The Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund has launched The Pearl Harbor Survivors Project, an initiative to share the stories of survivors as told by their loved ones and to engage and educate future generations about the critical role that the attack on Pearl Harbor played in America’s history.

The site is looking for oral histories of survivors’ experiences at Pearl Harbor.

“We have reached the end of an era,” said Daniel Martinez, National Park Service Chief Historian at the USS Arizona Memorial Park. “Our youngest survivors are now in their eighties and fewer and fewer return to Pearl Harbor each year. It’s up to us now — the historians, the children, the spouses and grandchildren — to pull out the scrapbooks, upload the photos and write or call in to share the survivors’ stories today.”

The launch of The Pearl Harbor Survivors Project commemorates the 65th anniversary of the attack on Oahu and, for the first-time, provides a living, online written and oral history of those who lived to fight on.
“For years, I listened intently as Dad told me stories of December 7th,” said Alby Saunders, a 45-year old Hawaii-based son of a Pearl Harbor Survivor who served on the USS Raleigh. “He was always a bit reluctant to talk about it, but through his stories I grew to understand how important that day was to America and how much it shaped who we are today as a nation. Now that Dad has passed, I want to preserve his stories for my kids and others across the country so that they can have that same appreciation.
The Pearl Harbor Survivors Project gives me and others like me a forum to tell Dad’s story and to thank him for what he did for America that day.”

The Pearl Harbor Survivors Project is an online community centered around an interactive Web site, http://www.pearlharborstories.org, that will allow visitors to:

• Share stories told by their fathers, grandfathers, spouses and friends using the latest social networking technology interactive history”
• Create a lasting tribute to Pearl Harbor Survivors that will be preserved for future generations
• Make a donation to preserve history physically in the form of a new Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum and Visitors Center on Pearl Harbor

“Sadly, we only know who gave their life in the Harbor and where they served on December 7, 1941,” said Martinez. “Through the Pearl Harbor Survivors Project, visitors to the site can not only share their loved ones’ stories, but can play an active role in telling the world who lived to fight on. By sharing their stories, survivors’ loved ones can help us rebuild the crew rosters of the ships docked in the Harbor that day, identify the civilian heroes and remember all the military personnel that came from land to sea to aid those in need.”
For spouses and loved ones who are not active Internet users, a toll-free number has been established (1-866-PHSTORY or 1-866-747-8679) so that stories can be recorded by phone. Stories submitted via the toll-free number will be saved as podcasts so that all visitors can share the memories.