“My ship was just 50 feet in front of the Arizona,” Fiske remembers with a tear in his eye. “We saw the airplanes coming in, but no one paid much attention to them because we thought it was a drill. People ask me how come I didn’t know it was a Japanese airplane. I said I didn’t have my X-ray eyes in that day. I mean, if you can see a think 5 to 6,000 feet ahead of you, you have one heck of a pair of eyes. After the first torpedo hit the ship our first sergeant told us to get to our battle stations because we were at war. Even as I was running it didn’t sink in yet. I thought maybe it was a mistake, but after several more torpedoes fell things got a bit more exciting… and real. ”
Although the attack on Pearl Harbor happened almost 60 years ago, Fiske has lived with the memories of that day every moment since then. His life has been effected in numerous ways unimaginable for anyone who wasn't there with him, and even though he managed to walk away from World War II alive, he admits that the hate he took away from the battle almost killed him.
“I hated so much. The hate that I had put me in the hospital for three and a half months with bleeding ulcers. I almost died. I thank the doctor that operated on me and took out the ulcers everyday. I thank him for my life. Not only that, but he’s the one who made me a human being.”
As though Fiske’s story about Pearl Harbor isn’t entertaining and educational enough, his story about life after Pearl Harbor is just as noteworthy. Since walking away from the war, Fiske says that he has forgiven Japan for attacking Hawaii that December morning. In fact, Fiske has even become a close friend with the same man who bombed his own ship that fateful day.
“I get a lot of slack because one of my very dear friends was a 15-year-old Kamikaze pilot. Sure he dropped the bomb on my ship, but it was his job. He has even put his arm around me and thanked me for dropping the bombs on them. He said when we dropped the bombs the war ended and he did not have to commit himself. I couldn’t believe it. He was thanking me for dropping the bombs that killed over 132,000 men, women and children in less than two minutes.”
