[GODREKR]

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, eight miles from Pearl Harbor, shrapnel from a Japanese bomb riddled this car and killed three civilians in the attack of December 7, 1941. Two of the victims can be seen in the front seat. The Navy reported there was no nearby military target.

Note: The above information is entirely from the original December 1941 caption.

The actual circumstances: The occupants of the automobile were members of the McCabe family. They lost their lives when a U.S. five-inch anti-aircraft shell exploded nearby while they were driving through Honolulu, en route to their workplaces at Pearl Harbor.

The story:
Edmond Jones had a ringside seat to history. Nursing a hangover from excessive revelry and Primo beer the evening of Dec. 6, the 22-year-old stood on a rural hillside near his home in Kane'ohe the morning after, watching America enter World War II.

The panoramic scene that unfolded before him started with a surrealistic wave of low-flying Japanese fighters streaming toward the naval air station across Kane'ohe Bay. Suddenly, the planes began to fire. "I couldn't believe my eyes," he said.

Later, after he had rushed about sounding a frantic warning to neighbors and family, Jones turned his eyes to the skies above the Ko'olau range and, for one brief moment, witnessed what few others saw that fateful morning — an outright American victory.

The scene was a dogfight between a Japanese Zero and a P-40 fighter that ended with the American plane shooting down its target, which nosedived into the ocean beside Mokoli'i (Chinaman's Hat).

It was just the beginning of a "terrible day."

Death struck closer to home when four shipyard riggers were killed in their car on Judd Street en route to Pearl Harbor. The victims were John Adams and his father, Joseph Adams; their uncle, Joseph McCabe; and McCabe's nephew David Kahookele.

"They were my cousins," said Jones.

"Joe McCabe was Irish Hawaiian. I called him 'Uncle Joe.' He was a good man. So was 'Uncle Joe' Adams," said Jones at his Kane'ohe home. "All four were good men, and they're all buried right down the road."

Initial reports said three civilians were killed when their car was hit by a Japanese bomb, but in fact the four were killed when the car was hit by errant U.S. anti-aircraft fire. A photo of the shell-riddled car — victims still inside — was taken by Look magazine photographer Patricia Robbins and appeared in hundreds of publications. That photo has become one of the more recognizable shots from the Day of Infamy.

Two months to the day after Dec. 7, Jones was inducted into the Army. He remembers feeling overwhelming anger. He wanted to seek revenge. He served in the 298th Infantry to the war's end, learning on his way to Saipan that the United States had dropped an atomic bomb.

But it is memories of Dec. 7 that have been Jones' constant companion for the past 60 years. He never forgets. He wonders what life might have been like if the attack hadn't happened.

"I've had a very exciting life," said Jones. "But I've learned to get over my anger."

Somehow, talking about it is important. There are lessons to be learned. There are parallels that can be made with the events of Sept. 11, 2001. So he tells his friends, his children — he tells anyone who'll listen.

Then he lets them draw their own conclusions.

Three men, three women and one child lie sheeted in an emergency morgue. They were the first civilian fatalities of the attack on Hawaii.

Wrecked cars and burned bodies on F Street, Hickam Field.

[chris]

Great thread man, I had never heard of this.