Nobuo Fujita
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Nobuo Fujita (1911 - September 30, 1997) (Jp:藤田信雄) was a Warrant Flying Officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy who flew a floatplane from a long-range submarine aircraft carrier, the I-25, and conducted the only wartime aircraft-dropped bombing on the continental United States. Using incendiary bombs, his mission was to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest outside the town of Brookings, Oregon, on 9 September 1942, with the ultimate objective of tying up U.S. military resources to the defense of the mainland, away from the Pacific Theater. The strategy was also used in the Japanese fire balloon campaign.
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[edit] Life and military career
Nobuo Fujita was born in 1911. He joined the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1932, and became a pilot in 1933.
[edit] Pearl Harbor and US West Coast
Fujita was onboard the I-25 during the attack on Pearl Harbor, where the I-25 and three other submarines patrolled a line 120 miles north of Oahu. Fujita's plane, a Yokosuka E14Y "Glen" seaplane, did not function properly, and he was unable to participate in the reconnaissance mission planned before the attack.
After Pearl Harbor, I-25 patrolled along the west coast of the United States with eight other submarines, where they sank US shipping before returning to their base in Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, arriving on 11 January 1942 to refuel and be refurbished.
[edit] South Pacific
I-25's next mission was to reconnoitre the Australian harbours of Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart followed by the New Zealand harbours of Wellington and Auckland. On Tuesday, 17 February 1942, Nobuo Fujita took off in the "Glen" for a reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour. The purpose was to look at Sydney's airbase. By 7:30 a.m., Fujita had returned to I-25, disassembled the "Glen" and stowed it in the water-tight hangar.
Their next mission was a similar flight over Melbourne. Fujita took off from Cape Wickham at the northern end of King Island at the western end of Bass Strait about halfway between Victoria and Tasmania. The floatplane was launched on 26 February 1942 for its reconnaissance flight to Melbourne over Port Phillip Bay.
Fujita's next reconnaissance flight in Australia was over Hobart on 1 March 1942. I-25 then headed for New Zealand where Fujita flew another reconnaissance flight over Wellington on 8 March 1942. Fujita next flew over Auckland on 13 March 1942, followed by Fiji on 17 March 1942. They returned to their base at Kwajalein on 31 March 1942.
On May 28, 1942, Fujita performed reconnaissance of Kodiak, Alaska in preparation for the invasion of the Aleutian Islands. On June 21, 1942, the I-25 shelled Fort Stevens. Fujita was on the deck of the I-25 during the shellings.
[edit] Bombing of continental United States
Fujita suggested the idea of using a submarine-based seaplane to bomb military targets, including ships at sea and attacks on the U.S. mainland, as well the strategic Panama Canal. The ideas were approved, and the mission given to the I-25. Later, submarine aircraft carriers such as the giant I-400 class submarines were developed specifically to bomb the Panama Canal.
At about 6 AM on Wednesday morning, September 9, 1942, the I-25 surfaced west of the Oregon/California border. The submarine launched the "Glen" seaplane, flown by Fujita and Petty Officer Okuda Shoji with a 340 lb. load of two incendiary bombs. Fujita dropped two bombs, one on Wheeler Ridge. The location of the other bomb is unknown. The Wheeler Ridge bomb started a small fire 10 miles due east of Brookings, Oregon which was extinguished by the U.S. Forest Service. The attack caused only minor damage: rain the night before had made the forest very damp, and the bombs were rendered essentially ineffective. Fujita's plane had been spotted by two men, Howard Gardner and Bob Larson, at the Mt. Emily Lookout on the Siskiyou National Forest. Two other lookouts (the Chetco Point Lookout and the Long Ridge Lookout) reported the plane, but could not see it due to heavy fog. The plane was seen and heard by many people, especially when Fujita flew over Brookings in both directions. At about noon that day, Howard Gardner at the Mt. Emily Lookout reported seeing smoke. The four U.S. Forest Service employees discovered that the fire was caused by a Japanese bomb. Approximately 60 pounds of fragments, including the nose of the bomb, were turned over to the U.S. Army.
After the bombing, the I-25 came under attack by a US Army Air Forces aircraft on patrol, forcing the submarine to dive and hide on the ocean floor off Port Orford. The American attacks caused only minor damage, and Fujita managed to launch a second bombing sortie three weeks later on September 29, 1942. Fujita used the Cape Blanco Lighthouse as a beacon. After 90 minutes flying east, Fujita dropped his bombs and reported seeing flames, but the bombing remained unnoticed in the U.S.
After that last bombing, the submarine sank the SS Camden and SS Larry Doheny. On its way to Japan, the I-25 sank the Soviet submarine L-16, which was in transit between Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and San Francisco, mistaking it for an American submarine (Japan and the USSR were not at war at the time).
These two attacks on Oregon in September 1942 were the only wartime aircraft bombings on the continental United States.
[edit] Later life
Fujita continued activity as an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot, mainly in reconnaissance duties, until 1944, when he was transferred to the training of Kamikaze pilots.
Fujita would be invited back to Brookings in 1962, and he gave the City of Brookings his family's 400-year-old samurai sword in friendship after the Japanese government was assured he would not be tried as a war criminal.
Impressed by his welcome in the United States, Fujita invited three female students from Brookings to Japan in 1985. During the visit of the Brookings-Harbor High School students to Japan, Fujita received a dedicatory letter from an aide of President Ronald Reagan "with admiration for your kindness and generosity."
Fujita returned to Brookings in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1992 he planted a tree at the bomb site as a gesture of peace. In 1995, he moved the samurai sword from the Brookings City Hall into the new library's display case.
He was made an honorary citizen of Brookings, Oregon, several days before his death on September 30, 1997, at the age of 85. In October of 1998, his daughter, Yoriko Asakura buried some of his ashes at the bomb site.
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