Most North Coasters are aware of the shelling of Fort Stevens on June 21, 1942, but how many know about the ill-fated bombing of Brookings on Sept. 9, 1942? It was the first time an enemy aircraft bombed the American mainland.

A Japanese I-25 submarine, skulking off the Oregon Coast, catapult launched a single engine plane, piloted by Nobuo Fujita, who is pictured. According to Mr. Wikipedia, he was carrying 340 pounds worth of incendiary bombs to drop deep in the forest near Brookings, hoping to start a huge fire and distract the U.S. military away from the war in the Pacific Theater. (http://tinyurl.com/nofujita). He had just enough fuel to get to the target, release the bombs, circle once, then get back to the submarine.

Forestry student Keith V. Johnson, who was working at a forest fire lookout tower, spotted the plane and called Forest Fire Headquarters. Forest service lookout Howard Gardner heard the bomb hit, saw the plane, then saw smoke in the forest when the fog lifted. Luckily, he and his men quickly got the small fire under control. All that remains is a 3-foot crater, which is accessible via the Mount Emily Bombsite Trail (http://tinyurl.com/emilybomb). Three weeks later, Fujita launched a similar mission, but this one didn’t cause much of a fire or fuss, either.

A New York Times story written at the time of his death in 1997, said Fujita was “deeply ashamed” of his air raid on Oregon (http://tinyurl.com/nytfujita). In 1962 he visited Brookings for the first time, and brought a 400-year-old family samurai sword (which he carried throughout World War II) to present to the town. He was prepared to commit ritual suicide upon arrival, and disembowel himself if the people of Brookings were still angry with him.

Fortunately, they weren’t. He visited the town several more times, becoming an “honorary citizen,” and his sword wound up hanging in the Brookings library.

— Elleda Wilson