Pearl Harbor

Early on the morning of December 7th, 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The Japanese forces included 353 aircraft attacking in two separate waves. Eight American battleships were damaged and 4 sunk. All but the Arizona, pictured here were later raised and six of the 8 went on to fight later in the war. 2,403 Americans were killed with over a thousand additional injured. The unprovoked attack was a shock to the whole nation and lead to the surge in public support for America to enter the war.

The small physical scale of these drawings is meant to bring attention to the grand scale of these events, both physically and in their lasting impressions on our national psychology. There are a few defining moments in each generation’s collective memory that we all remember, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President Kennedy, 9/11. These drawings explore that national collective experience in small meditative vignettes.