Rerun: Nice Try, But...

December 7, 1941 is a "date that will live in infamy," but few people remember February 23, 1942, the date the Japanese attacked the U.S. mainland.

A Japanese submarine fired 25 shells at an oil refinery at the edge of Ellwood Oil Field, twelve miles northwest of Santa Barbara. One shell actually hit on the rigging, causing minor damage. On its face, the shelling of Ellwood beach in 1942 was not a major event of the war. It injured no one and did a mere $500 damage to a shed and catwalk belonging to the Barnsdall-Rio Grande Oil Co.

Yet, for a country still recovering from the Pearl Harbor attack just two months before, the 5-inch shells were enough to scare many into the belief that Japan could wage war on mainland American soil. After all, this was the first enemy attack on U.S. shores since the War of 1812.

The attack quickened the round-up of Japanese Americans in internment camps for the remainder of the war, a move Franklin D. Roosevelt had authorized just four days earlier. Seven months later, Japan struck the U.S. mainland once more...on September 9, 1942 a Japanese bomber hit the uninhabited mountains east of Brookings, Oregon.

The idea was conceived by the Japanese imperial general staff, still smarting from General Jimmy Doolittle's Tokyo raid. To retaliate, the Japanese hatched a plan to set the Oregon forests afire. They expected the flames to spread to the cities and panic the entire West Coast. However, three of the bombs were duds; the fourth started a small blaze that was quickly spotted and doused by forest rangers.

I was unable to find any documentation on whether the Japanese attempted to acquire sharks with laser beams attached to their heads. It is possible they found some mutated sea bass.

Posted by Jennifer at July 12, 2004 09:00 AM

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