Submarine I-25

IJN I-25 was a Type B1 (I-15 class) submarine built by Mitsubishi at Kobe and commissioned on October 15, 1941. She was designed to carry a single Yokosuka E14Y floatplane (Allied code name "Glen") for long-range reconnaissance.

I-25 holds the unique distinction of being the platform for the only aerial bombing of the contiguous United States during World War II — or in all of American history. On August 15, 1942, under Lieutenant Commander Meiji Tagami (田上明次), I-25 departed Yokosuka for the US Pacific coast. On September 9, 1942, she surfaced off Port Orford, Oregon, and launched the E14Y flown by Warrant Flying Officer Nobuo Fujita and observer Shoji Okuda. Fujita dropped two 76-kg incendiary bombs on the Siskiyou National Forest near Brookings, Oregon. Rain-dampened timber prevented the fires from spreading. Three weeks later, on September 29, Fujita flew a second mission and dropped two more incendiary bombs on the same area, again causing minimal damage.

I-25 also shelled the Fort Stevens military post in Oregon with her deck gun on June 21-22, 1942 — the only shelling of a US military installation in the continental US since the War of 1812.

I-25 was lost with all 100 hands off the New Hebrides in late August or early September 1943. The Combined Fleet record credits a depth-charge attack by USS Patterson (DD-392) on August 25, 1943, at about 13°10′S 165°27′E; other accounts place the loss about 150 miles northeast of Espiritu Santo and name USS Ellet or other destroyers, with dates as late as September 3. Nobuo Fujita survived the war and became a goodwill ambassador, visiting Brookings in 1962 and donating his family's 400-year-old katana to the city.