B-24s, with their temple guns and bomb-bay doors, were well known as “sub-killers” in WW II. Could one have bagged the I-25 attack sub? (USAF photo)


WHAT IF?


THE 2ND AIR FORCE AND THE JAPANESE SUBMARINE ATTACK ON THE OREGON COAST


by Sean M. Miskimins


Te average armchair historian will tell you the last time a foreign power attacked the United States mainland during wartime was done by the Brit- ish during the long ago War of 1812. Most forget the June 21, 1942, night- time attack by the Japanese submarine I-25 on Fort Stevens along the Ore- gon coast. Tis might be due to the fact that the 17 shells the I-25 flung


inland after dark created no casualties, and this attack was an isolated one; there were no more after it and it was also not a precursor to a Japanese inva- sion of the West Coast (which was a huge fear just six months after Pearl Harbor). An analysis of this attack, however, brings up some interesting questions: What if it had taken place a few hours earlier, during daylight?


Would the AAF’s 2nd Air Force have had time to respond, and if so, what would the results have been? Te I-25, which was commanded


by Lt. Cmdr. Meiji Tagami, carried a crew of 108 men and by June of 1942 was well experienced at sneaking into Allied harbors and waterways. It had been at the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii in December of 1941. On June 21, 1942, it had followed Canadian and U.S. fishing boats that worked daily in the waters of the North Pacific off of Oregon and Washington back toward the shore in order to avoid mined areas of the ocean. Once off the coast of Astoria, Oregon, the I-25 was able to spot the mouth of the mas- sive Columbia River flowing into the ocean. Tis gave them a good land- mark, and they knew that there was an U.S. fort nearby (Fort Stevens). [Note: Japanese veterans of this mission con- fessed decades after the war that they


AFSA • SPRING 2017 23


OUR HERITAGE OUR HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE


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