 When Japan began the Pacific War on 8 December , the sisters sortied for the <unk> Islands with four other battleships and the light carrier <unk> as distant cover for the fleet attacking Pearl Harbor , and returned six days later . On 11 March 1942 <unk> and <unk> sortied from their anchorage at <unk> to join the unsuccessful search for the American carrier force that had attacked Marcus Island a week earlier . Similarly they pursued but did not catch the American carriers that had launched the <unk> Raid on 18 April . 
