Pearl Harbor Recalled: New Images of the Day of Infamy

Front Cover, Pearl Harbor Recalled: New Images of the Day of Infamy, Paintings by Tom Freeman; Text by James P. Delgado, 1991. GGA Image ID # 13e89a99e1

From the Cover

Photographs of the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are well known to Americans, but until now there have never been images of the actual strike. Here, for the first time, a talented maritime artist captures the action of that fateful day on canvas—up close and in color.

Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, this book presents top-quality reproductions of thirty-five paintings created by Tom Freeman to commemorate the event, with supporting text to provide historical background for each scene.

From the Inside Flap

Most Americans are familiar with the images of Pearl Harbor captured by photographers on 7 December 1941. Those famous, oft-published photographs, however, picture the aftermath of the battle.

The few shots that were taken during the action are mostly of poor quality and in black and white— no match for the vivid images etched in the minds of the survivors and recounted in their descriptions.

Now, fifty years after the fateful event, Tom Freeman has captured those memories on canvas in brilliant color and sharp detail. His paintings give a comprehensive view of the actual attack.

From the massing of the Japanese strike force and the launching of aircraft and midget submarines to the torpedoing of the Oklahoma, the gallant run of the Nevada for the open sea, the spraying down of the Arizona's burning hulk, and the arrival of B-17s at Hickam Field, his art puts the viewer in close proximity to the action.

Working from eyewitness accounts, the latest scholarship on both sides, and recent archaeological evidence discerned from the wreckage of the Arizona, Freeman provides amazingly accurate graphic interpretations of the day of infamy.

His paintings are so forcefully immediate that viewers can almost feel the concussion of a torpedo strike, the blistering heat of fuel-stoked fires, and the clammy cold of flood waters.

Chronological in its presentation, the collection offers a total picture. Before introducing the actual attack, the artist shows Pearl Harbor just prior to the first strike and in another painting portrays Japanese drills to perfect shallow-water aerial torpedo bombing.

Freeman ends the collection with a dramatic sunset painting of two young Arizona officers lowering the flag from the fantail of their shattered battleship, and a final portrait shows the Arizona’s sub merged remains still leaking oil from its ruptured bunkers. An informative text supports the paintings with historical details.

Back Cover, Pearl Harbor Recalled: New Images of the Day of Infamy, Paintings by Tom Freeman; Text by James P. Delgado, 1991. GGA Image ID # 13e8aeb9fa

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Paintings
• The Final Moments of Peace: The U.S. Pacific Fleet on the Morning of 7 December 1941
• Phase I of the Attack
• Phase II of the Attack
• Phase III of the Attack
• Phase IV of the Attack
• Phase V of the Attack
• The First Carrier Division Perfects Shallow-Water Aerial Torpedo Attacks at Kagoshima, November 1941
• The Gathering Storm: The Japanese Fleet Sorties from Tankan Bay
• Across a "Vacant Sea," Akagi Steams to Pearl Harbor
• The American Carriers Miss the Attack: USS Lexington (CV-2) Sails
• Arizona's Last Portrait
• I-24 Launches Midget Submarine HA-19
• "We Have Attacked, Fired Upon and Dropped Depth Charges Upon Submarine Operating in Defensive Sea Area"
• "Enemy Fleet in Port": Chikuma's Scout Plane Climbs into the Morning Skies off Oahu
• Fuchida Launches from Akagi with the First Wave
• "Well, Don't Worry about It": Tracking Incoming Planes at Opana
• Havoc at Wheeler
• Wipeout at Kaneohe
• Dauntlesses at Ewa Field Explode as Strafing Zeros Attack
• The Bombs Fall at Hickam

About the Authors

Tom Freeman is a well-known maritime artist whose works are featured on the covers of books and magazines, as murals on the walls of the Naval Academy's new Alumni Hall, as Franklin Mint limited-edition porcelain plates, and on Maryland's first saltwater sport-fishing stamp.

His paintings have hung in galleries across the country, in national park visitor centers, and in the West Wing of the White House. Several have been reproduced as poster art and limited-edition lithographs, two of which, "Breakout from Corregidor" and "Daybreak of Destiny," are available from the Naval Institute.

The collection of paintings reproduced in this book was first introduced to the public at a show in the Naval Academy Museum and will be on display at the Arizona Memorial in Honolulu for the fiftieth-anniversary ceremonies commemorating the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sponsors of Freeman's work include corporations such as Martin Marietta, as well as publishing houses and the National Park Service.

Born in 1953 in Pontiac, Michigan, Freeman now lives with his wife and children in Forest Hills, Maryland, where he also has his studio.

James P. Delgado is a maritime historian and underwater archaeologist who spent thirteen years with the National Park Service (NPS), working not only in archives but also on the ocean floor, where he investigated sunken ships.

As a member of the NPS's Submerged Cultural Resources Unit, Delgado participated in an underwater survey of Pearl Harbor that included the mapping and study of the hulks of Arizona and Utah.

His work has also taken him to Bikini Atoll, where he dived on the wrecks of Yamamoto's flagship Nagato and I he carrier Saratoga, and to Veracruz, Mexico, where he explored the wreck of the U.S. brig Somers.

Delgado is the author of eleven books, including To California By Sea: A Maritime History of the Gold Rush, and several dozen articles, which have been published in leading magazines. He recently completed Ghosts of the Atomic Age: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll.

Named executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum in 1991, Delgado and his family now reside in British Columbia.

Citation

Freeman, Tom (Tom W.) Pearl Harbor recalled : new images of the day of infamy / paintings by Tom Freeman ; text by James P. Delgado. Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, c1991.
xiv, 160 p. : col. ill. ; 22 x 28 cm.
D767.92 .F74 1991
ISBN: 155750251X (alk. paper)

Library of Congress Catalog Listing

• Personal name: Freeman, Tom (Tom W.)
• Main title: Pearl Harbor recalled : new images of the day of infamy / paintings by Tom Freeman ; text by James P. Delgado.
• Published/Created: Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, c1991.
• Description: xiv, 160 p. : col. ill. ; 22 x 28 cm.
• ISBN: 155750251X (alk. paper)
• LC classification: D767.92 .F74 1991
• Related names: Delgado, James P.
• LC Subjects: Freeman, Tom (Tom W.); Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941--Pictorial works.
• Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-156) and index.
• LCCN: 91029585
• Dewey class no.: 940.54/26
• Geographic area code: n-us-hi
• Type of material: Book