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Valley Pearl Harbor survivor recalls horrors of 1941 attack
AUSTINTOWN
Scenes from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, indelibly pressed into Bob Bishop’s mind, are as vivid today as they were when he survived the assault 74 years ago.
“It’s hard to visualize ships around you on fire and capsized unless you have been there,” said Bishop, of Austintown, who was a gunner aboard the USS Tennessee battleship.
The Tennessee was hit by two bombs, one each in turrets two and three.
A large fragment of shrapnel from one of the bombs flew to the nearby USS West Virginia and killed its captain. The bomb that hit turret three killed three of his shipmates, and a fourth was killed by strafing, Bishop said.
“War is a terrible thing ... to see your friends blown apart and burned. I still think it’s important to remember them and to remember Pearl Harbor today,” said Bishop, who was almost 22 when the attack occurred.
“One of my shipmates who died about two years ago, we called him “Butterball” Richards, collected bodies floating in the water after the attack. That is a sad sight that will always be in my memory. We towed the bodies to the hospital,” he said.
Bishop is one of 60,000 American Pearl Harbor survivors and among the estimated 2,000 to 2,500 still alive last year, according to information provided by the USS Arizona Memorial.
The USS Arizona Memorial, located at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on USS Arizona (BB-39) during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and commemorates the events of that day.
Bishop was also one of the 27 original members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Mahoning County Chapter 5.
He said he knows of two others still living, one each in Cincinnati and Canton.
“There may be others, but I don’t know about their status, and there may be other survivors locally who did not become members of the association,” he said.
Sadly, the national Pearl Harbor Survivors Association has turned in its charter.
“We’re getting old. A lot of us aren’t able to do much anymore,” said Bishop, who will be 95 Dec. 19.
The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oahu was the action that led to the United States’ direct involvement in World War II.
After Pearl Harbor, Bishop’s ship, the Tennessee, was repaired, went on to make 13 major amphibious operations and one major sea battle, the Battle of Surigao Straights, in the Philippines.
Another aspect of war, said Bishop, is that the enemy shoots back.
“We took a suicide plane at the Battle of Okinawa. Seven suicide planes made runs on us. We got six. I think we buried 24 people that night. It was a very sad evening ... one of the worst disasters that we had,” said Bishop.
It is important to keep the memory of Pearl Harbor alive because it was a sneak attack, he said.
“We were not at war with Japan. We lost 2,403 people on that day – Navy, Marine Corps and Army Air Corps personnel – and civilians killed when shells came down in Honolulu,” Bishop said.
It also is important that people remember what happened at Pearl Harbor because war is a terrible thing to begin with, he said.
On a personal level, Bishop said he does not really know how Pearl Harbor and the war affected him.
But, he said: “I don’t know why we want to keep killing each other. I don’t understand that, and it’s still going on ... maybe no one understands.”
“I fired over 9,000 rounds of 14-inch shells during the war. I often thought about the people they must have killed ... I didn’t see them, but shells that go up come down.”
“All I did was pull the trigger. I followed orders like everybody else that did their jobs. I don’t think that, long-term, the war affected me too much,” Bishop said.
A member of West Austintown United Methodist Church, Bishop lives in the same area he lived in when he enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 16, 1940. He also wants to preserve the memory of Pearl Harbor for himself and others who were there and their families.
Bishop and his wife, Doris, have three daughters, all registered nurses who graduated from the Trumbull Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Warren: Joyce Bayless, who lives next door to her parents; Gay Lynn Blackann of Austintown; and Sue Carol Blake in Florida.
A 1939 graduate of Fitch High School, Bishop went to college briefly and worked at a gas station for about a year before he joined the Navy. He was discharged from the military after 11 years active and reserve duty, including being called back to serve aboard the U.S.S. Shenandoah in the Mediterranean during the Korean War, as a Petty Officer 1st Class.
After the military, among others he worked for Youngstown Welding and Engineering, Republic Steel in Youngstown, U.S. Steel Ohio Works and 22 years at McDonald Steel in McDonald as an electrical test engineer, officially retiring in 2011.
He is a member of American Legion, VFW, Mended Hearts and is a past master of Hillman Masonic Lodge.