On February 23, 1942, Japanese submarine I-17 shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California. Sub commander Kozo Nishino’s motivation for the attack may have been revenge. While visiting the refinery as the captain of an oil tanker prior to the war, rig workers had laughed at his humiliation when he fell into a prickly-pear cactus and had to have the spines plucked from his rear.
Station HYPO 
23 February 2022 at 12:36
Sounds like this might have been the motivation for the movie “1941”
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23 February 2022 at 18:24
I-17 fired over 20 rounds from her deck gun at the Ellwood oil field and refinery. Fortunately, her pitching and rolling deck near the surf line made for poor accuracy and damage was limited. Here’s a link to the Goleta History web page with more details and a video which includes witness interviews:
https://goletahistory.com/attack-on-ellwood/
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