THE LARGELY FORGOTTEN BOMBARDMENT OF ELLWOOD: On this day in 1942, less than three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese submarine bombarded an oil field near Santa Barbara. Panic ensued.

It’s not surprising that Californians were on edge. In the weeks following Pearl Harbor, a number of Japanese submarines had been patrolling the American West Coast. They had sunk two merchant ships and damaged several more. Although the submarines had left the area, everyone knew they could come back.

In February at least one of them did. The 365-foot long I-17 submarine with a crew of 101 was commanded by Commander Kozo Nishino. Under orders from his superiors, Nishino had his men fire repeatedly. Mercifully, little damage was done. A derrick and pump house were destroyed, but it could have been much worse.

Santa Barbarans had no way of knowing what would come next. Fearing the attack was a prelude to an invasion, hundreds fled.

Some reported that they had seen individuals signaling the submarine (or several submarines) from the shore. This apparently false information caused pressure for the internment of Japanese Americans to mount. But such is war—false information is the norm, not the exception.

The panic didn’t end there. On the next night came the so-called Battle of Los Angeles—an epic false alarm in which a weather balloon was possibly mistaken for an air attack.