Japanese Bombed Here
Brookings, Oregon
The exact spot where a Oregon was bombed in World War II lies deep in a National Forest. On September 9. 1942, less than a year after the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, a lone Japanese floatplane slipped in over the coastal U.S. mainland and delivered a 170-lb. thermite bomb in to the forested mountains.
The bomb exploded, leaving a small crater and circle of charred trees. Unusually wet weather conditions prevented the fire from spreading. The site was eventually overgrown and forgotten, then rediscovered in 1972.
Today, the site features interpretive signs, along with trees planted as an apology by the Japanese Imperial Navy pilot, Nobuo Fujita, who visited decades later.
Your GPS might tell you the site is not far from downtown Brookings, but that's misleading. To get to the remote location, visitors need a vehicle with reasonably high clearance, and patience to navigate 12 miles of scenic serpentine National Forest roads -- unpaved and marked as the Japanese Bombing Site Trail.