, the USS Shaw explodes after being hit by bombs during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941. | U.S. Navy via Associated Press

On Dec. 7, 1941, two years after the start of World War II, the Japanese Imperial Navy drew the U.S. into the fight by launching a surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, per Naval History and Heritage Command.

The U.S. National Archives’ YouTube channel posted a compilation of original Pearl Harbor footage on Dec. 6, 2016. The description reads, “This footage was filmed during the Japanese attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.”

It adds, “The photographer captured footage of an explosion aboard the USS Arizona. Production Date: 12/7/1941. General Note: Original made by Capt. Eric Hakansson, M.M., on 16mm. This is a35mm blown up.”

This attack 82 years ago resulted in the deaths of 2,008 from the Navy, 109 Marine Corps, 218 from the Army, 68 civilians, and wounded over a thousand more, the Naval History and Heritage Command describes. In the two-wave attack, five battleships and a gunnery training ship sank, and many more ships, planes and facilities were damaged.

Radioman Second Class Art Montagne described his experience at Pearl Harbor to NPR. The tragedy happened when he was 20.

He began, “It was a kind of crazy scene where planes were going here and there and you look up and say, ‘OK, where are our planes?’ You know, what I expected to see, like the movies, our planes come sailing down out of the sky and start chasing these guys and shooting them down. There wasn’t a plane.”

“But I looked back and the USS Oklahoma had capsized and all I could see was the bottom of the vessel, totally tipped over,” Montagne continued, “And the men on the Oklahoma, all you could see were their heads bobbing and pretty soon a lot of small boats were dashing out there to help rescue all these men. There were literally hundreds of men out there swimming. Several hundred of them never escaped.”

“About that time, that’s when the Arizona blew. And when the Arizona blew up, it was several explosions, just tremendous sounds. And we couldn’t see too much back there because of the black smoke, and by this time the oil in the harbor started burning.”

To read more about Art Montagne’s life and his experience at Pearl Harbor, read here.