This partial rubber handstamp was salvaged from the USS Oklahoma following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The date in the handstamp is “Dec 6 1941.” On Saturday, Dec. 6, the shipboard post office was open for business. On Sunday, Dec. 7, the battleship Oklahoma was one of the prime targets of the attack.
The U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, a major U.S. naval base located on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, was attacked early in the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, by a combined force of Japanese submarines and airplanes.
The attack lasted only a few hours, but U.S. losses were staggering. Eight U.S. battleships and 10 other naval vessels were sunk or severely damaged during the attack in which 2,107 U.S. naval and military personnel were killed. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that Dec. 7, 1941, was a “date which will live in infamy.” It marked the entrance of the U.S. into World War II. Congress declared war against Japan Dec. 8, 1941.
The USS Oklahoma was one of eight battleships at “Battleship Row” that morning. Only minutes after being hit, the ship slowly rolled over until the mast jammed in the mud, leaving the ship upside down. One-third of the ship’s crew were killed; 935 sailors survived.
Because the attack on Pearl Harbor came early on Sunday morning, the handstamp still carried the previous day's date, Dec. 6, 1941.
This handstamp is in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. It is not currently on display.
