Eyewitness 1942: A hero's welcome in Lawrenceville
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William Basa said his brother, Frank, was a little chagrined by the fuss his Pittsburgh neighbors made over him.
Frank Basa, a corporal in the Army Air Forces, had been wounded in the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After treatment at military hospitals in Hawaii and California, he returned to Pennsylvania in spring 1942.
"Lawrenceville turned out 40,000 strong yesterday afternoon to welcome home their soldier hero," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on April 20. "A huge parade from Forty-fifth to Fifty-seventh streets opened the ovation ceremonies for the 24-year-old ground crew man. The patriotic celebrations, which continued through the afternoon, were climaxed last night with a banquet in Slovenian Hall in his honor."
The military news had been bad for many months, and the country was looking for heroes. The Japanese had killed about 2,400 Americans and sank or badly damaged more than a dozen ships in their attack at Pearl Harbor.
Japan had bombed and invaded the American-controlled Philippines the next day. A little more than a week before the parade honoring Frank Basa, U.S. and Filipino forces trapped on the Bataan peninsula had been forced to surrender.
"Frank was one of the first wounded to return to Pittsburgh," his brother, William, said in a phone interview last week. "He had lost half a lung and three ribs and had spent months in the hospital."
"But he didn't see himself as a hero," William Basa said. "I think he was a little embarrassed by the whole thing."
Frank Basa and his mother, Christina Mihelcic, headed the parade, which featured a half-dozen bands. They rode in a convertible driven by prize fighter Fritzie Zivic, who was described as a family friend. A Lawrenceville native, Zivic had been world welterweight champion in 1940 and 1941.
First Published February 7, 2010 12:00 am
