Pearl Harbor
USS Procyon, ca. August 1941-February 1942
Pearl Harbor on Eve of and Days After Japanese Attack,Fantastic 1st Hand Description & Telegram "THE ENEMY HAS STRUCK"
Diary/Journal

[PEARL HARBOR.] John H. Korzilius, Diary, August 1941-February 1942. Written in printed volume entitled My Life in the Service (Chicago: Remington-Morse, 1941). 260 pp., 4.75" x 6.25" + some stapled-in telegrams and other documents. Very good.
With Katherine Mushinski Korzilius Hypes, Typed Letter, December 7-8, 1941, [Three Lakes, Wisconsin]. 3 pp., 8" x 10.5". Light toning; very good.

?On the way into Pearl Harbor the mountains are beautiful, just a semicircle around the naval anchorage. Rainbows always in the sky and hovering over the hills.... This place is really a beautiful spot with all the many ships of all types moored.?

?The horror of war and its savageness has greeted us at last. Then the worst sight of all greets us with no mercy at all the Battle Ship ?Arizona? with the bow blown off of it with 900 dead still aboard a loss of practically all life that Sunday morning long to be remembered now by us after this sight.?

In this fascinating diary, U.S. Navy Lieutenant John H. Korzilius describes voyages in the early part of his quarter-century naval career. He leaves Charleston, South Carolina, aboard the USS Procyon, an attack cargo ship, and after some voyages in the Atlantic passes through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean. He sails from San Francisco to Honolulu, where he arrives in mid-November 1941. He describes Pearl Harbor and other sights on Oahu in all their beauty. The USS Procyon left Hawaii on November 24 and returned to San Francisco, where the crew spent the first week of December taking aboard another load of cargo for Hawaii. While there, Korzilius and the rest of the crew learn of the Japanese attack. After a nerve-wracking return voyage outside of the normal sea lanes, Korzilius vividly describes the Pearl Harbor he entered on December 19, so very different from the one he left a month earlier.

A wonderful addition to this diary is a typewritten letter from Wisconsin by Korzilius?s mother, Katherine Hypes (1891-1988), which she began typing on December 7, 1941. She finished the letter on Monday, December 8, after she received a telegram from her son that he was safe. Her letter, begun before she had heard the news from Pearl Harbor, and completed the next day, offers a powerful example of the anxiety that parents felt for their sons in the military service at the time.

Excerpts
[September 27, 1941, New York City:] ?All colored lights on top of the Empire State 5 blocks from ship is the building standing way up by its lonesome. Start to load a hospital Unit complete Mobile Hospital Unit No. 2 for Pearl Harbor T.H.?
[November 18:] ?on our way to the naval base at Pearl Harbor T.H. 0630 sight Diamond Head which means the city of Honolulu. Diamond Head is a crater that has been inactive for years. Used as a naval ammunition depot.... Can see the Dole Pinapple plant that has a large pineapple as a water tower. 18:20 Entering Pearl Harbor alongside can see army railway guns and the in the channel can see Hickman Field the large army air field out there.1825 Passing many destroyers, cruisers, battleships, Hospital ship ?Solace? all white with red cross on stack & side. On the way into Pearl Harbor the mountains are beautiful, just a semicircle around the naval anchorage. Rainbows always in the sky and hovering over the hills. Large sugar cane plantations in view, no pineapple groves to be seen they are on the other side of the island. This place is really a beautiful spot with all the many ships of all types moored.?
[November 21:] ?Stayed aboard. Beautiful night view of all of the lights of the fleet, looks like a city in the distance with rows of lights through port the port holes.?
[November 24:] ?Sailed again for states.?
[November 30:] ?Approaching San Francisco in fog. Can see the Golden Gate Bridge ahead. Beautiful masterpiece of construction across the Golden Gate. Inside to our right the city of S.F. to the left the Famous Rock or prison standing alone off in the bay about 1? miles from the city of S.F. proper.?
[December 1:] ?Started loading Cargo?steel, automobiles and lumber. Load such for Hawaii till 7th of Dec.?
[December 7:] ?We are in line for dinner when one of the men Robertson by name a PhM1/c states he hears Pearl Harbor was attacked. Every man in line calls him on that for it is unbelievable. Dinner finished we crowd to radios to find the truth and it is true. And the ship becomes a motion of activity throughout. The captain does not speak of the attacked as he knows we all know what we have to look forward to. Something guided this ship as the cargo was to have been completed one day and a half before this. We depart from Alameda people along the water front wave to us and March of Time taking motion pictures of the ship. We pass the Air Station all recreational activities stopped and the men wave to us. We go down the slip into the bay, then on to Mare island. At the Navy Yard all work halts seeing us come in figuring we just came in from the sea.
?Sunday night Dec. 7, 1941 Our guns are maned lookouts posted all over the ship and the Navy Yard is in darkness. We hear reports that the City of S.F. is in darkness and the patient wait with us at war starts.?
[December 8:] ?Rush to load medical supplies on board 70 cases of blood plasma etc.... We hear the presidents speech to Congress & the declaration of war. We are now at war.?
[Stapled in Typed Ship?s Log, USS Procyon, December 8:] ?8-12 Moored as before.. .. 0830 Captain left ship to make an official call on the Commandant, Navy Yard, Mare Island, California. 0900 Held quarters for muster; one absentee: CLIFTON, C.W., S2c, USN. 0939 The President asked Congress for a Declaration of War on the Empire of Japan. 0945 Captain returned. 1022 The Congress of the United States pass a resolution that a state of war has existed between the United States and the Empire of Japan since early Sunday, December 7, 1941.?
[Stapled in telegram, Secretary of the Navy to all Naval Stations, December 9:] ?THE ENEMY HAS STRUCK A SAVAGE COMMA TREACHEROUS BLOW X WE ARE AT WAR COMMA ALL OF US EXCLAMATION POINT THERE IS NOT TIME NOW FOR DISPUTES OR DELAY OF ANY KIND X WE MUST HAVE SHIPS AND MORE SHIPS COMMA GUNS AND MORE GUNS COMMA MEN AND MORE MEN DASH FASTER AND FASTER X THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE X THE NAVY MUST LEAD THE WAY X SPEED UP DASH IT IS YOUR NAVY AND YUR NATION EXCLAMATION POINTS SIGNED FRANK KNOX SECRETARY OF THE NAVY X?
[Stapled in telegram, December 14, to Pacific Fleet:] ?WHILE YOU HAVE SUFFERED FROM A TREACHEROUS ATTACK YOUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF HAS INFORMED ME THAT YOUR COURAGE AND STAMINA REMAIN MAGNIFICENT X YOU KNOW YOU WILL HAVE YOUR REVENGE X RECRUITING STATIONS ARE JAMMED WITH MEN EAGER TO JOIN YOU ?
[December 12:] ?We sail as we pass under the Golden Gate bridge we see no other ships so we know we are going alone. We have 4 newspaper reporters aboard and some high navy officials. As we pass under the bridge every man to his battle Station. Guard ships says prepare for an air attacked.?
[December 19:] ?We sight land & an American Bomber (Army) a wonderful release for the nervous tension we have been under. 0700 See the city of Hawaii can see no damage. 1150 pilot came aboard are standing out. As we stay out a beautiful sight greets us. 10 destroyers, 3 lead then four cruisers in line protected by destroyers and last an aircraft carrier protected also. We notice an absence of Battle Ships. Figure they must be out at sea.
?1200 Start into Pearl Harbor: See an American plane down in shallow water. Then we see the two burned hangars at Hickman Field. Now the destroyed barracks where more than 350 soldiers perished we see the ravages of war. Now to our left is the battleship ?Nevada? aground stern to, decks awash. We look down the line and see the towers of the battleships well they only got the ?Nevada? thank God On the left is Ford Island at the point a burned Navy Hanger wrecks of planes and our first glimpse of a Japanese plane with the red circle under the wings. We move on in the Battle Ship ?California? is sunk all decks under water. Something that looks like an old hulk behind it we comment on it. Then we see it is the Battle Ship ?Oaklahoma? turned over on it its side with the bottom up. Then we see the ?West Virginia? with after decks awash and metal all tore off of her sides. Removing bodies from the ships. The horror of war and its savageness has greeted us at last. Then the worst sight of all greets us with no mercy at all the Battle Ship ?Arizona? with the bow blown off of it with 900 dead still aboard a loss of practically all life that Sunday morning long to be remembered now by us after this sight. We look for the ?Oglala? but do not see it. We dock and are directly across from the damage the Japanese have done. To the older Navy men they do not like to look at it at all.
?If the people in America only knew that 6 Battle Ships were lost. I forgot the ?Utah? which is on the other side of Ford Island.?
[December 20:] ?At night cargo is unload under dim blue lights, flashlights are dim & blue no lights in Navy Yard all windows painted black.?
[December 21:] ?Visited Honolulu, an armed camp military police all over.... Honolulu is a deserted city, dark & no cars or people moving everyone off the streets at dark.?
[December 28:] ?Moved to Pier K-20 and loaded ?Dole Pineapple Juice? one hundred thousand case of it and furniture.?
[December 30:] ?We leave port when we get out another ship & another till we have four ships in a convoy with Two destroyers and a cruiser.?

[Katherine Hypes to John H. Korzilius:]
?Well I do not know where you are but anyhow I?m writing. Its soon Xmas and Leone shopped for your radio and said it was a real nice one. It is all the Xmas we can send and we know you will like it.... And I?ll send a fruit cake and some cookies. So we hope you have a Merry Xmas and like your gift. Wish when you are in foreign ports you would at least send cards from there as we all would enjoy seeing them.?
?Its now 3,30 and I heard the sad news over the Radio of the Japan attact on Honolulu and Manilla. Also of a sub sinking a cargo with lumber half way between Hawaii and San Francisco. So I?m praying you are safe and will always be. Guess what is supposed to be will be. I?ll always look for the best. This is the first we got of the attact so I?m keeping the news on.... Hoping you have a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. Love. Mother.?
?Received your telegram this morning at about eight o?clock. And was I ever happy to know you were safe. If ever you want to send a telegram and its not convienent for you to pay for it, send it collect to us. As we will always be anxious to hear from you.?
?My telephone certainly has been busy this morning. People are surely very conserned about you. Which makes me feel you have many real friends here. Kitty was over this morning to find out about you as your grandmother was sick from worry untill she found out.?
?I started a letter yesterday to you little expecting to hear we were in war. I had the letter half written when I got the broadcast. Well that ended my writing for a while so this is just the addition to the letter. You were thought full to send the message as I was so nervous I just was fit for nothing. So to-day I feel better. Thank the lord we live in this good U.S.A. we can have our radio?s and etc. to keep us in touch with the news. Now I realize your thots must be with Uncle Sam. The best of luck. Be a good soldier which I know you will as that was always sorta your line. Love Mother.?

Historical Background
On the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise military strike against the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. The United States had refused Japanese demands to end its sanctions against Japan, cease aiding China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and recognize Japanese access to the resources of the Dutch East Indies. Japanese forces also attacked U.S. targets in the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island and British targets in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya.

More than 350 Japanese aircraft and 5 two-man submarines participated in the attack, which left four American battleships sunk, another four battleships damaged, and a variety of other ships and aircraft damaged or destroyed. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, nearly half aboard the USS Arizona.

This sudden and unprovoked attack drew the United States into World War II. On the following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a Joint Session of Congress and called for a formal declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. Congress responded within an hour with a declaration of war. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

John H. Korzilius (1915-1999) was born in Wisconsin to a Dutch father and a German-Polish mother. In early January 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Nava Reserve but was called to active duty within two weeks at the naval armory in Indianapolis. In mid-March, he transferred to Norfolk, Virginia, then to the USS Procyon at Charleston, South Carolina, on August 8, 1941. He served aboard a Navy submarine in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, retiring in 1967. He married Bessie M. Powell (1913-1999). From 1967 to 1980, he was a civil service worker. He moved to Reno, Nevada, in 1980, where he died two decades later.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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4.75" x 6.25"; 8" x 10.5"