Warren Upton, the oldest living survivor of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah, has died. He was 105. Upton died Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, after a bout of pneumonia, said Kathleen Farley of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, per the AP. The Utah, a battleship, was moored at Pearl Harbor when Japanese planes began bombing the Hawaii naval base on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, in an attack that propelled the US into World War II.
Upton told the AP in 2020 that he had been getting ready to shave when he felt the first torpedo hit the Utah. He recalled that no one on board knew what made the ship shake. Then, the second torpedo hit, and the ship began to list and capsize. The 22-year-old swam ashore to Ford Island, where he jumped in a trench to avoid Japanese planes strafing the area. He stayed for about 30 minutes until a truck came and took him to safety. Upton said he didn't mind talking about what happened during the attack. Instead, what upset him was that he kept losing shipmates over the years. By 2020, there were only three crew members of the Utah still alive, including himself, per the AP. There were an estimated 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack, according to military historian J. Michael Wenger. With Upton's death, there are 15 still alive.
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