On September 9, 1942, Nobuo Fujita, a Chief Warrant Officer and pilot in the Japanese Imperial Navy, and his crew man, Petty Officer Shoji Okuda, surfaced in the Japanese submarine I-25 off the coast of Oregon near Brookings. His tiny seaplane had folding wings and was transported in a small Hangar attached to the deck of the submarine. Thus began the mission which would write Fujita in the history books.
His mission was so secret that it came as a total surprise to American military intelligence. Indeed, it was so secret that it was a half-day after the attack before Americans knew there had been an attack at all!
Still smarting from Doolittle's bombing of Tokyo five months earlier, Japanese strategy was to cause enough damage to induce U.S. leaders to withdraw all or part of the U.S. Navy from the Western Pacific — thereby reducing pressure on Japan's Navy. Fugita's particular mission over Oregon was to start a giant forest fire. They hoped that the bombs would ignite the forest and spread to the cities — "burning homes and factories and sending the American people into panic and depression." Fujita flew southeast over the Oregon coast dropping incendiary bombs on Mount Emily, 10 miles northeast of Brookings. After Fujita's bombing run on Mount Emily, the I-25 came under attack by U.S. Navy patrol aircraft, forcing the submarine to hide on the ocean floor off Port Orford.
The American attacks were unsuccessful, and Fujita was able to launch an additional bombing sortie three weeks later. Fujita's crew man Okuda was later killed in action, but Fujita continued flying until 1944, when he returned to Japan to train kamikaze pilots. He survived the war to become a successful businessman. He tried throughout the final 35 years of his life to repair the damage of the war by building a bridge of peace and respect between Japan and the United States. "He was so very sorry. He had very, very deep regrets," said Ernie Bowers, 61, a close friend of Fujita's. Fujita visited Brookings after the war four times. He gave Brookings his family's 400-year-old Samurai sword as a gesture of peace and good will during his first visit in 1962. The sword was placed in the mayor's office, where it remains today. He also was host to a group of Brookings-Harbor High School students at his home in Japan. He was an honored guest at the 1990 annual Azalea Festival in Brookings. The Brookings City Council declared Fujita an honorary citizen. Fujita's ashes now rest on the same spot where his first bombs landed just east of Brookings.
Source;
http://www.kilroywashere.org/006-Pag...BombOregon.htm
Military History
05-26-2008, 13:00
Nobuo Fujita's almost forgotten attack on the US! 
Re: Nobuo Fujita's almost forgotten attack on the US! 
