Japanese Pilots strafing civilians at Pearl Harbor on December 7th

What would the consequences have been if the Japanese Pilots had disregarded their orders and strafed civilians during the Attack? Or if there had been no Order to avoid strafing Civilians on the ground?

I ask because It is a thought that Occurred to me after I read a note somewhere that mentioned that the Japanese Pilots were under strict orders to avoid targeting civilians.
 

CalBear

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Why WOULD they?

All it would do is screw up the mission. They were there to do a job.
 
Remember what Admiral Halsey said in the aftermath of the original attack: "when this war is over, the Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell"?

If the OP takes place as indicated, this might well be the literal truth.....
 
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For the highly trained and disciplined airmen of the Japanese Navy the active staffing of civilians when ordered not to is unthinkable . Also emptying your guns over a target deliberately so you have a long trip back to home without the ability to defend yourself is not going to happen . No A6M5 is going back with 20 mm ammo as they had very little however the cowling guns would still have ammo .
 
One of the Fatal flaws of Japanese World War II aircraft aircraft was a limited ammunition load. Japanese aircraft did not have the ammunition to spare to go around shooting at civilians not when there was an Airfield that needed shooting up. They needed to make every bullet and shell count.
 
yes they did but I am asking what would have happened if they had decided to strafe Civilians as targets of opportunity?

If this was an attack conducted after a regular declaration of war, strafing civilians might make the US angrier. Given the actual circumstances of Pearl Harbor, they are already past angry and into incandescent rage. Thus, because the US is really pissed off, strafing civilians adds a few charges to the war crimes tribunal at the end of the war. I doubt it has any other effect, simply because there aren't many functional differences once the US is that ticked off.
 
If this was an attack conducted after a regular declaration of war, strafing civilians might make the US angrier. Given the actual circumstances of Pearl Harbor, they are already past angry and into incandescent rage. Thus, because the US is really pissed off, strafing civilians adds a few charges to the war crimes tribunal at the end of the war. I doubt it has any other effect, simply because there aren't many functional differences once the US is that ticked off.

I tend to agree, it isn't going to affect the war much as things ended up about as bad as it could get for Japan. It might not even change things much post-war as that is the US already had enough things to be ticked off about OTL.
 
A handful of pilots find themselves up on a war crimes tribunal at the end of 1945 who might not otherwise be there. Actually TBH, I'm not even sure how many of the pilots attacking Pearl Harbor survived the war. It could well be no change, since no one's going to haul a corpse to court to defend itself... well no one who's not Stephen VI at least. I'd also point out that there were plenty of military personnel running around the target area during the attack who would have been a much faster and more efficient place to dump any spare ammo in to any pilots inclined to do so, no need to go flying over civilian areas.
 
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Given that a large percentage of Hawaii's population was, and still is, Japanese American, Kido Butai strafing Honolulu is going to make the Nisei like the Land of the Rising Sun even less than OTL.
 
Why WOULD they?

All it would do is screw up the mission. They were there to do a job.
Indeed. They might be court martialed for disregarding orders, because apparantly they found it more important to strafe civilians then one of the numerous military targets.
 
12650650_G.jpg

Downtown Honolulu
Car-strafed-in-Honolulu.jpg

other side


original-11467-1449508795-3.jpg

8 miles from Pearl

The list below contains the names and locations of civilians killed in the attack


Civilians
Honolulu

John Kalauwae Adams, 18
Joseph Kanehoa Adams, 50
Nancy Masako Arakaki, 8
Patrick Kahamokupuni Chong, 30
Matilda Kaliko Faufata, 12
Emma Gonsalves, 34
Ai Harada, 54
Kisa Hatate, 41
Fred Masayoshi Higa, 21
Jackie Yoneto Hirasaki, 8
Jitsuo Hirasaki, 48
Robert Yoshito Hirasaki, 3
Shirley Kinue Hirasaki, 2
Paul S. Inamine, 19
Robert Seiko Izumi, 25
David Kahookele, 23
Edward Koichi Kondo, 19
Peter Souza Lopes, 33
George Jay Manganelli, 14 J
oseph McCabe, Sr., 43
Masayoshi Nagamine, 27
Frank Ohashi, 29
Hayako Ohta, 19
Janet Yumiko Ohta, 3 months
Kiyoko Ohta, 21
Barbara June Ornellas, 8
Gertrude Ornellas, 16
James Takao Takefuji, aka Koba, 20
Yoshio Tokusato, 19
Hisao Uyeno, 20
Alice White, 42
Eunice Wilson, 7 months

Note: a School for Japanese students was hit, and two sugar Mills were strafed, with two killed at the one near Ewa
Yaeko Lillian Oda, 6
Francisco Tacderan, 34

Note#2 Some deaths were from AAA shells
 
I count 16 people with possible Japanese ancestry in the list . Purely going on name which is definitely not accurate of course . I also see 13 who again by name may not have Japanese ancestry . It is worth noting that a person with a Japanese sounding last name but a very American first name is almost certainly going to identify as American not Japanese . Any death is a tragedy , any civilian killed in war is no less a tragedy , it does however become a crime at the same time .
 
Huh I had no idea that there were actually any civilians killed during the attack. I don't think many Pearl Harbor vets that were part of the attack survived the of the war. As for the my question. I was asking what if they would have if they hadn't been given an order not to target civilians.
 
I count 16 people with possible Japanese ancestry in the list

from the wiki
the Japanese in Hawaii (simply Japanese or “Local Japanese”, rarely Kepanī) are the second largest ethnic group in Hawaii. At their height in 1920, they constituted 43% of Hawaii's population
...
Statistics for 1934 showed 183 schools taught a total of 41,192 students

.

By WWII,around 1/3 of Hawaii's population was still Japanese, 158,000

So unlike the West Coast, there were just too many to send to Internment Camps, and the Islands were under Martial Law for the duration
 
The US mulitarys own assessment was that signifacant civilian losses occured due to US AAA fire falling.
and guess what didn't happen-- John Ford didn't make a Documentary,_USN AAA Shells kills Civilians in Dec. 7th_

You had a few reports of Zeros indeed strafing civilian cars leading into Honolulu and a few other areas, along with headlines of 'Over 40 Civilians Killed' and people filled in the blanks in the head, resulting 'Lousy Japs killed innocent Civilians during that sneak attack, too'

The best Propaganda is what's inside people's own head
 
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