Japanese Submarine Attacks US Mainland Base

June 21st 1942 A Japanese Submarine attacks a US mainland base, Fort Stevens.

Submarine I - 25 fired 17 shells without any response from Fort Stevens. However, the only damage they caused was to a baseball field, which is pretty good going.

This would not be I-25's only attack on the US mainland. In September 1942, the Submarine returned to Oregon to start a forest fire using incendiary bombs. Pilot Nobua Fujita dropped several bombs around Brookings Oregon, however it rained the night before so was pretty useless at starting a fire.

I-25 survived another year in the war, sinking a Soviet Submarine and a couple of Allied ships, before being destroyed outside what is not Vanuatu, killing all 94 crew members.

However, Nobua Fujita was not on board. He has been transferred to training kamikazi pilots earlier in the year. He survived the war and ended up visiting Brookings, OR in the 1960's. Overwhelmed by the kindness of the town he tried to destroy, he donated his 400 year old Samurai sword to the town and was even made an honourary citizen before he died.

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Sources:

Offbeat Oregon

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Images:

Nobua Fujita & Sword (Image: William McCash/ Bombs Over Brookings book)

Thumbnail (This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this: Naval Ensign of Japan.svg., Naval ensign of the Empire of Japan, scale, shape, by Stefan Milo, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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