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(Wednesday, September 9, 1942, lookout reported a plume of smoke at 12:20 p.m. PWT; during the Lookout Air Raids, part of the American theater and Pacific theater of World War II) — In the first air attack on the U.S. mainland during World War II, a Japanese floatplane dropped incendiary bombs today in the Siskiyou National Forest, some ten miles east of Brookings, on the southern Oregon coast.
Submarine I-25, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Akiji Tagami, had surfaced in the Pacific Ocean west of Cape Blanco and launched a “Glen” Yokosuka E14Y floatplane, flown by Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita and Petty Officer Okuda Shoji, with a load of two incendiary bombs of 168 lbs each.
Fujita dropped two bombs, one on Wheeler Ridge on Mount Emily in Oregon. The location of the other bomb is unknown. The Wheeler Ridge bomb started a small fire.
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United States Forest Service lookout Howard “Razz” Gardner spotted and reported the incoming “Glen” from his fire lookout tower on Mount Emily.
Although Razz did not see the bombing, he saw the smoke plume and reported the fire to the dispatch office. He was instructed to hike to the fire to see what suppression he could do.
Dispatch also sent USFS Fire Lookout Keith V. Johnson from the nearby Bear Wallow Lookout Tower.
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The two men proceeded to the location and were able to keep the fire under control. Only a few small scattered fires were started because the bombs were not dropped from the correct height.
The men stayed on the scene and worked through the night keeping the fires contained. In the morning, a fire crew arrived to help. A recent rain storm had kept the area wet, which helped the fire lookouts contain the blaze.
No injuries were reported and no structures were damaged.
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Twenty years later, the floatplane’s pilot, Nobuo Fujita, was invited back to Brookings. Before he made the trip the Japanese government was assured he would not be tried as a war criminal.
In Brookings, Fujita served as Grand Marshal for the local Azalea Festival. At the festival, Fujita presented his family’s 400-year-old samurai sword to the city as a symbol of regret.
Fujita made a number of additional visits to Brookings, serving as an “informal ambassador of peace and friendship.” In 1992, he planted a tree at the bomb site as a gesture of peace.
He was made an honorary citizen of Brookings several days before his death on Sept. 30, 1997, at the age of 85.
