Lookout Air Raids / Ft. Stevens
In June 1942, the army base (Ft. Stevens), which sits near the mouth of the Columbia River, was targetted by the Japanese submarine I-25 while patrolling the western coast of the United States. Their target was the Battery Russell, an area that housed much of the base's artillery. Fortunately, they missed. In fact, much of the damage dealt towards the base, was at a nearby baseball field. Ft. Stevens' superior officers refused to order to return fire and also implemented a blackout, further harming the submarine's vision.
On September 9th, 1942, Nobuo Fujita became the first pilot in the Imperial Air Force to successfully bomb the continental United States. His mission was to start forest fires in Oregon, hoping to distract American forces and spread fear among civilians. He accomplished this by hitching a ride on a submarine (the same one involved with the Ft. Stevens attack) and launching his modified aquatic plane after it breached off the coast of Brookings, Oregon. His flight was seen by fire marshalls in the area, and the fires quickly were extinguished. Fujita made several passes over the Siskiyou Natl. Forest in Oregon in a campaign later known as the Lookout Air Raids.
Causing fires throughout the American Northwest was also an objective of the Fu-Go bombing campaign.
Later in life, Nobuo Fujita became somewhat of a legendary figure to the townsfolk of Brookings. He was invited to visit in 1962, where he presented his family's 400-year-old samurai sword to the people of the town as an apology for his actions. He continued to visit the community periodically up until his death in 1997. His ashes were spread on one of the site's that he bombed in the Siskiyou National Forest.
Both the Ft. Stevens Attack and the Lookout Air Raids are considered to be the only direct attacks upon the continental United States.