Forty Years Ago: "Emily," the Last of Her Kind, Returns to Japan

(Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)

On April 23, 1979, a huge aircraft that had resided in obscurity at Naval Air Station Norfolk for 32 years was feted at a modest turnover ceremony marking her departure for home. 

Code-named "Emily" by the allies during the war, the heavily armed flying boat first entered service in 1941, but the first operational mission occurred when two HK8s from Yokohama Air Group attempted to bomb Pearl Harbor on March 4, 1942. Although unsuccessful, it was the longest aerial bombing mission ever attempted up to that point.

Made both in maritime patrol and transport variants, the rugged, versatile aircraft were ultimately no match for the incessant waves of carrier-borne American fighters that swarmed over the Pacific as the war went on, and they were hunted down one by one.   

U.S. Marines examine the remains of a four-motored Japanese seaplane, possibly a Kawanishi H8K “Emily," one of several enemy aircraft caught on the ground by American airmen at Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, in the Marianas Islands of the Central Pacific. The size of the wing gives a sense of the Emily's immense size, with a wingspan of 124 feet, 8 inches. (Official U.S. Marine Corps Photograph, Office of War Information collection, National Archives and Records Administration via Naval History and Heritage Command)

 

Japanese Kawanishi H8K “Emily” aircraft under attack by a slightly smaller American PB2Y Coronado of Heavy Patrol Squadron 116, and finally sunk. The Japanese aircraft is shown with one engine on fire. Photograph received November 12, 1944. (National Archives and Records Administration via Naval History and Heritage Command)

When it was discovered in Yokohama in 1945 after the Japanese surrender, the Kawanishi H8K2, serial number 426, was the last intact example of the Japanese military's largest operational wartime aircraft.  The Emily was also arguably the best heavy seaplane of the war.  Although much larger than its American counterparts, she was faster than any American flying boat. This made the Emily a high priority target for Technical Air Intelligence Center teams sent to Japan after the surrender to bring back prime examples of their best aircraft.

The Emily was crated up and brought from Yokohama to NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, where it was determined that she was not airworthy, so she was sent via the Panama Canal all the way to NAS Norfolk (today part of Naval Station Norfolk).  The Overhaul and Repair Facility (O&R, later the Naval Air Rework Facilty/ Naval Aviation Depot) at NAS Norfolk took up the challenge of returning the 38,000-pound behemoth to flyable shape, completely restoring the airframe, controls, hydraulic and electrical systems, as well as her four 1,850 horsepower "Kasei" 22 engines, all without the benefit of blueprints, maintenance manuals, or spare parts. 

A flight test beaching crew secures the H8K “Emily” at the Eastern Seaplane basin parking area of NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, after her arrival from NAS Norfolk in 1946.  (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)

On May 23, 1946, O&R had completely refurbished the Emily and she was ready for her first stateside flight. Commander Thomas F. Connolly and Lieutenant Commander Jack Shrefer from Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River took the controls for a test flight from Hampton Roads up to Naval Air Station Patuxent River less than 100 miles away.  

Although this photograph was taken of the Emily's cockpit long after tests were completed, each indicator and control on the instrument panel still shows its re-labeling in English, a testament not only to the daunting task of bringing the aircraft back to flying condition, but flying it.  (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)  

The navigation and communication sections of the Emily, located immediately aft of the flight deck. A reporter present for the turnover for the flying boat's turnover ceremony in 1979 observed, "The drawers on the navigation desk were littered with yellowing forms...used by American pilots in Maryland to evaluate the plane's performance during tests."  (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)  

Another undated photograph of the Emily's interior, probably looking aft.  (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)  

Although two of the engines quit along the way, and a third stalled out shortly after landing, neither of the two aviators or the two chief aviation machinist mates aboard were injured.  Commander J.A. Ferguson, the project pilot, accumulated roughly 15,000 total airframe hours in the Emily, mainly taxiing out on the Patuxent River, but she would never take to the American skies again.

This photograph of Kawanishi H8K2 Type 2 flying boat, serial number 426, was probably taken during its only flight while in American hands in May 1946 after being restored to airworthy shape by NAS Norfolk's Overhaul and Repair Facility.  Note that Japanese unit markings have been removed, yet the distinctive "meatball" roundel remains. (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)  

After the series of hydrodynamic tests were concluded, she was disassembled, wrapped in a protective covering, crated back up and shipped back to NAS Norfolk.  Her service fulfilled, some were of a mind simply to cast the Emily into the Chesapeake like other enemy implements tested after World War I.    

The Kawanishi flying boat rests on beaching gear at Chambers Field at NAS Norfolk on December 11, 1948. (Emil Tkachick Photograph Collection/ Smithsonian Institution/ National Air and Space Museum Archive)

The Kawanishi H8K2 undergoing conservation at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)  

Although it was wrapped in a heavy protective cocoon that, in the words of one reporter, made it look "like a three-story toy carved from gray wood," the heat and humidity of Tidewater Virginia took its toll over the decades. Hurricane Donna dealt the heaviest blows to Emily in September 1960, when the flying boat was torn loose from its moorings and tipped over onto its starboard side, breaking loose engine number four. 

Although this photo is undated, it probably shows recovery efforts made after the Kawanishi H8K2 fuselage was toppled by hurricane Donna at NAS Norfolk. Note the American roundel that had been pasted over the original Japanese "meatball." (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file) 

A number of individuals and institutions offered to take the Emily off the Navy's hands over the years, yet regulations governing such transfers either disqualified or dissuaded them all until 1976 when an offer came in from the Museum of Maritime Science in Tokyo. The two-year-old museum was a nonprofit, meeting the first requirement, and it had the financial wherewithal to bring the Emily back to Japan, satisfying the second.  

Rear Admiral Richard E. Nicholson, Commander, Fifth Naval District, speaks at the official transfer ceremony of the Kawanishi H8K2 Emily to the Museum of Maritime Science on April 23, 1979, as Chaplain (Lt. Cmdr.) Robert P Reidy, Vice Adm. Forrest S. Peterson, Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, and Ryoichi Sasakawa, chairman of the Japanese Foundation for the Promotion of Maritime Science, look on.  With Mr. Sasakawa is an interpreter who was not identified.  (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)

The transfer was subsequently approved by Congress, and after the ceremony on April 23, 1979, the Naval Air Rework Facility was relieved of responsibility for the huge seaplane after three decades. During his remarks, which included an impassioned call for world peace, Ryoichi Sasakawa, president of the museum, said of the last Emily, "This is for us a Christmas and a birthday present."

Ryoichi Sasakawa, chairman of the Japanese Foundation for the Promotion of Maritime Science and President of the Museum of Maritime Science in Tokyo shakes hands with Rear Adm. Richard E. Nicholson, Commander, Fifth Naval District, during the official transfer ceremony. (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)

On May 31, the Emily was craned onto a barge for the trip back to Japan and Mr. Sasakawa reported the Emily's arrival at the Museum of Maritime Science on July 13, 1979, writing in a note repeated in a naval message that "she will survive as long as the Japanese people remember her."  After nearly a quarter-century in Tokyo, the last Emily flying boat was moved in 2004 to the Kanoya Air Base Museum in Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, where she remains today. 

Kawanishi H8K2 Type 2 flying boat, serial number 426, the last of 167 made, on display at Kanoya Museum near Kagoshima, Japan.  The flying boat spent over three decades in Hampton Roads after World War II and was officially turned over to the Museum of Maritime Science in Tokyo on April 23, 1979, where the "Emily" was displayed until 2004. (Photograph by Max Smith via Wikimedia Commons)