Esther Wilson, Nurse

tpscolorado — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:41:33 +0000

My day started like any other. I was on the early morning shift and was practically bored to tears. Nothing had happened in a long time. There were no major events to speak of that needed an entire floor of nurses. The last thing I had had to deal with was a sailor’s broken hand after he had fought another sailor over a game of dominoes. That was it for weeks.

Then that morning I was writing a letter to my father back in the states when I heard a faint rumbling in the distance. I didn’t think anything of it but it grew louder and louder as the seconds passed. Then I saw a plane fly over and another and another. They were flying too low and too fast for it to be a drill, I knew that at least. I then got a sick-feeling in my stomach and the other nurses on the morning shift raced into my office, the same expressions pasted across all their faces. I immediately took charge of the situation and told them that they all knew what to do and all of them ran out to their specific areas, scared but ready.

That’s when the first casualties came rolling in and I’ll never ever forget the first injured man. He burn the entire lenght of his left side and he was screaming in agony, a sound so primal and frightening that I still hear it’s echoes whenever I’m in complete silence by myself for too long. I will admit I froze for a few seconds until I looked out the window and saw many other injured men coming in. I snapped back to reality and began doing what I needed to do. I didn’t stop for two days.

I finally collapsed in a supply closet the night of the second day. My office was currently being used to hold three injured sailors who did not have life threatening injuries. I awoke a few hours later–though it only felt like I closed my eyes for just a second–to one of the nurses banging on the door. She was yelling that we had run out of supplies to treat the more seriously injured patients, especially the burned sailors. I opened the door and told her to get anybody she could find to drive around to other parts of the island and get any supplies they could.

It was busy like this for almost a week. I’ll never ever forget my experience that day and the days following it. It is impossible for me to escape that day.

—Esther Wilson, WW2 Nurse.

Welcome to the TPS Technology Example Blog

tpscolorado — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:39:47 +0000

This blog is for demonstration purposes only. It is an example blog created in conjunction with the TPS example wiki located here. It was created by the staff of TPS-Colorado to show educators how they can use a blog as one piece of technology that supports the development of 21st Century Learning Skills.

Please click on the “Student-Created Diaries” page to see “sample” diary entries made by students. Also click on the “Real Survivor Stories” page to see examples of authentic stories about the real survivors of Pearl Harbor.

Below is a sample diary entry that a teacher might post as an example for their students:

__________________________________________________________

December 8, 1941 – A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

*Important note* – I didn’t write this entry on the day it happened. I was too badly injured to do so, but the nurse who attended to me took time out of her hectic rounds to jot down some notes for me. The diary entry I would have made if I could have written that day follows:

It is 10pm the night after the worst day of my life and the worst day for many lives. I’m bandaged from my waist down to the tip of my big toe, as well as my entire left arm. My entire body burns and the nurse who’s writing this just finished reapplying a fourth set of bandages. And I think I’m yelling because the nurse keeps motioning for me to quiet down. You see, I can’t hear anything, well, except for this intense buzzing in the middle of my head. It’s as if the floor cleaners I used to operate overnight in my dad’s supermarket were spinning directly near both my ears.

I did, however, just hear on the radio President Roosevelt’s address to Congress regarding our country’s Declaration of War on the Empire of Japan. The beautiful and friendly nurse was gracious enough to take the radio off the supply cabinet three beds down and place it directly on my bedside stand and I was able to hear well enough. I think Roosevelt’s response was appropriate though its implications are frightening. We are now at war with Japan! And rightfully so! But I don’t want to get upset and ruin my bandages. I will relate as much to this fine nurse as I can regarding what happened yesterday, the day of infamy:

The morning started off like every morning had for the last few weeks since I arrived at Pearl Harbor. I awoke early in the morning but did not get out of my bunk. I laid there relaxing and listening to the sounds of the ship and of the other men sleeping in their bunks.

My quiet reverie was shattered when I heard a multitude of planes passing over head and then over the loud horn, the CO was saying this was not a drill, we are under attack, repeat, this is not a drill! I immediately ran to the deck and looked up. The sky was littered with planes at various altitudes. I saw low-level planes buzzing the sky and above them, smaller and harder to spot were what I knew to be bombers. It didn’t make sense. And that’s when the bullets started landing all around me and I dove for cover. The next thing I heard was a loud explosion…

I was on the other end of the ship when the second of two bombs was dropped on us. I was one of the lucky ones and I was already heading over the side of the ship when the second bomb fell. I heard the horrific noise as it pierced through most of the top layers of the ship. It did not explode upon impact though but did a few seconds later. What followed was a scene that not many people will ever see. When the bomb finally exploded, the entire front of the ship lifted up off the water and slammed back down and I was immediately overcome with a tidal wave of water. I don’t remember much after that. The only thing I seem to remember is the continuous blur of white streaks in the water that must have been the myriad of seamen in the water along with me. The water was soon engulfed in flames. I was told later it was leaking fuel from the ship. The next thing I remember is waking up to such an excruciating pain throughout my entire body that I was only awake for a few seconds and immediately fell back into a stupor.

I awoke a few hours later covered in bandages. It took a few seconds for me to remember where I was, why I was there and what exactly had happened. As soon as I came to the realization I became aware of the sounds. From all directions I heard the screaming of men and the voices of women telling them everything was alright and to quiet down. I looked around and all I saw were white bed sheets stained with blood and men still in their morning clothes writhing in pain and anguish.

This lasted for days and every day the ward in which I was staying grew more faint. I saw many bed sheets being lifting over the head of another deceased sailor.

And that’s all I want to say about that day right now. Maybe I’ll write more about it later.

–Donald Cook, LSCK

Pearl Harbor Survivor Stories

Esther Wilson, Nurse

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