She Remembers Pearl Harbor research correspondence — April 7–8, 2015.
Author Nicholas Best contacted Danielle while researching a new Pearl Harbor book and shared draft material about AraBelle Fuller’s experience on December 7, 1941. His questions prompted a detailed fact-checking exchange.
Danielle corrected one key point immediately: AraBelle was a private-duty nurse when the attack occurred, not a Red Cross nurse. Danielle wrote that AraBelle was later “recruited” by the Army and officially joined on December 16. Danielle also explained that the surviving family evidence was messy: newspaper accounts, family lore, a typewritten account prepared by Peter Zeimet, and AraBelle’s own writing did not always line up cleanly.
Best revised his interpretation overnight after considering the timing of the attack. He concluded that the explosion AraBelle experienced around 11:30 a.m. was more likely stray American anti-aircraft fire than a Japanese bomb, because the Japanese attack force had already withdrawn. He also noted that AraBelle’s observation of American markings on aircraft she first thought were Japanese fit the documented confusion and friendly-fire conditions that morning.
The surviving email thread also includes an attachment named AraBelle Army Docs.pdf. This exchange is useful not just for the facts it discusses, but because it records how the Pearl Harbor story was being externally checked against military history rather than relying only on family memory.
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