Program scheduled to commemorate 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack
A milestone anniversary will be crossed during the upcoming week, with Wednesday, Dec. 7 marking the 75th anniversary of the bombing by Japanese forces of United States military bases and assets on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the subsequent involvement by U.S. military forces in World War II.
In anticipation of the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Larry Turner will be hosting a special program about four local men aboard the U.S.S. Arizona that day and their lives at Russell Memorial United Methodist Church in Wills Point beginning at 5 p.m. Dec. 4. RMUMC is located at 201 S. 4th St. For those unable to attend, Turner's presentation will also be live streamed at russellmemorialumc.org.
Dec. 7, 1941
The actions by the Imperial Japanese Navy included the sinking of four U.S. Navy battleships, the USS Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia and California, damage to other pieces of the U.S. fleet and more than 2,400 fatalities.
The Arizona and its crew were the hardest hit by Japanese forces, with nearly half the number of reported fatalities from the day, 1,177, coming from the attack.
According to subsequent reports, four enlisted men with ties to Van Zandt County were on board at the time of the Arizona during the Japanese attack: Dee Cumpie Ayers, a 1935 graduate of Wills Point High School; Allen Brady Fincher, born in Canton and graduate of Grand Saline High School in 1940; Brooxey J. Johnston, who attended Wills Point schools before graduating elsewhere; and Horace Van Wood, a 1938 graduate of WPHS.
In the days before 24-hour news networks and the internet, Canton and Wills Point newspapers did their best to keep pace with the breaking news almost 4,000 miles away, publishing weekly articles that captured the uncertainty of the moment.
