Rogue River

Last night was cozy next to the river in Myrtlegrove.

Today I am in Brookings and plan to stay here for the rest of the weekend, recovering and preparing.

Brookings is a lily valley -- 90% of the world's Easter lilies are grown here.
It is also the place of the first ever aerial bombing of the American mainland.

Only two bombs have ever been dropped on this continent.

On September 9, 1942 a Japanese submarine, the I-25, surfaced and crews assembled and launched a small sea plane. The pilot bombed the forest of Mt. Emily but caused no real or lasting damage. The other dropped September 29 never detonated. Both attacks were carried out by a Japanese pilot named Nobuo Fujita. The submarine returned safely to Japan.

Twenty years later in 1962, Mr. Fujita returned to Brookings to attend the Azalea Festival and presented the city of Brookings a 400 year old Samurai sword he inherited and carried with him on his bombing missions. In 1992, fifty years after the attack, Mr Fujita returned again and planted a redwood seedling in the bomb crater as a token of everlasting peace. He died in 1997 and his daughter, Yoriko Asakura brought some of his ashes and buried them at the foot of this tree.

I am going to look at the tree right now.