Douglas Harper, one of three sons, grew up in Tri-City Beach, east of Baytown, Texas and south of Cedar Bayou, Texas. He rode a school bus 29 miles north to Barber's Hill for his education. He lived on a farm when he was young, but during the Great Depression he was too young to know how hard it really was to make a living. When he reached his final year of high school, he decided to join the Navy. He was 17 and his parents signed for him to enlist. Harper went through six weeks' boot camp at the San Diego Naval Training Station. He enjoyed the training and gained a little weight. After a short leave, he was sent to the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, to work on targets at the old coaling docks.

Douglas Harper stayed at the receiving station for six weeks then moved to target repair at Bishop's Point, working on sea sleds and battle rafts, and kept them going so the ships and the shore could get their target practice. One morning after chow, while reading the paper, he heard what he thought was thunder. The smoke from the burning ships looked like clouds, but it wasn't a rain storm. Harper was out on the balcony, and a plane flew so low he could see the pilot shake his fist at him. He joked about the red meat ball on the wing, then all the bells started ringing. They got word that the Japs [Annotator's Note: period derogatory term for Japanese] were hitting them pretty hard in the harbor. Harper and his brother, who was serving with him, were between the harbor and Hickam Field, so there was noise coming from both sides. They went to the armory for weapons, but the master at arms told them he didn't have orders to give them rifles. The brothers "put him down," then broke the door to the armory and got what they wanted. Harper had a World War 1 rifle and a bandolier of ammunition, and they went out where the Japanese were circling low to make their approach to bomb the harbor. He was afraid to shoot at the planes that were carrying torpedoes, for fear they would explode on the spot. Harper saw a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] coming in to land with a Jap on its tail, and everyone started shooting at the enemy plane. They never knew if they got a hit, but the plane disappeared. They continued shooting until they identified an American star, and they watched as the pilot shot a Japanese plane down. Harper said it seemed like the attack was never going to stop. The Japanese heavy bombers came in to try to disable the air field, and a large projectile hit with a resounding concussion very near where he was squatting. Harper described the sight of a 2,000 pounder going off: a big cloud with shrapnel floating all around it. He thought it was kind of pretty. At the same time he felt remorse at marveling at the beauty of something so destructive.

Douglas Harper said the raid lasted two hours, then, when things quieted down, a truck came by asking for volunteers to pick up the dead at the Hickam Field barracks. Harper got on the truck. The situation was gruesome and made Harper sick. He was sent down to a temporary morgue near the harbor, and saw officers' wives and some of the prostitutes from Hotel Street cleaning the men who had jumped ship into the burning oil. Harper said his opinion of women changed right there. Many of the men were burned on the outside and the inside. The oil covering the water was as much as eight inches thick, and the women had to take off whatever clothes the victims were wearing, and it was a difficult job. Eventually everything eased off. Harper was standing a four-on, four-off watch, and it was three or four days before they got food because the water was contaminated. After two years, Harper and his brother were separated, and he was sent back to the United States for new construction.

Douglas Harper went to Port Hueneme, California and was assigned to an ACORN unit. [Annotator's Note: ACORN is an acronym for Aviation Communication Ordinance Repair Navigation units which were advance units that constructed, operated and maintained aircraft and seaplane bases in the Pacific.] Two days before it left, he was pulled out of a unit of 1,800 men being shipped out to Tarawa on LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. Harper was a carpenter, and of the 27 carpenters who left for Tarawa that morning, only three were left alive. Instead, he went to a freshwater inlet where torpedo boats were stationed on Okinawa to a motor torpedo boat repair squadron. The sailors were allowed to bathe in the inlet, but it was a court martial offense to drink the water. Nor were they allowed eat the produce of the island, which was fertilized with human excrement. Harper slept with his rifle, because the Japanese would sneak into camp at night. The Japanese, who had no communications, were unaware when the war was over. Once, when some prisoners of war were brought in after trying to escape the island in Sampans, a Japanese woman rolled a hand grenade out onto the beach. When the next prisoners were brought in, they were stripped naked to prevent contraband explosives from coming ashore.

Douglas Harper remembers everyone starting to talk about going home [Annotator's Note: after the war in the Pacific ended]. Harper had lots of points, but they didn't count because he was regular Navy, so he was surprised when he was among the earliest to get orders to leave. But his departure was delayed when a typhoon hit. Harper sheltered in a burial cave lined with corpses, and re-emerged after the storm had passed. The tropical storm was so strong it beached all the ships, and Harper had to wait a little longer for transport out. Eventually he boarded the West Virginia [Annotator's Note: USS West Virginia (BB-48)] for passage to Pearl Harbor. There he transferred to the Arkansas [Annotator's Note: USS Arkansas (BB-33)] and headed back to the United States. His orders were to report to Galveston, Texas. He had to hitchhike most of the way there, but on his last leg, he was picked up by a man he knew from home, and they shared a flask of bourbon along the way.

Douglas Harper said that after Pearl Harbor it was believed the Fifth Column had poisoned the water supply. [Annotator's Note: A fifth column is a group of people who, overtly or clandestinely, undermines a larger group from within.] Harper described the disposition of the ships after the Japanese attack, and remembers that while the ships were being raised and repaired, his father came to Pearl Harbor to help with the recovery. [Annotator's Note: Harper chuckles at the reminiscence of meeting his father so far from home.] He recalled that he was on watch the night of 7 December [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1941], when everybody was trigger-happy waiting for another possible attack, and the jumpy Americans shot down six of their own planes. Harper said he was cussing and crying. There were new officers on Pearl Harbor after the attack. Harper was thankful that he was never wounded and never experienced post traumatic stress himself, but he knew and talked to a number of sailors who did.

After the war, Douglas Harper met a nurse, the first woman he could really talk to, and has been married to her for almost 64 years. His war experience made him more considerate and patient. He feels the war didn't change the arrogance of the United States' leaders much, because they have been willing to send boys away to war since. He recalls being given a little cap whose logo read "For a Dept That Can Never Be Repaid." [Annotator's Note: Harper chokes up, then chuckles in embarrassment.] He says he'd like to have back the three years he spent in the Pacific but he admits that he is a better person for having gone through it. He thinks people realized that you have to fight for what you want and protect each other. He believes the rest of the world respected the United States for a while after the war, but that things are changing. He regrets the United States is so late in getting the National WWII Museum, and the memorial in Washington D.C., because there were many men who didn't get the credit they deserved while they could appreciate it.