The Sleeping Giant Awakes Limited Edition

Artist: Richard Taylor | Copies: 350

The Sleeping Giant Awakes by Richard Taylor

Free Companion Print Included! Scroll down for more details.

 

On Sunday December 7, 1941 the free world had been stunned into disbelief by the treacherous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Giving no formal declaration of war, the devastating Japanese assault on the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet had left over two thousand American servicemen dead, most of her battleships destroyed or damaged, and the remains of nearly 200 American aircraft lay in tatters. America reeled from the shock and sheer incredulity. But for Admiral Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the success of victory had left a bitter taste. The main targets of his carefully orchestrated plan had been the US carriers but, as fate would have it, they were all at sea. Yamamoto knew in his heart that he would have to face those carriers one day, and when he did they would be the platform upon which America would unleash her full power against him.

Yamamoto commented "I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counter attack." He was correct. At 12:30 the following day, President Roosevelt began his address to Congress, calling for the declaration of war on Japan. By 4:10pm America was at formally war, and five thousand miles away the first of the carriers, the USS Enterprise, was returning to Pearl Harbor.

Richard Taylor's new painting - The Sleeping Giant Awakes - portrays the scene as the Enterprise slips through the shallow outer channels towards Ford Island and the smoldering ruins that had been the Pacific Fleet. As ships still burn and the stench of destruction hangs in the air, ever alert F4F-3A Wildcats of VF-6 fly an air patrol overhead. Throughout the night the carrier will refuel and re-arm, the fires of the still burning Arizona lighting up the night sky. At dawn, she will return to sea with a steel resolve and a new mission, to avenge Pearl Harbor.

Print Size - 21 inches x 31 inches  

Signatures:

James Anthony Donis, Leo Priest, Bernard "Bernie" Rubien (Bios are below, please scoll down) 

Print Size - 21 inches x 31 inches

Companion Print Included!

 

Day of the Rising Sun

 

Sunday, December 7, 1941.

With the rising sun glinting on their fuselages, Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo and high-altitude bombers, and Aichi D3A Val dive-bombers, head for the unsuspecting US Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor. In less than two hours time the fate of the world will have been changed forever.

All editions issued with a matching-numbered, artist signed copy of the companion print - Day of the Rising Sun.

Size: 13½" x 18½"

The Signatories

James Anthony Donis

Enlisting in the Army Air Corp in 1940, James Donis was posted to Oahu in January 1941. Promoted to Air Mechanic he was assigned to Base Engineering at Wheeler Field when the attack took place: "The first plane to start the attack proceeded to dive towards the Base Engineering Hangar (where I was stood), the bomb was released and made a direct hit on a wood frame supply building, about 300 yards from where I was standing! I ran to an adjacent Transportation Building where P-40's were parked wing tip to wing tip, burning and exploding. The bombing attack had destroyed most aircraft for any counter attack, and after the bombing ended the aerial strafing began, flying low over hangars and Hangar Avenue. As they flew past they were so low I could see the pilots' faces. There was a strong response from base personnel, myself included, as we fired weapons from the balconies of the 3-storey air-base building that faced Hangar Avenue where Japanese planes passed on their strafing attack."

Leo Priest

After joining the National Guard in 1937, Leo Priest joined the regular US Army in September 1940. He was at the command post at Hickam Field on the morning of the attack: "Coming back from chow with some Army buddies we noticed antiaircraft guns firing across the island from us. We could see AA bursts with planes flying through them. All of a sudden, two Zeros came from nowhere not more than 50ft off the ground. The pilots and gunners were about as close to us as we were to each other . . . the gunner in the rear cockpit was swinging his machine gun down on us and beginning to fire, I will never forget the expression on his face . . . he was actually grinning at us. I was then ordered to drive the CO . . . first stop Pearl Harbor. As we approached it was almost like night time with choking, heavy black smoke shrouding away the otherwise bright, beautiful Sunday morning sun . . . and as we arrived we were just in time to get right in the middle of the Japanese follow up second attack . . . we could see ships sinking in a sea of fire. The whole harbor, especially near the sea wall at Ford Island was ablaze with thick layers of burning oil and sailors swimming for their lives . . . "

 

Bernard "Bernie" Rubien

Bernie Rubien enlisted in the Army Air Corps in September 1940, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 10, 1940: "I arrived in Honolulu on December 10, 1940 and was stationed at Hickham Field assigned first to the 72nd Bomb Squadron and then to Headquarters, where I was on duty on December 7, 1941. I was awakened that morning by horrendous noise and ran outside the barracks where we were being strafed by low-flying Jap Zeros. I remained at Hickam until late 1942 when after Officer training returned to the Pacific and spent the war on a couple of islands called Kwajalein and Saipan where we were visited nightly by our Japanese friends flying down from Iwo Jima and dropping a few friendly bombs! That stopped when the Marines captured the island."

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