Attack survivor honors dead
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
More than 1,500 people gathered quietly on the waterfront lawn at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center early yesterday to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the Japanese attack on O'ahu on Dec. 7, 1941.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Beneath bright skies and brisk winds, the occasion was marked by military music from the U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division Tropic Lighting Band, plus formalities such as the Presentation of Colors, a Missing Man Flyover, a Moment of Silence at 7:55 a.m. (when the 1941 attack began), and prayers of peace and remembrance.
Pearl Harbor veteran Edward Borucki of Southampton, Mass., shot video of the ceremony at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitors Center yesterday for fellow veterans. Borucki was a petty officer 3rd class on the USS Helena.
But the protocol and solemnity were interrupted yesterday when keynote speaker John Finn, 93, stepped up to the podium. Recipient of the first Congressional Medal of Honor for World War II and the only person living to be awarded a Medal of Honor for the Pearl Harbor attack, Finn also qualifies as the most colorful ambassador of the "date which will live in infamy."
While other speakers needed to lean in to the microphone to be heard, Finn, at 5 feet 5 and 125 pounds, required no amplification.
"I've been asked to come here and stick to my story," Finn boomed. "I've told ... these other people, 'Just kick me in the fanny when I've talked too long,' because I do have a story to tell."
Will Hoover • The Honolulu Advertiser
For the next quarter hour, Finn, of Pine Valley, Calif., told his tale, cussed like a sailor, startled the audience with his unique brand of honesty and gave everyone at the free event a rare glimpse of a genuine hero and American original.
Ninety-three-year-old John Finn, who won the Medal of Honor for heroism during the attack, manned a machine-gun post at the Naval Air Station in Kane'ohe.
The story was long on anecdotes about others' bravery that day, and sparse on details of his own deeds as a chief ordnance man at the Naval Air Station in Kane'ohe.
Finn, who has never found it easy to tell his story, reminded listeners that the purpose of the occasion was to remember and honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice more than six decades ago.
More than once he reminded himself why he had been invited.
"I've been told to stick to my story," he said. And, after a brief pause, "Well, I'd rather talk about my shipmates."
Finn acknowledged that he set up a .50 caliber machine gun in full view of enemy aircraft that morning, and that he fired until the last Japanese plane was gone. "I picked up a little shrapnel here and there," he conceded.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
In fact, Finn was wounded 21 times that morning and finally ordered to leave his post and get medical attention. He was hospitalized for 16 days.
Pearl Harbor survivor Manuel Magdalenos salutes aboard the USS Arizona Memorial, where a private commemoration was held to mark the 61st anniversary of the Japanese attack.
Even as Finn was getting a standing ovation, a second, private memorial ceremony was transpiring across the harbor at the USS Arizona Memorial for about a hundred invited guests, including members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the USS Oklahoma Family.
Another Medal of Honor recipient, Sen. Daniel Inouye, spoke, as did keynote speaker Rear Admiral Robert Conway, Jr., Commander, Navy Region Hawai'i.
Both the Arizona and waterfront lawn ceremonies began at 7:45 a.m. and ended one hour and 45 minutes later. Before Finn was able to leave the visitor center, however, he got rock star treatment as a swarm of well-wishers sought autographs. For well over an hour, he signed programs, shook hands, posed for photos and kissed women.
"This isn't bad," Finn said at what was obviously another memorable morning for him on O'ahu.
