Okay. So this is tape two of an interview with Robert Coates on October 12, 2001. We're talking a little bit about a typical day in Hawaii before December 7th, so I think it's probably time now to talk a little bit about December 7th.

From what I know, looking through some of the stuff you have donated to us, you weren't on the ship that morning.

No, I was not.

Could you maybe give an overview --

Yes.

-- of the day before and --

Yes.

-- lead us into --

We -- we had -- we boarded Nevada and we come back out to the Hawaiian islands and we spent a lot of our time out at sea in war exercises, that's what they called them. In fact, the morning of December the 5th or 4th, I'm not sure, but one of those we were going to have an attack. We were going to have a mock attack of Pearl Harbor, that was our exercise, and there were -- our carriers were supposed to be with us, they were going to have a mock attack on Pearl Harbor, little did they know, but our carrier weren't there. They had been sent off to -- I didn't know at the time, but they -- I didn't know why they weren't there, I knew they weren't there. They had been sent off to deliver planes to Wake Island and Midway. So this place where we were going to have the -- our rendezvous for our attack was, believe it or not, exactly the same place as where the Japanese launched their attack. Kind of coincidence. But, anyway, we had been out on maneuvers, we come in, I think it was the 5th, the morning of the 5th, come in to Pearl Harbor and after we secured the quarters that morning my division officer, he gave us -- and this was kind of standard, every morning they'd give you a rundown of what the world situation looked like and probably more from our viewpoint than the navy and being in the Pacific than the rest of the world is, but more time on what looked like was going to happen with us in Japan and they would always tell us the same old thing and, of course, we'd believe that, but a lot of these navy officers they got the impression, boy, they kind of wanted to have a showdown with Japan because they -- the general consensus was that, well, in 60 days we'd wipe them clear off the ocean, and the reason being that they -- that most of them were shortsighted and couldn't see very good and their ships weren't much good and on and on and on. So we'd have a lecture along that line and we had one that morning and then the division officer when we -- we were excused he called me back and he told me, he said, "Coats," I'd put in for a transfer to the Asiatic fleet and the reason I wanted to go to the Asiatic fleet was because my buddy that joined the navy with me from Kerry, this Frank Elliot, he was on the old Obalala (ph), which was a mine layer. So we wanted to be on the same ship. So I thought well, the Asiatic fleet being small, only two or three ships at that time, I thought good chance if we both got over there we'd probably get put on the same ship. So anyway it didn't turn out, but then -- and he also said at quarters that if anybody had a liberty that they should take it because who was to know how many more liberties we were going to have because war was really starting to look imminent and the atmosphere was such and, well, they were telling us, so we certainly believed it. So that when we got in after quarters, I -- I was on the liberty list so I took off, went into Honolulu, went shopping because it was close to Christmas time.

So I thought, "Well, gee, it will take a long time, so I'll get some presents for my mother." So I went over and got some stuff for her and had them shipped out, and they had -- there was little shops, you'd buy gifts and they'd ship them for you, and then I came back and December the 6th they had a -- they were going to have an all-night liberty, which is unheard of, but for a group of us if you wanted to go over to what they called Nanaculi (ph) Beach and this was a little navy beach the navy used just around the Barber's Point from Pearl Harbor and you'd go past Barber's Point which was a marine air base at that time and then on to Nanaculi (ph) and they had tents there and stuff like this and they'd have beer parties and we'd play horseshoes and different things like that. The reason I rated it was because I had been on the sitting team. I wasn't big enough and tough enough to get on the rowing team because, as I said, they were competitive, but, boy, every ship is going to outdo the other one and there was just -- everything you did was competitive and it was good. So I was on the sitting team and so the -- the one officer that had got me on the sitting team, he was the one that gave me the permission to go on this liberty. So that's where I was. That next morning, why, I was down at this little coffee shop alongside the road, I was down there to get a cup of coffee because the chow hall wasn't open and so I went down there and this little native woman was hollering about something, I couldn't understand what she was saying. Finally I made -- she said something about bombing Pearl Harbor. Just prior to that a plane had flown over real low and this kid that was with me, I looked at that plane and they were always holding exercises all the time and I looked at the plane and thought it wasn't a navy plane because I knew the navy plane, Damn army, they are holding exercises again, and I told that kid, I said, "My God, they are sure making things realistic, they even put a rising son on that SOB." And little did I know. Anyway that little woman, she was hollering about it. So I went back and just got the heck out of there and I got onto Pearl Harbor and by the time -- it isn't very far, by the time I got to Pearl Harbor, got the truck and got over there to Pearl Harbor, I got there just -- the first wave had already hit, they had done -- most of the damage was done when I got there. There was some planes, but not very many flying around, they were shot down and stuff, and the old Nevada was out there and it had got underway and it was out in the middle of the harbor. So naturally that's my home, that's where I'm going. So I got in a boat and there was a whole bunch of us, there were some of us from there and probably some guys from Commontown (ph), I don't know where they were, but anyway all of a sudden there was a boat full of us anyway, and just not for any particular ship. Normally they'd call a liberty boat for anybody going to the Nevada or whatever and call out the ship, but there was no such thing, we just jumped on a boat and went. So the first ship we come to was Nevada but they wouldn't let us go on board because they were underway and I could understand that and I just, boy, I just -- that was upsetting to me because, you know, I knew what was going on and I was scared. Scared to death if you want to know the truth.

I'm sorry to interrupt, but you mentioned in your little memoirs there that you now know why horses sometimes seem to want to run back into the burning barn.

You bet, because they -- they were knocking the hell out of it because they wanted to sink it in the channel, block the channel. I didn't care about that, it was still home. So but anyway then they went to some of those other ships and all these other guys were getting off and there were some of these destroyers that were trying to get underway and they were shorthanded, these guys were -- hell, they were getting off on any ship they could and I guess I was too slow on the draw or something, probably grieving over the fact that they wouldn't let me on the Nevada for whatever reason, I don't know, but anyway I ended up that they gave me _____ on this boat, there was only two guys left, me and another kid, I didn't know him.

So then I had to take that boat back to the harbor, back into -- I was in the harbor, but back to the dock, and they strifed the hell out of us going back in, but anyway that was kind of a bad experience too. On those boats they had -- the bow of them had life jackets and I was standing there in the center of that and the kid in the back he was running the motor and the engines and you'd give him signals by a bell and this kid didn't even know what the signals were; he obviously wasn't a seaman, he hadn't had that training.

How big a boat are we talking about?

Probably about maybe 26 feet, something like that, and anyway when they started strifing it scared the heck out of me

and we had to drive up there, and the only place I could think of was that -- this little cubbyhole where those life jackets was, but all I could get was my head in and I thought, "Well, hell, that isn't going to work." So I went back and was in the boat running over and run aground first, run onto a coral reef.

Anyway I got it tied up and so then I was -- as soon as I subsided I got underneath some steps there, some concrete stairs that came down. There's some buildings up there, the old chief's quarters I think is what they were, and these stairs, concrete stairs, I stood underneath them because I -- at least give me some protection. I didn't like those bullets flying around and there was some woman, I remember that, some woman just sobbing, sobbing, sobbing. And I felt so bad for her because, I mean, I was scared, but I wasn't sobbing. I was scared, but because it was so unexpected for me, I didn't know what it was all about. I knew what was happening. Anyway I went back out there and started running people back and forth to those battleships that were sunk and the battle in the meantime had gone on. So I was not worried about the battle, I was going to do what I could to help. So the crews that I worked with in West Virginia, Oklahoma -- the Oklahoma was capsizing and trying to get -- they were trying to get -- they were trying to chisel through the bottom of the Oklahoma, cut through with cutting torches and get some of those guys that were trapped in there out. And anyway I spent all that day doing that and then that night, why, I was there at the dock and somebody -- some old chief come along there and said that they had had a report that the Japanese -- we had all kinds of reports; the water was poisoned, couldn't drink the water, the Japanese were landing on the other side of the island, and, oh, you just couldn't believe all the reports, just all kinds of stuff. And that anyway this chief come by and told me to go over to the armory and take a couple of guys with me and because by that time I was first class seaman and so they could tell I was a first class seaman and so pick up a rifle and fixed bayonets. I got a rifle and me and these other guys, three of them, why there was -- the Japanese were -- they had a big lumberyard there in the harbor and they were supposedly, according to him, rumors was they were going to set that lumberyard on fire for a beacon for the Japanese to come in and use that for a beacon. So we went out there and, sure enough, I found some Japanese and they were -- they were scareder than I was, I could tell that. But I -- I was not frightened at that time, not of them, because I thought I was doing a job and I'd be done doing it, but I was scared of these two kids that were with me because I knew that they had live rounds and I knew that they were probably, knowing the kind of training that they get, those kids probably wouldn't know any better and they were scared anyway. I was afraid they would accidentally shoot me, you know. We brought those guys in, what they were is they were yardworkmen of Japanese ancestry, I guess, and they were hiding them because it scared them to see Japanese, they were cutting their throats. It's difficult to say, but it's the truth, you can't deny the truth whether you like it or not.

People were -- boy, they were upset. So them poor guys, in fact, just to digress, we had a Filipino that looked more Japanese than he did Filipino and everybody knew him and he come so close -- I was not there, but I was told about it later -- he come so close, a couple of guys hated him and they -- they were ready to kill him right there on the spot.

So it was pretty -- it was pretty traumatic. Then that night, why, I was there on the dock and some planes started coming in and everybody opened up on them, including myself, it was our own planes, of course, we didn't know. Anything flying over was fair game.

So how many -- how many Japanese lumberyard workers were there or how many, you know, Japanese --

Just -- just a couple is all.

And you were able, cooler heads or whatever, was able to prevail and you were able to take them somewhere?

Oh, yeah. I didn't -- no, I wasn't going to let those guys shoot them. I wasn't told to shoot them, I was told to bring them in, so I bring them in. Of course, I told those kids, I said -- I was in the middle and I had one on each side of me and I told those two kids, I said -- I said, "If they try to make a break for it," I said, "absolutely don't shoot unless I tell you to. Don't shoot them guys." So I got them out in front of me and I didn't even search them and I -- because I didn't -- I'll tell you why I didn't, because I didn't want to get that close to them because I had heard all those rumors.

Don't ever get in a fight with them damn Japs because they all no good kitches (ph) and they will tear your head off. So I wasn't going to let them get close to me. But anyway --

So did -- you just took them back?

I took them back over to -- over to the dock over there and turned them over to whoever those officers were over there, I don't even remember now, and when those planes -- we were shooting at those planes. Then the next day that was -- so that -- that's how I spent December the 7th. Then December the th I was still ferrying people back and forth, back and forth, and I -- I was walking, I hadn't eaten, didn't have time to eat, no place to eat anyway, and I hadn't been -- I hadn't been -- I hadn't slept. So and this was the 8th, the day of the 8th, and I was walking along going over to the chow hall and I heard somebody holler and it was my friend, I didn't know what had happened to him. All I knew is I'd seen his ship was turned over and the bottom was sticking up and that was all.

So I figured I'd lost my buddy, but -- it would be Frank, he had a machine gun, we dug several little holes because we didn't know whether those Japs were going to come in there and land or not. So anyway that took a big load off my mind, at least Frank was all right. Then I was busy all that day and that night I just partly gave out, I guess. Excitement must have wore off or whatever. I went over there and laid down in a -- they had a little stadium and I laid down in the little seats in that stadium, what they called Blocks Arena, and I woke up that morning and, boy, I just -- mosquitos had just eaten me, but I slept right through it. No blanket or nothing, just laid down and went to sleep there on that old hard bench.

Then I think it was the 10th, I'm not sure, they passed the word for all survivors off the Nevada to report to the Nevada and so I went out to the Nevada, took a boat out to the Nevada, and it was run aground and I got there and the skipper -- the water was right up to the main deck and it run aground so it wouldn't sink and the old captain, he was -- he was giving each man out his orders. So that's when I got orders to go to the San Francisco and it was a -- it was a heavy cruiser and one of our newer heavy cruisers, what they called a treaty cruiser, 1000 ton, they had a treaty with all naval maritime nations, I guess, whatever nations, Japan, France, Great Britain, Italy, and the United States, and they were trying to slow down the arms race is what they were trying to do, and then they would only allow you to build so many ships and it had to be a certain tonnage and so these cruisers had to be 10,000 tons or less, and try to pack a heavy cruiser frame into 10,000 ton was pretty difficult, but they did it and the -- they built, I think as I recall, there was six or seven of that class and they were the latest heavy cruisers they had built and that was the -- called the New Orleans class. It was a -- oh, gosh, I have to remember a minute. Let's see, there was the New Orleans, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Tuskaloosa, Quincy, Vincennes and Astoria. All those cruisers, all sister ships. The San Francisco -- the rest of them were built on the east coast and the San Francisco had been built in Mirror Island and anyway I was into that and that's where I spent the rest of the war was on the San Francisco.

I want to ask a couple more questions about the events around December 7th and then I'll let you get back on the road.

So basically from what you're saying your job became kind of like a ferry boat captain?

Yes, that's right. That's about the best way to explain it, just running boats, running yardworkers, navy men, back and forth to those ships, they were trying to get those people out of there.

What did the harbor look like?

It was just one big mess of burning oil and flames went out and there was oil all over it and there was a lot of -- there was a lot of, kind of a sad thing too, there was lots of -- lots of starkways (ph), we got them picked up, took them along, just a lot of corpses, a lot of people bought the farm, burned up pretty -- you couldn't -- I made the mistake, I only made it once, of trying to pick one of them up and couldn't, like picking up an overcooked chicken, I guess, is the best way to describe it. It was sad.

So then you say December 10th is when you were --

I think it was the 10th.

So roughly a few days later --

Yeah.

-- you were given orders to go to the San Francisco and so did -- was that an immediate -- where was the San Francisco at that point?

It was there.

Now was it -- my Pearl Harbor geography is pretty poor, but there's battleship row.

Yes, okay.

Is the San Francisco somewhere --

Yes, battleship row, if you look back over towards the beach there, there was some piers there and the San Francisco was tied up to one of those piers and so if you look like this here, here's battleship row.

Uh-huh.

And then here's -- here are these piers and over here is the big crane and the Pennsylvania, the flag ship of the Pacific fleet was in there in dry dock and then these liberty docks and stuff here and the subbases right here, so kind of give you a perspective. Well, right in here was where the San Francisco was.

Okay.

It was tied up to a pier.

Did it -- did it not have a crew, I mean --

Oh, yes. Yes, but what the -- what had happened was they were giving it a miniature yardwork and they had taken a lot of the guns off and they were doing a lot of work on it and so it was in no position to fight or go to sea or anything, so it was just sitting there, dead duck.

So did you and the new crew or the people who came on, did you guys have to put everything basically back together?

Well, no. They -- they had it -- the yardworkmen had -- they didn't -- probably an overstatement I made there about having all those guns, I can't remember what all it was that they did have, but they were putting new guns on and doing something, I don't recall, but they were going to do this preliminary yardwork and it was going to go into dry dock, as I remember. Of course, this stopped all that so they hurried and put everything back together as fast as they could and so we could get out to sea, and what happened there was then the skipper of that ship, of the San Francisco, was a -- he was a navy captain, his name was Callahan and he had been Roosevelt's naval aide. He and President Roosevelt were real good personal friends, not just acquaintances, they were personal friends, and so when they -- when the secretary of the navy came out as soon as he could from Washington, come out to the -- flew him out to the airway and all these other people, why, the first person that he saw really -- probably the first one was Kimmel and I could imagine the second was Callahan because he come -- he had no more landed than it was just a short time and he was over to our ship talking to our skipper and they obviously knew each other. So then just as soon as we could we went out to sea and we went out there to go in and take reinforcements and stuff out to Wake Island and, anyway, we got there about a day too late and we got in the vicinity a couple hundred miles from Wake and we had radio reports that the Japanese were hitting Wake and they had a bunch of carriers and so the commander of the task force was in on one of the carriers and he sent a message, they didn't send these messages, I didn't, these messages because being in the radio gang you were privy to a lot of stuff other people weren't and they were telling about all these Jap ships and everything like that and so the -- I guess whether those were his orders or not, I have no way of knowing, but for whatever reason the officer in charge of the task force decided to get the heck out of there, withdraw, and so we were going to make a withdrawal before the Japs got us because they had us outnumbered and I guess we couldn't afford to lose any more ships. So when they did -- but I was up there working on a little remote up on the bridge and they had little --

-- remotes and radio gear scattered all over in some of these command places and I remember I was in there on the bridge and Callahan, he says -- I am absolutely not going to repeat what he said, he was a real religious man and he never swore, but he says, "I am not going to pass the word to my crew that we're running from those yellow sons of bitches." Those were the words he said, he was not a swearing man. So he had the -- got our attention on the loudspeaker system and he himself passed the word, he says, "We are now making an offensive sweep to the eastward." He wasn't going to say we was running, couldn't do it.

Just again, maybe, just one or two more things and I'll let you get on your way. We've recently had on September 11, as you know, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and then the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and we hear on the TV how people dealt with that and have dealt with that, particularly the first few days.

Yeah.

How did you deal with being there at Pearl Harbor?

Well, it was real traumatic for me. I think after the first initial shock, I think, the big initial shock for me was really is when I come around to where I could see Pearl Harbor and I'd see all the -- what was going on and it was, I mean, I can't -- I can't describe the feeling I had, it was just bad.

It was shock and all I could think of was, "Boy, I want to go home." My home was on that ship, but after the initial shock, why, it didn't bother me, you know, or apparently didn't seem to because I didn't -- in fact, it never did bother me as far as -- of course, I didn't have anything to do right then until I got over and got on that boat, but once I got on that boat, why, I was doing something, at least as long as you -- and that's the big thing about the navy is they -- a lot of guys would complain because they just repetition, repetition, repetition, but there was a reason for it, because when you got into a real stressful situation, why, you just automatically do what you are trained to do, you don't think, don't have to think, don't want to think.

Just one more thing and, again, it's kind of a current events, semi-current events question. One of the biggest movies last summer was called "Pearl Harbor."

Yes.

And it deals with various parts of the early war, including Pearl Harbor.

Yes.

So I'm wondering as someone who was there how would you critique, at least, the scenes that involved December 7, 1941?

They had -- some of the scenes were real. The story was not and I saw the movie and it was a good love story and a lot of things in there that -- why they do those, I don't know, it's not for me to question, I guess, but they did have some scenes that were real. One of the things that was so -- to me was just bad, bad, bad, and there was a lot of things like this, but one of them probably stands out more than anything else, it was upsetting to me, was when they depict Roosevelt and he's standing up there and going to give this big speech and stuff like this, you might find this hard to believe, I'm sure a lot of people, but all the years that he was president you never knew that he was a cripple, and he wouldn't let it be known either, and so to show something like that, that was -- that was hocus pocus. So they put stuff like that -- if you want to see a good movie that comes closer to depicting what happened, go see "Tora, Tora, Tora," and that probably, here again it's a movie and you got to take it with a grain of salt, but it was close enough that the first time I watched it, I didn't watch it but bailed out because it was so -- I have since watched it, but I had to get my nerve up.

Well, I think I'm going to let you bail out.

Okay.

Thank you very much, I appreciate it.