Japanese Attacks on American Soil

Attempted Bombings of the U.S. During World War II

Mar 4, 2008 Isaac M. McPhee

Throughout the course of the war in the Pacific during WWII, the Japanese tried several times to attack the American mainland, but never with any amount of success.

There are certain failures over the course of history which are saddening. Others, one might find themselves being thankful for.

The issue at hand is surely an example of the latter, for had the attempted attacks on America by the Japanese during World War II been at all successful, they might have resulted in devastating loss of life and property.

It is the utter lack of success involved in these attempts which is the reason that most people have not heard much about them.

The Mighty Battlefields of Washington, Oregon and California

February 3rd, 1942: A Japanese Submarine lobs a few explosive shells at the Ellwood oil production facilities near Santa Barbara, California in hopes of causing mass destruction. A pump house and a catwalk are damaged. Whoever was in charge of aiming the weapons on the sub is probably demoted.

June 20th, 1942: Another Japanese Submarine surfaces just off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia and Chief Gunner Hashiro Hayashi begins to fire 5.5” (that is, really big) shells at the Estevan Point Lighthouse. He misses his target entirely and fails to send any sort of message to the Americans. The Japanese army is once again disgraced by incompetent aim.

June 21st- 22nd, 1942: A third sub surfaces near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington and, in an unprecedented move, becomes the only sub to open fire at an American military installation during the war when it engages Fort Stevens. Unfortunately, the sub's aim is off a little (in keeping with the developing pattern) and manages only to damage the backstop of a nearby baseball field. Apart from probably causing some disappointment among some local baseball teams, the mission is a complete failure. The sub retreats in disgrace.

September 9th, 1942: The Japanese finally stop relying on the skills of the gunners on their submarines. Clearly, this isn't working. A new strategy is developed, wherein a small aircraft (specifically, a Yukosuka E14Y Seaplane) is launched from atop a submarine, where it proceeds to fly over the forests of Oregon, dropping bombs and, hopefully, starting massive and uncontrollable forest fires, thereby sending all of America into a panic under the great Japanese might. The first part of the task is a complete success.

The plane is launched, the bomb is dropped, and a fire is started. A few Americans witness the event and respond quickly to the scene of the explosion, and with some help from some local firemen, the fire is put out by the following morning. While two bombs were apparently dropped on Oregon, there has never been any trace of a second bomb. It would probably be quite the collector’s item today if it could be located.

For this attempt, at least the Japanese will go down in history as being the first foreign power to ever have the guts to attack the United States from the air.

November 1944 – April 1945: Fast forward a few years, as the Japanese are becoming even more desperate, for the war is becoming more and more costly for them. The bright idea is hatched somewhere in the military that it might be a good idea to launch some “fire balloons” at the United States. These balloons would be carried by high into the air, where they would be picked up by trade winds to the United States. Eventually, they would fall from the air and explode on impact, hopefully causing some forest fires (much like the previous fire-bombing attempt).

Unfortunately, it is in this attempt that the Japanese achieved their only measure of success. The only deaths caused on the American mainland by the Japanese occurred when six people were killed, five of whom were children, when one of these balloons was found in a tree near Bly, Oregon, and exploded when it was being pulled down. A sad footnote.

Apart from this single incident, however, it was another failed experiment for the Japanese, who were apparently no longer as blessed in war as they had been during the invasion by the Mongols hundreds of years earlier, when they were “magically” rescued by a storm called the kamikaze (Japanese for “divine wind”). No such miraculous intercession occurred during World War II, as the rest of the story is well-known history. After a devastating war in the Pacific, the Japanese finally conceded defeat in August of 1945.

References:

“Bombs Fall on Oregon: Japanese Attacks on the State.”

“Balloons I: The Jet Stream Gets Drafted.” Balloons I: The Jet Stream Gets Drafted.

“Canada and the War in the Far East.”

The copyright of the article Japanese Attacks on American Soil in Military History is owned by Isaac M. McPhee. Permission to republish Japanese Attacks on American Soil in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Japanese Fire Balloon