Harold's Voyage: Based on the WWII diaries of Harold Kiel

Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941. Two eighteen-year-old boys, both residing near rivers and having romped the countryside as kids, both lacking father figures and both having bonded closely with their mothers, were just beginning their adult lives when World War II was declared; and both would join the Navy and serve in the Pacific Theater. And both would keep diaries documenting their patriotism, their doubts, their loves, and their fears. Harold Kiel, from Thief River Falls, Minnesota, grew up under the guidance of his caring mother to become a compassionate, healthy, and capable young man. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a pilot, but less than perfect eyesight precluded joining the Army Air Corps. He signed up for the Navy instead, never imagining he’d be sailing into the largest naval battle in history and never imagining the horrors of war he would see. Hayashi Ichizo, from Hakata, Japan, was described as a “peace-loving Christian and a cosmopolitan humanist.” Instead of enlisting in the dreaded Japanese Army, Hayashi allowed himself to be drafted into the Navy. Also, like many other high-achieving students, he was as-signed to pilot training, and he was “volunteered” to be a kamikaze suicide pilot. Fate would bring these two men together one afternoon near Okinawa, Japan. One would not be going home to his mother.