Plane from WWII is shown

The type of Japanese torpedo bomber that wrought destruction on Battleship Row on Dec. 7, 1941, can be seen again at Pearl Harbor for the first time in nearly 75 years.

The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor acquired a Nakajima B5N, dubbed the “Kate” by the Allies, from the South Pacific and put it on display for the first time Monday.

Although not an actual Pearl Harbor attacker — this B5N was built in 1942 — the museum said it will be the only complete Kate on display anywhere in the world when restoration is complete.

“This aircraft is one of a few known to have survived the war,” said museum Executive Director Ken DeHoff. “An estimated 1,149 B5Ns were built, and only bits and pieces survive today, except for this Kate.”

The Wings Museum in England is reported to have the wreckage of a B5N. The Pacific Aviation Museum’s airplane still needs several years of restoration: Much of it is intact, while the fuselage from the gunner’s position back “is pretty ragged,” DeHoff said.

The Nakajima torpedo bomber saw action in the war with China between 1937 and 1939, and by the end of World War II was relegated to kamikaze, reconnaissance and anti-submarine duty, according to the National Park Service and other accounts.

But on Dec. 7, 1941, B5Ns and their three-man crews played a critical role in the successful Japanese attack on Oahu.

“At this point in history, Japan possessed the finest horizontal/torpedo bomber in the world,” the Park Serv-ice said in a study of submerged cultural resources.

John R. Bruning said in “Ship Strike Pacific” that while the initial wave of attacking aircraft totaled almost 200 planes, 40 B5Ns “formed the mailed fist of the Japanese striking force. Armed with modified Type 91 torpedoes re-engineered for use in shallow waters, these 40 planes composed the heart of the Pearl Harbor attack plan.”

High-altitude B5Ns also inflicted serious damage — including dropping the 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb that penetrated the bow of the USS Arizona, sealing the battleship’s fate with a massive chain-reaction explosion that killed 1,177 crew members and sent the ship to the harbor floor, where it remains today.

Pilot Lt. Jinichi Goto recalled later how he was shocked to see the row of battleships before he adjusted his speed and angle of attack at about 65 feet of altitude, according to the Park Service study.

“We were told if one of these were off, it would change the angle and the torpedo would go deep under the water and miss the target,” he said. “I didn’t have time to say ‘ready,’ so I just said ‘fire.’ The scout man on the back pulled the release lever. The plane lightened, with (the) sound of the torpedo being released.”

Work has begun on the Kate’s fuselage and wings in the museum’s Hangar 79, and the public can now see most of the fuselage, an outer wing section with the outline of a big, red “Hinomaru” sun emblem and mock-up of one of the 17-foot torpedoes that caused so much damage in Pearl Harbor.

“We expect it will take five years to restore the B5N for static display quality,” DeHoff said. “With this year being the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the museum is honored to be able to display the Kate where she made aviation history.”

Ryoji Koike, a Japanese tour specialist with the museum, said the B5N will be of interest to Japanese who visit from the country, which is now one of America’s closest allies.

“Some of the younger generation doesn’t know (that it was) Japan versus U.S. in World War II,” he said.

The engineering workmanship on the aluminum-skinned plane, including details such as the extensive use of flush rivets to improve aerodynamics, also is expected to be of interest to Japanese visitors, Koike said.

The aircraft operated from Rabaul in what is now Papua New Guinea until the end of the war, according to the website PacificWrecks.com, with the Kate surviving as one of the last flyable Japanese aircraft there. The B5N was abandoned at Jacquinot Bay Airfield on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. The Pacific Aviation Museum said it acquired the plane a few years ago.

Parts of the aircraft were removed over time. Now the hunt is on to obtain replacements.

“There are people all over the world with little pieces of these in their garages, and we’re putting out the call for parts,” said museum historian Burl Burlingame.