Note: This entry is edited from a blog entry I originally posted on my xanga on April 6, 2004, right after MSgt. Fiske passed away.
MSgt. Richard “Dick” Fiske (born 1922) passed away on Friday, April 2, 2004 at the age of 82.
Mr. Fiske was a veteran of World War II, having enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1940. He was present during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, aboard the ship USS West Virginia (BB-48). During the attack, the commanding officer of the ship, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion, died before his eyes. Captain Bennion’s dying orders was to abandon ship, so Fiske jumped off the West Virginia and swam to Ford Island.
After Pearl Harbor, he fought in the battle for Iwo Jima, which he described as “36 straight days of Pearl Harbor.” After World War II, he served in the newly created U.S. Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. From 1982 until his death, he served as a volunteer at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor’s Center.
Just a couple of years before his death, I had the honor of meeting this man at the USS Arizona Memorial, just a few weeks after the 60th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. We talked for a long while, during which he told me the story of how he met the very man who had bombed the USS West Virginia, Zenji Abe (that’s surname Abe, first name Zenji). After placing immense hatred towards the Japanese for decades following the attack, he reconciled with the very man who bombed his ship. He told me that upon meeting Abe, he understood finally that, “we were both in the military, we were both just doing our jobs.” He showed me a picture of Mr. Abe and showed me pictures of a tree that he and Mr. Abe had planted in Japan several years before, with the hope that the tree would grow with their friendship.
Following their meeting, Abe would send Fiske $500 annually, and each month Fiske would use the money to lay two roses (one for Abe, one for Fiske) on the Arizona Memorial and play taps. This tradition continued until earlier this year when cancer began to take a toll on this great man’s strength.
Mr. Fiske also showed me pictures and other memorabilia he had saved from the 1940s. I found the pictures to be especially extraordinary, second only to his sense of humor (at one point, he began bragging to me about how the USS West Virginia had bigger guns than the USS Arizona did!).
Fiske reminded me to never hold hatred towards enemies. This was definitely something he practiced as wholeheartedly as he preached. In his narrations at the Memorial, he often emphasized the strong relationship between the United States and Japan, something that was unthinkable while the two were sworn enemies during the 1940s.
Fiske’s showing of friendship between the U.S. and Japan drew accolades at home and abroad. In 1996 he received the Order of the Rising Sun with Silver Rays from His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Akihito of Japan. This was well deserved, as his friendship with Mr. Zenji Abe was an amazing symbol of the virtues of forgiveness and friendship. (I should note that Mr. Abe died in 2007).
I am glad that I had the opportunity to meet this great man–it was an experience that I will never forget.
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