Nobuo Fujita

was a Japanese naval aviator of the Imperial Japanese Navy who flew a floatplane from the long-range submarine aircraft carrier and conducted the Lookout Air Raids in southern Oregon on September 9, 1942, making him the only Axis pilot during World War II to aerial bomb the contiguous United States. Using incendiary bombs, his mission was to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest near the city of Brookings, Oregon, with the objective of drawing the U.S. military's resources away from the Pacific Theater. The strategy was also later used in the Japanese fire balloon campaign.

In 1962 Fujita was invited to Brookings where he gave his family's 400-year-old katana to the city in friendship, Fujita later sponsored a trip for Brookings high school students to visit Japan in 1985 and returned to the city again in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1997, a few days before his death, Fujita was made an honorary citizen of the city.

Early life and military career Early life Nobuo Fujita joined the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1932 and became a pilot in 1933. Fujita also had a younger brother who was killed in the war. Rain the night before had made the forest very damp, and the bombs were rendered essentially ineffective. Fujita's plane had been spotted by two men, Howard Gardner and Bob Larson, at the Mount Emily fire lookout tower in the Siskiyou National Forest. Two other lookouts (the Chetco Point Lookout and the Long Ridge Lookout) reported the plane, but could not see it due to heavy fog. The plane was seen and heard by many people, especially when Fujita flew over Brookings in both directions. At about noon that day, Howard Gardner at the Mount Emily Lookout reported seeing smoke. The four U.S. Forest Service employees discovered that the fire was caused by a Japanese bomb. Approximately of fragments, including the nose of the bomb, were turned over to the United States Army.

After the bombing, I-25 came under attack by a USAAF aircraft on patrol, forcing the submarine to dive and hide on the ocean floor off Port Orford. The American attacks caused only minor damage, and Fujita flew a second bombing sortie three weeks later on 29 September. Fujita used the Cape Blanco Light as a beacon. After 90 minutes flying east, he dropped his bombs and reported seeing flames, but the bombing remained unnoticed in the U.S.

The submarine torpedoed and sank the SS Camden and SS Larry Doheny and then sailed for home. On its way to Japan, I-25 sank the Soviet submarine L-16, which was in transit between Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and San Francisco, California, mistaking it for an American submarine (Japan and the USSR were not at war at the time).

The two attacks on Oregon in September 1942 were the only enemy aircraft bombings on the contiguous United States and were the second time the continental United States was attacked by such aircraft during World War II, following the bombing of Dutch Harbor in Unalaska, Alaska three months earlier. This strategy of using forest fires as a weapon in World War II is cited in Smokey Bear's website as the motivating force behind the Wildfire PSA campaign.

Post-bombing Fujita continued as an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot, mainly in reconnaissance duties, and was promoted to the rank of Ensign. In 1943 he was transferred to the Kashima Naval Air Corps, a seaplane training and later a mainland air defense unit, where he served as an instructor attached to the aviation squadron. In February 1945 while flying a Mitsubishi F1M reconnaissance floatplane Fujita was involved in the interception and unconfirmed downing of an American Grumman F6F Hellcat.

Just before the end of the war Fujita volunteered to join the Kamikaze Special Attack Force and he was transferred to the Kawa Naval Air Corps where he trained kamikaze pilots and prepared to take part in an attack himself. Kawanishi N1K Kyōfū floatplanes were used for the training but because of multiple factors including poor visibility and the difficulty for crew members with little flight experience to take off and land on water Fujita did not perform any missions before the war's end. After the war but before his demobilization Fujita was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant.

Later life After the war he opened a hardware store in Ibaraki Prefecture and later worked at a company making wire. Although his visit still raised some controversy, the town treated him with respect and affection, while US president John F. Kennedy congratulated the town on their efforts to promote international friendship.

Impressed by his welcome in the United States during his visit, he promised to invite Brookings students to Japan. Despite the bankruptcy of his company, Fujita made good on his promise by co-sponsoring the visit of three female students from Brookings-Harbor High School to Japan in 1985. During the visit, Fujita received a US flag flown over the US Capitol Building and a dedicatory letter from an aide on behalf of President Ronald Reagan "with admiration for your kindness and generosity." Both are now on display at the Nobuo Fujita Corner of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's Camp Kasumigaura Public Relations Center near Tsuchiura.

Fujita returned to Brookings in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1992, he planted a tree at the bomb site as a gesture of peace. In 1995, he moved the samurai sword from the Brookings City Hall into the new library's display case. Fujita helped to gather money to build the library. He was later named an "ambassador of goodwill" by the city for his continued peace efforts.

Fujita was made an honorary citizen of Brookings while hospitalized for lung cancer in Tsuchiura; he died a few days later on September 30, 1997, at the age of 85. In October 1998, his daughter, Yoriko Asakura, buried some of Fujita's ashes at the bomb site near Brookings. According to local resident Brenda Jacques his daughter told her that “part of [her father’s] soul would forever be flying over Mount Emily.”