The aircraft would have to fly from the Marshall Islands, crossing 1,900 miles of ocean to a remote atoll named French Frigate Shoals. The mission was a nightmare when it came to the factors of distance, weather, and logistics. In an effort to take advantage of a full moon, the attack was scheduled for March 4, 1942. Each Kawanishi H8K “Emily” flying boat hefted four 250-kilogram bombs meant for the 1010 dock at Pearl Harbor. However, in order to sow panic with the locals, the planes would bring along some bombs too. Operation K was conceived by the Japanese as a scouting mission to investigate the American recovery efforts from the December 7 attack. As oil-soaked debris from the doomed vessel, along with victims of the attack, washed up on Maui’s Hana coast, it was clear that the islands were not safely out of reach of Japanese aggression. There were 60 men on the Frank 36 of them survived the attack. Frank was hauling soldiers between islands when it blundered into the path of a Japanese submarine on patrol in Alenuihaha Channel. On the night of January 28, 1942, the US Army transport General Royal T. On the night of December 30-31, the subs were back, not only hitting Kahilui, but also hitting Nawiliwili on Kauai and Hilo on the Big Island. Three of the projectiles hit a pineapple cannery, doing $700 worth of damage. At sunset on December 15, 10 shells from a Japanese deck gun crashed into the port facilities at Kahului on Maui. Instead, the subs attacked softer targets. The attackers avoided the patrol aircraft and keyed-up destroyers surrounding the naval base on O’ahu. Under cover of night, Japanese submarines would silently slide close to the beaches. Even after their attack planes departed the area, the Japanese were not completely gone. The anxiety was more than simple paranoia. School children walked to class carrying gas masks and the paper bills of the islands carried “Hawaii” overprints, making the money useless should it fall into Japanese hands. Locals installed black-out curtains and volunteered to become watch wardens. The sunny beaches of the islands were quickly entangled in barbed wire as Army crews looked to set up firing positions at critical points. As the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island came under attack, it only seemed like a matter of time before the Japanese turned their attention to invading Hawaii. The weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were tense for the residents of the Territory of Hawaii. The leakage is often referred to as the “Black Tears of the Arizona.Top Image courtesy of the National Museum of Naval Aviation. One of the lost battleships, the Arizona, is known for dripping oil into the harbor to this day. In September of 1945, Yamamoto's fears proved correct when Japan surrendered and World War II ended in defeat. The mastermind of the plan feared that, should any aspect of it fail, all Japan would have achieved was forcing the United States to enter a war that Japan had no chance of winning. ![]() Though Japan was the nation that instigated the attack, the admiral in charge of it, Isoroku Yamamoto, showed hesitation in the months leading up to it. At the conclusion of the attack, over 2,400 American servicemen were killed and two American battleships, the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) and the USS Arizona (BB-39), were destroyed. Over the course of those two hours, two separate waves of Japanese fighters and bombers entered the Oahu airspace and dropped their payloads of bombs and torpedoes. The attack on Pearl Harbor started at approximately 0755 Hawaii Standard Time and ended at just around 1000. Fearing the Americans would stumble upon hints about Operation Hawaii, the name was later changed to “Operation Z.” Two Hours, Two Attack Waves, Two Battleships Explosion of the USS Arizona Prior to the launch of the Pearl Harbor assault, it was known as “the Hawaii Operation.” Despite the obvious name, no American codebreaker ever happened across communications about it. The communication from the American President to Japan’s emperor was delayed, however, possibly by the new Japanese Foreign Minister's office. Though Japanese leadership wouldn’t find out until it was too late, President Roosevelt had attempted to keep the relationship between the United States and Japan peaceful. We’ve gathered some random facts about the attack on Pearl Harbor to paint a broader picture of what the attack really meant in the long run. It will forever be one of the most notable dates in American history, the day Japan launched a surprise aerial assault on an US naval base.
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