Pearl Harbor Survivor to Be Buried Alongside Mates

H O N O L U L U, Dec. 7 -- On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Lewis P.Robinson stood on a dock at Pearl Harbor waiting for a boat toreturn him to the USS Arizona after an overnight shore leave.

The clear blue skies suddenly darkened as a wave of Japaneseplanes descended, raining bombs on the harbor.

Within minutes, bombs ripped open the 608-foot Arizona, killing1,177 crew members and sinking the ship.

Today — the 59th anniversary of the attack — Robinson willbe reunited with his shipmates when his ashes are interred bydivers in the sunken hull of the Arizona.

“He always said that he wanted to go back,” said Robinson’sniece Susan Anderson. “He said make sure when he died, he would beplaced on the Arizona.”

Robinson, who died in 1997 at 78, will be the 16th Arizonasurvivor to be laid to rest in the battleship with the 945servicemen entombed there.

Of the 337 Arizona servicemen who survived, only 50 are believedto be still living, said Daniel Martinez, a historian for theNational Park Service at the USS Arizona Memorial.

A Feeling of GuiltDozens of other Pearl Harbor veterans have also had their ashesscattered in the harbor’s waters, fulfilling a wish that survivorssay expresses a mix of camaraderie, honor, gratitude and guilt.

“It’s a sense of wanting to belong with their shipmates,” saidRobert Kinzler, president of the local Pearl Harbor SurvivorsAssociation. “It could be a feeling of guilt that they survivedwhile their shipmates passed away.”

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and other Oahu militarybases sank or heavily damaged 21 ships, destroyed or damaged 323aircraft, killed 2,388 military personnel and civilians and wounded1,178.

Only those assigned to the Arizona at the time of the attack areeligible for interment in the hull of the ship.