The first time we saw Sgt. Fiske was in 1993, long after WWII had ended. He was wearing his Pearl Harbor Survivors cap and the green-and-white shirt worn by volunteers at the USS Arizona Memorial. He was surrounded by a group of tourists, who were listening closely as he talked. He had a large, heavy notebook, and turned its pages, holding it up so everyone could see.
In his notebook was a document showing the attack plan in Japanese. This official diagram shows there were 40 torpedo planes, 49 high-altitude bombers, 51 dive bombers and 43 fighters in the first wave. The torpedoes were 18 feet long, and Richard’s ship, the USS West Virginia, took nine of them.
Richard was the ship’s bugler, and at 7:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941, he was standing on the ship’s bridge with his bugle, some 16 stories above the deck, ready to sound reveille (wakeup call). But in the next few seconds, the world changed, and America was under attack by naval and air forces of Japan.
His ship was badly damaged. Richard joined his shipmates as they tried to respond, but the ship’s pumping station had been damaged and there was no water pressure to fight the fires. When the order came to “abandon ship,” he dove into the burning water and managed to swim to nearby Ford Island.
Many of his shipmates were injured or killed during the attack, and the next day, Richard had the difficult task of playing “taps” for the burial of his Captain.
One of the chapters in our Pearl Harbor Child book tells Richard’s story, but the response was so strong, we decided that his story deserved a book of its own. Thus, our “Pearl Harbor Warriors” book was written and published, which tells the details of his experiences, how he later met Japanese veterans, how his hatred was softened, and how he became friends with many of them.
One pilot in particular, Lt. Zenji Abe, eventually asked Richard to help him apologize for the attack. He gave Richard money to pay for two red roses, which Richard took to the Arizona Memorial once a month. He placed the roses below the wall of names, and then played taps in a touching tribute to those who died there. Richard continued this tribute for 12 years, until his death.
We are so thankful that we were able to tell this truly incredible story in our “Pearl Harbor Warriors” book and DVD.
