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McKFC OP t1_j78jsks wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,724,675)

Per the 1949 report, "once the firing started, imagination created all kinds of targets in the sky and everyone joined in"

The event was the inspiration for Spielberg's third big film, 1941, an uneven but unjustly maligned war satire written by a pre-Back to the Future Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis.

Edit: the scene in question

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TooMuchPretzels t1_j78kkr5 wrote

Spielbergs documentary about this, “1941,” is pretty informative if you want to learn more.

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DaveOJ12 t1_j78kma1 wrote

It wasn't a UFO? There was an urban legend about that.

It reminds me of Roswell.

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cheesefondue t1_j78mjhd wrote

San Pedro re-enacts this battle (they did before the pandemic, not sure now) with 1940s style dancers, dressers (not the bedroom bureau kind), and musicians. It’s a big bash, then all hell breaks loose when the battle starts

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HPmoni t1_j79lf16 wrote

According to the government...

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BrokenEye3 t1_j79nuga wrote

You mean there was actually something up there?

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beachedwhale1945 t1_j79qtih wrote

An important element behind the Battle of Los Angeles was the submarine I-17. The night before the Battle this Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery just up the coast, causing little damage but stirring invasion fears. It is critical background for why some anti-aircraft gunners were unusually jumpy the next night.

I-17 had previously been part of an armada of Japanese submarines stationed around Pearl Harbor and then ordered to the West Coast, where she sank the tanker Emidio, the first ship sunk in that operation. She later served on several cargo runs to Guadalcanal, using her pressurized aircraft hangar to transport some of the cargo. She rescued 151 Japanese soldiers and sailors who survived the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, and during the rescue was unsuccessfully attacked by two US PT-boats. She later sank the freighter Stanvac Manila and two of the PT-boats carried aboard as cargo: four other PT-boats floated off the sinking ship and survived. In August 1943 she was ordered to scout US bases in the South Pacific, and after a successful reconnaissance flight by her floatplane on 10 August, she was sunk on 19 August by a New Zealand minesweeper and a group of US floatplanes. HMNZS Tui rescued six survivors, with the remaining 97 crewmen going to the bottom.

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handbanana9023 t1_j79upng wrote

Fake news! It was UFOs and we all know it. Wake up sheeple!

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blackmagikmike t1_j7aj1pw wrote

So it's not just a Rage Against The Machine album? 🤔

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SirCarboy t1_j7an0f8 wrote

Wait til you find out us Aussies had a war with Emus!

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McKFC OP t1_j7anuqf wrote

Replying to beachedwhale1945 (#1,726,755)

There was a funny (and a bit racist) mythology built up around Ellwood. Not remotely true, but it gained popularity as explanation for the lack of damage, when there was opportunity to seriously disable critical war infrastructure.

The story goes that, before the war, a man named Kozo Nishino had served on an oil tanker that docked near the refinery. He was invited for a courtesy tour. While strolling around the facilities with the other dignitaries, he noticed a patch of cactuses behind a fence - a type of fauna that was novel to him - so he decided he'd climb the fence to clip a piece to take back home. Well, unfortunately, he slipped on the fence, right onto a large cactus. His yelp drew bellowing laughs from his American hosts, and the embarrassment was a source of great shame to him for many years.

Cut to the war, and Nishino is now commander of a submarine, the I-17. As fate would have it, he was once again docked near that oil field. The instructions came in to pick a target for what would be the first attack on the continental United States. Commander Nishino knew what he had to do. He ordered his submarine to Ellwood, weapons armed, and instructed his men, "Aim at that cactus!"

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NaweN t1_j7ehhar wrote

Hmmm. What an interesting time to post this

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