Masamitsu Yoshioka was elated about entering a great war, making his parents proud and putting his life on the line for his country when the order came down to attack Pearl Harbor.
He dreaded the idea of dying in the battle, deep down he dreaded it.
Yoshioka, now 103, who lives in Tokyo's Adachi Ward, said I felt honored to be selected for the crucial mission, but I also wanted to return home alive.
The mixed emotions remain in Yoshioka's memory 80 years after he dropped bombs on Hawaii in December 1941.
The United States immediately countered by imposing a complete oil embargo against Japan.
S. negotiations started in April in hopes of averting war. The talks went down but they weren't good enough.
Emperor Hirohito and senior government members decided on November 5 that Japan would go to war if negotiations were terminated.
By late November, warships of the Imperial Japanese NavyJapanese Navy as well as around 350 or so aircraft had assembled in Hitokappu Bay in Etorofu Island in Kuril Islands, northeast of Hokkaido.
Six aircraft carriers, including the Soryu and Akagi, battleships, cruisers and destroyers, comprise the mobile task force assigned to carry out the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Yoshioka was a crew member of a plane based on the Soryu.
The order was read by Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the task force, to launch the surprise attack on Hawaii, and Yoshioka said he thought that it was going to be the place where I will die. He said he never hated the United States, but he was excited about engaging in a great war. The general public seemed frustrated by the United States back then, he said. I figured that they would be satisfied if I dropped bombs on that country. The fleet left for Hawaii from the bay on November 26.
Yoshioka recalled that when he went to bed one night, the idea crossed his mind that he did not have much time left to live. I just wished I could come home alive, somewhere in my mind, he said.
Japanese military personnel were not supposed to harbor such thoughts back then.
Members of the task force were given pistols to kill themselves to avoid being taken as prisoners of war.
Yoshioka was not allowed to tell his parents about the secret mission, but he hoped that they would be thankful and proud of their son for fighting in the war for their country.
The Japanese navy's campaign began from a point in the ocean about 400 kilometers from Hawaii in the early hours of December 8, Japan time.
Yoshioka saw silver-colored torpedoes being loaded onto his attack plane in the dark on the deck of the Soryu.
The color of the torpedoes drove home the fact that he was about to engage in a real-life mission, not a military drill.
Yoshioka was part of the first wave of the attack. He said he was so focused on hitting the target with the torpedo that he didn't think about his own life and death.
When he approached Ford Island at Pearl Harbor, huge black plumes of smoke were already rising from earlier strikes.
He released a torpedo toward what he thought was the mast of a U.S. warship, but soon realized that his attack was a failure. The ship was a fake one that was used as a target practice for U.S. military drills.
The attack on Pearl Harbor killed about 2,400 Americans and sank six U.S. military vessels.
Japan lost 29 aircraft and five special submarines, resulting in a death toll of 64.
Most of the crewmen deployed for the attack were killed in later battles of the war.
Yoshioka has been involved in operations in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. He was with the Hyakurigahara naval aviation unit in Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, when Japan surrendered in August 1945.
After the war, Yoshioka worked with a transport company and the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
As he reflected on the events that opened the war with the United States in 1941, Yoshioka said he could not underline the importance of diplomatic efforts for Japan to sustain peace.
He said that the international situation facing Japan is now more difficult than it was back then. The government, especially officials in diplomacy, should work hard to keep Japan from conflicts.