American Theater

76 Years Ago today (February 23, 1942) The Japanese attacked near Santa Barbara, California in which there were no deaths or wounded, but there was minor damage to an oil refinery.

I know that most people only believe the US was attacked at Pearl Harbor during World War 2. That was not the case. The Germans and the Japanese attacked and occupied parts of United States territory:

- December 7, 1941: Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii: 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 Americans were wounded.
Resulted in the US entering World War 2 on the Allied side.

- December 8-10, 1941: Japanese Attack on the US Territory of Guam: 17 Americans were killed. 35 Americans were wounded and 406 Americans were captured.
Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of Guam which lasted from December 10, 1941 to August 10, 1944 in which thousands of Guamanian -American civilians endured war atrocities such as forced marches, internment, forced labor and beatings. 1,170 Guamanian -American civilians and 1,880 American servicemen were killed.

- December 8-23, 1941: Japanese Attack on the US Territory of Wake Island: 320 American soldiers were killed, 333 American soldiers were wounded and 70 American civilians were killed.
Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of Wake Island which lasted from December 23, 1941 to September 4, 1945 in which 1,104 American civilians were interned, of whom 180 died in captivity.

- December 8, 1941 to May 8, 1942: Japanese Attack on the US Territory of the Philippines: 25,000 American and Filipino soldiers were killed, 21,000 American and Filipino soldiers were wounded and 100,000 American and Filipino soldiers were captured and forced on death marches.
- Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines which lasted from May 8, 1942 – September 2, 1945 in which 1 million Filipino civilians were killed. Hundreds of both Filipino and American women were forced to become "Comfort Women" - sex slaves - for the Japanese. Thousands upon thousands of American men, women and children were interned in internment camps by the Japanese where 36,550 American civilians were starved and beaten. 10,380 American civilians were killed.

- December 11, 1941 to May 1945: German Attacks on US Shipping in the Atlantic Ocean to/from Europe
- Resulted in 72,200 Allied naval and merchant seamen dead (American dead not separated from all Allied dead and includes data from September 1, 1939.)

- March 3, 1942 German Attack on the American island of Mona, forty miles west of Puerto Rico
- Resulted in no damage or American casualties.

- February 23, 1942: Japanese Attack near Santa Barbara, California in which there were no deaths or wounded. Minor damage to an oil refinery.
- Resulted in the internment of between 110,000 and 120,000 Japanese citizens and Japanese-American citizens. Also resulted in numerous air raid and invasion scares throughout the Los Angeles, California area (the “Battle of Los Angeles.”)

- June 21, 1942 Japanese Attack on Fort Stevens, Oregon: Minor damage and no American deaths or wounded.
- Resulted in numerous air raid and invasion scares from Washington State to Mexico.

- 1942 to 1945 German attacks on US Shipping off the coast of North Carolina
- Resulted in the deaths of 5,000 American civilians and merchant seamen.

- June 3, 1942 Japanese Attack on Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska in which 79 American soldiers were killed and 3 American soldiers captured.
- Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of the Aleutian Islands of the US Territory of Alaska which lasted from June 3, 1942 to August 15, 1943. 1 American civilian was killed, 46 American civilians were captured and sent to internment camps in Japanese-occupied parts of the Pacific. 1,481 American soldiers were killed, 3,416 American soldiers were wounded to retake the islands.

- September 9-29, 1942 Japanese Air Raid Attacks on Oregon
- Resulted in no damage and no American deaths or wounded.

- 1941 to 1942 Japanese Attacks on US Shipping Several ships were torpedoed within sight of West Coast Californian cities such as Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Santa Monica.

- November 3, 1944 to May 5, 1945 Japanese Fire Balloon Attacks Canada and the United States

- Resulted in 350 of the balloon bombs making it across the Pacific, several were intercepted or shot down by the U.S. military. From 1944 to 1945, balloon bombs were spotted in more than 15 states—some as far east as Michigan and Iowa.

- May 5, 1945 Japanese Fire Balloon Attack on Bly, Oregon

-

Resulted in a pregnant woman (Elsie Winters Mitchell) and her five children killed.