Pearl Harbor mini-sub mission fails, first prisoner captured Published Dec. 6, 2006 By Senior Master Sgt. Douglas J. Gillert SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- One hundred miles from Oahu, Hawaii, Kazuo Sakamaki launched his 79-foot submarine -- even though the navigation gyro was broken. His mission: Travel to Pearl Harbor and fire two 18-inch torpedoes at the battleship Pennsylvania.The broken gyro proved his undoing. Thrown off-course before he could enter the harbor, Sakamaki and his sole crew member, an enlisted man, struggled to control their miniature submarine. Eventually, they became stuck on a reef near Bellows Air Force Station. U.S. pilots bombed the sub, trying to sink it. During the bombing, Sakamaki's crewman was killed. But the minisub remained intact. Later that day, the tide lifted it off the reef and washed it ashore.Intelligence officers later learned that five minisubs were built specifically for the Pearl Harbor raid. On Dec. 10, 1941, Tokyo papers reported an equal number of subs were lost during the harbor attack.Shortly after the five minisubs had launched from a mother ship, Japanese divebombers attacked Bellows and adjacent areas. Two people were killed and several wounded."One plane strafed the Kanheohe, wounding one man," said Betsy Camacho, Bellows historian. "Then, a B-17 inbound to Hickam ran out of gas and crash-landed here. A half-hour later, nine planes strafed the airstrip."When the attack ended, Bellows men dug trenches, preparing for a feared land invasion. The Army's 298th Infantry took position on the Bellows beach.On Dec. 8, 1941, Soldiers watched Sakamaki stumble from his beached submarine, then captured him. He was the United States' first prisoner of war in the Pacific.Note: Article reprinted from Airman magazine, December, 1991.