What Song Was the Navy Band at Pearl Harbor Playing When the Japanese Attacked?

It is a mournful and well-known fact that, as the bombs began to fall at Pearl Harbor, the band aboard the USS Nevada was just beginning the ceremony of the Morning Colors and playing “The Star Spangled Banner.”

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 was the day of many tragedies. Navy ships stationed in the harbor at the time suffered huge losses of life. The USS Nevada Navy Band is only part of the story of what the Navy bands were doing at the time of the attack.

One of those ships, the USS Arizona, has a particularly unique story from that infamous occasion.

Navy Band Tournament at Pearl Harbor

The night before the attack, the Navy Band aboard the USS Arizona, Unit Band 22, spent the evening at a competition at the Naval Station. The “Battle of Music” was a tournament taking place between the various Navy bands stationed in Pearl Harbor over the months preceding the attack. The Arizona band was scheduled to play in the “final round,” and they were attending the performances on December 6th to check out the competition.

The final round of the tournament never took place, of course. On the morning of December 7th, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

The crews of every ship were caught by surprise, and chaos reigned. Aboard the USS Arizona, the members of the Navy band jumped to their battle stations, as crew members were doing all over the harbor. Every member of the USS Arizona band was killed in the attack.

The “Battle of Music” was never completed, but in the months after the attack, the bands that were involved in the tournament voted unanimously to give the award to Unit Band 22, the band of the USS Arizona.