The USS Nevada was the ship that almost got away when the bombs started to fall on Pearl Harbor 80 years ago.
The ship didn’t completely succeed in escaping the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. But it did manage to fight back and live to see another day. After repairs, it went on to fight on D-Day in 1944 off Normandy, and at the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the Pacific Theater.
For much of the past decade, a group of U.S. Navy veterans and other supporters have been keeping the Nevada’s legacy alive through painstakingly refurbishing a nearly 40-foot long replica scale model of the ship — built for the 1970 film “Tora! Tora! Tora!”
Under the artistic hand of John Stewart, 80 — who has a history of creating studio models for movies — the 1/15th scale model of the Nevada has been brought back to much of its original detail not included in the original movie version.
From the windows in the bridge to the glass in the crow’s nest — and most recently, the jolly boats and captain’s gig used to shuttle crew members to shore, along with minute details, such as the ship’s fire extinguishers, welding bottles and a custom-made model of the ship’s bell — the ship’s previously overlooked accoutrements have been added to the film-version model over the years. A 48-star U.S. flag was also found by volunteers to fly on the vessel.
While it’s been featured in several parades — it will participate in the Dec. 12 El Segundo holiday parade and has been part of the Armed Forces Day Parade in Torrance and one of San Pedro’s L.A. Fleet Week celebrations — the model never found a permanent home for display.
It’s now parked most of the time in a Wilmington warehouse.
But David Rupp, 74, a retired Navy officer whose father served in the U.S. Army during World War II, said the mission isn’t over and is now focused on educational outreach opportunities.
“We’ve not had too much success,” Rupp said, “but we’re approaching various schools, both elementary and high school, to see if we could bring the Nevada out for a day of remembrance and a day of education.”
Rupp heads up the nonprofit Quarterdeck Society, dedicated to preserving the history of Pearl Harbor. But membership — and financial support — has dwindled as memories of the war and the attacks, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt said would “live in infamy,” fade from the scene.
Expenses are largely out of pocket, Rupp said, to get the model hauled to parade routes and other venues.
The ship model, which is transported on a wheeled flat trailer, was one of several created for the $25.5 million Japanese American film “Tora! Tora! Tora!” in 1970. To re-create Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, film producers relied on replica models that looked like the real thing in the long sequences showing the Japanese air bombings.
The USS Nevada was built in 1914 and was the only vessel to get underway after it was hit in the surprise, early-morning raid.
“They hit the Nevada pretty good,” Rupp said, “with a torpedo and a couple of bombs that hit the deck.”
But the ship managed to head toward the narrow harbor opening before finally becoming beached.
“The guns were blazing on the Nevada,” Rupp said of the crew’s retaliation.
“The old girl,” Rupp said, “wouldn’t go down.”
The ship, after getting back underway to continue serving during World War II, eventually was sunk by the Navy in 1948 after it had participated in tests of the atomic bomb at the Bikini Atoll and was believed to be radioactive.
Even then, it took the Navy more than four days to pummel the Nevada to the bottom. Its crew called the ship “Ol’ Maru.”
In May 2020, undersea explorers found the wreck 15,000 feet under water, according to an article in The Washington Post.
When “Tora! Tora! Tora!” completed filming, the ship models were auctioned off. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Walt Riter, a Pearl Harbor survivor, bought the Nevada model for $1, Rupp said. Riter died in the early 2000s, which is when the Quarterdeck Society was formed and took over the project.
It had been sitting for years outside at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and needed a major overhaul. That’s when Stewart went to work.
He spent years restoring and finishing the Nevada model and has just recently added more touches to the replica.
Initially, the group wanted the ship to find a permanent display spot somewhere on the San Pedro waterfront. After all, it was based there before the fleet was moved to Pearl Harbor and had returned there for repair work after the attack.
But finding space turned out to be a tall order.
For now, Rupp said, the mission is focused on using the model to help share an important piece of U.S. and world history.
“It’s been 76 years since the end of the war,” he said.
It’s a chapter in history, Rupp added, that, as the years pass, has too often been “glossed over.”