The first enemy attack on American soil since the British attacked Washington during the War of 1812 occurred on Feb. 23, 1942. In the period after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sent seven subs to roam the California coastline in search of warships and merchant ships. They sank two merchant ships and damaged another six. One of the subs was I-17 commanded by Kozo Nishino. He had to return to Kwajalein island to refuel, but he returned to America in February, 1942. Nishino was familiar with the Santa Barbara area since he had been on a merchant ship that had stopped there before the war. The story that he wanted revenge for being insulted by American oil field workers is just a legend. (According to the story, he came ashore and tripped and got a butt full of cactus. Naturally, the oil men laughed at him.) On the morning of Feb. 23, Nishino surfaced and ordered his gun crew to use the deck gun to hit an oil field installation. For 20 minutes, 12-25 shells were fired. Nothing valuable was hit, but the shelling did destroy a derrick and a pump house. The damage was around $500. The aftermath far overshadowed the attack. It caused an overreaction that had bad results. On Feb. 25, due to the panic over the supposed upcoming Japanese invasion, the “Battle of Los Angeles” occurred when jittery anti-aircraft gunners opened fire on phantom Japanese planes. A bond sale used the theme of “Avenge Ellwood”. By far the worst repercussion was FDR ordering the internment of Japanese-Americans in camps in the West. This might not have occurred if Nishino had stuck to just sinking ships. The I-17 was sunk in the Solomon Islands in 1943. By then Nishino was no longer captain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Ellwood
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-01-me-5256-story.htm
https://www.militarymuseum.org/Ellwood2.html
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