A Japanese admiral spoke these words shortly after the attack by Japanese aircraft on American warships and facilities at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 Dec 1942.  “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant” (who is very angry!). This shortly after the Japanese had bombed our fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor. I believe he lived long enough to experience the truth of his statement!

 Many American military and civilian leaders put forth and discussed at length various plans for U.S. retaliation. Most of these plans were dismissed for one reason or another, but one plan seemed to have great possibilities for success.  The plan eventually culminated in the air raid by 16 B-25 twin-engine bombers on the Japanese national capital city, Tokyo. A raid that was considered by its leader, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, a total failure as he sat in abject solitude on a small hill in China. Behind him was the wreckage of his B-25 that had run out of fuel as did the other 15 aircraft on this cold Monday in April of 1942.

All he could think of was the loss of his B-25 as well as the other 15 aircraft.  He and all of the other 4 men in his crew were shaken but had no serious injuries. Neither he nor all the other American survivors knew at that time that America was just getting the news of the 16 U.S. bombers hitting 16 different targets and areas of Tokyo, the city that one Japanese general promised the people of Japan would never be bombed by any enemy!  Those of you who were alive and old enough to remember this happening no doubt had the same feeling of all America.....We can and did strike back and we have the people, the knowledge and the determination to win this war!

The original plan called for the bombers to hit their assigned targets (each had a different target in different areas of Tokyo) and then fly on to several different landing points in China where the Chinese would give them safe haven. This plan was shot to pieces when the 16 B-25s were forced to take off many hours ahead of their scheduled launch times. A Japanese picket boat was sighted and even though it was quickly sunk by a U.S. destroyer it surely had sent a radio message to Japan about the American carrier and escort ships.

The B-25 crews were ordered to man their aircraft immediately and prepare for take off as soon as possible. They had enough fuel to reach their assigned targets but did not have enough to go to their safe landing fields. Doolittle wondered if all his other planes had gotten off safely and if they were all still alive. He was haunted by all the worse-case problems that could have happened to his other bombers and their crews.

The Chinese radio beacons they were supposed to be able to hone in on were non-existent and the weather was going from bad to terrible with darkness, clouds and rain blacking out everything. Doolittle kept flying until it was obvious his fuel tanks were empty and then ordered his crew to bail out.  He quickly found them and all five of them were safe...just a few bumps and scratches.  He knew his crew was okay but what about the other 15 crews?  Had they been shot down and killed or captured? Were they able to even get close to their targets? The darkness and bad weather could have caused them to fly into some of these 8,000 ft. mountains around them. How many did he lose.....all of them?

 This raid on Tokyo that once was considered a plan of much promise was now turning into a wild nightmare in the mind of Jimmy Doolittle! Was this another humiliating  defeat to dog American military forces in the Pacific area.  The words “Pearl Harbor” and “infamy” had been seared into the minds of most Americans and now Doolittle’s name would be linked with the word “infamy”. Little did he know what was ahead.

“It’s been a complete failure,” Jimmy Doolittle told Sgt. Leonard, one of his crew members. “They’ll never give me another command or even an airplane. I’ll be grounded in disgrace.”  As we all know today things were exactly the opposite as Doolittle found out when he finally got back to the states and met with President Roosevelt in Washington.

As Doolittle was contemplating his fate and wondering what would happen to him another man, some 1,200 miles to the northeast of Doolittle was also admitting to himself that he had failed in his mission. The Supreme Commander of the Japanese fleet and planner of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto, was so stricken with shame that when American bombs began falling on Tokyo  he fled to his stateroom on his flagship and refused to come out.  His steward said later he had never seen his Admiral so depressed.  In his mind it was an obsession that he keep the city of Tokyo and the home of the emperor free from any sort of enemy attack.

Distraught though he was, Yamamoto, soon came out of his self-exile and began making more plans for the long war he knew was ahead. There was one American island that must be destroyed and occupied by the Japanese. Its location was critical to both the Americans and the Japanese.  That was the island of Midway.  That battle is another complete story in itself and will be visited at another time. We all know the Japanese lost that battle and it was the beginning of the end for the Japanese empire.

Meanwhile back on the U.S. carrier Hornet, Commander Stanhope Cotton Ring, the air group commander, wrote a poem for the next day’s edition of the ship’s newspaper, with apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It began;

“Twas the eighteenth of April in forty-two
When we waited to hear what Jimmy would do,
Little did Hiro think that night
The skies above Tokyo would be alight
With the fires Jimmy started in Tokyo’s dives
To guide to their targets the B-25’s.
 
In his after-action report Capt. Mitscher wrote that “morale was somewhat lowered after danger of enemy air attack  had diminished; a majority of the officers and men were quite surprised that no further action against enemy bases was contemplated, and were obviously disappointed.” He went on to recommend that attacks be made as often as possible to maintain morale and what he called “action exhilaration” in a high state.
 
(Next month; The aftermath of the B-25 raid led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle and what is being done today concerning the Doolittle Raiders.)