A while back, on Dec. 8 2006, I had posted a blog about the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The point of the post was to share a little bit of trivia, about a Japanese Zero pilot who had crashed on the tiny island of Niihau, was captured by the locals, tried to escape and...well, if you want to know that story, click the link and read that blog.

Today, the local paper ran a story that I had never heard about, and thought it an interesting history lesson to share with you.

On May 4, 1942, the Japanese launched a second attack on Pearl Harbor, called Operation K.

The operation was originally planned duing the opening weeks of the war, and was part of a larger operation that consisted of several attacks on Pearl Harbor, and would have eventually included attacks on California and Texas. In fact, I will have to do more research on that later, because there is some historical evidence that Japanese planes were sighted over the west coast during World War ll. But I digress.

Operation K involved two 4-engine Kawanishi H8K flying boats which could be refueld by submarine. The attack on March 4 was planned for using 5 planes, but only 2 were available. Their target was the "ten-ten" docks at Pearl Harbor, with the intent of disrupting salvage and repair operations after the Dec. 7th attack.

The U.S. Navy had intercepted  some broken Japanese code that some indications of an attack were possible, and the planes were picked up by radar on Kauai. However, there was a heavy overcast that prevented P-40 fighters from seeing them. Fortunately, that same overcast prevented the Japanese from effectivly finding their targets, and they eventually dropped their bombs in several non-targeted areas.

One plane dropped four 550 lb bombs just above Roosevelt High School in the forested areas of Tantalus (where there is a famous Lovers Lane lookout). The other plane dropped his four bombs into the sea either south of Waianae, or near the entrance to Pearl Harbor.

In the confusion and aftermath, the Army and Navy accused each other of jettisoning bombs over Tantalus. The craters are still visible today, albeit overgrown with vegetation.