Monday January 28, 7:00 p.m.
Historian ROLF HASTRUP will share the story of his father, Herman, who was a witness to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Herman Hastrup helped build the Oakland Bay Bridge before going to work for the Navy at Mare Island Naval Base in 1938. He received a promotion to head of the hull section when he transferred to Pearl Harbor in June 1941. The family lived in a naval housing unit bordering the Harbor which provided a ringside view of the attack.
Herman went immediately into the shipyard to help prevent the ships from sinking, and the family was evacuated to Honolulu. He continued the work of salvaging the ships for many months, as well as the repair of ships damaged in the war. Rolf Hastrup’s talk will also cover what the Japanese did not accomplish at Pearl Harbor, the treatment of the Japanese Americans in Hawaii after the attack and the “missing Pearl Harbor file.”
Born in Oakland, Rolf Hastrup transferred from the University of Hawaii to Caltech as sophomore in 1950 and received his Bachelors, Masters, and Engineering degrees from Caltech. He joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1959 and worked on many of JPL's flight projects including the lunar Ranger and Surveyor missions, the Mars Mariner, Viking and Pathfinder missions, and the Jupiter Galileo mission.
You won’t want to miss this fascinating look at a pivotal moment in world history brought to you by the San Marino Historical Society and Crowell Public Library. These monthly lectures will continue through June.
