The Japanese Attack
on the Central Coast, 23 February 1942
By
Justin M. Ruhge
The opening months of America's entry into World War II had a
number of important impacts on California's history. Besides
becoming the initial western front in the early days of the war
with the home guard on hand, millions of newcomers came to the
state to train and build ships and airplanes. Two hundred thirty
five bases, camps and fields were established for training of
all aspects of the military buildup to fight the war.
The state was the location of the first attack by a foreign power
on the continental United States since the War of 1812 with England.
It was also a prison to thousands of German and Italian prisoners-of-war
during the five years of combat. And, as in the Great War, many
foreign nationals in the United States were again interred in
prisons for the duration of the war. During World War II Japanese-Americans
in California were also interred.
On February 23, 1942, 69 days after the attack at Pearl Harbor,
the Japanese submarine I-17 appeared off the coast of California
north of Santa Barbara at the Barnsdall-Rio Grande Oil Field
at Ellwood (today's Sandpiper Golf Course) and began shelling
the oil and gasoline tanks located there. The submarine captain,
who was interviewed in Japan after the war, had been a Japanese
tanker captain and knew the location well from his many earlier
visits there to obtain gasoline refined at that location from
crude oil pumped out of the Ellwood field.
The I-17 was one of many long-range submarines developed by the
Japanese so they could operate across the Pacific Ocean. A number,
perhaps six in all, of this class of submarine, some with aircraft
on board, were dispatched to the west coast after the Pearl Harbor
attack to harass the American shipping and shore installations.
They sunk or damaged oil freighters encountered along the coast,
notably the Montebello and the Emidio;and shelled shore installations
in California, Oregon and Washington; and launched aircraft to
start forest fires with incendiary bombs in Oregon forests.
The attack at Ellwood began at 7 pm as the I-17 slowly moved
along parallel to the oil piers. It was still light then due
to the double daylight savings time invoked during the war. In
all, 26 rounds were fired from the 5.5-inch deck gun. Some shells
landed below the extensive oil installation, some exploded and
blew holes in the machinery, some landed dangerously close to
the high-octane gasoline tanks and some shells flew over the
oil field and landed in the hills behind the oil fields. One
of the shells landed on ranch property but did not explode. It
was recovered the next day and turned over to the Army for defusing
and evaluation and is now a trophy owned by a local rancher.
The I-17 moved out of sight and into the darkness after its 20-minute
bombardment. Had a shell hit the gasoline tanks or exploded when
oil workers were present, the damage could have been more catastrophic.
As it turned out, this was a nuisance raid and only a footnote
to the history unfolding in the World's Greatest War during the
next five years.
Many persons still living today along the coast saw the attack
and the submarine firing the shells. Several of these witnesses
were at the Wheeler Inn Restaurant on western Hollister Road
next to the Barnsdall-Rio Grande filling station and came out
to see the submarine and heard the shells flying overhead. According
to Walker Tompkins in Goleta the Good Land, Captain Kozo Nishino,
a tanker captain and captain of the I-17, often dined at the
restaurant as a guest of the oil company when his ship was anchored
offshore to take on gasoline for Japan.
Americans became very indignant that the Japanese would dare
to attack the American homeland. National Savings Bond drives
were started to collect funds for airplanes and ships with which
to "AVENGE ELLWOOD!"
The Japanese, on the other hand, considered it a great victory
to have reached the American mainland for an attack. The Japanese
Government and Navy celebrated the event in the home island newspapers.
The Japanese Navy printed special commemorative post cards so
that the event could be circulated to all parts of the world
and to raise the morale of the citizens. Richard Arent of Carmel,
California has provided one of the postcards to the author for
publication herein.
The one recovered shell owned by ranchers Godwin and Deborah
Pelissaro, the oil well housings peppered with shrapnel holes
and pieces of the shrapnel owned by Peter Langlo were on display
at the Goleta Valley Historical Society Museum for a number of
years.
Twenty-five year and fifty-year commemorative ceremonies were
held at the Timber's Restaurant and the Sandpiper Golf Course,
respectively, with news media coverage, at which a number of
the eyewitnesses gave testimony. The Native Sons of the Golden
West placed a bronze plaque at the golf course in 1982. The Goleta
Historical Society placed a historic marker sign describing the
attack at the beach below the Bacara Resort west of the golf
course in 2002. Souvenir hunters had removed an earlier sign.
On February 2, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Order 9066, which
required the internment of German, Italian and Japanese enemy
aliens. Due in part to the attack on the west coast by the Japanese
submarines, the government moved all Japanese-Americans to the
interior where they were placed in rough camps for the duration
of the war. Many German and Italian Nationals were also interred
but with much less fanfare than the Japanese-Americans.
To counter the propaganda effect of the Japanese submarine attacks,
General Jimmy Doolittle was placed in charge of a plan to fly
B-25 bombers off the aircraft carrier Hornet from which to bomb
Tokyo, Japan. This attack took place on April 23, 1942. The attack
was a success and a great boost to American morale. Many of the
American planes landed in China where the citizens helped some
of the American pilots escape. In retribution for their aid to
the American airmen, the Japanese murdered 250,000 innocent Chinese
men, women and children.
What happened to the I-17 after the attack on Ellwood? She spent
the next month preying on coastal shipping between Cape Mendocino
and San Francisco. She then cruised back to her home base at
Yokosuka, arriving there at the end of March 1942. Later the
I-17 went on a tour of the Aleutian Islands, after which Captain
Nishino left her to accept another post. On the I-17's next tour
to the
Solomon Islands she was destroyed off Noumea, New Caledonia on
August 19, 1943. Six crewmen were rescued. From them Naval Intelligence
was able to piece together the details of the Ellwood attack.
The Samurai sword carried by one of the pilots in the aircraft
that flew from the submarine in Oregon to start forest fires
was donated by the pilot at a historic reconciliation ceremony
in Oregon and is on display at the North Lincoln County Historical
Museum, Lincoln City, Oregon.
References: This famous attack account
is excerpted from The Military History of California by Justin
M. Ruhge and is also based on research from the following sources:
50th Anniversary of the Shelling of
the Ellwood Oil Fields by Justin
M. Ruhge, Goleta Historical Notes, Vol. 7, No. 1, Fall
1992, pg. 10
Goleta the Good Land by Walker A. Tompkins, 1966, Chapter 29; The
Western Front by Justin M. Ruhge, 1988
Silent Siege by
Bert Webber, 1984; I-Boat Captain by Zenji Orita and Joseph
D. Harrington, 1976
Video documentary of The Japanese Attacks
Along the West Coast by Donald D. McArthur of Aberdeen, WA.
2001
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