Yup. On September 9th, 1942, one of the only two attacks on the US mainland occurred. A Japanese pilot launched a small plane off a submarine and dropped incendiary bombs on Mount Emily in the Blue mountains of eastern Oregon in an attempt to start forest fires. Pilot survived the war and returned to Japan.
6 people killed by a Japanese balloon bomb near Bly, Oregon, one adult and five children.These were the only people killed on the Mainland US by foreign forces during WW2.
U. S. Army B-25C bomber sabotaged by Nazi sympathizers On September 22, 1942, a U. S. Army B-25C bomber, left Presque Isle Maine Army Air Base en-route to overseas duty in England when it crashed in the nearby town of Fort Fairfield, Maine. . All seven crewmen aboard were killed. Two Nazi sympathizers were later arrested for tampering with an aircraft at Presque Isle leading to speculation that the B-25 had gone down due to sabotage.
Well they certainly made up for it! 5 of us 5 million of you! Hiroshima/Nagasaki! I didn’t know this, despite my sarcasm, it is of interest.
Outside my hometown of Lemoore California, was a base and an airstrip used by the navy. ( some military branch--think it was navy). A bunch of German prisoners of war were brought there and they worked on surrounding farms as farm labor. I was a little guy then , so I don't remember much about them, but compared to our service people captured by the Germans or the Japanese, the grownups said that it was actually pretty cushy living for the prisoners. Now there's a huge navy base about 10 miles west of town ( Lemoore Navel Air Station) that's been there since the 60s and crop dusters use the old air strip back across the road on the farmland around the area. All the old Quonset huts that housed people during WW2 are gone.
They sure put some dramatic music behind that!!!! I changed the 1st post to reflect that there were 2 attacks.
Yeah for the most part, we stuck by the rules! (Was it the Geneva convention?) Not sure, but the captured enemy were no longer the enemy? Seems odd but it is decent I suppose. Certainly beats the bridge over the river Kwai! And forgive me, but you must be quite old! Some 80 ish or something..........not meaning to be rude, just an observation! Certainly a very interesting memory! Thanks for sharing.
There were plenty of Nazi sympathizers. While they may have locked up Japanese-American citizens in camps like Manzanar, German and Italian-American citizens were allowed to roam free. Now undocumented Italian and Germans were another matter. Many were deemed ‘enemy aliens’ and held at detention centers, and stripped of their property and dignity.
