Newport, RI - Professor John Jackson meets with 103-year old Pearl Harbor Survivor, retired Lt. James Downing, who was serving aboard battleship USS West Virginia (BB-48) on Dec. 7, 1941. Jackson and Downing met prior to Prof. Jackson's lecture at the Hale Koa Hotel at the Armed Forces Recreation Center in Honolulu. Jackson was part of a team of Naval War College scholars who completed an educational outreach program in conjunction with the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Over six days, the group presented more than two dozen lectures highlighting many largely unknown aspects of the attacks by Japanese forces on the island of Oahu in the Territory of Hawaii; as well as aspects of the subsequent United States response that ultimately resulted in victory in the Pacific Theater.
The speakers and their subjects included:
Stan Carpenter: “A People Respond: The Civilian Community Response During and After the Pearl Harbor Attack”
Tim Demy: “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition: Popular and Patriotic Music in the Aftermath of Pearl Harbor”
James Holmes: “Japan’s Missed Strategic Opportunities”
Hal Blanton: “The U.S. Navy Strikes Back: Naval Operations in the Months Following the Pearl Harbor Attack”.
Jackson: “Beans Bullets and Black-oil: Logistics on the Pacific War”