Pearl Harbor: The Second Japanese Attack, March 1942

by John G. Doll

Just about everyone above the age of puberty knows that the greatest global conflict in all of recorded history started for the United States with a totally un­expected attack on the military instal­lations in and around Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands, on the morning of Sunday, 7 December 1941.

This “Day of Infamy” has been re­corded in more texts than are necessary to fill a medium-sized library, with not only the uncountable stories that have been written by so many talented and professional authors, but also with the many volumes of verbatim testimony that went into the numerous, and cer­tainly extensive, Congressional hearings and military courts-martial that took place after the attack.

But did you know that the Japanese Navy actually attacked Pearl Harbor a second time, and even worse—planned to do it again? They did, and they did!

Even with the unbelievable success that they achieved with their surprising and massive naval air attack on 7 December 1941, the fact that there were no follow-up landings by ground troops in order to actually take possession of the Hawaiian Islands, really denied the Japanese even the remotest chance of ever possibly achieving final victory in the Pacific War.

However, in order to maintain the home front morale and general war pro­duction momentum, the Japanese High Command decided that an additional small nuisance bombing strike on the Hawaiian Islands could be successfully mounted and carried out, without having to ever send another large armada east to that area.

The plan, code named “K,” called for two flying boats, manned by very dedicated crews, to make their way to the northwestern end of the Hawaiian Island chain, to a deserted atoll called French Frigate Shoals, lying half-way between Honolulu and the Marshall Islands, where they would be met by a submarine that would provide both planes with the additional fuel and the bombs that would be necessary for the raid.

This atoll was really nothing more than just a few feet of coral showing above the water, but with absolutely no land on which people could live. How­ever, the natural harbor created by these low-lying coral reefs was well-suited to the Japanese plan for it made possible the chance for a long-range supply sub­marine to move in close to the Hawaiian Islands without being detected by ele­ments of either the U.S. Navy or the Army Air Force units flying patrols around the Hawaiian Islands.

Once such an ideal re-supply point was selected, it was then necessary to determine which of the then-current Japanese aircraft available from the existing inventory would be best suited for this very special mission. Since the nearest initial staging area would have to be some place within the Japanese home islands in order to maintain secrecy, whatever planes were to be used had to have an extremely long flying range. In addition, for safety’s sake and, in order to allow them to be refueled and fully armed once they finally reached French Frigate Shoals, they also had to have the capability of landing on water.

Based on these very specific, and certainly necessary criteria, the only logical plane that could be assigned to this mission was the “Emily,” a large, four-engine Kawanishi Type 2 flying boat. It had just entered active service and was the largest, longest-range aircraft produced by the Japanese throughout the entire war.

The plan called for two of these huge planes to take part in this raid with the hope that at least one would get through to actually drop its bombs on the target. The Japanese High Command realized that very little of tactical im­portance could be achieved by such a raid, but just making it would be well worth the effort.

The planes would fly from a secure base in Japan to the newly conquered Philippines for initial refueling. From there, they would fly on to Bougainville and then to Tulagi, just off the coast of Guadalcanal, refueling at each stop. From Tulagi, the two planes would then slip into the protected harbor at French Frigate Shoals under the cover of darkness. Waiting for them there would be one of the few large supply sub­marines that were available to the Navy. From the submarine additional fuel and bombs that would be used during the actual raid would then be transferred to the two planes.

On the night of Monday, 2 March 1942, the two large float planes slid gracefully into the smooth water inside the coral reefs at French Frigate Shoals, and slowly taxied up to the waiting submarine. The crews of both planes and the boat worked feverishly for the next four hours, transferring hundreds of gallons of aviation fuel and several large 200-pound bombs for each plane.

Just before dawn on Tuesday, 3 March 1942, less than three short months after the initial attack on Pearl Harbor, the two air crews, and the crew of the submarine, toasted each other with small sips of saki, just before the two large planes took off, flying on a southeasterly course toward the target area at Pearl Harbor.

The attack plan called for a single bombing pass to be made by both planes over a Navy pier that was being used as the prime staging area for most of the repair work then taking place throughout the harbor.

However, when the two planes arrived over Honolulu, the pilots and bombardiers found that the entire area was thoroughly socked in by some very heavy and very low cloud cover. There was just nothing they could do. The leader of the two-plane attacking flight dropped his bombs just east of Honolulu on the side of a barren hill—hitting nothing—while the other dumped its bomb load into the sea. Both planes then quickly turned back to the north­west, in the direction of their supporting submarine at French Frigate Shoals, and escaped successfully.

Later in the year, Japanese military planners decided that since the first mission from French Frigate Shoals had really been so successful—at least in terms of the actual logistics and staging of it—to try this again. However, this time, instead of a bombing mission, it would be a reconnaissance mission, de­signed to determine just how well the repairs to the damaged American fleet were progressing.

It had been scheduled to take place on Saturday, 30 May 1942, but was aborted when the refueling submarine moving into the area of the low-lying coral reefs came up to periscope depth but was unable to surface because of a U.S. Navy minelayer at anchor in the area. However, even without that prob­lem, it would have had to have been scrubbed since the single floatplane that was to be used for this reconnaissance mission never made it from the Japan­ese base at Guadalcanal to the ren­dezvous point at French Frigate Shoals.

Although the second attack on Pearl Harbor netted the Japanese absolutely nothing, it did prompt the United States to respond in kind. On Saturday, 18 April 1942, a first in naval warfare took place when the B-25 twin-engine bombers of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle took off from the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet and jolted Tokyo with its first American air raid of the war.

A Kawanishi H8K flying boat aircraft, code named “Emily.” This one was photographed in 1944 when a US patrol plane happened upon the Japanese airplane over the Central Pacific. National Archives.

President Theodore Roosevelt High School in Honolulu was damaged by bombs dropped nearby from Operation K.

 

Operation K 

from Wikipedia

Operation K (K作戦, Kē-Sakusen) was a Japanese naval operation in World War II, intended as reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor and disruption of repair and salvage operations following the surprise attack on 7 December 1941. It culminated on 4 March 1942, with an unsuccessful attack carried out by two Kawanishi H8K "Emily" flying boats. This was the longest distance ever undertaken by a two-plane bombing mission, and one of the longest bombing sorties ever planned without fighter escort.

Planning

The planning for Operation K began in the weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the Imperial Japanese Navy high command considered how to take advantage of the capabilities of the long-range Kawanishi H8K flying boats. Plans to bomb California and Texas were being discussed, when the need for updated information regarding the repairs to US Navy facilities at Pearl Harbor took precedence. An assessment of the repairs to the docks, yards and airfields of Oahu would help the IJN staff to determine American ability to project power for months to come.

Initial plans called for the use of five H8K aircraft. They would fly to French Frigate Shoals, the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, to be refueled by submarines prior to taking off for Oahu. The raid was planned to coincide with the full moon to illuminate the Pearl Harbor target area, but the actual date of execution would depend on calm weather for refueling at French Frigate Shoals and clear skies over Pearl Harbor.[4] If the first raid was successful, additional raids would be made.

In a repeat of events just prior to the 7 December attack, American codebreakers warned that the Japanese were preparing for reconnaissance and disruption raids, refueling at French Frigate Shoals, and again were largely ignored by their superiors.[3] The codebreakers had reason to correctly interpret the Japanese intent. Edwin T. Layton's staff included Lieutenant Jasper Holmes, who, writing under the pen name Alec Hudson, had a story entitled Rendezvous published in an August, 1941, Saturday Evening Post. His fictitious story about refueling United States planes from submarines at a remote island for an air attack on a target 3,000 miles (4,800 km) away had been withheld from publication for a year until the author convinced United States Navy censors the techniques described were known to other navies.

Execution

When time came for the raid, only two of the big flying boats were available. Pilot Lieutenant Hisao Hashizume was in command of the mission, with Ensign Shosuke Sasao flying the second airplane. They were sent to Wotje Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where each airplane was loaded with four 250-kilogram (551 lb) bombs. From there, they flew 1,900 miles (3,100 km) to French Frigate Shoals to refuel, then set off for Oahu, 900 kilometers (560 mi) distant. In addition to their reconnaissance mission, they were to bomb the "Ten-Ten" dock – named for its length, 1,010 feet (310 m) – at the Pearl Harbor naval base to disrupt salvage and repair efforts. However, errors ensued on both sides.

The Japanese submarine I-23 was supposed to station herself just south of Oahu as a "lifeguard" and weather spotter for the flying boats, but was lost sometime after 14 February. Japanese cryptanalysts had broken the United States Navy weather code, but a code change on 1 March eliminated that alternative source of weather information over Pearl Harbor. The mission proceeded on the assumption of clear skies over Pearl Harbor from knowledge of conditions at French Frigate Shoals.

American radar stations on Kauai (and later Oahu) picked up and tracked the two planes as they approached the main Hawaiian Islands, prompting a search by Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters. Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats were also sent to seek Japanese aircraft carriers, which were assumed to have launched the two invaders. However, a thick layer of nimbus clouds over Pearl Harbor prevented the defenders from spotting the Japanese planes flying at an altitude of 4,600 meters (15,000 ft).

Those same clouds also confused the IJN pilots. Using the Kaena Point lighthouse for a position fix, Hashizume decided to attack from the north. Sasao, however, did not hear Hashizume's order and instead turned to skirt the southern coast of Oahu.

Hashizume, having lost sight of his wing man, and only able to see small patches of the island, dropped his four bombs on the slopes of Tantalus Peak, an extinct volcano cinder cone just north of Honolulu sometime between 02:00 and 02:15 HST. He was unable to see Pearl Harbor, the only lit facility on Oahu, due to blackout conditions intended to hinder air raids. Hashizume's bombs landed about 300 meters (1,000 ft) from Roosevelt High School, creating craters 2–3 meters (6–10 ft) deep and 6–9 meters (20–30 ft) across. Damage was limited to shattered windows. Sasao is assumed by historians and officials to have eventually dropped his bombs into the ocean, either off the coast of Waianae or near the sea approach to Pearl Harbor. The two flying boats then flew southwest toward the Marshall Islands. Sasao returned as planned to Wotje atoll, but Hashizume's airplane had sustained hull damage while taking off from French Frigate Shoals. Fearing the primitive base at Wotje was insufficient to repair the damage, Hashizume proceeded non-stop all the way to their home base at Jaluit Atoll, also in the Marshall Islands. That made his flight the longest bombing mission in history up to that point.

Aftermath

There were no American casualties. The raid did raise new fears of a potential Japanese invasion of Hawaii.

Japanese media repeated an unsubstantiated Los Angeles radio report of "considerable damage to Pearl Harbor" with 30 dead sailors and civilians, with 70 wounded. Both the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy blamed each other for the explosions, accusing each other of jettisoning munitions into Tantalus.

Another armed reconnaissance mission, scheduled for 6 or 7 March, was canceled because of the delay in launching the first raid, damage to Hashizume's airplane, and the aircrews' exhaustion. It was carried out on 10 March, but Hashizume was killed when his flying boat was shot down by Brewster F2A Buffalo fighters near Midway Atoll.

A followup to Operation K was scheduled for 30 May, to gain intelligence on the whereabouts of U.S. aircraft carriers prior to the Battle of Midway. However, the Americans had become aware French Frigate Shoals was a possible IJN rendezvous point, and naval patrols were increased, per Admiral Chester Nimitz's orders. The Japanese submarine I-123 found the area mined and spotted two American warships at anchor there, prompting a cancellation of the plan, despite the proposed use of Necker Island as an alternative refueling site. This left the IJN unable to observe U.S. Navy activity or track the American carriers.

Further Reading

• Budnick, Rich (2005). Hawaii's Forgotten History: the good...the bad...the embarrassing. Aloha Press. Horn, Steve (2005). 
• The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor: Operation K and Other Japanese Attempts to Bomb America in World War II. Naval Institute Press. 
• Melber, Takuma (2021) [2016]. Pearl Harbour (2 ed.). Cambridge, England: PolityPress. pp. 178, 179.  (first published in German; 2016)
• Simpson, MacKinnon (2008). Hawaii Homefront: Life in the Islands during World War II. Bess Press. 

Approximate route of Operation K.