In 1942, at the height of the U.S. involvement in WWII, Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita embarked on a mission to bomb a section of Oregon, just east of the small town of Brooking, in order to set a large forest ablaze. His equipment malfunctioned and he only managed to drop two small bombs, neither of which did much damage. But foresters found metal fragments of the bomb that identified them as Japanese, and the news rattled the town of Brookings for a short time. After the war, Fujita returned home and resumed his quiet life as the owner of a hardware store. Fast forward to 1962, when the Brookings Jaycees decided to track down the pilot who’d dropped the bomb and invite him to Brookings for their annual Memorial Day celebration, despite some people’s objections. Fujita, who had been consumed by guilt in the ensuing years, accepted. This remarkable story of forgiveness (on both sides) and redemption is quietly told in an understated tone, and beautifully illustrated with detailed watercolor paintings. (Ages 8–11)

An Orbis Pictus Honor Book for Outstanding Nonfiction 2019

In this important and moving true story of reconciliation after war, beautifully illustrated in watercolor, a Japanese pilot bombs the continental U.S. during WWII--the only enemy ever to do so--and comes back 20 years later to apologize.

The devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, drew the United States into World War II in 1941. But few are aware that several months later, the Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita dropped bombs in the woods outside a small town in coastal Oregon. This is the story of those bombings, and what came after, when Fujita returned to Oregon twenty years later, this time to apologize.
This remarkable true story, beautifully illustrated in watercolor, is an important and moving account of reconciliation after war.