Today I will tell you a story, the story of Nobuto Fujita , a Japanese pilot who in 1942 managed to carry out two bombings and two air raids on United States soil, managing to hit California and Oregon, but let's go in order.
In September 1942, in the heart of the Second World War , Japan launched a bold attack on US soil (less famous than the attack on Pearl Harbor) in which they managed to bomb the continental part of the USA. It was the only attack in the entire war in which the continental part of the USA was hit by enemy forces.
The raids (two) were launched from a submarine that was located a few kilometers from the border between the states of Oregon and California and had as main objective not the cities but the woods ... yes you read that right, the Japanese bombed the woods between California and Oregon , causing damage to the earth and causing discomfort to the American population without directly involving the civilian population, the attack was a message, as if to say "we are here and we can hit you whenever we want ... fear eh?".
The attack was successful, at least on paper, but in practical terms it was probably the biggest flop ever recorded by the Japanese air force, although panic spread (if only minimally) and the raids were reported on some national newspapers, however, unfortunate that the Japanese did not pay much attention to the weather forecast, launching the attack with weather conditions decidedly unfavorable to their plans.
In a nutshell, that day there was little wind and this greatly limited the spread of fires, moreover the rapid response from the fire service and the erroneous calculations on the height from which to drop the bombs, minimized the damage (a arsonist with a lighter and a gas can probably would have done more damage than the two air raids).
And indeed, on other occasions they managed to cause much more damage using the "fire balloon" strategy, in practice, thousands of balloons carrying explosives were launched and exploiting the winds, many of these balloons actually managed to reach North America, even starting from Japan.
In 1962, many years after the Second World War, Nobuo Fujita (the Japanese pilot who had led the two raids) he was invited to visit the city of Brookings “hit by bombing” .
Nobuo Fujita actually went to Brookings after the US government assured the Japanese government that he would not be judged as a war criminal.
When Fujita arrived in Brookings he brought with him the ancient samurai sword of his family (about 400 years old) promising seppuku (throwing himself on his sword) as a sign of repentance for the attacks he had made on the glory of the Japanese Empire.
Fortunately for Fujita the city of Brookings did not request Seppuku but instead, Fujita received an extremely warm welcome from the locals in Brookings. Even in 1997 he received the honorary citizenship of the city of Brookins, unfortunately for him, he could not enjoy this honor for long because he died in 1998 and his ashes were scattered by his family, in the woods near Brookins, just where they had fallen. the incendiary bombs dropped by Fujita in 1942.