I first visited San Diego and Mark in 1999. Mark was working during the day and I did not rent a car. However, Papa came almost every single day and picked me up and was the best tour guide I have ever had. He showed me nearly every part of San Diego County. He gave the grand tour from various beaches, downtown, the Naval base, Point Loma, La Jolla Shores (my fav!), Coronodo, several missions, East County, West County, etc. One day we went from the desert to the mountains in Julian and had fresh squeezed apple cider and it snowing in the mountain to laying in the flower fields in the warm California sun in Carlsbad and telling stories. He was so happy that Mark and I were dating but I think he liked to get hugs and kisses from me, too!
He led an amazing life and was a good husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. We will miss him.
I wanted to share with you an article that was written in the San Diego Union Tribune a few years ago. He is one of few that are still living that saw not only the beginning but the end of WWII. He was in Japan right after the bobing of Hiroshima. We havea picture of him standing in rubble and Mark and I have a picture of the same spot when we visited Japan. Check back and I will try and post the images from that.
Article from 12/07/05
It's been 64 years, but Joe Kawka vividly remembers the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on his ship at Pearl Harbor.
"It's into your mind and you can't get rid of it. I can see it all like it just happened today," the 84-year-old El Cajon resident said.
Kawka remembers the Japanese planes zooming in so low he could see a pilot's face.
His ship was in dry dock for repairs and the guns on deck were out of commission. Instead, the sailors fought back with the only ammunition they had.
"We started throwing potatoes at them. We almost got them, too," Kawka said.
As another anniversary of what President Franklin Roosevelt called "the date which will live in infamy" comes around, Kawka (pronounced Cough-ka) is one of a dwindling number of survivors to tell his story.
The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association says it's uncertain how many survivors remain, but two members a day are dying.
Kawka is one of 1,572 Pearl Harbor survivors in California who have license plates denoting their presence during the attack. A year ago, 1,671 survivors had the license plates, a spokesman at the Department of Motor Vehicles said.
Kawka, who served 20 years in the Navy, was a gardener for the Grossmont Union High School District and later worked in a family candy business until he retired at 80.
He married and raised three children, losing his wife in August after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.
But the sights and sounds of that Sunday morning in December are still fresh.
Kawka, then 19, was a signalman on the destoyer Cassin, during the attack that thrust the United States into World War II. He had joined the Navy after high school to escape the poverty of his small town in upstate New York.
Kawka was patrolling the pier near his ship around 8 a.m. when the Japanese attacked, flying so low he could see the markings on their planes.
"When I looked up, I saw that red round ball. I said, 'Ye God! It's Japanese!' I couldn't believe it," he said.
He said he saw the battleship Arizona get bombed, resulting in an explosion and a fire that killed 1,177 crewmen, the greatest loss of life on any ship that day.
"I saw the bomb go right down the stack," he said.
The armor-piercing bomb ignited the Arizona's forward ammunition magazine.
Most of all, Kawka remembers the chaos during the attack that claimed 2,403 lives.
"It was kind of crazy. Nobody knew what was going on," he said. "Everybody was screaming and hollering and scared and didn't know if they were going to be killed or not."
Kawka and the other crew members were ordered back to the Cassin. Then a second wave of 170 planes attacked. Kawka could see a pilot in the open cockpit.
"He shook his hand at us as he went by," Kawka said.
A bomb landed between the Cassin and the ship next to it. The crew scrambled to get off the ship, climbing down ropes to escape.
Kawka took cover with other sailors for the rest of the day. The next day, with nothing but the clothes he was wearing, he was ordered to another ship that was hunting for Japanese subs outside the harbor.
Kawka said he was relieved that day when he heard Roosevelt's speech to Congress declaring war on Japan.
"Now we had to go out and fight. We had something to fight for," he said.
The events of Dec. 7 have remained with Kawka. He said he and his wife, Elsie, visited Hawaii a couple of times, but he never enjoyed the trips. When he visited the Arizona memorial, the memories swept over him.
"When you go back there, everything comes back to you," he said. "To this day, it never goes away."
Here are a a few images from the gun salute at his funeral to scattering his ashes at sea right off from Point Loma.
On the way out to sea, we had the experience of seeing a female whale that was pregnant that had beeched herself adndied and they were towing it I believe to Sea World for further research. Sad, but it was the first whale I have ever seen outside of captivity.
Braxton and Tennyson are both very tender hearted children. Sometimes we underestimate the feelings of children since they are yound and don't have as many memories. Tenny cried aloud during the funeral saying "I want my Papa" and still talks about him daily. When were sharing memories of Papa during the spreading of his ashes, Asher said, "I have something to say. I will miss wrestling with Papa." Papa showed no mercy. He was competitive and he intended to win whether wrestling with kids or playing cards. Here is Tenny comforting Braxton.
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