Oldest survivor of attack on Pearl Harbour dies aged 105
Warren Upton died in California after suffering a bout of pneumonia.
The oldest living survivor of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah, has died. Warren Upton was 105.
Mr Upton died on Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, after suffering a bout of pneumonia, said Kathleen Farley, the California state chairwoman of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbour Survivors.
The Utah, a battleship, was moored at Pearl Harbour when Japanese planes began bombing the Hawaii naval base in the early hours of December 7 1941, in an attack that propelled the US into the Second World War.
Mr Upton told The Associated Press in 2020 that he had been getting ready to shave when he felt the first torpedo hit the Utah. He recalled that no one on board knew what made the ship shake. Then the second torpedo hit and the ship began to list and capsize.
The then-22-year-old swam ashore to Ford Island, where he jumped in a trench to avoid Japanese planes strafing the area. He stayed for about 30 minutes until a truck came and took him to safety.
Mr Upton said he did not mind talking about what happened during the attack. Instead, what upset him was that he kept losing shipmates over the years. By 2020, there were only three crew members of the Utah still alive, including himself.
There were an estimated 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack, according to military historian J Michael Wenger. After Mr Upton’s death, there are only 15 still alive.
