Upon returning to Yokosuka the next month, I-25 received a message, “Warrant Officer Fujita is instructed to report to Imperial Naval Headquarters at once.” Fujita proceeded as directed and was surprised to meet there Prince Takamatsu, the emperor’s younger brother, who was also a commander in the IJN. In the presence of the prince, whom Fujita had met previously, the warrant officer was told by a submarine staff commander, “Fujita, me are going to have you bomb the American mainland.” Another naval officer, a former Japanese vice consul in Seattle, who also had suggested that the American mainland might be bombed, gave further instructions: “You will bomb forests for us, right about here.”

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Glancing at the chart spread out before him, Fujita saw the “here” meant about 75 miles north of the California border, far from any large city. An explanation was soon forthcoming: “The northwestern United States is full of forests. Once a blaze gets started in the deep woods, it is difficult to stop. Sometimes whole towns are destroyed. If we were to bomb some of these forests, it would put the enemy to much trouble. It might even cause large-scale panic, once residents knew Japan could reach out and bomb their families and homes from 5,000 miles away.” Sworn to secrecy, Fujita left the meeting stunned but eager to do his duty.

I-25 soon departed on its mission. Leaving Yokosuka on August 15, 1942, the submarine arrived off Cape Blanco in Oregon early in September. For several days, bad weather precluded launching the floatplane, but early on September 9, 1942, conditions improved. Captain Tagami summoned Fujita to the conning tower, where he nodded to the periscope and ordered, “Take a look, Fujita, and tell me what you think.” Fujita did so and responded quickly, “Captain, it looks good. I think we can do it today.” Captain tagami smiled and remarked: “Fine. in just a few more minutes you’ll make history. You will be the first person ever to bomb the United States of America! If all goes well, Fujita, you will not be the last!”

Fujita donned his flight clothes while I-25 surfaced just before dawn. The pilot and his crewman,Petty Officer Shoji Okuda, seated themselves in the Glen floatplane, which had been assembled on deck. Mounted beneath each wing was a 170-pound thermite incendiary bomb intended to set huge fires in the Oregon coniferous forest. These specially designed bombs each contained 520 firing elements that would spread over an area more than 100 yards in diameter when the bomb exploded, and start to burn at 2,700 degrees.

The seaplane was catapulted into the air and headed northeast toward the Cape Blanco lighthouse on the Oregon coast just as the sun broke over he horizon. Fujita ordered Okuda to release the first bomb after flying southeast about 50 miles inland. After it burst with a brilliant white light, both Fujita and Okuda observed a scattering of flickering fires through the trees. The second bomb was released after Fujita flew about five of six more miles east, and it, too, explode with a blinding white flash. Fujita then took his plane down very low, skimming the treetops and water en route to a successful rendezvous and a recovery with I-25.

Fire warden Howard Gardner was stationed in his lookout tower on Mount Emily in the southwest corner of Oregon on the morning of September 9, 1942, when he heard a strange sound, like a Model A Ford backfiring. Scanning the sky, he observed a small airplane circling above the thin fog but could not identify it. At 6:24 a.m., Gardner reported the unidentified aircraft by radio to the Gold Beach ranger headquarters station 35 miles north of Brookings. Also working as a fire lookout in the rugged coastal mountain range of southwestern Oregon that morning was an 18-year-old University of Nebraska forestry student named Keith V. Johnson. He was clearing trails near the lookout tower at Bear Wallow, about seven miles east of Mount Emily, when he heard a plane through the usual low-lying fog. But he thought little of it. About noon that day, Gardner spotted a wisp of smoke to the southeast, and at 12:24 p.m. he radioed his headquarters at Gold Beach, which ordered him to proceed to the suspected fire. Headquarters then ordered Johnson to scan the southwest for smoke.

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