Bill Speer had just stepped out of his morning shower on the light cruiser USS Honolulu when the attack began. "I saw a torpedo drop and our guns were firing before they'd even sounded general quarters. I ran to my battle station and went through the rest of that day without getting fully dressed." Speer tells of the deep sorrow they felt during those first terrible hours. "We could clearly see the Arizona and all of battleship row from our post. At one point we were all just standing there with tears in our eyes watching the devastation and feeling helpless, with nothing to be done about it."
For many survivors, "doing something about it" meant getting back to their posts as quickly as possible, even if they were injured. Of the hundreds of men wounded in the attack, only 10 percent stayed in their hospital beds more than a day. The rest went almost immediately back to their duties. "That gives you an idea of our patriotism," Speer said with a note of pride.
Courtesy of the National Park Service
Drawing on this excerpt, and the information you learned in the lesson about the Manzanar internment camp, draw two connections between the ideas in this excerpt and the lessons. Explain each of these connections using evidence from the excerpt.