The mystery of an iconic American photograph has been solved. It turns out the picture, used to symbolize American response to the Pearl Harbor attacks, was not even taken on that occasion.
According to MSNBC, Katherine Lowe, second from right on the photograph, is 96 years old and still living in Hawaii.
“Lowe said the wartime photo was certainly not taken on Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Imperial Japanese Navy shocked the United States into joining World War II. On that Sunday morning she was headed to church when the bombing started, and she went ahead anyway because she wasn’t sure what else to do. But she and her friends from the Dole pineapple factory did soon go to work as civilian workers at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, and one of their duties was to fight fires. She said the photo was probably taken at a training exercise during the war. She said she had no idea that her photo was in history books.”
