Pearl attack survivor, and his ship, honored

The Honolulu City Council honored Pearl Harbor survivor Ray Emory on Wednesday and admired a model of his ship, the USS Honolulu, that had been kept in relative obscurity for several years.

“Most people — they go out on the Arizona Memorial, and basically all they hear is Arizona, Arizona, Arizona,” Emory, 94, told the assemblage at Honolulu Hale.

But there were more than 150 ships and boats in the harbor at the time of the attack on Dec. 7, 1941, and Emory proceeded to name 85 of them.

“You had the Honolulu, of course,” he said. “You had the St. Louis, the San Francisco and the New Orleans, the Rigel, the Cummings, the Preble, the Tracy, the Pruitt, the Sicard, the Ontario … ” He also listed PT boats and other vessels.

Wednesday’s session had its roots in a ceremony in August at Punchbowl cemetery, where Emory met Council Chairman Ernie Martin and Vice Chairman Ikaika Anderson. He told them the city should do a better job of recognizing the Honolulu, a light cruiser.

A bell from the ship, given to the city in 1947 by the Navy, is prominently displayed in the entrance to Honolulu Hale. But the several-foot-long model of the ship by W.T. Carlson, given to Mayor Charles Crane in 1939, languished in obscurity for decades.

In August, Emory challenged the city to display the model more prominently. Martin said at the time he would do that.

On Wednesday, he did.

The Plexiglas-cased ship was on display in the Council chambers as Emory was recognized for his legacy of service with an honorary certificate for his actions in World War II and his ongoing mission to identify and give recognition to Dec. 7 casualties buried as “unknowns” at Punchbowl.

“As we approach Veterans Day, I thought it was very befitting that we acknowledge an outstanding member of our community,” Martin said, adding he thought it also fitting to have the ship model displayed at the meeting.

The Honolulu model will be placed in an alcove at the nearby Municipal Reference Center where it can be viewed by the public. It’s been there for the past couple of years, but that wasn’t well known, and before that it was less visible, the city said.

“Get it out where the public can see it,” Emory said before Wednesday’s meeting. “It’s been in a black hole (since) way back to Mayor (Frank) Fasi’s days.”

Emory, who manned a 50-caliber machine gun on the aft port side of the Honolulu, said it’s not only the history of a noteworthy ship that he wants to emphasize, but also its namesake ties to the city and county.

“It’s Honolulu history,” he said. “If you really study what that ship did during World War II, it’s kind of phenomenal, really.”

That legacy began in Pearl Harbor when Emory and other men ran to battle stations on a Sunday morning to find they were at war with Japan. He was uncovering the .50-caliber machine guns when he saw a plane drop its torpedo near the ship’s fantail.

“I stopped what I was doing and followed the torpedo right over to one of the battleships,” recalled Emory, who figures he fired hundreds of rounds at the descending torpedo planes.

The light cruiser was a Pacific stalwart, later serving in the battles of Kula Gulf, Kolombangara and Peleliu, and was heading for the Battle of Leyte Gulf when it received torpedo damage. The Honolulu had previously been hit by a torpedo, but both times the ship was repaired.

Emory is also trying to track down a silver bowl given to the ship made from dimes donated by Honolulu children, as well as the ship’s wheel, which may be in San Diego.

“(The Honolulu) went through the whole damn war — starting here in Pearl Harbor and all the way into Leyte Gulf,” Emory said.

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Correction: There were more than 150 U.S. ships and boats, including submarines and barges, in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. An earlier version of this story said there were "some 85 ships" in the harbor at the time of the attack.