Obviously the Pearl Harbor attacks were horrendous, but sometimes it's interesting to learn about the other side.

353 aircraft were launched and 13 Imperial Japanese Aviators eventually survived the war. Most were killed at the Battles like Coral Sea, Santa Cruz, Eastern Solomons, and Midway. I don't care to highlight all the survivors, but these few caught my attention because of their lives after the war.

Captain Mitsuo Fuchida



Fuchida flew in the observer's seat on a Nakajima B5N2 “Kate” Torpedo Bomber its tail code AI-301, from the Carrier Akagi and was the leader of the first wave of the attack, Fuchida was responsible for the coordination of the entire aerial attack and shot up the flare signaling the start of the attack. At 07:53 am Hawaiian Standard Time (HST), Fuchida ordered Mizuki to send the famous code words "Tora! Tora! Tora!” message to indicate that surprise had been achieved. As the first wave returned to the carriers, Fuchida remained over the target to assess the damage and observe the second-wave attack. He returned to his carrier only after the second wave had completed its mission. His role as the commander of the entire aerial assault made him a national hero and as a result of this, he was granted a personal audience with Emperor Hirohito. He would go on to participate in the Bombing of Darwin and the Indian Ocean Raid. During the Battle of Midway, he was aboard the Akagi but did not participate in the battle as he was recovering from an emergency shipboard appendectomy a few days before the battle. He was on the bridge of the ship when she was attacked by US Navy dive bombers and when flames blocked the exit from the bridge, the officers evacuated down a rope, and as Fuchida slid down, an explosion threw him to the deck and broke both his ankles. After he spent several months recovering from his injuries, Fuchida would go on to spend the rest of the war as a staff officer in Japan. After the war ended, Fuchida became a Christian evangelist and traveled through the United States and Europe to tell his story. In 1959, Fuchida was among a group of Japanese visiting the tour of U.S. Air Force equipment given by General Paul Tibbets, who piloted the Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Fuchida recognized Tibbets and had a conversation with him. Tibbets said to Fuchida that "You sure did surprise us [at Pearl Harbor]" in which he replied, "what do you think you did to us [at Hiroshima]?" Fuchida further told him that: "You did the right thing. You know the Japanese attitude at that time, how fanatic they were, they'd die for the Emperor ... Every man, woman, and child would have resisted that invasion with sticks and stones if necessary ... Can you imagine what a slaughter it would be to invade Japan? It would have been terrible. The Japanese people know more about that than the American public will ever know."


Takeshi Maeda

Maeda flew a Nakajima B5N2 “Kate” torpedo bomber from the Carrier Kaga, and his torpedo hit the USS West Virginia and sank it. At the battle of Okinawa in 1945, he was taking part in a night attack against a group of US ships. ‘Flares were dropped from spotter aircraft to illuminate the ships as we moved in. Suddenly, there before me was the West Virginia, the very ship I had torpedoed and sunk in Pearl Harbor. I couldn’t believe it.’ The resourceful Americans had managed to salvage and repair many of the ships that had been sunk or damaged. In August 1945, he was forced to join the ranks of the Kamikaze pilots’ Special Attack Force despite being one of the few experienced IJN aviators left and having accumulated 3,800 hours of flight combat. It was at this point that he first realized the fallibility of his leaders and the recklessness with which they had treated the lives of the Japanese people. It is an opinion he has held ever since. He feels the Americans’ decision to use atomic weapons against Japan was in revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, he believes that ultimately it resulted in the saving of more Japanese lives than were lost; the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led Emperor Hirohito to urge his people to surrender on 14th August, just two days before Maeda was due to make his Kamikaze flight. Towards the end of his life, he tried to reconcile with US Pearl Harbor survivors. Takeshi Maeda died aged 98 on 29th July, 2019. He was the last surviving airman directly involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Kaname Harada


Harada flew a Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” Model 21 Fighter from the Carrier Sōryū. He was assigned to combat patrol protecting the bombers and the fleet. He ended the war as ace with 9 kills. Following World War II, Harada initially worked as a dairy farmer but suffered from nightmares in which he saw the faces of the American airmen he had downed during the war. In 1965, he founded a nursery for children with his wife after she asked him "if you want to atone for the lives you have taken, what better way is there than to nurture new lives?" The couple opened a kindergarten in 1969. He continued as a principal of the kindergarten until his retirement where he became an anti-war activist. In a 2013 interview with The Australian, Harada said:

"The first incarnation of my life was as a ruthless killer. I still live with a sense of sin over those I killed. I chased them and shot them down—such a horrible thing to do. Now, I go to the kindergarten every day and interact with the children. I want to nurture kind and considerate hearts in all of them."

He died March 2015.

Credits: Marcus Perkins, Shane Wanninger