SEATTLE – Memorabilia from Port Angeles resident Lee Embree, who snapped the first known photographs of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, will be on permanent display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
The display at the William M. Allen Theater in the museum, 9404 E. Marginal Way South, will be dedicated during a public ceremony at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Embree, a retired World War II Army Air Corps officer and photographer, will attend the dedication, and participate in a panel discussion featuring veterans of World War II.
“I’m really glad it will all be preserved in a permanent location,” Embree said.
Embree, then an Air Force staff sergeant, and his crew on the B-17E didn’t set out to take pictures of a battle.
They were traveling from Hamilton Field, Calif., to their next assignment at Hickam Field, Hawaii.
As they approached the island, the crew saw Japanese planes and rising smoke.
Low on fuel and with no ammunition aboard, they circled the island, looking for a landing place.
Embree, leaning out of the plane, snapped photos with his 35-pound camera.
One shot included several Japanese planes, one fallen and smoking on the ground, while two others soared above the island.
Another shot showed the USS Arizona billowing smoke in the background.
Some of Embree’s photographs were published in Life magazine.
