Eighty-four years after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that killed more than 2,400 military personnel, ceremonies in Honolulu were held without any survivors in attendance. Just 12 Pearl Harbor veterans remain alive, all over 100 years old, and their numbers are dwindling.
In CBS’s Weekend Journal, reporter John Lauritsen traveled to meet Del Thielke, a veteran who was present four years later when Japan formally surrendered. Thielke enlisted in the Navy while a senior in high school and, after graduating in 1942, trained in aviation ordnance. He spent the war aboard an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific loading airplanes with bombs, rockets and ammunition, serving at sea for more than four years and rarely leaving the ship.
“We took back 16 islands, all the way to Tokyo,” Thielke recalled. When Japan agreed to surrender, he received unexpected news: out of roughly 1,500 men on his carrier, he was the only sailor chosen to go ashore and be aboard the USS Missouri for the signing of the peace treaty.
Thielke’s white cap appears in a well-known photograph taken on the Missouri’s upper deck during the ceremony. Recently he received a letter saying a war memorial in New Orleans will honor the treaty signing and noting it’s possible he is the last person still living who appears in that picture. “I’m the last one that’s living that they could find,” he said.
Thielke credits his survival and his ability to speak about that historic day to his faith. “I have been a strong Christian all my life and I believe that God was guiding me for four years on that carrier,” he told Lauritsen. At the surrender, leaders bowed their heads and prayed; General Douglas MacArthur declared, “The war is over, peace is here.”
John Lauritsen reported the story from Dawson, Minnesota. Thielke’s memories and presence at the signing are reminders of a pivotal moment in history and of the shrinking number of living witnesses to World War II. Mr. Del never forgot that day, and neither should we.