Remembering Jacksonville’s James Johnson who was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor
Story and Photo by Greg Olson
Clear and sunny skies appeared over the Hawaiian islands as American servicemen and women looked forward to another quiet Sunday at their bases in paradise.
However, on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese air forces interrupted that tranquility and plunged the United States into a war with Japan. The attack on U.S. forces that day left about 2,400 people dead, including 1,177 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor.
At nearby Hickam Field, 26-year-old U.S. Army Air Corps Pvt. James R. Johnson of Jacksonville was preparing a B-24 bomber for a photo reconnaissance mission on that fateful Sunday when a Japanese plane dropped two 500-pound bombs on Hickam Field, killing Johnson and other members of his squadron.
Johnson was the first Morgan County serviceman to die in World War II.
Dixie Johnson Clark of Venice, Florida, a niece of James R. Johnson, helps keep the memory of her uncle alive.
“My daddy always said James was a fun-loving kidder who wanted to see the world,” she said.
The night before Johnson was killed, he wrote a letter to his mother in Jacksonville, obviously unaware of how momentous the next day would be.
“Tonight is Saturday and is it ever quiet, I just can hardly believe it,” he wrote. “There is always a couple of planes warming up or a bunch of fellows making a lot of noise but not right now, but I guess it will start up pretty quick as it’s about time for the beer garden to close.”
Johnson was one of about 15 Jacksonville servicemen stationed at Hickam Field when the Japanese launched their surprise attack. A few other Jacksonville men were assigned to ships in Pearl Harbor.
One of Johnson’s Jacksonville friends, Roger Ferguson, now deceased, shared a memory of Johnson on the 50th anniversary of the attack.
“He was a very good friend of mine,” Ferguson said. “We were not in the same squadron, but we lived in the same consolidated barracks. We visited each other quite often and it was quite a shock when I learned he had been killed by the Japanese on that day.”
Among the others killed that day were four Greene County sailors, who died aboard the USS Arizona: Vincent “Tommy” Thomas and Lloyd Bryant, both of rural Hillview, and Edward Smith and Joe Otis McGlasson, both of White Hall.
The ensuing war touched nearly every home in America, including most of the homes in Morgan County.
The estimated 130 Morgan County men (records vary as to the exact number) who died in World War II came from a variety of backgrounds. Some were farmers, while others were factory workers and college students.
There were bright-eyed teenagers and married men in their 20s — and while it is most likely that many of them had never traveled outside the Midwest, a great number of them found themselves fighting and dying in the bombed-out fields and towns of Europe, on the bloody islands of the Pacific Ocean and in the flak-filled skies over three continents.
On Thursday, December 7, many Americans will pause to remember the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and all those American servicemen and women who gave their lives that day and in the four bloody years that followed.
CAPTION: Photo provided by Greg Olson
United States Army Air Corps Pvt. James R. Johnson of Jacksonville was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Hickam Field in Hawaii. Johnson was the first Morgan County serviceman to die in World War II.
