The image above is a photograph of Fusata Lida. During the December 7 1941 military attack on Pearl Harbour, Lida set a remarkable (though horrific) precedent that would echo throughout the decades…
Life before the attacks
Unfortunately, relatively little information is available about this forgotten man of history. Googling his name, you will be hard pressed to find a whole lot about his life besides his actions on December 7, but there are some facts that I think are interesting to look at here.
From what I could gather, Lida had attended Eta Jima Military School, and received something called the Imperial Prize. This prize was apparently some sort of honour that the Imperial Academy gave out to people for their achievements. This makes sense, as Lida, during his time at Military School, had obtained a reputation as an aggressive (and presumably affective) pilot, having trained over the skies of China.
Attack on Pearl Harbour
On the day of December 7, 1941 (The date of the attack on Pearl Harbour) Lida was in command of the Japanese Imperial Navy’s Third Patrol. This faction was leading the attack on Kaneohe Naval Air Station, which subsequently resulted in the deaths of 19 people and the destruction of 27 US seaplanes.
During the attack, Lida’s plane had been hit multiple times by enemy gunfire. Knowing he was likely not going to escape, and wanting to cause as much damage as possible, Lida’s quick thinking made him do something that was almost unthinkable back then: he dived and attempted to purposely crash his plane into Hangar 101, but failed and the plane was downed (crashed elsewhere).
A Kamikaze precedent???
Before I continue, I would just like to acknowledge two things.
Firstly, I would like to acknowledge that this was not a successful attack. Second of all, I would like to acknowledge that this was not technically a kamikaze attack.
I think it’s important to acknowledge these two facts because I don’t want anyone reading this to misconstrue what I am trying to say here. What I am not saying is that this man invented the kamikaze attack, nor am I saying that, even if it could technically be said to be (or at least resemble) a kamikaze attack, that it meant all hell had broken loose and that this was a really effective thing to happen at the time. On the contrary: I believe that the reason it’s not as well known about is because it was so unsuccessful (to be clear, when I say ‘unsuccessful’, I am referring to the fact that though the use of the plane to crash undoubtedly did damage, it didn’t do near as much damage as the pilot hoped). Furthermore, I am also not saying that Lida was the absolute first person to use a plane to purposely crash for warfare (there are reports of others doing it before him, though these reports are quite dubious). What makes Lida’s case particularly notable is the circumstances in which it occurred.
Though they had no way of knowing it at the time, Pearl Harbour was no ordinary piece of warfare — it was a game-changing event that had repercussions around the whole world: specifically the entrance of the USA into the war. The fact that this tactic was used (many years before the Japanese military officially recognised kamikaze as a legitimate attack type) in a game-changing event cannot be ignored, and whatever influence Lida’s actions had on the kamikaze method in general, however small or big it may be, undoubtedly had repercussions, not just for the rest of the war, but even beyond, including possibly the worst terrorist attack in living memory…
Lida’s actions on Pearl Harbour make the 9/11 comparison even more sombre
Ever heard it said that the September 11 attacks (known to many as 9/11) were called ‘the new Pearl Harbour’? And I don’t just mean superfluously by book writers — on the morning of 9/11, at 9:20 (less than 20 minutes after the second plane struck the South tower) journalist David Horowitz emailed the Vice President’s counsellor Mary Matalin with the sombre phrase ”Today is Pearl Harbour”. Heck, even George Bush himself, in an interview 10 years later, drew comparison on how the date of 9/11 had gone down in history in much the same way as Pearl Harbour day. And though it may seem superfluous at face value, in some ways Lida’s actions even acted as a precursor to 9/11. Make no mistake: the crashes on 9/11 were different in many aspects (they were passenger planes, Lida’s was military and smaller, etc.) but ultimately, they shared the same goals: to instil fear, terror and chaos against the same nation. The fact that the same technique of crashing a plane to cause destruction and devastation was used, however different in scale and effectiveness it may have been, makes this comparison even more sombre to me.
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Thanks for reading!
I had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor last year. It was an amazing experience and I encourage everybody who can to try to go sometime. There was an exhibit on the Missouri regarding Japanese pilots and that a kamakazi attack had been carried out on the Missouri. What I thought was most fascinating though was that they apparently weren’t required to kamakazi, they were only encouraged to do so if they were certain that it would inflict casualties. Somewhat starkly different than what I was taught by my history coaches in junior high.
Fascinating! May I ask what your history teachers taught you on that subject? I’m curious how different it was
I singled out my history coaches for a reason. Luckly later I had actual history teachers who taught fact rather than opinion. But the football coaches who had to teach 7th grade history were more than happy to talk about how everybody hates America and is jealous and is willing to give their lives just to make sure that we can’t have what we have. Basically conflating people like the Japanese in WWII with those who perpetrated 9/11 and all the rhetoric that was being thrown around in the time shortly thereafter.
Ah, my apologies I presumed when you said history coaches, it was some sort of slang for history teachers lol, my bad. Wow, they sound quite… opinionated.
No bad, in the US it’s common, or at least was when I was in school, for middle school (5th-8th grades, 11-14 year olds ish) coaches to fill in for subjects like health or history that were already seen as easy classes. They would also do things like allow their athletes and cheerleaders to skip class and such and people wonder why the US is falling so far behind so quickly.
Again a fantastic read!
I simply can not imagine what one has to feel or think to come to the conclusion, that crushing ones plane into an enemy would be a good Idea.
Why, thanks! I remembered reading this years ago and thought it’d make a great post (I was reminded of it when discussing that other incident with the crashing plane).
My gut feeling as to why anyone would do that would be to guess either hopelessness or indoctrination — remember, Japan has a long history of honour self-ending. That’s not limited to those two factors, mind, it could be anything ig.
