Even though few school children are aware of the events of
March 4th, 1942, it was quite an extraordinary day in history. While
the crew of the Hornet was preparing for the bombing raid on Tokyo, Japanese
Commanders had something in store for Pearl Harbor, too.
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In light of their
recent successes across Southeast Asia, Japanese command reconsidered attacks
on the US Mainland, namely California and Texas. However, as planners discussed
their next move, the idea of revisiting Pearl Harbor came to mind. With the
American Battleships out of the way, the Japanese Army was able to run rampant
in Southeast Asia. Some planners theorized that keeping the Battleships out of
action would surely increase the Japanese Navy’s stronghold on the Pacific.
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However, many feared that another attack on Pearl would
leave the Japanese Carriers exposed and far from home. Instead, they hatched a
plan to send five HK8 “Emily” Floatplanes out for a long-range bombing run and reconnaissance
mission to Pearl Harbor, stopping at a secret rendezvous with submarines out at
sea.
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As March 4th neared, only two Emily Floatplanes were
available. The mission went ahead as planned, using only the two floatplanes. The
refueling out at sea went according to plan. However, the rest of the mission turned
out to be a disaster.
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Since the party was
so small, they would execute their mission under cover of darkness. When they
arrived at Hawaii, it was 2:00 am Hawaiian Standard Time. Since the islands
were observing blackout conditions, the H8K pilots had few landmarks to use for
navigation. Additionally, since the planes had to keep their own lights
extinguished, too, they lost track of each other. Both planes dropped their
bombs in the Northern Highlands, far from Battleship Row. In the end, there we
no casualties and only a few broken
windows from the explosions.
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