Is this something that is lost to history? Was there a short list of possible names (aside from the 180 or so who flew in the first wave)?
There were 49 Kates in the first wave. I have no idea if Japanese after-action reports break down the particulars, but I suspect they do.
I believe the Arizona was hit by 7 different bombs. And I also understand that each plane carried a single bomb (plus machine guns), so that would imply that 7 different pilots hit the ship.
In addition, it was common in WWII for combatants (on either side) to report more damage than they had actually caused. (For example, the Japanese reported sinking the USS Yorktown twice before it was actually sunk. And US & British pilots bombing Germany often over-estimated the damage.)
Also, I believe very few of the Japanese pilots in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor survived to the end of the war, so it’s likely that the 7 pilots involved were dead by 1945.
Various sources around the internet say that official credit for the hit on the powder magazine was ascribed to pilot Tadashi Kusumi (who later died at Midway) and bombardier Noburu Kanai.
Interestingly, the leader of the first wave of bombers, Mitsuo Fuchida, survived the war, became a Christian evangelist, and lived much of his life in the United States.
4 hits, 3 near-misses. It was the 8:06am bomb (Kusumi’s) that detonated the magazine.
Thanks, all.
Here it’s more the other way around. Crediting Arizona’s destruction to a particular pilot or crew is the product of postwar, and comparatively recent, analysis of both sides’ accounts. Web sources which say Kusumi was ‘officially credited’ are speaking loosely, actually referring to the conclusion of some later researchers.
The general consensus now is that the leading 5 plane ‘v’ (3 plane plus 2 plane ‘shotai’) of level bombing Type 97 Carrier Attack Planes (later called ‘Kate’ by the Allies) from the carrier Hiryu, led by Kusumi, pilot of the lead a/c, scored the key hit on Arizona. Kanai was a bombardier in a Soryu a/c. He’s been been put forward in the past probably because of his extensive diary, but AFAIK the most extensive analyses point to the lead Hiryu element. However it’s not possible to say for sure which a/c scored the hit, and as per the tactics generally used by the Type 97’s in level bombing, only the lead bombardier would have aimed, the others toggling on seeing the lead plane’s bomb drop. So a ‘toggler’ could have scored the hit, aimed by Kusumi’s bombardier Shojiro Kondo.
As to Japanese records at the time, the ‘tactical operation record’ for Hiryu’s first wave in the PH attack is online at https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/ as pp 1 and 2 of document C08051579100. Kusumi’s crew is the first one listed on the second page, under ‘shotai’ (section or platoon, ‘small unit’ literally) 40, a/c 1. In the second to right hand most column, ‘effect’ a single claim is made for the first two ‘shotai’, total five a/c, to have scored two hits on Colorado Class battleship(s). Arizona with sister Pennsylvania comprised the Pennsylvania Class. This isn’t to contradict the much later conclusion that this section actually sank AZ, it’s just to illustrate that it was not a claim specifically made at the time.