Today, on April 18, 1942 (Japan):
The United States launched 16 B25s from the USS Hornet on a daring attack on the Japanese home-island hoping to boost American morale, demoralize the Japanese and show that Japan was just as vulnerable to air attacks as Pearl Harbor was.
There’s one main difference. The Japanese successfully attacked military targets on the island of Oahu, whereas the American assault did minimal damage while bombing Tokyo, Kawasaki, Nagoya and other cities and mainly hit non-military targets (or missed). The Japanese stated these attacks violated international law as a handful that died were military (operating anti-air craft guns); however, the rest were citizens of all ages including school children. According to the Almanac of American Military History (Vol 1) by Mr. Spencer Tucker, all but one B25s were lost; on the Japanese side 50 people were killed, several hundred injured.
Doolittle was branded a hero, given the Medal of Honor and promoted. On the Japanese side, this attack changed the defensive posture of the Japanese navy and reinforced the necessity of making the sinking the US aircraft carriers their top priority. There were two negative effects that came of this attack; the first was that the Japanese realized the United States was set on using airfields in China–Japan quickly took these over. The second was the Japanese focusing their efforts on Midway, which is known as being the turning point in the Pacific War.
Read more @: http://www.uss-hornet.org/history/wwii/doolittle_4.shtml
Or some of the Japanese here @ http://www.nids.go.jp/publication/senshi/pdf/200803/06.pdf
Photo from http://www.navy.history.mil