Japanese Pilot

[pjm]

His story is here: Nobuo Fujita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It notes Fujita presented his sword to Brookings, Oregon, the town near the site he bombed. The sword is now in the town library.

[Formerjughead]

here's a link there were also a couple of ships that were sunk during the same period.

Port Orford Lifeboat Station

[zwerge]

This is the plane he would have been flying,a Watanabe E9W1,there were only 35 of them built for use from subs ( sensuikan )

[pjm]

Fujita at the Brookings CIty, OR Library.

[packin9]

Warrant officer Nobuo Fujita was the only man to bomb the mainland of USA in WW2. He flew a type 96 biplane from submarine I-25 on sept.9 and sept.29 1942 and dropped a total of 4 incendiary bombs in the Oregon forests,which of course started some large fires.

I've read about the balloon's coming down and starting some fires and being found by some, perhaps Boy Scouts? And some shelling by a sub off shore. What happened to him? Did he make it back?

[brant]

I was recently listening to an audiotape on America's first heros of WWII. This was mentioned. His bombing would caused more damage had it not been for the exceptional rainy weather the Oregon area was having at the time. Great trivia!!

[OKW]

Weren't the only 2 ww2 deaths on mainland usa due to enemy action caused by one of the balloon bombs? a woman and her young son blown up after presumably the child being attracted by the balloon, wasn't near the coast either so this thing must have travelled.

[Formerjughead]

Weren't the only 2 ww2 deaths on mainland usa due to enemy action caused by one of the balloon bombs? a woman and her young son blown up after presumably the child being attracted by the balloon, wasn't near the coast either so this thing must have travelled.

This is one of my "pet" subjects. The family was in Klammath Falls Oregon, near the eastern border of the state. They were on a Sunday pic nic when they found the Balloon.

The Balloons actually created more of a stir than was ever publicized at the time. There was an entire Parachute Infantry Regiment, the all black 555th, that was tasked with battling the fires that these balloons started.
This unit became the nexxus for the US Forest Service's "Smoke Jumpers"


Balloon sightings and recoveries have been reported all along the west coast of the US and as far east as Michigan.

in 1943 there was an intact balloon recovered in Hayfork California that was analyzed by the US geological service who scrutinized the sand found in the ballast bags. The scientists were able to determine that the sand had come from a specific area(s) in Japan where the balloons had been manufactured. These areas became targets and were bombed.

During the war it was assumed that the Balloons had been launched from submarines. It was only after the war and after the Hayfork Balloon had been found that the US realized that the balloons had been launched from mainland Japan.

Brad

[Tom2]

And of course that was probably covered up at the time and not heard of much since. They also tried to cover up the balloon bombs sent over on the jetstream. Those did make it here and some folks were killed mucking with one they found. But they say the coverup was to avoid feedback of their occasional success in getting them to actually make the crossing. The actual bomb/mechanism recovered from one of them is on dispay at the US Air Force Museum, lately renamed National Museum of the United States Air Force on the whim of a retired General. That simply does not roll off the tongue and the previous title is used in conversation. Sorry off subject a bit.

[direweasel]

Make more than one kamikaze attack?

Sorry, am now seeing the rest of the entries. Still getting used to this forum's format.