On this day in 1942, Japanese naval aviator Nobuo Fujita, flying a Yokosuka E14Y seaplane, dropped two incendiary bombs on a forest near Brookings, Oregon. He was "the only pilot in history to bomb the contiguous United States of America during wartime".
The objective of the mission was to start massive forest fires, with the goal of drawing U.S. military resources away from operations in the Pacific Theater, but the ground was wet from recent rainfall and the bombs only caused a small, quickly-extinguished fire. The mission was a failure.
On Sept. 9, 1962, twenty years after the wartime event, Nobuo Fujita returned to Brookings, this time as an invited guest at the town's annual Azalea Festival. It was a goodwill gesture by the Oregon town, made in recognition of the changed relationship between the U.S. and Japan. It wasn't without controversy, though, and some local citizens objected to the invitation.
Although he attended the festival, Fujita was concerned beforehand about the reception he might receive, later saying, "I did not know how people would react to me. I thought they would throw stones, or eggs...or worse". He was treated with respect and affection instead.
As his own gesture of goodwill and friendship, Fujita presented the town with a Samurai sword that had been in his family for 400 years. He had taken it on every flight, including the bombing mission in Oregon. Originally placed in City Hall, the sword is now on permanent display at the Chetco Community Public Library in Brookings.
Fujita returned to Brookings several times over the next few decades and dedicated the rest of his life to making peace with the town he might well have destroyed had circumstances been different: He fulfilled a promise to bring local high school students to Japan on a cultural exchange; donated thousands of dollars to the public library for the purchase of children's books; and in 1992, planted a coastal redwood at the bomb site as an apology to the forest.
Nobuo Fujita was made an honorary citizen of Brookings, Oregon shortly before his death in 1997 at the age of 85. In 1998, his daughter, Yoriko Asakura, buried his ashes near the bomb site.
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