The movies “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and “Pearl Harbor” give us the erroneous impression that the only American defenders over Oahu were two Army Air Force (AAF) P-40 pilots. In fact, a number of pilots managed to make it into the air and battle the attackers. This combat ranged all over the island and was not merely, as the movies would have it, centered on the harbor.
Newspaper accounts and interviews with 2nd L. George S. Welch and 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor recorded months after the attack are the basis for most of the stories about their actions on December 7, 1941. The thread of facts originates with them, but further details from the Japanese Kodochosho (combat reports), U.S. witnesses on the ground, and Welch and Taylor’s first reports paint a much broader picture and make the following detailed analysis unique.
The Japanese aircraft retreated. Pearl Harbor’s battleships had been torpedoed and bombed and were sinking. The sailors in the harbor had been stunned by the quick attack. Angered, they hosed the ships with water and tried to save the wounded. Some thought that the attack was over, but the reprieve was brief. Thirty minutes later, more Japanese planes arrived. This time, it was four units of Bakugekik (D3A1 dive bombers) from the Japanese carriers Soryu, Hiryu, Akage, and Kaga—in that order.
The D3A1, identified by this designation stenciled on its fuselage, was a better dive-bomber than
