Thus, he and his comrades had felt little guilt when they’d had the opportunity to take a couple of drinks from revelers who’d passed by and offered them. After all, weren’t they fellow Japanese who’d just been brought back to the bosom of the homeland? Fuji hiccupped and thought, of other bosoms he’d rather be clasped to at the moment. The Hawaiian-Japanese had been good fellows and had done their best to make Fuji and the others on guard feel both wanted and good. As a result, Fuji and his companions were more than a little drunk.

Corporal Fuji was in charge of two four-man stations that guarded Wheeler Field’s closely parked planes. He and one soldier in the other sandbagged bunker were the only regulars on duty. The remaining six were mechanics and laborers who, while in the military, knew next to nothing about their duties. He blamed the higher-ups who had decreed one squad was all that was necessary to protect Wheeler. Let additional bodies come from other sources, and that meant he shared tonight’s duty watch with utter incompetents.

At least the long night would end in a few hours and he could get some rest. During the daylight hours, there were only four men protecting the planes, which Fuji definitely thought was inadequate.

“Someone’s coming,” one of the mechanics yelled.

The warning wasn’t very military, but at least the oaf was paying some attention. Fuji blinked and tried to focus in the night. There were no lights on in the field, and he squinted through the gloom. A column of men was marching down the runway toward Fuji.

Corporal Fuji identified the newcomers as Japanese soldiers. This was a relief, although he wondered what they were up to. He nudged his companions, and they shifted their rifles to more aggressive positions, although one of them was having a difficult time standing. Fuji hoped the officer in charge of the approaching column wasn’t a prick who’d write them up for celebrating on this day of special days.

Fuji signaled to the soldiers in the other bunker, who acknowledged that they too had seen the other soldiers. Who the hell were these guys and what was going on?

“Who goes there?” Fuji demanded. The column was scant yards away, and an officer was leading them.

“Your relief,” replied the officer, a lieutenant, which meant that someone should go and wake Fuji’s superior, the officer of the guard. That fool, an off-duty pilot, was drunker than anyone, and that was saying a lot. God help the empire if some of the pilots had to take off right away, Fuji thought.

Then it dawned on him. They were getting relieved. Wonderful. “What has happened, sir?”

The young lieutenant was almost up to Fuji, and the column was deploying around the other bunker as well as his. “Yamamoto’s orders,” he said stiffly, almost nervously, Fuji thought. “The revered admiral wants everyone to celebrate Japan’s great achievement. Our turn was earlier, yours is now.”

Fuji felt like hugging the lieutenant but thought better of the idea. He wondered why a full platoon was relieving his squad, but he knew better than to ask. Questions from inferiors often meant beatings from the superiors. He didn’t need that on a night he was going to spend in Honolulu. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and waved his men out of the bunker. The whole thing was very informal, but, hell, he didn’t care.

Then he noticed that the soldiers were carrying strange rifles. They were American Springfields. Fuji was about to say something when the stern-faced young lieutenant slashed a broad-bladed knife across his throat. The corporal tried to speak, but the gush of his blood stopped him. Before Fuji’s misting eyes closed entirely, he saw the rest of his men being stabbed and butchered like him, and he realized that the same thing was happening to the other guards.

Only a few grunts and groans proclaimed the slaughter. A moment later, the “soldiers” fanned out in the dark and headed to their other targets. First on the list was the control tower, where two men waited for the return of the six planes that were the base’s combat air patrol. Next came the pilots’ ready room, where the relief group of pilots was preparing for their turn in the night skies.

They took no prisoners. Akira Kaga had told them they were too few to afford the luxury. Besides, it would soon be necessary for them to melt back into the Japanese-American population. They could not leave behind anyone who would recognize them.

When the base was secure, Akira was driven up in an old Ford. He got out awkwardly and looked down on the slaughtered soldiers.

He was about to speak when a burst of gunfire erupted from the enlisted men’s barracks. Someone was awake and fighting. Two of Kaga’s men ran from the building. One was wounded and had to be helped away.

“What went wrong?” Akira asked. He had known it would be impossible for the plan to work perfectly. Nothing ever did.

“No idea,” the unhurt man said. “You want us to storm the place? There’s only a couple of them in there.”

It was tempting, but it would be a distraction and would entail taking casualties. “Later. Now just keep them pinned down while we do what we have to.”

Akira placed a few soldiers so that they commanded the barracks and told them to shoot anything that moved. Other soldiers had already ripped out the phone lines, and he doubted that the men in the barracks had a radio. His force was safe for the time being.

“Take care of the planes,” he ordered.

The destruction of the Japanese planes was simple and efficient. Some men opened gas caps and poured in a combination of dirt and sugar. Others took tools and ripped out spark plugs and smashed more sensitive equipment. The planes might fly again, but not for a very long while, and certainly not this night.

His men had taken over the control tower and called the combat air patrol. They didn’t know the proper signal, so they made up a story that there was a power problem at Wheeler and that the patrol should land immediately.

When the lead pilot protested, he was told that the carriers would be in charge of patrolling and that two groups of planes in the air at the same time could cause confusion, even a collision. The pilot grudgingly agreed, and Akira saw the first of the Japanese planes lining up for a landing. The runway was unlit, but it was wide, well marked, and impossible to miss.

The Zeros landed one at a time. The bodies of the dead were hidden behind sandbags and in buildings. The intervals between planes were sufficiently long to permit the pilots to taxi to their normal places. As they started to climb out, “mechanics” ran up to them and killed them.

Just as the last plane was touching down, one of the real Japanese soldiers in the barracks opened fire on it. The pilot whipped the plane around and began to race down the runway.

“Shoot it,” Akira yelled as he cursed the fact that one of the trapped Japanese knew how to think. Once the pilot was fully airborne, he would radio the fleet at Pearl.

The Zero gained distance as a hail of bullets chased it. As it lifted off the ground, a tongue of flame erupted from the tail. Seconds later, the tongue became a torch and the plane exploded.

It’s true, Akira thought grimly. The Zeros do blow up easily.

The plane crashed a mile or so from the runway. Flames billowed from the spot, and fire engines would be on their way shortly, while civilians phoned about to find out what had occurred.

Their secret would be out in a very short while, but it could have been far worse. Akira ordered some of his men to take care of the runways while he sent others to set up roadblocks. In each case, they would use dynamite and TNT brought in by submarine to Novacek. With secrecy no longer necessary, he took personal command of a captured Japanese machine gun and pulverized the wooden barracks. There was no return fire.