HONOLULU — Bob Fernandez, a 100-year-old survivor of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, died shortly after deteriorating health prompted him to skip a trip to Hawaii to attend last week’s remembrance ceremony marking the 83rd anniversary of the attack.
Mr. Fernandez, considered one of the last-known survivors of the attack, died at the Lodi, Calif., home of his nephew, Joe Guthrie, on Wednesday. Mr. Fernandez suffered a stroke about a month ago that caused him to slow down but Guthrie said doctors attributed his condition to age.
“It was his time,” Guthrie said.
In a video biography filmed in 2016, Mr. Fernandez said he had joined the Navy to see the world.
“I just thought I was going to go dancing all the time, have a good time,” he said, adding: “What did I do? I got caught in a war.”
He was a 17-year-old sailor on board the USS Curtiss during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that propelled the nation into World War II. A mess cook, he was waiting tables and bringing sailors morning coffee and food when they heard an alarm sound. Through a porthole, he saw a plane fly by with the red ball insignia known to be painted on Japanese aircraft.
He rushed down three decks to a magazine room, where he and other sailors waited for someone to unlock a door storing shells so they could pass them to the ship’s guns. He has told interviewers over the years that some of his fellow sailors were praying and crying as they heard gunfire above.
“I felt kind of scared because I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Mr. Fernandez told the Associated Press in an interview weeks before his death.
The Curtiss lost 21 men and nearly 60 of its sailors were injured. The bombing killed more than 2,300 US servicemen. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona, which sank during the battle.
The USS Curtis was bombed multiple times in the attack, and a Japanese fighter plane crashed into it near the bridge that housed the command center.
“We lost a lot of good people, you know,” Mr. Fernandez said.
The ship was quickly repaired about a month later and rejoined the war effort.
Mr. Fernandez had been planning to return to Pearl Harbor last week to attend an annual commemoration hosted by the Navy and the National Park Service but became too weak to make the trip, Guthrie said.
He was “so proud” of his six years in the Navy, all of it aboard the Curtiss, Guthrie said. Most of his casual clothes, like hats and shirts, were related to his service.
“It was just completely ingrained in him,” his nephew said.
Mr. Fernandez worked as a forklift driver at a cannery in San Leandro, Calif., after the war. His wife of 65 years, Mary Fernandez, died in 2014.
He enjoyed music and dancing, and until recently attended weekly music performances at a local park and a restaurant. He helped neighbors in his trailer park take care of their yards until he moved in with Guthrie last year.
“I’d do yard work and split firewood and he’d swing the axe a little bit," Guthrie said. “We’d call it his physical therapy.”
Mr. Fernandez’s advice for living a long life included stopping eating once you’re full and marching up stairs. He said it was OK to take a nap, but do something like laundry or wash dishes before going to bed. He recommended being kind to everyone.
Guthrie said he thinks his uncle would want to be remembered for bringing people joy.
“He would rake people’s yards if they couldn’t do it. He would paint a fence. He would help somebody,” Guthrie said. “He would give people money if they needed something. He was so generous and such a kind person. He made friends everywhere.”
Mr. Fernandez leaves his oldest son, Robert J. Fernandez, a granddaughter, and several great-grandchildren.
There are 16 known survivors of Pearl Harbor that are still alive, according to a list maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. All of them are at least 100 years old.
Mr. Fernandez’s death would have brought the number to 15 but Farley recently learned of an additional survivor.
Material from The New York Times was used in this obituary.