Nobuo Fujita – the only pilot in the world to bomb America

There are hardly many people in the world who know the location of the beautiful town of Brookings, Curry County, southwestern Oregon, USA. It is named after John E. Brookings, president of the Brookings Lumber and Box Company, which founded the city in 1908.

The town, picturesquely situated on the Pacific coast in the area of ​​the Chetko River with a main livelihood of logging activities and a local shipping center, is now home to 6,440 people, mostly retirees.

Brookings Harbor (Photo: iStock by Getty Images)

On March 11, 2011, in addition to the recorded catastrophic earthquake (magnitude 9) in the history of Japan, followed by a terrible tsunami, the world news also reported about the port of Brookings. It was damaged by tidal waves of the Japanese tsunami with damage estimated at 25 to 30 million dollars.

But 79 years ago, Japan’s name was once again involved in the town’s history. After an attack by the Japanese on the morning of June 3, 1942 at the Danish port of the Aleutian Islands, near Alaska, on September 9 of that year, Mount Emily, near Brookings, became the first place in the continental United States to undergo air bombing. time of war.

Incendiary seventy-five kilogram phosphorus bombs were dropped by a Japanese seaplane / seaplane E14Y1 (in some sources, called “Yokosuka / Yokosuka” – on behalf of the manufacturer), converted into an ultralight bomber. The American name of this aircraft is Glen, launched by a submarine – an I-25 aircraft carrier under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Meiji Tagami.

According to military experts, the raid on the territory of the United States was in fact a test flight of the Japanese army to determine the possibility of incendiary bombardment in enemy territory and was aimed at starting massive fires in the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest.

The Japanese Aichi M6A (AM-24). Only a few of these planes went into battle in World War II.

The pilot of the seaplane is Officer Nobuo Fujita, who drops Wheel Ridge incendiary bombs on Mount Emily, setting fires to forest fires. The brave Fujita flew again with a second bomber three weeks later, using Cape Blanco as a beacon for orientation. After a 90-minute flight east of Cape Blanco, he dropped his bombs and then escaped, accidentally finding his submarine in the ocean.

Naval Officer Nobuo Fujita

When the Japanese learned of this, they decided to abandon the use of naval aircraft to bomb the United States until a more sophisticated navigation system was created.

The US Navy – Coast Guard destroyers respond to the strike with a delay – searched for I-25 all night, but the submarine managed to escape with impunity. Fujita managed to get back on the aircraft carrier, but never forgets what he did. In 1962, he accepted an invitation from the Brookings City authorities to visit him, and the Japanese government received assurances that he would not be tried as a war criminal.

Fujita insisted on receiving forgiveness from the city and, as a sign of repentance, peace and friendship, brought as a gift to Brookings, the family samurai sword of 400 years of age. He was greeted as a friend and instead of humiliation received the key to the city.

In response to the noble reconciliation, the veteran also paid for the expenses of three teenagers to visit Japan, and donated $ 1,000 to the local Brookings Library for books. Nobuo also set about planting trees to help restore the forest he had set on fire.

Nobuo Fujita made three more visits to the city, and shortly before his death in 1997, he became an honorary citizen of Brookings.

The following year, his daughter came to fulfill his last wish – to scatter his dust where he dropped the bombs!

Today, if you visit the town of Brookings, you can see the samurai sword, donated by the brave pilot Nobuo Fujita, exhibited in the “Public Library of the Brush”, where the exhibit has an inscription: “The only enemy to bomb the United States from the air”.

Adv. Tsvetan Tsvetanov