A Boy at War

Adam never considers not showing up the following morning for the fishing trip, despite his father’s insistence that he must end his friendship with Davi. He hopes that Davi will not be there and that they can just continue being friends at school. When Davi arrives, with Martin, Adam thinks there is still time to say that he can’t go, but instead the three boys proceed down to the harbor on their bikes. Martin and Davi lead Adam to an inconspicuous spot beside a field, hiding their bicycles alongside a fence marked with signs reading “MILITARY PERSONNEL ONLY.” Davi and Martin easily slip beneath the fence at a strategic spot. Adam hesitates for a moment before eventually following them, his father’s admonishments echoing in his mind.

When they make their way down the hill to the shoreline, the three boys can see the whole fleet of ships docked around Ford Island, and Adam is struck by how close they appear. As the sun begins to rise, Martin produces a cigarette, and the three boys share puffs on it as they admire the ships in the harbor. Martin asks which one is Adam’s father’s, and Adam proudly points out the Arizona, rattling off the wealth of information he has amassed on the battleship. Adam specifically emphasizes the indestructibility of battleships like the Arizona and the capabilities they possess in mounting defenses. As they are poking around the shoreline, looking for animals and insects they can use for bait, Martin discovers a rowboat tucked away in the brush. Celebrating their luck, the boys launch the rowboat into the water, anticipating the fish they might catch.

As the boys row out, Adam realizes how close they are to the Arizona, especially when the ship’s band begins playing the national anthem to signal the start of the day. Adam is concerned that he might be spotted with his friends in the rowboat. Just as he begins to suggest that they row farther away from the fleet, Adam becomes aware of the sound of airplanes overhead. The boys are stunned to see the sky above them filled with military airplanes, flying astonishingly low. Adam’s initial thought is that they must have stumbled into a film shoot, or even war games—a staged practice mission meant to replicate a combat scenario. He tries to rationalize with his friends, thinking that it must be a mistake and that the sound effects are incredibly realistic. Then Adam notices the unmistakable red circular emblem of the Japanese rising sun and registers that there are enemy planes above their heads. The first bombs begin to drop from the planes onto the fleet of ships in front of their eyes.

Davi, he notices, is waving and cheering. Adam recalls his father’s assertion that Davi is Japanese first, and that it had been Davi’s idea to come down to the harbor this morning. Frightened and enraged, Adam lashes out, calling Davi a “dirty Jap” and pulling him down into the boat with none of their usual playfulness. Martin intervenes, breaking up the fight. Momentarily, they put their differences aside so they can try to row to safety. As they try to escape the chaos unfolding around them, Adam sees the Arizona, engulfed in flames, and a giant column of water as the ship splits apart and begins to sink into Pearl Harbor.

Before he can register what is happening, Adam is thrown from the rowboat and launched into the air, where he briefly catches a glimpse of the boat and the water below him. Then he falls, plunged into the ocean. He kicks to the surface, coughing up water. Around him, the sky is filled with black smoke, a hail of bullets, and the shouting of wounded and terrified sailors. Adam narrowly misses landing on top of the rowboat, and as he struggles to get his bearings and process what is happening, he holds onto the edge of the boat trying to catch his breath. He looks around frantically for Martin and Davi but cannot see much amid the horrifying scene of destruction unfolding all around them. He manages to hoist himself into the boat, where he scans the water for Martin and Davi and shouts their names. He becomes aware of a stinging sensation on his back, and the blood on his hand when he touches the wound suggests that he might have been shot, but he is too distracted by the thought of Martin and Davi beneath the waves to be concerned about himself. Finally, they appear, both popping up alive from beneath the waves.

Adam’s attempt to reach his friends is agonizingly slow; the rowboat has been left with only one oar, and he struggles to maneuver it like a canoe. Davi is able to pull himself up into the boat, but Martin is injured. A splinter of wood is sticking out of Martin’s chest, moving each time Martin draws breath. Davi insists Martin needs to pull the splinter out, but Martin refuses to allow it, so Davi tells Adam to row while Davi holds onto Martin’s shirt so that they can tow him beside the boat.

Adam rows to a pier, where he and Davi struggle to carefully lift Martin up each rung of the ladder, avoiding the wound on his chest. Martin is losing strength, the blood draining from his face, and Adam looks around amid the catastrophe unfolding around him for someone who can help. Adam spots a car making its way around the debris scattered onshore and suggests to Davi that they might be able to take Martin to a doctor. Davi doesn’t answer, still furious at Adam for attacking him. Suddenly, Adam notices Davi talking with a sailor, who takes the pistol in his hand and strikes Davi with it. Adam begins shouting for him to stop, repeating, “We’re Americans, Americans” (50). Others on the pier pull the man away from Davi. The driver of the car is a woman in a Red Cross uniform who says that she is taking the wounded to medical care. Davi climbs in, and Adam helps Martin inside, the two boys crowded in the back seat with other wounded men. Adam jumps on the car’s running board, but another explosion causes the car to fishtail, and Adam is thrown off as the car continues down the road without him.

Adam climbs back down the ladder at the end of the pier, sitting in the rowboat with the intention of returning to their launch point and hiking back to his bike. Instead, he begins dissociating, detaching from what he has seen thus far and what is still happening all around him. He is rendered immobile as he sinks into the blankness of his mind. When his awareness of his surroundings returns, he is reminded of the burning pain of the wound in his back. Someone yells “Sailor!” and Adam looks up to see an officer, who asks if the rowboat is seaworthy. When Adam confirms that it is, the officer boards and directs Adam to row toward the harbor. Adam tries to explain that he is not in the navy. Instead, he finds himself asking where he should be going. The officer replies, “The Westy,” the nickname for the USS West Virginia.

Adam asks if the officer knows Lieutenant Pelko; irritated, he gestures and indicates that there is nothing left of the battleship. Adam can plainly observe the severity of the situation around him, and he can see part of his father’s ship still sticking out of the water, surrounded in black smoke. Still, Adam believes that his father must have somehow escaped. He cannot fathom the possibility that his father might have gone down with his ship. When a launch boat passes by, the officer jumps aboard, and another sailor pulls Adam from the rowboat with him. They pass the USS Oklahoma, tipped over on its side in the water. Adam boards the West Virginia, hoping that his father has made it to this ship. He runs across the deck calling his father’s name, then descends into the bowels of the ship, navigating around the destruction of the wreckage. An explosion sends him hurtling through a doorway. The cacophony of men screaming, fire blazing, explosions, and metal wrenching apart reverberates all around him. Nearby, a soldier orders Adam to follow him up top, where Adam witnesses the carnage of blood and human body parts littering the deck. He runs back to the ladder. Seeing the launch boat below, he scrambles down into his one means of escape.