A Witness to Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, while Burroughs was playing tennis in Honolulu, he watched in horror as Japanese warplanes dropped bombs Pearl Harbor. But that wasn’t the only problem they had to face. Florence, who didn’t enjoy living in hotel rooms and chauffeuring her drunk husband around the island, decided to call it quits.
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She returned to California and filed for a divorce, citing “mental cruelty” as the reason. According to Florence, Burroughs’ attempts to act young only made her feel old. The man was left to his own wits. He was too old, at 66, for active duty, so the eternal adventure-seeker became a war correspondent instead and made three trips to Pacific combat zones.