Pearl Harbor survivor Jim Watson, 95, of South Portland remembers vividly the World War II attack by the Japanese on U.S. Navy ships in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941. Watson, a gunner’s mate first class, was aboard the USS Phoenix, anchored some distance away from Battleship Row, Japan’s primary target.

“I had just purchased a local newspaper,” he recalled in an interview. “I went down in the compartment and sat down on the deck to read the paper. I never finished that paper. All of a sudden you could feel the vibrations. And that’s when they screamed on the loudspeaker: ‘Air raid! Air raid! Air raid Pearl Harbor!’… We knew that war was coming. But we did not know when and were hoping it wouldn’t.…

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Jim Watson, 95, of South Portland says he has been told he’s the oldest Pearl Harbor survivor in Maine. He plans to attend the Remembrance Day ceremony at 1 p.m. Sunday at Fort Allen Park in Portland.

Watson shows a photo of himself when he served in the Navy during World War II. On the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, Watson was aboard the USS Phoenix, which was anchored away from Battleship Row, where the Japanese inflicted the most destruction.

The USS Phoenix, the ship Watson was serving on as a gunner’s mate first class, sails past the burning USS Arizona and USS West Virginia in Pearl Harbor after Japan attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. U.S. Navy photo

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“They tell me I’m the oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor in Maine. You’ll find old fellows who were in the service. They have great respect for those days and when the flag passes by, they throw a salute.

“That’s one thing I always instilled in my kids is patriotism. There have been so many other wars. War in China. Vietnam. Korea. Iraq. Now they’re still getting killed over there.”

Watson plans to attend the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony at 1 p.m. Sunday at Fort Allen Park in Portland.

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