I’m already on your website. (In the History Department group photo I’m the guy in the sport jacket standing in the front row on the right side.) But I wanted to have a little space of my own. Thus, here is a photo of me standing near the precise spot in a modern apartment complex where a shell casing fired by a Japanese submarine landed (in what was then a farmer's field) in February 1942 during the Second World War.
The submarine was trying to hit the oil storage tanks in the old Goleta (or "Ellwood") Oil fields. Although only a pumphouse and catwalk at one oil well near the shoreline (about a half a mile away from the spot that I’m pointing to) were damaged, Japanese Captain Nishino Kozo radioed back to Tokyo that he had left the nearby city of Santa Barbara in flames! But no casualties were reported and the total cost of the damage was officially estimated at under $1,000. However, news of the shelling triggered a tremendous invasion scare along the entire West Coast.
When you and your parents visit California, I will show you the Ellwood Cliffs (now devoid of storage tanks and oil drilling rigs) and point out to you the spot in the ocean where the submarine surfaced. Today the cliffs and the beach which they overlook are quite beautiful and are protected by many well-organized environmental groups.
Everyday people walk their dogs on the trails leading from residential areas to the cliffs. Unleashed dogs often run up to me because they instinctively know just by looking at me that I am a "dog lover." Indeed, in all my trips to the cliffs, I have never once encountered an unfriendly dog. When I arrive at the ocean I always think of you. I hope our paths cross soon in the future. I will be so happy to to see you.
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