HONOLULU: Harry Chandler, a Navy medic who helped pull injured sailors from the oily waters of Pearl Harbor after the 1941 Japanese attack on the naval base, has died. He was 103.
Chandler died Monday at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida, according to Ron Mahaffee, the husband of his granddaughter Kelli Fahey. Chandler had congestive heart failure, but Mahaffee said doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when giving a cause of death.
The third Pearl Harbor survivor to die in the past few weeks, Chandler was a hospital corpsman 3rd class on Dec. 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired machine guns on battleships in the harbor and plunged the US into World War II.
He told The Associated Press in 2023 that he saw the planes approach as he was raising the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which is in the hills overlooking the base.
“I thought they were planes coming in from the states until I saw the bombs dropping,” Chandler said. His first instinct was to take cover and ”get the hell out of here.”
“I was afraid that they’d start strafing,” he said.
His unit rode trucks down to attend the injured. He said in a Pacific Historic Parks oral history interview that he boarded a boat to help pluck wounded sailors from the water.
The harbor was covered in oil from exploding ships, so Chandler washed the sailors off after lifting them out. He said he was too focused on his work to be afraid.
“It got so busy you weren’t scared. Weren’t scared at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,” Chandler said.
He realized later that he could have been killed, “But you didn’t think about that while you were busy taking care of people.”
The attack killed more than 2,300 US servicemen. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona, which sank nine minutes after it was bombed.
Chandler’s memories came flowing back when he visited Pearl Harbor for a 2023 ceremony commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.
“I look out there, and I can still see what’s going on. I can still see what was happening,” Chandler told The Associated Press.
Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said: “Be prepared.”
“We should have known that was going to happen. The intelligence has to be better,” he said.
After the war Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Navy reserves, retiring as a senior chief in 1981.
Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived for most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mahaffee said. In recent decades he split his time between Massachusetts and Florida.
An avid golfer, he shot five hole-in-ones during his lifetime, his grandson-in-law added.
Chandler had one biological daughter and adopted two daughters from his second marriage, to Anna Chandler, who died in 2004. He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated that there were some 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu the day of the attack. With Chandler’s death only 15 are still living, according to a tally maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
Bob Fernandez, who served on the USS Curtiss, also died this month, at age 100, and Warren Upton, 105, who served on the USS Utah, died last week.

HARBIN: Animal ears and pom-poms on fuzzy hats adorn tourists’ heads on the streets of the frigid northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, which is enjoying a surge in visitors driven by social media.
Photos and videos taken around the city’s landmarks flood platforms such as TikTok counterpart Douyin and Instagram-esque Xiaohongshu — many featuring tourists from the warmer south.
They’re affectionately known as “southern little potatoes,” a reference to their alleged smaller stature and cutesy winter gear that contrast with the area’s stereotypically coarse character.
A search for “southern little potatoes visit the north” racked up more than 428,000 notes on Xiaohongshu.
That’s where Chen Xiting, who works in e-commerce in the southern province of Guangdong, said she was inspired to visit.
“It’s the quickest way young people get trip recommendations,” said Chen.
She said she had noticed a sizeable number of fellow southerners.
“I heard quite a bit of Cantonese, which we’re very familiar with, today at tourist sites and on the street,” said the 29-year-old, wearing a hat with dog ears and with only her face exposed to the air.
Liu Rong, a student from Sichuan, said the city’s push for more southern tourists was clear from the surge in videos about Harbin he often watched with his wife.
“These years, especially this year, Harbin’s cultural tourism has placed a lot of importance on paying attention to us southerners,” Liu said.


Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang, one of three provinces that make up the “Dongbei” (northeast) region, where temperatures can reach -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) during winter.
Bordered by Russia and North Korea, it is one of China’s poorest provinces, outperforming only neighboring Jilin, Gansu, Hainan island and sparsely populated Tibet, Qinghai and Ningxia.
But the first five months of 2024 saw the operating income of Heilongjiang’s cultural, sports and entertainment industries rise nearly 60 percent year-on-year, according to official data.
Tourists spent 154 billion yuan ($21 billion) in the first half of 2024, up 171 percent from the first half of 2023.
Popular novels and dramas set in the northeast have also helped spark a travel boom to the region.
“A lot of southerners, which we call ‘little potatoes’, came over here for travel and made our Harbin very trendy,” Emily Liu, a local tour guide, told AFP.
The online fame has been good for the travel business, said 30-year-old Jiang Zhonglong, energetically gesticulating in front of his tripod just meters away from Liu.
He started working for a Harbin-based travel agency three years ago, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and said business was now much better.
“So many little friends, southern potatoes, tourists have all come here,” he said.
One night this month, the city’s commercial district of Central Street saw a steady stream of people walking on the cobblestone path under bright yellow lights.
Ling, a 38-year-old from the coastal eastern province of Zhejiang, was there with his wife to “daka,” a phrase that means “punching in” but now describes visiting popular spots to share photos on social media.
“We often scroll through (video sharing platform) Douyin and such. We often see videos promoting Harbin,” said Ling, who asked to be identified only by his surname.
Ling told AFP he’d believed negative stereotypes about Dongbei in the past.
“But we came here and found that things are pretty decent,” he said.
“I’ve been yearning for a different cultural experience compared to where I come from — the weather and style are completely different.”
Nearby, a steady stream of people ducked inside a shop selling goods from Russia — just a stone’s throw away.
Foot traffic to the shopping street has tripled since 2022, said store manager Zhangzhang, who has worked in the area for more than 10 years and asked to be identified by her nickname.
“My hometown has suddenly become popular,” she said, adding she was “extremely proud.”
She said the store last year started selling more hats and scarves for travelers who “didn’t pack enough layers” — including those printed with the region’s classic red florals.
“I think that this can help lift the economy of our Dongbei.”