Stephen and Flora Belle Koran

Stephen Koran was an Air Corps aerial photographer assigned to Oahu in 1939. He, his wife Flora Belle, and their infant daughter lived at Wheeler Field in a two-bedroom duplex located about a thousand yards from the photography lab where he worked. They were at home that Sunday morning when the first wave of Japanese planes attacked, and their ordeal, as they tell it below, constitutes an example of numerous instances when the attackers strafed personnel quarters as well as military targets. Stephen's literate and detailed account is also valuable for its descriptions of the bombing of the planes at Wheeler Field and the successful attempt of a handful of Wheeler pilots to get into the air and fight back.

Stephen: "We heard the aircraft coming in. We didn't give it too much thought because, prior to...