Freeman Johnson, the Centerville, Massachusetts, resident who has outlived other Pearl Harbor surprise-attack survivors, has spent decades keeping the memory of Dec. 7, 1941 alive without placing himself at the center of the story. Now, as the nation marks Memorial Day on Monday, Johnson’s age has made him a widely recognized witness to the attack—even though he said he never saw it happen.
On the day of the attack, Johnson was far below deck aboard the USS St. Louis, helping repair one of the ship’s boilers. He later recalled that he did not witness the surprise bombing and did not hear his shipmates firing anti-aircraft guns at planes attacking the U.S. Navy. By the time he got topside, the St. Louis had already evaded midget submarines and set out to sea.
Johnson, who never described being afraid in the way children often ask older veterans to describe, said the work of survival depended on what he could see and what he did not need to know. “While all the rigamarole was going on topside, I was inside a steam drum. Couldn’t see anything, absolutely nothing,” he said, speaking in his living room filled with Navy photos, challenge coins and ribbons, and his military identification tag. He also said naval personnel did not tell sailors what they did not need to know, adding, “So they tell you nothing.”
Johnson said his job on the St. Louis was that of a fireman, and that after the ship left the area, he remained focused on being a sailor rather than an observer of the fighting. “We were way out to sea, way out. You couldn’t see any land at all. All you saw was ocean,” he said. In response to questions about whether he had been scared that day, he told children, “You’re not scared. You’re too busy to be scared,” and said he could not even see enough to understand what he was afraid of.
His status as the oldest surviving witness has followed the deaths of earlier survivors from the attack. Johnson became the oldest after World War II Navy veteran Ira “Ike” Schab died in December at age 105. With Schab’s passing and the February death of Clarence Lane, the report said only 11 survivors remained of the surprise attack that killed just over 2,400 Americans and pushed the United States into World War II.
Each year, the survivors’ small numbers shape how remembrance looks at the military base’s waterfront. The report said about 2,000 survivors attended the 50th anniversary event in 1991, but that later years brought fewer attendees, with only two making it in 2024 and none making the trip to Hawaii last year. Even for a witness as long-lived as Johnson, the shrinking roster underscores how little time remains for first-hand accounts.
Johnson said he avoided talking publicly about Pearl Harbor for much of his life. He described how his wife, Ruth, eventually encouraged him to share the story by calling the Navy, recalling that the Navy staff member “laughed at her.” Over time, though, Johnson’s age drew attention and made him the local face of a national memory. The report said he became a local celebrity after he began drawing media coverage, including when he showed up at his 106th birthday party in a limousine and was filmed.
The report described Johnson as hard of hearing and needing a walker to get around, while also saying he could recall details from his wartime service. It said he explained how he entered the Navy in the first place by recounting his earlier concerns about being drafted, and he compared potential military life on foot—walking long distances and carrying a heavy pack—to the choice he made. He also described how his daughter, Diane Johnson, often asks questions to prompt him to speak, and that she tells him he has “a responsibility” to share Pearl Harbor for children who know little about the bombing.
While Pearl Harbor is the event that now defines Johnson publicly, the report said many of his memories focus on other parts of his naval service. He described helping commission the battleship USS Iowa, including recollections of preparations in November 1943 before transporting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Tehran Conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. He also described observing parts of the war’s end aboard the USS Iowa, including surrender ceremonies he said he watched from the mast about a mile away from the USS Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945, when the war ended.
In the present, Johnson continues showing up for remembrance events with family. Diane Johnson often travels with him on Dec. 7, including trips connected to earlier anniversaries in Hawaii, the report said. Desmond Keogh, described as the chairman of the Cape Cod St. Patrick’s Parade who has accompanied Johnson, said Johnson “just gets on and doesn’t complain about anything,” calling the moment representative of a “different generation” that did what Keogh said was best for the country.
For all the attention, Johnson said Pearl Harbor itself did not stand out to him as a turning point in the personal way people often expect. “Pearl Harbor just happened. I can’t put it any other way,” he said, pointing instead to a longer arc of his life after the war—marriage, children, and work he continued into his 90s—while the nation’s survivors and their stories continue to become fewer.