Around 7 in the evening on Feb. 23, 1942, while most Southern Californians were listening to President Roosevelt's fireside chat on the radio, strange explosions were heard near Goleta.
In the first (and only) attack on U.S. soil since the War of 1812, a Japanese submarine surfaced off the rich oil field on Ellwood Beach, 12 miles west of Santa Barbara, and lobbed 16 shells into the tidewater field.
"Their marksmanship was poor," said Lawrence Wheeler, proprietor of a roadside inn near the oil fields. Most observers agreed with Wheeler, who added there was no panic among his dinner patrons. "We immediately blacked out the place," he said. "One shell landed about a quarter-mile from here and the concussion shook the building, but nobody was scared much."
The unmolested, unhurried Japanese gunners were presumably aiming at the oil installations and the coast highway bridge over the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. Tokyo claimed the raid "a great military success," though the incredibly bad marksmen managed to inflict only $500 worth of damage. The submarine disappeared into the night, leaving behind air raid sirens, a jumpy population and lower real estate values.
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