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Medfield Students Interact with Pearl Harbor Veteran, Survivor through Skype [Video]

Medfield High School students use technology to bring history to life.

As a way of commemorating the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Medfield High School students used technology to bring history to life when they Skyped a Pearl Harbor Army veteran as well as a Hawaiian witness who was 11 years old when he witnessed the attack.

The program is part of the Pacific Historic Park’s Witness to History Distance Learning Program Pearl Harbor Survivor Series, which personalizes history, according to www.PacificHistoricParks.org.

Said the site: “As survivors tell their firsthand accounts of Dec. 7, 1941, textbook facts acquire meaning and relevance for today’s students. Participating survivors include veterans of the U.S. Navy, Army, and Army AirCorps as well as civilians.”

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Kathleen Emerson, a Medfield history teacher, said the program gives students a unique opportunity to understand and grasp information regarding the history of Pearl Harbor.

“I think any time you can personalize history for kids, it makes it much more real,” said Emerson, who met survivor Bob Kinzler on the USS Arizona in 2006, when she was one of 40 teachers from around the country to participate in a Pearl Harbor workshop for a week. 

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Not everyone can visit the USS Arizona Memorial personally, she explains. 

“The Witness to History Videoconferencing program provides students and educators on both a national and international level with a unique and invaluable distance learning opportunity dedicated to the history of Dec. 7, 1941," she said. "Through firsthand accounts, artifact examination, and expert historical interpretation, the events surrounding the Pearl Harbor attack come alive for students.”

In Medfield, the MHS junior class filled the Lowell Mason Auditorium for a videoconference with Bob Kinzler, who was an Army Morse Code operator, radar specialist and trucker driver, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor; and Jimmy Lee, who was an 11-year-old witness, who was feeding the pigs on his farm when the area was attacked.

The men were engaging, describing how they felt that day, and how it has affected them. 

The hour-long videoconference included an introduction by Paul Heintz, the Education Director of the Pacific Historic Parks, a 15-minute film by Aperture Films, Ltd. about the attack on Pearl Harbor, retelling of the men’s personal experiences, and ended with a question-and-answer period.

“The harbor was filled with scenes from hell,” said the video’s narrator to students who sat mesmerized by what they saw on the screen.

“It was the loudest noise I had ever heard. The noise was terrific,” recalled Kinzler.

“All you could see was the Arizona burning; there was a lot of thick black smoke,” said Kinzler of the USS Arizona from which 1,177 servicemen were killed (and 300 injured) on that ship alone, 950 servicemen and crew members were never recovered and are honored today by the Arizona Memorial Museum – which has come to symbolize the attack – now floating above it.

Kinzler detailed the damage of Dec. 7, 1941 including 21 American vessels sunk or seriously damaged, 188 planes destroyed, 1,158 Americans injured, 2,390 people were dead, 49 civilians dead (most from friendly fire). He noted that Japan lost 29 planes, five submarine midgets and 64 men.

“After all these years, it’s still ringing in my ears,” said Lee, noting he "had a front view of that day" as he watched the events from his backyard. “Everything looked like a real movie, it looked real … It was the most spectacular site.”

After the presentation – which included old photos and documentation, as well as a radar translation demonstration by Kinzler, explaining that each letter A to Z and number 0 to 9 has a unique sound which he had been able to transcribe at 100 characters/sounds a minute – students were invited to ask the survivors some questions. 

Those questions included:

  • Q: When you think about Pearl Harbor, do you think about the deaths or that you survived? A: Lee said he lost a cousin and that, at the time, he was happy that he was not more affected, adding, “I’m very happy that I get to live to this age.”
  • Q: Would you say [the terrorist attacks of] Sept. 11 [2001] affected you differently [having survived Pearl Harbor]? A: Kinzler said the terrorist attacks were much like the attack on Pearl Harbor in that the military was not ready. He added that Pearl Harbor was different in that, “In 1941, there was a mission and they had a reason to attack. They attacked only military installations. They made no attempt to do any destruction to non-military whereas September 2001 was just a group of terrorists. Their aim was to kill as many Americans as possible and still get away with it but in order to do it, they chose a very populated area on a weekday rather than a Sunday. They accomplished what they wanted to do." Lee recalled thinking that, like Pearl Harbor, it could be a movie again. “I thought ‘Holy Smokes,’ what’s happening here? ... They were terrorists, that’s the thing that scared me the most about the 9/11 attack. What I fear most is terrorism.”
  • Q: What do you remember the day World War II was over? A: Kinzler said, “We were overjoyed. Everybody was in a real joyful mood and when I got home … We were all very happy because it was finally over.” A: Lee said, “On that day, people were just dancing around, guys were kissing the gals. They were honking their horns ... Everyone was happy."

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