The Bombing of Oregon

One thing that a lot of people don't know was that the United States was actually bombed by a Japanese plane during World War II. They Japanese had a submarine series that they managed to develop which could actually launch a plane. The plane would fly out, do whatever it was it was going to do, and then return and land on the sea. The sub could then lift it up out of the water, put it back on the sub and relaunch it later.

No other country had that ability. The Japanese only had 11 of the subs, though, so any kind of massive air assault was out of the question.

The attacks on the US occurred in September of 1942 when the I-25 submarine launched its single plane with a mission of dropping bombs on Oregon forests, attempting to start a major forest fire. The attacks took place on Sept. 9th and Sept. 29th. The first fire was put out by a forest ranger. The second attempt apparently did not start an actual fire since the forest floor was wet.

The Frederick Post, Sept. 15, 1942	same source	The Brainerd Daily Dispatch (MN), June 2, 1943
The Fresno Bee, Oct. 30, 1945	The Oakland Tribune, Oct. 30, 1945	The Coshocton Tribune, Dec. 4, 1972

The type of plane used in the bombing

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