Nobuo Fujita | |
|---|---|
 Nobuo Fujita c. 1942-1945 | |
| Born | 1911 Bungotakada, Ōita, Empire of Japan |
| Died | 30 September 1997 (aged 85) Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Japan |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  Empire of Japan |
| Service |  Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Years of service | 1932–1945 |
| Rank |  Sub-Lieutenant |
| Battles / wars | |
| Other work | Businessman Unofficial ambassador for Brookings, Oregon. |
Nobuo Fujita (藤田 信雄, Fujita Nobuo) (1911 – 30 September 1997) was a Japanese naval aviator of the Imperial Japanese Navy who flew a floatplane from the long-range submarine aircraft carrier I-25 and conducted the Lookout Air Raids in southern Oregon on September 9, 1942, making him the only Axis pilot during World War II to aerial bomb the contiguous United States.[1][2][3] Using incendiary bombs, his mission was to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest near the city of Brookings, Oregon, with the objective of drawing the U.S. military's resources away from the Pacific Theater. The strategy was also later used in the Japanese fire balloon campaign.
In 1962 Fujita was invited to Brookings where he gave his family's 400-year-old katana to the city in friendship, Fujita later sponsored a trip for Brookings high school students to visit Japan in 1985 and returned to the city again in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1997, a few days before his death, Fujita was made an honorary citizen of the city.
- ^ Webber, Bert (1985) "Silent Siege-II Japanese Attacks on North America in WWII." Webber Research Group, ISBN 0-936738-26-X, P. vi
- ^ Coyle, Brendan (2002) "War On Our Doorstep, The Unknown Campaign On North America's West Coast", p. 148
- ^ "Nobuo Fujita World War II Database". Retrieved 6 July 2011.