The 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor is a good time to remember the importance of the Puget Sound region to the war effort. In this radio story, which first aired on 88.5 in 2005, reporter Steve Krueger takes us to Bremerton, where the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard played a key role in rebuilding ships damaged at Pearl Harbor.With a mix of archival audio, including from President Franklin Roosevelt's visit to Bremerton during the war, and interviews we learn what life was like when, after Pearl Harbor, an attack on the West Coast seemed imminent and nightly blackouts were a given.
It was a time when playgrounds and empty lots in Bremerton were filled with tents and temporary housing for the 32,000 workers who swarmed to the area to labor in the shipyards. As for the work done there, President Roosevelt told them it was something "nobody will ever forget."
