When Pearl Harbor came into view, black smoke was already rising from the U.S. ships hit by the first wave of Japan's surprise attack. The crew of a Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bomber readied for its run. The 23-year-old navigator and bombardier on board, Yoshioka Masamitsu, had practised his part of the manoeuvre for months without knowing the mission. He was stunned when he was told his carrier group would be part of a massive strike on American territory that included more than 300 Japanese warplanes. "The blood rushed out of my head," Mr Yoshioka recalled. "I knew that this meant a gigantic war." The Nakajima's pilot steadied the wings about 35 feet above the water. Mr Yoshioka released the nearly 1,800-pound torpedo on a path toward the battleship USS Utah, which was used as a training vessel. By the time Mr Yoshioka and the Nakajima crew were back on the aircraft carrier Soryu, a total of 58 men aboard the Utah had died — among the more than 2,400 U.S. military personnel and civilians killed and nearly 1,800 wounded in the 7 December 1941, blitz on Hawaii that plunged the United States into World War II. "Now I think of the men who were on board those ships we torpedoed. I think of the people who died because of me. They were young men, just like we were," said Mr Yoshioka in a 2023 interview in the Japan Forward, which described him as the last known surviving Japanese veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack. "I am so sorry about it," added Mr Yoshioka, who died last month at age 106. "I hope there will not be any more wars." The death was announced on 28 August in social media posts, including by prominent journalist and author Hayasaka Takashi, but other details have not been made public.
japan-forward.com
