(Kawanishi H8K Emily lifting off. Official US Navy picture).

“The Japanese decided to mount a follow-on attack against the shipyard at Pearl to destroy the big Ten-Ten Dry-dock. That would delay the repairs to the battleships, and increase the paranoia on the island. They envisioned an attack by five big Kawanishi H8K “Emily” class flying boats.
 
“Jesus,” I said. “and they pulled it off? Why isn’t that part of the big history?”
 
“Well, that is the interesting part. Eddie located the Japanese OpOrders and the pilot reports of the mission after the war. As it turned out, only two seaplanes departed the Marshalls, and they did refuel in the vicinity of French Frigate Shoals. They then launched to for Oahu, to bomb and conduct what Joe Rochefort described as an armed reconnaissance mission.”
 
“And there was no response, only four months after the biggest disaster in American military history? No warning?”
 
“Oh, there was warning all right. We had penetrated JN-25 enough at that point to know that something was up, but there was heavy overcast the night of the 4th of March and the Japanese got lost. The two Japanese planes wandered around over the island but the blackout was effective, and one of the planes dropped bombs on Tantulus, which produced a couple large craters and broke some windows at Roosevelt High School. Eddie thought the other plane must have dropped its bombs over the ocean.”
 
“That was it?” I asked. My wineglass stood empty next to the notepad. My pen was making exclamation points next to the words “Second Attack on Pearl: no response!!!!!”

“The submarine I-23, the weather reporting unit, disappeared while on patrol and never arrived on station. So the weather was bad, the planes never found Pearl Harbor, and there were two explosions in the night that the next day the Navy and the Army blamed on each other for dumping ordnance irresponsibly.”
 
“Good God, that would have been hugely embarrassing if word got out that the Japanese came back and were not intercepted.”
 
“Joe Rochefort said it this way,” Mac said, pulling a folded article out of the back of his copy of Double Edged Secrets. He unfolded it and peered over his glasses. “He had passed a warning to the 14th Naval District, the Hawaiian Sea Frontier Commander, and to CinCPac. This is from the interview he did with Commander Ette-Belle Kitchen in 1969.”
 
He began to read in a voice just loud enough to be heard over the din in the Willow bar:
 
“I was told later by informed people that the attack was made, as I say, more or less unmolested, because the Navy had no airplanes at that time capable of repelling this attack or destroying the incoming aircraft. The Army said that they only had one-place fighters, and who could expect a fighter pilot to not only fly the plane in darkness but also to approach and make an attack on any enemy plane. Therefore, nothing had been done about it, and no action was taken.”

“My God.” Mac smiled at me and handed the paper over. I looked at the rest of what Joe Rochefort felt then:
 
“I just threw up my hands and said it might be a good idea to remind everybody concerned that this nation was at war….It’s not a very glorious incident. You won’t find very many references to this anywhere along the line.”

I re-folded the article and slipped it back in the book.
 
“That certainly beats me,” I said. “So that was the end of it?”
 
“No,” said Mac. “They planned on trying it again before Midway, but Admiral Nimitz dispatched a couple seaplane tenders to French Frigate Shoals, and the Japanese wouldn’t risk it. That meant they lost a chance to see what we were doing before the battle in June.”
 
“Amazing,” I said. “That is just one of the reasons I enjoy talking to you so much.”
 
“There was a sort of gallows humor about it on the CinCPac staff,” said Mac. “You will see that one of Jasper’s stories in “Up Periscope” is called “Rendezvous.” It was originally in the Saturday Evening Post just before the war. It outlines a plan by which submarines would refuel long-distance seaplanes for a sneak attack. There was quite a laugh about it on the staff, at least those that were cleared. Eddie Layton suggested that Jasper had planned the attack for the Japs, but it was not completely in jest. There was an investigation, and Jasper was exonerated.”
 
“That must have been sort of strange between pals,” I said.
 
“They weren’t,” said Mac. “Joe Rochefort and Eddie were very close. But Eddie couldn’t stand Jasper. I was one of his kids in the Estimates Section. After I volunteered to go forward to Guam in ‘45, he came out to make a visit. I told Eddie I was going to go out to the airfield and pick him up in my jeep. Eddie wanted to know why I was going to bother.”
 
I shook my head in wonder at the memory of a rendezvous so long ago and far away, vivid as if it were just yesterday. Then I realized I was not going to be able to kill Yamamoto until tomorrow.

Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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