Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 2

 

Feb. 24-25, 1942: Two days before the so-called Battle of Los Angeles, a Japanese submarine shelled the Elwood oil fields,  12 miles north of Santa Barbara, according to The Times, which added that the attack came halfway through President Roosevelt’s weekly “fireside chat.” The only damage was rigging and pump equipment a quarter of a mile from the beach, The Times said, but Southern California residents were warned to be extremely vigilant in case of another attack the next night. "Particularly heavy reinforcements were reported assigned to guard the huge oil tank farm area of El Segundo, a few miles southwest of Los Angeles, from which all alien Japanese have been ousted for the duration of the war," The Times said on Feb. 25. ALSO Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1 Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

According to a June 24, 1945, story,  the War Department said that there were only three confirmed instances of a Japanese attack on the mainland during the war: The shelling by a submarine near Santa Barbara; shelling at Ft. Stevens, Ore.; and an incendiary bomb dropped near Mt. Emily, Ore., "by an unidentified float plane in an apparent attempt to start a forest fire.”     Meanwhile, life returned to normal in Santa Barbara, according to The Times…   … except for people of Japanese ancestry.

Comments

[fibber mcgee]

I fear The Times fiddled with the truth on Feb 25, 1942 when they said Japanese aliens were removed from Los Angeles. What the Army did was to remove Japanese "aliens and non-aliens," the latter being what the government called actual American citizens. About 75 percent were American citizens. Meanwhile, German-Americans and Italian-American citizens snoozed in their own beds. Also, it is interesting to note, Japanese Americans in Hawaii (a war zone at the time) were not all illegally rounded up and shipped to some distant camp.

[Chris Morales]

The dramatic story of supposed Japanese "attacks" on Los Angeles and Santa Barbara served to rally support and whip up a frenzy of threat, leading to the internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans.

Regarding the Ellwood shelling, the story is pretty flimsy;
historian Walker A. Tompkins researched the incident and while it undoubtedly occurred, it is difficult to swallow as being an actual enemy attack.

Supposedly Japanese sub Commander Nishino Kozo had visited the Ellwood Beach area some years before and had fallen into a cactus,receiving numerous cactus thorns in his backside as well as wounding to his pride.

Holding a grudge for years, he supposedly ordered his sub into enemy waters for the sole purpose of blasting the site where he was "attacked" by the cactus years earlier...

Its a colorful story, but makes no sense on any level.

[small details]

Fibber McGee is correct overall, but in Feb. 1942 only 'alien' Japanese’s had been removed. Executive Order 9066 was issued on Feb. 19 1942, and the subsequent actions leading to internment of citizens of Japanese ancestry took a couple of months to implement. So when the Times published the news of the Ellwood shelling their reporting about the status of the Japanese in the L.A. area was correct.

[Jimmy Joe Johnson]

fibber mcgee might want to do some research on the eurotrash that were interned during WW2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_American_internment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_internment