Hodgin Drugs Presents:
Pearl Harbor
On
December 7, 1996 some of the local gaming hobbyists, in
cooperation with Hodgin Drugs, recreated the bombing of Pearl
Harbor. As most know, this attack is important because it was the
only hostile action taken against America. Below you will see
pictures from the games that we played. The written text is from
Ed Ray (one of the participants), it was a report he had to do
for his 7th grade English class.
Pearl Harbor was a battle that gave the Americans a reason to be involved in World War 2. The Japanese planned it perfectly and it was carried out just as well as the plans were made. All the targets were covered, the airbase, the battleships and the anti-aircraft guns. As well as the Military base within the island.
The Japanese planned this well. There were 6 aircraft carriers that were about 200 miles away from Oahu. They had many rituals, eating sekihan (a boiled rice with tiny red beans) drinking a rice wine called sake, and praying to shrines set up on the aircraft carriers. They lived by a code of honor that if their planes had engine trouble, they would crash them into the U.S. ships. They would rather die than be prisoners of war. They also tied hachimakis on their heads, with the words “certain victory” on them.
Everyone
was ready for the launch, which was delayed for twenty minutes
because of violent waves. But when they did take off it only took
fifteen minutes for the first fleet of planes. The first fleet
was mostly fighters, sent in order to protect the bombers so that
if the Americans somehow found out about the attack the Japanese
would be ready. Fuchida, the commander of the Japanese planes,
was in his bomber. It had three seats, the rising sun on its
wings, red and yellow stripes on its tail and a bomb under its
belly.
Of
the 185 planes in the first group, only two did not fly. The
first crashed in the sea and the pilot was retrieved, and the
second had engine trouble. Of the second group, only one did not
get off the ship because of engine trouble. The radios were
turned off and Fuchida directed his men by hand signals. As soon
as the last plane of the first fleet left the deck, another 165
planes were raised up from the hangers and took off.
To check his course, Fuchida turned the radio dial until he found KGMB, one of Honolulu’s radio stations. By using the station’s beam he learned that he was five degrees off course, and his pilot made the correction. He also listened for warnings on the radio station that warned of planes coming. This assured their surprise.
At
the American base, two privates were closing up the radar when
blips appeared on the screen. There were so many that they thought
their equipment was malfunctioning, however. They thought about
calling their superior. Once more planes arrived, they did call
him and he told them that a squadron of B-17s were coming in from
San Francisco. They left and let the machinery run. After a
while, the Japanese arrived and were ready for battle. The
problem was that there wasn't any. Fuchida could not believe his
luck. The place was dead. No AA guns being manned or any sign of
resistance. Fuchida tapped into his operator
“Tora,Tora,Tora” which meant “tiger.” It was
code that they had surprised them. Before all this, two Japanese
had died while manning a midget sub sneaking into the harbor. It
went through the openings of the nets which were made to let a
ship come in. The minesweeper Condor saw the sub and flashed its
warning lights to the Ward, which was loaded with depth charges.
They destroyed the sub but no warning was put out to alert the
base.
The attack took place on Oahu, Hawaii on December 7th, 1941. The first torpedo hit the Raleigh at 7:55 and soon after another hit the Utah. An alarm went up as another torpedo headed after the Oglala, a mine-laying ship. The torpedo went under the smaller ship and hit the battleship Helena.
On
the battleship Nevada, they were raising the flag when planes
flew over the ship. Ensign Joseph K. Taussig, Jr. pulled the
alarm bell at 8:01 and took command of his station. The
battleship Nevada took out two Japanese planes but the Oklahoma,
the West Virginia and the Arizona had already been hit. The
Oklahoma was the first to sink of those four. More than 400
sailors died while sleeping under the deck. The Arizona was next
but created an explosion so large that it knocked sailors off of
the Vestal, the Nevada and the West Virginia. An abandon ship was
called out over the horn on the Arizona and Vestal and sailors
jumped into the oil-coated water. When the oil-soaked captain of
the Vestal climbed back on board, he ordered the sailors back to
their stations. A tug boat pulled the flaming Arizona away from
the Vestal.
The
West Virginia was so damaged by the debris of the Arizona that
most of its men were wounded as well as the captain. The doctor
who treated the captain later manned a machine gun that was soon
destroyed. The fires on the West Virginia became so violent that
the men aboard it used the main guns to cross over to the ship
behind it.
Two torpedoes hit the California and cut the electricity, making water pour into the bottom of the ship. Panic arose as the guns could not be fired for lack of ammunition. What resulted was the sailors passing the shells by hand to be fed into the guns. This had to be done by the bravest of them. Most of the sailors went below to rescue people and keep the ship afloat while the others manned the guns and passed shells. Many fainted from the heat and smoke.
The Maryland only took two blows. The ship was protected by the Oklahoma so it could not be hit by many torpedoes. Because it was afloat, many sailors climbed aboard it to safety.
On
Hickam Field, the Army Air Corps base, bombers were lined up
side-by-side to make it easier to prevent sabotage by minimizing
the amount of space needed to field soldiers. Moments after 8
o’clock, a Japanese plane flew over the bombers and dropped
a bomb on a barracks. A half-minute later dozens of planes
strafed the ground and shot up planes, buildings etc.
After a minute or two a dozen B-17s flew into sight. They had been flying from San Francisco for fourteen hours. The pilots looked forward to a long sleep and a good meal, but they were awakened by the Rising Sun symbol on the side of the Japanese planes and they feared their mouths would be stuffed with bullets as they realized they had no ammo with which to defend themselves. They were flying unloaded to minimize fuel intake so they could make it to Pearl Harbor. They did, but as soon as they touched ground and stopped, the crews jumped out and ran for their lives. Many explosions followed. Because the planes were lined up, the fuel from the first would ignite the second. It was a chain reaction of explosions as the soldiers fired into the air with their machine guns and firefighters tried to put out the massive fires made by the Japanese.
At
the Schofield Barracks hundreds of people were waiting to get
into the mess halls. When planes flew over some ran for cover but
some held their position, wanting to eat. The rattle of gunfire
quickly changed their minds as they ran for cover. A sergeant
actually saw the goggles on the Japanese faces because they were
flying so low. He ran to the armory and broke a lock, grabbed a
Machine gun and started firing at the enemies.
Like the planes at Hickam, the planes at Wheeler Field were also lined up side by side to guard against sabotage. As a guard was patroling he saw Japanese planes fly above the base. As he ran to the ammo shed, the bombs that fell blew up everything, planes, hangers, mail depot, barracks, even the golf course. There was no way somebody could save a plane; they were blowing up like the ones at Hickam - a chain reaction of exploding planes igniting the others. Although they had guns finally set up, there was little chance they could have shot down any planes because the Japanese planes had all gone away.
Lieutenants
Kenneth Taylor and George Welch were staying at Wheeler for cards
and dancing. They saw the planes burning and called the Haleiwa
field to see if their planes were ok. They were and they took off
in a car, dodging bullets. As they got there, the planes were
gassed up, but not fully loaded. It did not matter as they took
off. Out of the 23 planes shot down, the Lieutenants shot down
seven. When they landed there was no ship that had not been hit,
no place that had not been bombed. Most of the people were either
wounded or dead. The Japanese had won.