# Japan's WWII targets in US **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2007, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473 "2007-07-20T01:04:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/21 "2007-07-21T02:04:57Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] IIRC, one of the primary targets for Japan as the Panama Canal. [/QUOTE] Well, [Bogie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034428/) fixed that, didn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/22 "2007-07-21T02:55:22Z")
Japan invaded part of the USA in WWII. The Aleutian Islands were obviously a target, because we had to fight them there to expel them from Alaska. It wasn’t a state at the time, but we still had a claim on Alaska. > **[Aleutian Islands campaign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Aleutian_Islands)** > > 1,481 killed225 aircraft destroyed640 missing3,416 wounded8 captured3 warships sunkUS Navy vessels heavily damaged: > US Navy vessels lost: > 4,350 killed28 captured7 warships sunk9 cargo/transport ships sunkImperial Japanese Navy vessels lost: ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/23 "2007-07-21T03:02:36Z")
Japan did send biological weapons to China with I believe fleas as a vector. Wiki excerpt: According to [GlobalSecurity.org](http://GlobalSecurity.org), the experiments carried out by Unit 731 alone caused 3,000 deaths.[12] Furthermore, “tens of thousands, and perhaps as many 200,000, Chinese died of bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax and other diseases…”, resulting from the use of biological warfare. The article goes on to tell about the Live vivisections and other experiments the Japanese did. [Japanese war crimes - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes#Experiments_on_humans_and_biological_warfare) ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/24 "2007-07-21T04:34:32Z")
[QUOTE=figure9] An I-boat took a few shots at the west coast with its deck gun. But that doesn’t really count as a bombing raid. [/QUOTE] That incident happened just up the coast in Goleta. According to [http://www.school-for-champions.com/history/sbattack.htm](http://www.school-for-champions.com/history/sbattack.htm) > [@](#): > > The events leading to the attack actually started out in the late 1930s when a Japanese ship docked in the small city of Santa Barbara, California, 60 miles up the coast from Los Angeles. It is uncertain if the ship stopped in Santa Barbara to get crude oil that had been drilled from one of the off-shore wells on either side of the city or to load or unload cargo. > > While in port, the captain of the ship was given a tour of the sights in Santa Barbara. As the captain was admiring some scenery on a hillside, he backed up and lost his footing. He fell backwards into a bed of cactus! > > His guests burst into laughter at his misfortune. The captain did not understand the American sense of humor and felt that he was being ridiculed by these people. He had lost face because of his accident, and he vowed to get revenge on Americans and on Santa Barbara. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/25 "2007-07-21T05:25:44Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Again, from memory they were developing special subs with aircraft on board and heavy hitting bombs (or maybe torpedoes) to disable the locks. [/QUOTE] Your memory serves you well, you’re thinking of the [I-400](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400_class_submarine) class. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/26 "2007-07-21T13:42:05Z")
Back (slightly) to the OP. I call shenanigans, despite someone making it sound good or plausible enough to get published. UL fodder, says I! Go just about anywhere in the country that’s not _really_[sup]\*[/sup] all that important, and you’ll be within spitting distance of an industry, base, geographic feature, or somethingorother that is “number X on Y’s list of targets.” Living in New London, CT was the first time I ever paid attention to the claim. Recessed backwater with a sub-building plant and a Navy sub school. Oh, _of course_ the Russians put it number one on their nuclear list. Then out near Moline, IL. I forget what industry was there, but _of course_ the Ruskies had it at the top of their list. On and on. Get to know a place and the perverse pride of how high they (or somewhere close) are on someone’s nuclear list will come out… just give it time. Oh, I’m not doubting that some generals somewhere and some staff members somewhere and some Politburo somewhere did have something of a list – especially when resources are scarce. But whether or not some hick in BF Montana ever actually _got_ that list, or whether or not when staging an all-out nuclear first-strike such a list has any intrinsic meaning, just doesn’t reach credulity. Of course, if there _is_ a cite out there somewhere, an SDMB-worthy cite, I’ll get a bit less cantankerous. [sup]\*As in NYC, DC, Chicago, etc.[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/27 "2007-07-21T15:59:25Z")
[QUOTE=Rhythmdvl] Go just about anywhere in the country that’s not _really_ all that important, and you’ll be within spitting distance of an industry, base, geographic feature, or somethingorother that is “number X on Y’s list of targets.” [/QUOTE] And indeed, we see in this thread how such claims grow in the telling. The Wikipedia cite in post#7 is almost certainly the basis for the OP friend’s claim in post#1, but it has nothing to do with the Japanese. Springfield Vermont was seventh on an _American_ ranking of targets. There is no evidence that the Japanese ever had such a list. Their desperate attempts to “bomb” the United States, involving float planes and balloons, fell several orders of magnitude short of targeting factories in Vermont. The Japanese leaders were vile and self-delusional people, but not so self-delusional as to waste time drawing up lists of fantasy targets. With respect to the American ranking, I suspect, although I cannot prove, that it was concerned more with sabotage than with aerial bombing. The Germans did land [saboteurs](http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq114-2.htm) on the east coast to try to disrupt American industry, and might have landed more if they had had any success. It’s plausible that the War Department would have felt the need to rank targets in order of importance, and that the machine tool industry in Springfield would have been seventh on such a list. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/28 "2007-07-21T17:21:40Z")
Some fascinating stuff related to this topic: [The “Disguise” of California](http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/flying/the_disguise_of_california.htm) _The Lockheed-Vega aircraft plant in Burbank was fully hidden beneath a complete suburb replete with rubber automobiles and peaceful rural neighborhood scenes painted on canvas. Hundreds of fake trees and shrubs were positioned to give the entire area a 3-dimensional appearance._ ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/29 "2007-07-21T19:01:19Z")
The San Francisco Bay Area had some great targets for the Japanese. 1. The Benecia refinery 2. The US Navy shipyard storage and maintenance. (Vallejo) 3. The Standard Oil Refinery in Richmond (Now Chevron Research where I think **Mangetout** works.) 4. The Kaiser shipyards in Richmond 5. The Alameda Naval Air Station in Alameda 6. The ports in SF, where many Navy ships did and still do stop to replenish 7. Me. I was raised there during the war ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/30 "2007-07-21T20:01:57Z")
[QUOTE=Jake] The San Francisco Bay Area had some great targets for the Japanese. \ [/QUOTE] In addition, there was [Marinship](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinship) in Sausalito, [Mare Island Naval Shipyard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_Island_Naval_Shipyard) adjacent to Vallejo, and [Moffett Field](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffett_Field) in the South Bay. _[nitpick]_ [QUOTE=Jake] 3. The Standard Oil Refinery in Richmond (Now Chevron Research where I think **Mangetout** works.) [/QUOTE] Dang, that’s a heck of a commute from the [south coast of England](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7633641&postcount=68) ;). You’re probably thinking of [mangeorge](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8781326&postcount=29). _[/nitpick]_ ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/31 "2007-07-21T20:07:42Z")
[QUOTE=mlees] These lists of bombing attacks may also have some basis in FBI lists of what the FBI felt were important sites that might be victims of sabotage, secret agent style. Not just direct military attack. In ww1, some German sympathiser placed home made explosives in some cargo ships that docked in New York, IIRC. [/QUOTE] [Black Tom Explosion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tom) ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473/32 "2007-07-21T20:08:50Z")
[QUOTE=Malodorous] #1: Perl Harbor 🙂 [/QUOTE] Java, Indonesia Fortransylvania The Bering C Pascalifornia FlorADA [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japans-wwii-targets-in-us/412473.md?page=1)