WWII Japanese submarine harries coastline, shells Ellwood Dec 19, 2020

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At sunset on Feb. 23, 1942, commander Kozo Nishino of the Imperial Japanese Navy and his I-17 submarine began bombardment of the Ellwood Oil Fields just 12 miles west of Santa Barbara. Though few of the shells hit their targets and little damage was done, the Japanese had instilled fear in the American public. This Japanese postcard commemorates the attack. 

• GoletaHistory.com.

The Japanese “Bombardment of Ellwood” submarine attack during WWII targeted the oil terminals, piers, and tanks located where the Sandpiper Golf Club is today. It caused little physical damage – repairs took less than a week and cost around $500.

• Santa Barbara Historical Society

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Just days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, nine Imperial Japanese Navy submarines were already plying West Coast shipping lanes hunting U.S. merchant ships. Spread between Los Angeles, Santa Francisco, the Columbia River, and Seattle, each I-type submarine was over 355-feet long, carried 18 torpedoes and held 94 to 100 men.

Submarine I-17, helmed by Commander Kozo Nishino, was lurking 15 miles off Point Mendocino. Predawn on Dec. 18, he fired on 1,997-ton American lumber steamer Samoa en route to San Diego. Five shells from the 5.5-inch deck gun did no damage, so Nishino ordered a torpedo fired, which miraculously missed Samoa’s hull and exploded a short distance away. In the darkness and smoke, Nishino assumed the ship was sunk, but it safely made it to San Diego.

Two days later I-17 took on empty oil tanker Emidio, whose captain ordered an SOS and sent crew to the lifeboats. Three men were lost when a shell exploded near their lifeboat. Two U.S. bombers responded to the SOS and dropped depth charges, but I-17 fired a torpedo that exploded in the engine room, killing two U.S. seamen. (A survivor reported that he saw the torpedo come through the ship’s bulkhead and it passed so close to him that he could have touched it.)

Astonishingly, Emidio did not sink and several days later ran aground 85 miles to the north, near Crescent City. The survivors rowed for 16 hours through a rainstorm before being picked up by the Coast Guard near Humboldt Bay.

Submarine I-17 takes on local significance two months later, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his first Fireside Chat since Pearl Harbor. The live broadcast started at 10 p.m. in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Feb. 23, 1942.

At the Ellwood Oil Fields, 12 miles west of Santa Barbara, the sun was setting when I-17 surfaced 7:17 p.m. and began shelling towards oil tanks and refinery.

Given the dark and surging of the waves, many shells missed their targets. Of the 16 to 25 rounds fired, three struck near the refinery, one hit an oil well’s catwalk, another punched a hole in the pier and exploded in a pump house. None caused significant damage. A shell landed at three miles away at Staniff ranch without exploding, but dug a five-foot deep crater. The barrage continued for over 20 minutes and was observed by residents as far away as San Marcos Pass. No one was hurt.

Nishino reported a much different story, saying it left Santa Barbara in flames, but the attack had served its purpose: to instill fear in the American public. The “Bombardment of Ellwood” resulted in mandatory coastal blackouts from Goleta to south of Carpinteria, and Los Angeles was placed on high alert.

Meanwhile, I-17 made its way to Alaskan waters, the first of three deployments there. Later, it took part in battles, resupply, and evacuation operations at Guadalcanal. It prowled the South Pacific until August 1943 when it was sunk by Scouting Squadron VS-57, “Kingfisher,” off New Caledonia.