山下奉文
At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, "Sendai" was engaged in escorting transports carrying Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita and the Japanese 25th Army to invade Malaya. At 23:45 on 7 December 1941, "Sendai" and her destroyer squadron (, , , and ) commenced a bombardment of Kota Bharu, Malaya. They were attacked by seven RAAF Hudson bombers, which sank one of the transports and damaged two others.