Qualla: The Night Japan Shelled Oregon

The Night Japan Shelled Oregon: Introduction

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Seventeen shells. That was all it took to make Fort Stevens the answer to a trivia question most Americans never think to ask: Was the continental United States ever attacked during World War II? On the night of June 21, 1942, the Imperial Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced at the mouth of the Columbia River, trained its deck gun on Battery Russell, and opened fire. The shells struck a baseball diamond, a swamp, and some telephone cables. Nobody was hurt. The fort's commander refused to shoot back. And for the rest of the war, the Oregon coast lived in fear of what might come next.

The Night Japan Shelled Oregon: A Submarine at the River's Mouth

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Commander Akiji Tagami had orders to sink Allied shipping and harass the American mainland. His submarine, the I-25, carried a crew of 94 and a Yokosuka E14Y floatplane - a tiny reconnaissance aircraft stowed in a watertight hangar on deck. On June 21, the I-25 slipped into U.S. ...

The Night Japan Shelled Oregon: The Colonel Who Held His Fire

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When shells began falling, Colonel Carl S. Doney made two decisions that likely saved lives - including Japanese ones. He ordered an immediate blackout, plunging the fort into darkness. Then he refused to let his gunners return fire. The reasoning was tactical rather than timid: ...

The Night Japan Shelled Oregon: The Bomber That Missed

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The I-25 did not escape unnoticed. Army Air Forces planes on a training mission spotted the submarine and radioed its position. An A-29 Hudson bomber scrambled to the scene, found its target, and dropped its payload. But Tagami was already diving. The bombs fell into empty ocean ...

The Night Japan Shelled Oregon: Barbed Wire on the Beach

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The physical damage was negligible, but the psychological impact reshaped the Oregon coast. Combined with Japan's simultaneous Aleutian Islands Campaign, the Fort Stevens shelling fed a genuine invasion scare along the entire West Coast. Military authorities strung rolls of barbe...

The Night Japan Shelled Oregon: What Remains

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Fort Stevens is a state park now. Battery Russell's concrete emplacements still stand, weathered by Pacific storms and softened by coastal vegetation. Interpretive signs mark where the shells fell. The Peter Iredale's iron skeleton still rises from the sand at the river's mouth, ...