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The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor

by Steve Horn, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 2005, $29.95.

Steve Horn explores what is probably one of the least known events of World War II, the second attack on Pearl Harbor by two Kawanishi H8K2 “Emily” flying boats on March 4, 1942. The Emily was a long-range reconnaissance and bombing aircraft. Y-71, captained by Lieutenant Hashizume, and Y-72, captained by Ensign Sasao, the only two H8Ks in the operation, were used for the mission.

Hisao Hashizume, the mission commander, was Japan’s premier expert on flying boats, instrumental in developing many of the operational procedures used with flying boats by the Japanese. A total of 167 Emilys would see service in WWII.

The extensive planning for March 1942 by the Japanese has been well documented. Their construction of seaplane bases at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and at Wotje Island began in May 1941. Before the war, the Japanese had begun developing Sh-type submarines designed to service seaplanes from remote areas of the Pacific. Those seaplane bases and the Sh-type sub made the second Pearl Harbor attack possible.

As on December 7, 1941, the planes were detected by radar when they were more than 200 miles from Oahu. But again as on December 7, their detection made little difference. None of the U.S. interceptors launched from Hawaii that day found the Emilys. Fortunately for the Americans, none of the bombs dropped by the seaplanes did any damage; four exploded on a mountainside, and four more detonated in the ocean off the harbor mouth.

Both H8Ks subsequently returned to base safely, and Horn points out that this was the longest bombing mission flown by any of the fighting powers during WWII. As one consequence, the United States launched a serious program to develop a night fighter and train crews for noctural interception missions.

For the Japanese, the most important objective of the mission was reconnaissance; the secondary objective was bombardment. Horn points out that another, perhaps subliminal objective was to show the United States that the Japanese could launch a successful mission over Pearl Harbor at will.

Horn also covers other important missions, including photoreconnaissance sorties over Midway Atoll and Johnston Island in preparation for the conquest of Midway, the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, and the plans of the Japanese to bomb the United States and the Panama Canal. In his epilogue, he completes the story by summing up the results of Japan’s misguided war against the United States.

The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor is filled with little-known facts that anyone with an interest in World War II will want to read. I highly recommend it.

 

Originally published in the July 2006 issue of Aviation History. To subscribe, click here