If you saw Steven Spielberg’s 1979 WWII comedy 1941, you might be surprised to learn that it’s actually based on a true story. The people of Los Angeles really did panic thinking a Japanese attack on their city was imminent early in 1942.
In February 1942, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was still fresh in people’s minds, and major American cities on the Pacific Coast were worried they would be next. Making tensions even higher, just one day before the Los Angeles panic, a Japanese submarine attacked the Ellwood Oil Field near Santa Barbara, about a two-hour drive north of LA.
All it took to kick off a panic was a weather balloon. On February 24, 1942, US Naval Intelligence warned West Coast units that the Japanese might descend on Los Angeles within the next 10 hours. At 1 am on February 25, meteorological balloons were launched 120 miles west of Los Angeles to monitor the weather. An hour later, the balloons showed up on military radar.
Mistaking the balloons for enemy aircraft, radar operators sounded the air raid alarm, and by 3 am, anti-aircraft gunners in Santa Monica started shooting. Over 1,400 rounds were fired in the confusion, but there were no enemy aircraft in the area, and Japan confirmed after WWII that it hadn’t attacked the city.
But the “Battle of Los Angeles” wasn’t a harmless misunderstanding. Three people lost their lives in car collisions related to the false alarm, and two more perished from cardiac arrest. The FBI and LA County Sheriff also arrested several Japanese gardeners who were falsely accused of signaling to Japanese planes.
