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They mostly sat in a long row fronting Pearl Harbor — nearly 20 living-history treasures who were eyewitnesses to the Japanese attack here 77 years ago that launched America into World War II. Read more

They mostly sat in a long row fronting Pearl Harbor — nearly 20 living-history treasures who were eyewitnesses to the Japanese attack here 77 years ago that launched America into World War II.

John Mathrusse, 95, came out from the San Francisco Bay Area — as he does every year — for Friday’s National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

Mathrusse was an 18-year-old on Dec. 7, 1941, and had just been assigned to a dive bomber squadron on Ford Island.

“I was down by the (battleship) California, and I remember some of those guys were getting pretty beat up,” he said at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor center. “So we were helping them over to the shore. Some of them were real bad. Some of them were dead.”

The front rows of seating were reserved for Pearl Harbor and World War II survivors, and with their dwindling number, most had a very different military assignment and story from the veteran on either side.

Herbert Elfring, 96, who flew in from Jackson, Mich., was with the California National Guard’s 251st Coast Artillery stationed at Camp Malakole near Barbers Point. He remembers hearing planes and explosions in the direction of Pearl Harbor and thinking it was just another exercise.

Then a Japanese “Zero” fighter flew by and strafed the camp.

“He probably missed me by about 15 feet, fortunately,” Elfring said.

Like some of the others, Elfring was the only one representing his unit at Friday’s ceremony. “As far as I know, I might be the last survivor,” he said.

The veterans of Pearl Harbor, now age 95-plus, arrived with canes and walkers and help from family — but most with memories still incredibly sharp.

By 7:45 a.m., minutes before the commemoration began, almost all of the 1,375 chairs set up on the back lawn of the visitor center were filled as rain showers passed through.

During the two-hour attack 77 years ago, intended to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet so Japan could consolidate its grip on East and Southeast Asia, about 2,455 men, women and children were killed in Hawaii.

The total included 2,390 American service members and Oahu civilians, 56 Japanese aviators and up to nine Japanese submariners.

In her remarks, Jacqueline Ashwell, superintendent of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial, said that when she gets the privilege of taking someone on their first tour of Pearl Harbor, “I ask them to stop for a moment, to go back in time with me, to imagine the harbor as it was on that day — explosions, chaos, smoke, flames.”

She noted that the survivors in the front rows of the seating didn’t have to imagine.

“You witnessed it firsthand,” she said, adding, “We are truly blessed to have you here with us today to help us remember.”

Navy officials said about 40 World War II veterans — nearly 20 of whom were Pearl Harbor survivors — attended the commemoration. Five years ago there were 50 Pearl Harbor survivors at the annual memorial.

This year, for the first time, none of the remaining five survivors from the USS Arizona was able to make the trip. Most have health issues. The net effect was Pearl Harbor history condensed into fewer than 20 eyewitness accounts.

“Hello, my name is Mickey. I was on the USS Pennsylvania,” Mickey Ganitch said to Elfring, who was sitting next to him before the ceremony began.

“I was at Camp Malakole,” Elfring said.

“We won’t hold it against you,” Ganitch joked back.

The energetic Ganitch, who is 99, was a lookout on the USS Pennsylvania with a battle station 70 to 80 feet up in the crow’s nest.

“I had a bird’s-eye view,” the San Leandro, Calif., man said. “I was higher up than some of the planes flying around — the torpedo planes coming in low.”

He was on his ship’s football team, which was supposed to play the USS Arizona team at 1 p.m. for the fleet championship.

One of his good friends, Howard Royer, was on the Arizona and remains entombed there with more than 900 other men. A total of 1,177 were killed on the battleship, still the single greatest loss of life in Navy history.

Sitting on the other side of Elfring was 97-year-old Clarence Byal, a gunner’s mate on the light cruiser USS St. Louis, the only ship to make it out of the harbor during the battle.

Byal was enclosed in a gun turret and felt the pressure from the Arizona exploding.

“Going out in the channel, there was a (Japanese) midget sub out there,” he recalled. “They fired two torpedoes at us. Both hit debris along the channel, so they exploded there, thank heavens.”

Rear Adm. Brian Fort, commander of Navy Region Hawaii, told those gathered, “Today we consider the tragedy of what happened here in 1941, but we also recognize the resilience and the grit of our nation and of our veterans.”

Despite the heavy losses at Pearl Harbor, “it did not break the American spirit — in fact, it charged it,” said Adm. Phil Davidson, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. “We quickly prepared for the long war to come.”

The destroyer USS Michael Murphy passed between the Arizona Memorial and visitor center veterans, rendering honors to both, and F-22s roared overhead, unseen because of the passing storm.

Stephen Cunningham, 62, from Albuquerque, N.M., came out with a large family group to visit Pearl Harbor “because everybody should,” he said. “There are very few ways that we get to demonstrate the depth … of appreciation for the (military) members that have served and we lost.”