Pearl Harbor

A Daring Plan

The time had come for action. General Tojo worked with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to plan an attack against the United States. And the target was Hawaii. It was the closest territory to Japan, and Honolulu was home to Pearl harbor as well as a U.S. airbase, Hickam Field. The plan was to destroy the battleships, aircraft carriers, and planes at Pearl Harbor. It’d take weeks for the U.S. to send ships from California to fight back.

The Japanese needed a spy to help them carry out the attack. Takeo Yoshikawa was one of the Japanese spies in Hawaii. Yoshikawa climbed the slopes of a mountain where he could see Pearl Harbor and the nearby airfields. He memorized every ship and plane’s name, number, and location. He sent the information back to Admiral Yamamoto via coded messages.

With all of this information, Yamamoto knew he had everything he needed to complete the attack. They’d attack on a Sunday, since there were fewer sailors on duty that day. What he didn’t account for was Pearl Harbor’s usage of new technology called radar, or radio detecting and ranging.

At the time, radar was used to detect objects in the air or water, and it could tell how far away the object was and in what direction it was moving. However, it couldn’t tell what an object was. In addition, radar is only an effective warning system if someone is watching it for blips to appear and disappear. But in 1941, they didn’t man the radar all day and night. They only turned it on and watched it for three hours a day, from 4 AM to 7 AM.

By chance, on December 7, 1941, the two soldiers at the outpost station were late in shutting it down. At 7:02am, Private George Elliott noticed a huge blip about 130 miles offshore. He told Private Joe Lockard. The blip was so large they thought it was a radar malfunction. They called their superior, who told them to ignore it. Despite the orders, Private Elliott kept the radar on longer. He tracked the blip until it reached twenty-two miles offshore before disappearing behind a mountain. At 7:39am, Elliott and Lockard shut down the radar station.

The blip was actually a massive fleet of Japanese fighter planes. And they were heading straight for Pearl Harbor.

Nanea’s Story

Nanea wakes up early on Sunday morning so she can perfect the surprise breakfast. She planned for cold cereal, fresh papaya, and a batch of Auntie Rose’s homemade malasadas. The sweet Portuguese doughnuts are puffy and warm.

Nanea goes into the garden to gather some flowers. The smell of the yellow blossoms from the ginger plants from Mrs. Lin’s garden wafts over to Nanea’s nose. Nanea snips a handful of ginger blooms—Mrs. Lin won’t mind.

Suddenly, there’s a loud rumbling sound. What’s making that racket? Nanea looks up, and sees the sky dotted with planes. This is nothing new because planes fly from Hickam Field overhead all the time.

But something seems different today. Why are they out so early on a Sunday, flying so low? As a plane dips down lower, Nanea sees a round red sun on its tail. Those aren’t American planes. What’s going on?