Remembering Pearl Harbor

Leland Lester presses the power button on his computer in his McCann Village apartment to get a visual reference.

“When I start my computer up, my ship is right there on the screen,” he says as the Microsoft Windows chimes open. “There she is. The U.S.S. Pennsylvania.”

Lester points out the damaged vessels’ positions from his desktop background.

“The old Oklahoma. I saw it roll over. The old Utah, it was our target ship, it was just tankered in there, and the Japs bombed it too.”

The 90-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor sits back down. Adjusting his Hawaiian shirt, he pulls out a photo album. Describing aerial pictures taken from his recent helicopter tour of Honolulu, Lester tells how the houses shown rising up the mountains in the images were not part of the scenic view he used to enjoy during afternoon bike rides before the Japanese invasion.

“The fact is, there’s a world of difference from what’s out there now to what was out there in 1941. The buildings out there back in the ’40s, 1941, were maybe 10 to 12 stories high. Now they’re 30 to 40 stories high and houses all up over the mountain side,” he says.

The landscape is not the only thing that has changed in the years since Pearl Harbor. As the greatest generation begins to fade into the pages of history, remaining survivors such as Lester try to keep their stories alive.

The Newton veteran has returned to Pearl Harbor only twice since the end of World War II — once in 1995 and on Dec. 7 of this year for the 70th anniversary remembrance and celebration. But with fewer and fewer survivors around to make the trip, the future of such celebrations has been put into question.

“We’re hoping there will be more, but it will be the last one I’ll be going to,” the 90-year-old said.

Although in good health for his age, Lester admits trips like that can put stress on hips and knees. For nearly 10 years, Lester and his children have hosted a local Pearl Harbor survivor reunion. Held annually around Mother’s Day, the event is hosted at the Newton Christian Conference Center.

The group will get together to reminisce, and Lester’s family will take the 10-plus vets on day trips to Pella for the Tulip Time Festival and to the Amana colonies. The survivors come from all over the country including Texas, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. But Lester says that in recent years, attendance has declined because of the veterans’ health.

Despite the decline, Lester and his family aim to continue having the annual meetings until they are unable. Although survivor’s numbers are dwindling, the Newton WWII veteran hasn’t let that truth slow him down.

Beginning in 1995, Lester began giving talks and informal lectures about his experiences at Pearl Harbor. While working as a crossing guard and cafeteria assistant at an elementary school New Jersey, he first began this practice when teachers discovered Lester’s history.

They asked him to speak. Before he new it, Lester was speaking with whole communities including Iowa towns like Brooklyn and Newton.

“I enjoy it,” he says. “I’ll always talk if someone asks me. I just ask that they don’t play taps. It’s one thing that gets me to tears.”

It has been 70 years, but the former Naval mess cook remembers the “day which will live in infamy” with stark clarity.

“We were sitting in dry dock, sitting ducks,” Lester recalls. “We only took one bomb though. We were fortunate.”

When the Japanese fighters flew overhead, so close to hard deck that seaman could “have thrown a hand grenade up there,” Lester manned gun number one — 5”/25 caliber.

“I had just fed my 25 men,” he remembers. “I cleaned up my tables, put my dirty dishes in the racks and took them to the starboard side to put them in the dumbwaiter. I was just halfway back when the bomb exploded.”

Gunners Mate Second Class Calvin Girth asked who positioned the weapon, and Lester spoke up, “I did. Right after the damned explosion about blew me off my feet.”

Mike Mendenhall can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 422 or via e-mail at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com.