Pearl Harbour survivor urges Abe to apologise for attack
Jay Groff can never forget the morning of December 7, 1941, when “hell came raining down”. At the time of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour, he was a 19-year-old member of the US Army Air Corps stationed at the adjacent Hickam Field.
Until such time as a prime minister does apologise, what we call ‘closure’ won’t happen
“Most of us were still asleep in our bunks,” Groff said, recalling that he was on the third floor of his barracks. “I could see the bombs coming through the ceiling. That was the first time I was scared.”
Seventy-five years later, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Pearl Harbour to honour the dead, an event the two governments hope will underscore what some officials have called “the power of reconciliation” that has moved them from adversaries to close allies.
Watch: Abe prepares for year end visit to Pearl Harbor
Groff, now 94, said he welcomes Abe’s two-day trip to Hawaii from Monday, but that the prime minister should offer “a formal apology to the American people” for the attack which killed about 2,400 US military personnel and civilians, sank or damaged several US warships and pulled the United States into the second world war.
The Pearl Harbour survivor doubts Tokyo and Washington will truly achieve reconciliation unless Abe apologises. “Until such time as a prime minister does apologise, what we call ‘closure’ won’t happen,” Groff said in a recent interview at his home in Springfield, Virginia.
Groff was posted to Hawaii in 1940 and served there until 1952. He retired from the US Air Force in 1970 after 30 years of military service.