1. Nobuo Fujita 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.
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, Nobuo Fujita was made an honorary citizen of the city.
Nobuo Fujita joined the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1932 and became a pilot in 1933.
Nobuo Fujita had a younger brother who was killed in the war.
On 17 February 1942, Nobuo Fujita took off in the "Glen" for a reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour to examine the city's airbase.
Nobuo Fujita took off from Cape Wickham on King Island at the western end of Bass Strait, about halfway between Victoria and Tasmania.
Nobuo Fujita himself suggested the idea of a submarine-based seaplane to bomb military targets, including ships at sea, and attacks on the US mainland, especially the strategic Panama Canal.
Nobuo Fujita dropped two bombs, one on Wheeler Ridge on Mount Emily in Oregon.
Nobuo Fujita's plane had been spotted by two men, Howard Gardner and Bob Larson, at the Mount Emily fire lookout tower in the Siskiyou National Forest.
The plane was seen and heard by many people, especially when Nobuo Fujita flew over Brookings in both directions.
Nobuo Fujita continued as an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot, mainly in reconnaissance duties, and was promoted to the rank of Ensign.
In February 1945 while flying a Mitsubishi F1M reconnaissance floatplane Nobuo Fujita was involved in the interception and unconfirmed downing of an American Grumman F6F Hellcat.
Just before the end of the war Nobuo Fujita volunteered to join the Kamikaze Special Attack Force and he was transferred to the Kawa Naval Air Corps where he trained kamikaze pilots and prepared to take part in an attack himself.
Kawanishi N1K Kyofu floatplanes were used for the training but because of multiple factors including poor visibility and the difficulty for crew members with little flight experience to take off and land on water Nobuo Fujita did not perform any missions before the war's end.
Nobuo Fujita was invited to Brookings in 1962 by the local Jaycees, after the Japanese government was assured he would not be tried as a war criminal.
Nobuo Fujita gave the City of Brookings his family's 400-year-old katana in friendship.
Nobuo Fujita had intended to use the sword to commit seppuku if he should be arrested as a war crimes suspect.
Nobuo Fujita was later named an "ambassador of goodwill" by the city for his continued peace efforts.
Nobuo Fujita was made an honorary citizen of Brookings while hospitalized for lung cancer in Tsuchiura; he died a few days later on September 30,1997, at the age of 85.