 In April and May 1941 , Fusō and Yamashiro were attached to the 2nd Division of the 1st Fleet , but the two ships spent most of the war around Japan , mostly at the anchorage at Hashirajima in Hiroshima Bay . When the war started for Japan on 8 December , the division sortied from Hashirajima to the Bonin Islands as distant support for the 1st Air Fleet attacking Pearl Harbor , and returned six days later . On 18 April 1942 , they pursued but did not catch the American carrier force that had launched the Doolittle Raid . Commanded by Vice @-@ Admiral Shirō Takasu , the division set sail with the Aleutian Support Group on 28 May , at the same time that most of the Imperial Fleet began an attack on Midway Island ( Operation MI ) . 
