History Link: Under Attack

From our sister publication History Link comes this account of things they never told us in school - WW II attacks in the Pacific Northwest.

History Link

Immediately following America's entry into World War II in December 1941, Washingtonians anxiously watched the skies and coastal waters in case Japanese bombers and submarines mounted an attack. These fears were not unfounded -- the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton was a prime target, as was the Boeing plant in Seattle. Submarine nets were put in place to protect Bremerton, and the roof of Boeing's manufacturing facility was camouflaged to look like a residential area. 

But guarding the coast was a bigger task, and most naval vessels were fighting far away in the Pacific. During the first week of June 1942, the merchant vessel SS Coast Trader was torpedoed near Cape Flattery, but all aboard were rescued. Two weeks later, on June 20, the Japanese military sank the freighter Fort Camosun -- again near Cape Flattery and again with no loss of life. The next day, a Japanese submarine shelled Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River, making it the only military installation in the continental United States to be attacked during the war.

By this time, the Puget Sound home front was on edge. Anti-aircraft guns were placed around Seattle and barrage balloons flew high, occasionally causing problems of their own. The only other major attacks on Northwest soil occurred late in the war in 1945, when incendiary balloons launched from Japan began landing throughout the Northwest. One such device killed Elsie Mitchell, formerly of Port Angeles, and five children from Oregon during a church outing to Gearhart Mountain in the south central portion of that state.