The 1942 Attack On Ellwood
By Bob Small
The residents of Goleta, CA were preparing to listen to FDR deliver his “fireside chat” on the radio on Sunday Night, Feb 23, 1942, less than three months after the Dec 7 attack on Pearl Harbor At approximately 7:15 pm, a Japanese I-17 submarine began to fire at the Ellwood Oil Field’
The only injury was a soldier who had tried to deactivate an unexploded shell for which he later received a purple heart. This sub was later sunk in August 1943 by the Royal New Zealand Navy and US Navy Planes around Australia.
This gave birth to a large number of conspiracy theories. For one of these see Goleta the Good Land: Tompkins, Walker A.
Meanwhile, two days later, Radio Tokyo falsely reported “Santa Barbara, California was devastated by enemy bombardment.”
The American Oil and Gas Historical Society fills in some missing details Japanese Sub attacks Oilfield as the effects.. This not only fanned the flames of a Japanese invasion , “but quickly led to the largest mass UFO sighting in U.S. history.”
Meanwhile in LA “The U.S. Army’s 37th Anti-Aircraft Brigade fired at elusive “unidentified airplanes.” The brigade fired 1,340 rounds. “ Many Los Angelinos feared an alien invasion, either from Japan or from another planet.
The Carriage and Western Art Musem of Santa Barbera has a more succinct view of the incident. Monies were collected to build a bomber to be named “The Flying Santa Barbara” It remains unbuilt.
Besides influencing the decision to create the Japanese Internment this was “the furthest direct attack on a land target that the Japanese Empire” made during the war. This was the first bombardment of the US since the 1814 Battle of Baltimore.
Lest we state incorrectly that only Japanese and Japanese-Americans were interned during World War 2. both Germans Internment of German Americans and Italians were also interned, albeit at a much lower level.
Lastly, a John Belushi movie was made, based on “The bombing of Los Angelos” 1941 (film).
Based on the IMDB reviews it may be the worst movie associated with the name of Steven Spielberg.