1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,000 Speaker 1: Okay, picture this. It is the dead of night, February 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:06,440 twenty fifth, nineteen forty two. You're in Los Angeles, the 3 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:09,560 biggest city on the West Coast, and it is completely 4 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:14,039 utterly dark, silent. There's a mandatory blackout in effect because 5 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:16,640 you know there's a war on, but it still feels 6 00:00:16,679 --> 00:00:17,839 a million miles. 7 00:00:17,519 --> 00:00:21,239 Speaker 2: Away until it's not. Suddenly, the whole sky just rips open. 8 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:24,879 You hear this deep, guttural roar of hundreds of anti 9 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:26,960 aircraft guns, all firing at once. 10 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:27,679 Speaker 1: Wow. 11 00:00:27,879 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 2: And then you see it, these brilliant streaks of light, gold, red, 12 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:35,159 white tracers, all screaming into the black sky, all converging on, 13 00:00:35,759 --> 00:00:38,280 well on something you can't see. For almost an hour, 14 00:00:38,359 --> 00:00:39,359 the entire city just. 15 00:00:39,359 --> 00:00:42,560 Speaker 1: Shakes, and then the shrapnel starts falling. It's hitting roofs, 16 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,880 smashing into cars, cratering streets. By the time it's all over, 17 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:47,840 the sun comes up and the city takes stock. They 18 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,920 fired nearly one thousand, four hundred and forty anti aircraft rounds. 19 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,039 Speaker 2: A staggering amount of ordinance, and five civilians are dead. 20 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:58,039 Speaker 1: But here's the part that makes this story so unbelievable, 21 00:00:58,479 --> 00:01:00,960 the part that ensures we're still to talking about it today. 22 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:04,079 None of those people were killed by an enemy bomb. 23 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,560 They were killed by the blackout, by heart attacks, from 24 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:11,040 the sheer terror of their own cities defenses, and. 25 00:01:11,079 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 2: The military's final count of enemy planes shot down zero. 26 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:18,680 In fact, they could never even confirm a single enemy 27 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,079 plane was ever there. It was a battle against a phantom, 28 00:01:21,719 --> 00:01:25,239 and that fact alone basically guaranteed it would become a legend. 29 00:01:25,359 --> 00:01:28,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to thrilling threads. Today we are digging into what 30 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:31,480 has to be the most chaotic, most expensive, and yet 31 00:01:31,719 --> 00:01:35,000 entirely non combat battle in US history on the mainland 32 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,959 during World War II, the infamous Battle of Los Angeles. 33 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:42,159 We've got the official military histories, the wild press accounts, 34 00:01:42,159 --> 00:01:43,640 the skeptical analyzes, and. 35 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:45,599 Speaker 2: Our mission is to peel back all those layers of 36 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:49,920 panic and frankly conflicting government reports. So what really happened 37 00:01:49,959 --> 00:01:53,280 that night? Was it a bungled Japanese spy mission, was. 38 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,319 Speaker 1: It a secret alien visit that the government immediately covered up? 39 00:01:56,519 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 2: Or was it just the biggest, most spectacular case of 40 00:01:58,799 --> 00:02:00,000 war nerves and American hits. 41 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:03,560 Speaker 1: The sources we have give us this incredible, minute by 42 00:02:03,599 --> 00:02:06,920 minute look at how it all unfolded. It's a perfect 43 00:02:06,959 --> 00:02:10,360 case study in how fear, combined with brand new, unreliable 44 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,599 technology and immense political pressure can create an official battle 45 00:02:14,719 --> 00:02:15,400 out of thin air. 46 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:19,080 Speaker 2: And you see how that institutional need to save face 47 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,280 creates this vacuum of truth, and that is exactly where 48 00:02:22,319 --> 00:02:25,560 conspiracy theories are born and thrive for decades. 49 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:27,840 Speaker 1: To really get a handle on the Battle of Los Angeles, 50 00:02:27,879 --> 00:02:29,800 you first have to put yourself in the mindset of 51 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,840 someone living on the West Coast in early nineteen forty two. 52 00:02:33,199 --> 00:02:35,719 It's just two and a half months after Pearl Harbor. 53 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,599 Speaker 2: And that attack didn't just sink ships. It completely shattered 54 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:42,039 America's feeling of safety. The illusion that the oceans could 55 00:02:42,039 --> 00:02:44,800 protect the country was gone overnight. 56 00:02:44,879 --> 00:02:47,479 Speaker 1: And that fear wasn't just some abstract anxiety for people 57 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,800 in California, Oregon, Washington. It was existential. The military brass 58 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,560 treated the idea of a Japanese invasion or a major 59 00:02:54,599 --> 00:02:58,000 air raid not as a possibility, but as a probability. 60 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,599 Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely, the entire was on a war footing. They 61 00:03:01,599 --> 00:03:05,639 were building air raid shelters, installing huge anti aircraft batteries 62 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:09,560 and parks and on beaches. Citizens were being drilled constantly. 63 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,479 The whole system was primed to react instantly to any threat, 64 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:15,000 real or perceived. 65 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: The level of paranoia looking back is just stunning. I mean, 66 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,280 we found sources describing how us RNY troops were moved 67 00:03:21,319 --> 00:03:24,080 into the Walt Disney studios lot in Burbank. 68 00:03:23,759 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 2: Right and they weren't there for a tour. They were 69 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:29,000 there to physically defend the studio and all the surrounding 70 00:03:29,039 --> 00:03:33,319 factories from sabotage or an air attack. It was a 71 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:35,479 complete militarization of daily life. 72 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 1: And you know, you can't just write this off as 73 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:39,960 a rational panic because there was a tangible threat just offshore. 74 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:42,919 The Imperial Japanese Navy was active up and down the 75 00:03:42,919 --> 00:03:43,520 West coast. 76 00:03:43,639 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 2: They were their submarines were attacking American merchant ships all 77 00:03:47,039 --> 00:03:49,840 through late forty one and early forty two. This wasn't 78 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,000 some distant battle, This was happening right there. 79 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:53,439 Speaker 1: What kind of damage were they doing? 80 00:03:53,759 --> 00:03:58,439 Speaker 2: They were mostly focused on disrupting supplies and spreading fear. 81 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,960 The oil tanker SS Montabello was sunk right off the 82 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:07,159 California coast. Another ship, the SSP Soroka, was torpedoed and damaged. 83 00:04:07,439 --> 00:04:10,240 So for coastal communities. This was very real. They knew 84 00:04:10,319 --> 00:04:12,960 enemy vessels were out there close to major cities. 85 00:04:13,159 --> 00:04:15,759 Speaker 1: Which brings us to this single event that really lit 86 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:19,040 the fuse, the psychological trigger that happened just two days 87 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:20,680 before the battle in la That. 88 00:04:20,639 --> 00:04:23,120 Speaker 2: Would be the shelling of the Elwood oil field just 89 00:04:23,199 --> 00:04:26,879 north of Santa Barbara. On the evening of February twenty third, 90 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,000 the Japanese submarine I seventeen surfaced maybe a few hundred 91 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,759 yards from the beach and just started shelling this oil field. 92 00:04:33,959 --> 00:04:37,199 Speaker 1: It's such a bizarre, almost theatrical moment. I mean, it 93 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:40,160 happened right in the middle of President Roosevelt's fireside chat 94 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:40,680 on the radio. 95 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:43,319 Speaker 2: It really was. And what's fascinating is how little physical 96 00:04:43,399 --> 00:04:46,600 damage it did. The historian Mark Felton calls it a 97 00:04:46,639 --> 00:04:50,160 pinprick attack. Their aim was terrible. They fired a couple 98 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,759 dozen shells, did five hundred dollars in damage. 99 00:04:52,959 --> 00:04:55,600 Speaker 1: No one was hurt five hundred dollars, so basically. 100 00:04:55,160 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 2: Nothing physically nothing, but psychologically it was nuke. Felton argues 101 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,000 that the attack was a complete success because it achieved 102 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,839 its real goal terror. It was the first time the 103 00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:10,160 continental of the United States had taken enemy fire since 104 00:05:10,199 --> 00:05:11,199 the War of eighteen twelve. 105 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:13,680 Speaker 1: It changed everything. Before that night, an attack was a 106 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:16,399 what if. After that night, it was a when exactly. 107 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 2: It validated everyone's worst fears. It just clapsed that mental 108 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,600 barrier between the home front and the war zone. That 109 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:26,399 acute widespread fear, plus the military's own desperation not to 110 00:05:26,439 --> 00:05:29,720 have another Pearl Harbor on their watch, that's the cocktail 111 00:05:29,759 --> 00:05:32,079 that led to the overreaction in Los Angeles just forty 112 00:05:32,079 --> 00:05:32,839 eight hours later. 113 00:05:32,879 --> 00:05:35,079 Speaker 1: And of all the places on the West Coast, LA 114 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:37,399 was the one they were most worried about. Why was 115 00:05:37,399 --> 00:05:40,160 the military so fixated on defending Los Angeles? 116 00:05:40,199 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 2: Because Los Angeles was the heart of the Pacific war effort. 117 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:46,160 It was the number one city in the country for 118 00:05:46,199 --> 00:05:51,560 aircraft production. You had North American Aviation Douglas Lockheed all 119 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,959 churning out planes, Plus you had the massive naval fleet 120 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:56,279 anchored down in San Peter Bay. 121 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,079 Speaker 1: So losing LA would have been catastrophic. 122 00:05:58,319 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 2: It would have crippled the war effort in the pass. 123 00:06:00,879 --> 00:06:03,240 So the pressure on the local commanders to be vigilant, 124 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,639 to shoot first and ask questions later, was just immense. 125 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:11,480 The Doctrin essentially shifted from verify that engage to engage 126 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:12,519 it will figure it out later. 127 00:06:12,639 --> 00:06:16,319 Speaker 1: And when you combine that mindset with very early, very 128 00:06:16,399 --> 00:06:21,120 unreliable radar and stressed out gun cruise, any little blip 129 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,040 on a screen, any stray light in the sky was 130 00:06:24,079 --> 00:06:26,120 going to be interpreted as a hostile bomber. 131 00:06:26,199 --> 00:06:29,399 Speaker 2: The whole system was just a tightly wound spring waiting 132 00:06:29,439 --> 00:06:31,439 for one tiny thing to set it off. 133 00:06:31,519 --> 00:06:33,399 Speaker 1: Okay, so let's walk through the timeline of that night. 134 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:36,639 The chaos really kicks off. On the evening of February 135 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:40,360 twenty fourth, Naval intelligence issues a pretty stark warning. 136 00:06:40,439 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 2: They did. They basically said they expected an attack on 137 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,360 mainline California within the next ten hours. That, of course 138 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:46,439 put everybody on high alert. 139 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:49,399 Speaker 1: An alert gets called around seven twenty teen pm because 140 00:06:49,439 --> 00:06:51,800 of what some reports of flares and lights. 141 00:06:51,879 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, classic case of war nerves, people seeing things near 142 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,279 defense plants. Yeah, but that alert was actually lifted a 143 00:06:57,279 --> 00:06:59,839 few hours later, around ten two three pm. So there's 144 00:06:59,879 --> 00:07:02,360 the brief moment where things seem to calm down. 145 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:04,480 Speaker 1: A false sense of security, a. 146 00:07:04,519 --> 00:07:08,319 Speaker 2: Very false sense, because the real action starts early the 147 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:12,720 next morning February twenty fifth, around two am, the radar systems, 148 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:16,279 and remember this primitive nineteen forties radar, they pick up 149 00:07:16,319 --> 00:07:19,240 an unidentified target. It's about one hundred and twenty miles 150 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:21,120 west of la and it's moving slowly. 151 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:22,879 Speaker 1: Toward the coast, and that's the signal. 152 00:07:23,079 --> 00:07:25,959 Speaker 2: That's the signal. The information gets relayed to the thirty 153 00:07:25,959 --> 00:07:29,720 seventh Coast Artillery Brigade, the guys manning the anti aircraft guns. 154 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:33,199 By two fifteen am they are on green alert. 155 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:35,279 Speaker 1: What does green alert actually mean? 156 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,360 Speaker 2: It means every gun crew is at their station, weapons 157 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:40,319 are loaded, and they are ready to open fire the 158 00:07:40,399 --> 00:07:43,279 second the order comes down. It's the final stage before combat. 159 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:46,199 Speaker 1: Then just a few minutes later, at two twenty one am, 160 00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:49,279 the entire county is plunged into a total blackout. 161 00:07:49,319 --> 00:07:51,920 Speaker 2: And that is such a critical detail because now you've 162 00:07:51,959 --> 00:07:54,360 taken away all the familiar lights, all the visual reference points. 163 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:56,839 You're in total darkness, which just ramps up the fear 164 00:07:56,839 --> 00:07:59,560 and crucially makes it so much easier for people to 165 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:01,360 miss in interpret what they're seeing in the sky. 166 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,759 Speaker 1: But here's the part that should have stopped everything right 167 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,600 in its tracks. The radar target it vanishes. 168 00:08:07,399 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 2: It does the official Army record state that the mysterious 169 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:14,519 object tracked in from sea seems to have vanished just 170 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,399 a few miles from the coast. The one piece of 171 00:08:17,439 --> 00:08:20,040 technology confirming a threat was now silent. 172 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: But it didn't matter. 173 00:08:21,839 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 2: It didn't matter at all. The human element, the anxiety 174 00:08:24,759 --> 00:08:28,319 had already taken over. Even with no radar contact. The 175 00:08:28,319 --> 00:08:31,160 command center was suddenly flooded with phone calls and reports 176 00:08:31,199 --> 00:08:35,000 from observers on the ground claiming to see enemy planes. 177 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,480 Speaker 1: So human eyewitnesses in a panic overrode the technology. 178 00:08:38,639 --> 00:08:41,519 Speaker 2: They did. The system was now running purely on fear, 179 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,080 and then at three spears six am, you get the 180 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,120 one specific report that finally. 181 00:08:45,879 --> 00:08:48,440 Speaker 1: Lights the fuse the ignition point. What was the very 182 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:49,799 first thing they actually shot at? 183 00:08:49,919 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 2: According to the reports, an observer on the coast near 184 00:08:52,759 --> 00:08:56,120 Santa Monica reported seeing a balloon carrying a red flare. 185 00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,960 That's the key. A simple weather balloon might have been ignored, 186 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:02,399 but a balloon with a flare that suggests a target 187 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:03,799 marker or enemy signaling. 188 00:09:04,039 --> 00:09:06,200 Speaker 1: It gives them the hostile intent they were looking for. 189 00:09:06,519 --> 00:09:11,759 Speaker 2: It's the justification they needed. Instantly, four anti aircraft batteries 190 00:09:11,799 --> 00:09:14,960 open fire and as the official history puts it, the 191 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:17,840 air over Los Angeles erupted like a volcano. 192 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:20,240 Speaker 1: And they're not firing rifles. What kind of shells are 193 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:20,879 we talking about. 194 00:09:20,919 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 2: We're talking about twelve point eight pound high explosive anti 195 00:09:24,279 --> 00:09:28,559 aircraft shells. These are massive projectiles designed to explode in 196 00:09:28,639 --> 00:09:32,039 mid air and shred bombers with shrapnel. These are deadly 197 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:33,559 heavy duty weapons. 198 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:36,679 Speaker 1: And the barrage just keeps going. The final tally is 199 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:39,519 somewhere between fourteen hundred and four hundred and forty rounds 200 00:09:39,639 --> 00:09:42,919 plus a ton of zero point fifty caliber machine gun fire. 201 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:45,720 And this goes on for over an hour until just 202 00:09:45,799 --> 00:09:46,720 after four am. 203 00:09:46,799 --> 00:09:49,120 Speaker 2: Can you just imagine being a resident huddled in your 204 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:51,480 house in the dark listening to that. The noise must 205 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:53,840 have been absolutely terrifying. The ground would have been shaking. 206 00:09:53,919 --> 00:09:56,080 Speaker 1: And yet through all of this, the fighter planes, the 207 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:58,399 interceptors that are supposed to go up and fight enemy bombers, 208 00:09:58,399 --> 00:09:59,399 they stay on the ground. 209 00:09:59,639 --> 00:10:03,679 Speaker 2: They do The fourth Interceptor Command kept its pilots on standby, 210 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:06,799 and the reason is simple. The gun crews on the 211 00:10:06,799 --> 00:10:09,840 ground couldn't give them a consistent target. The reports were 212 00:10:09,879 --> 00:10:13,200 all over the place, different directions, different speeds different altitudes. 213 00:10:13,519 --> 00:10:16,240 There was nothing for the pilots to actually intercept. 214 00:10:15,879 --> 00:10:17,919 Speaker 1: So they just let the guys on the ground keep shooting. 215 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:20,480 The all clear doesn't sound it until seven twenty one 216 00:10:20,519 --> 00:10:23,039 am when the sun is up, and then comes the 217 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:25,639 real tragedy, the civilian cost. 218 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:28,039 Speaker 2: Right, not from an enemy, but from the defense itself. 219 00:10:28,279 --> 00:10:32,000 Five people died. Wow. Three people were killed in car 220 00:10:32,039 --> 00:10:36,639 crashes during that chaotic pitch black blackout, and two others 221 00:10:36,679 --> 00:10:39,720 died from heart attacks, which the coroner directly attributed to 222 00:10:39,759 --> 00:10:41,960 the stress of the hour long bombardment. 223 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:44,960 Speaker 1: So the defense was literally more dangerous to the public 224 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:46,759 than the enemy that wasn't even there. 225 00:10:46,639 --> 00:10:49,399 Speaker 2: Without a doubt. And then there was the property damage. 226 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:52,000 That falling shrapnel had to land somewhere. 227 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:55,759 Speaker 1: It rained down all over a huge metropolitan area it did. 228 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,600 Speaker 2: The sources are filled with accounts of shell fragments hitting boardings, 229 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:03,720 shattering windows, damaging cars. There's one really chilling story about 230 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:06,919 a couple in bed and a piece of shrapnel crashed 231 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:09,519 through their roof and landed right on their bed, just 232 00:11:09,759 --> 00:11:11,679 seconds after they jumped out to take cover. 233 00:11:12,159 --> 00:11:16,679 Speaker 1: That's terrifying. It just shows how random and widespread the 234 00:11:16,759 --> 00:11:21,679 danger was. Real physical destruction, all caused by American guns 235 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:22,720 firing at a ghost. 236 00:11:23,039 --> 00:11:25,399 Speaker 2: The next morning, as you can imagine, the newspapers went 237 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:28,919 absolutely wild, a media frenzy, a total frenzy. The Los 238 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:34,200 Angeles Times headline screamed, air battle rages over Los Angeles. 239 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:35,840 They were selling it as a victory. You know that 240 00:11:35,879 --> 00:11:38,879 the city had fought off a determined enemy invader. That 241 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:41,639 became the public narrative almost immediately, so. 242 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,600 Speaker 1: The people of La woke up believing they had survived 243 00:11:44,679 --> 00:11:48,320 a real attack. The government now has to explain what happened, 244 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:50,320 and this is where the story starts to fracture. 245 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:53,039 Speaker 2: This is where the institutional dissonance kicks in, and it's 246 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:55,879 what opens the door for all the conspiracy theories. The 247 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:59,000 Navy is the first to speak, and they are incredibly dismissive. 248 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,000 Speaker 1: Right Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, he holds a 249 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:03,399 press conference almost right away. 250 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:06,080 Speaker 2: He does, and he calls the whole thing a false alarm. 251 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:10,480 He chalks it up to anxiety and war nerves. The 252 00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:13,600 Navy's official line was that there was no evidence of 253 00:12:13,639 --> 00:12:15,600 the presence of enemy planes. 254 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:18,559 Speaker 1: Period, which from their perspective probably made sense. 255 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:22,120 Speaker 2: It makes total sense. The Navy's intelligence network was looking 256 00:12:22,159 --> 00:12:26,120 at the big picture fleets, aircraft, carriers, submarine movements. They 257 00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:30,120 knew there was no large Japanese force anywhere near California 258 00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:33,360 capable of launching that kind of attack, So for them, 259 00:12:33,519 --> 00:12:35,039 it was clearly a local panic. 260 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:37,480 Speaker 1: But the Army had a much bigger problem, oh. 261 00:12:37,399 --> 00:12:40,360 Speaker 2: A massive problem. The Army under the War Department, had 262 00:12:40,399 --> 00:12:44,639 just fired four hundred and forty very expensive shells, terrified 263 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:48,960 millions of people, caused significant property damage, and were responsible 264 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:50,639 for the deaths of five civilians. 265 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:52,679 Speaker 1: They couldn't just say oops are bad. 266 00:12:52,799 --> 00:12:55,360 Speaker 2: Especially not so soon after the disaster at Pearl Harbor. 267 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,480 Admitting they panicked and fired at the short nothing would 268 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:01,840 have been a public relations catastrophe. It would have looked 269 00:13:01,879 --> 00:13:02,960 like gross incompetence. 270 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:05,279 Speaker 1: So they had to create a different story. They needed 271 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:07,360 to justify what they did exactly. 272 00:13:07,639 --> 00:13:10,360 Speaker 2: They had to change the narrative from we panicked to 273 00:13:11,159 --> 00:13:15,440 we repelled a threat. So the Secretary of War, Henry Stimpson, 274 00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:18,879 comes out with a completely different conclusion. He announces that 275 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:24,080 from one to five unidentified airplanes had been over Los Angeles. 276 00:13:23,919 --> 00:13:27,399 Speaker 1: One to five. That's a curiously specific and yet vague. 277 00:13:27,159 --> 00:13:29,919 Speaker 2: Number Very telling, isn't it. If they had claimed a 278 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,360 huge swarm of bombers, the Navy would have immediately refuted 279 00:13:33,399 --> 00:13:36,639 it with their own intelligence. But one to five small 280 00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:40,559 elusive planes, that's a story you can't easily disprove. It 281 00:13:40,639 --> 00:13:42,720 suggests a sneaky reconnaissance mission. 282 00:13:42,919 --> 00:13:45,360 Speaker 1: And Stimpson even offered a couple of theories for where 283 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:46,759 these mystery planes came from. 284 00:13:46,879 --> 00:13:49,559 Speaker 2: He did theory one was that they were commercial planes 285 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,799 being flown by enemy agents, maybe from secret airfields hidden 286 00:13:52,799 --> 00:13:56,159 in Mexico or somewhere in the California desert. This played 287 00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:58,840 right into the public sphere of spies and saboteurs. 288 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:00,519 Speaker 1: And the second theory that. 289 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 2: They were small scout plans launched from Japanese submarines, just 290 00:14:04,159 --> 00:14:06,159 like the one that had shelled the Elwood oil field. 291 00:14:06,639 --> 00:14:08,600 This was the more plausible sounding explanation. 292 00:14:08,759 --> 00:14:11,919 Speaker 1: So let's talk about the damage control aspect. The Army 293 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:15,759 is clearly trying to save face, but by publicly contradicting 294 00:14:15,799 --> 00:14:18,960 the Navy, another branch of the same government, weren't they 295 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:21,120 creating an even bigger political mess. 296 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 2: You'd think so, but you have to look at the 297 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:26,759 pressure they were under Secretary Knox at the Navy had 298 00:14:26,799 --> 00:14:30,159 already taken the huge political hit for Pearl Harbor, his 299 00:14:30,279 --> 00:14:34,159 credibility was already damaged. But for Stimson in the army, 300 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,639 this was a failure on the home front. Admitting incompetence 301 00:14:37,679 --> 00:14:39,159 here could have been a career ender. 302 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,559 Speaker 1: So the short term goal was to shift the blame. 303 00:14:41,799 --> 00:14:45,399 It wasn't incompetence, it was a mysterious, highly advanced enemy. 304 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 2: Sisily, the narrative becomes we didn't fire at nothing. We 305 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:53,440 successfully defended the city from a very clever enemy who 306 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,879 was testing our defenses. It preserves the illusion of competence 307 00:14:56,919 --> 00:14:57,519 and vigilance. 308 00:14:57,559 --> 00:14:59,919 Speaker 1: But the public wasn't stupid. They could see the contradiction 309 00:15:00,159 --> 00:15:00,559 right away. 310 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:03,960 Speaker 2: Immediately you have two cabinet secretaries seeing completely opposite things. 311 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,559 An editorial in the Long Beach Independent newspaper pointed out, 312 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:11,720 writing about a mysterious reticence about the whole affair, that 313 00:15:11,919 --> 00:15:15,039 just poured gasoline on the fire of a potential cover. 314 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:18,720 Speaker 1: Up, and the skepticism went all the way to Congress. 315 00:15:18,799 --> 00:15:22,879 Speaker 2: It sure did. A California Congressman leland Ford was furious. 316 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:27,320 He demanded a full congressional investigation. He basically asked, was 317 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:30,120 this a real raid, or was this a staged event 318 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:33,919 to scare two million people? Or he wondered was it 319 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,919 a ploy by the government to justify moving critical war 320 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,519 industries inland away from the coast. 321 00:15:39,679 --> 00:15:42,240 Speaker 1: So the moment the government couldn't agree that it was nothing, 322 00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:44,919 they guaranteed that people would believe it was something far 323 00:15:45,039 --> 00:15:46,639 more sinister being hidden. 324 00:15:46,879 --> 00:15:50,000 Speaker 2: That's the seat that official ambiguity is the soil in 325 00:15:50,039 --> 00:15:52,879 which every conspiracy theory about this event grew. 326 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,399 Speaker 1: So we've got the Army saying planes, the Navy saying 327 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:59,360 no planes, and after the war the Japanese government confirming 328 00:15:59,399 --> 00:16:01,799 they sent no aircraft over La that night. So the 329 00:16:01,799 --> 00:16:05,200 big question remains, what were those gun crews actually shooting 330 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:05,879 at for an hour? 331 00:16:06,279 --> 00:16:10,519 Speaker 2: The historical consensus, which was confirmed by military investigations years later, 332 00:16:10,919 --> 00:16:14,200 is both simple and kind of mind bending. It all 333 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:16,519 comes down to human perception under extreme stress. 334 00:16:16,759 --> 00:16:18,360 Speaker 1: It started with that one weather balloon. 335 00:16:18,639 --> 00:16:21,200 Speaker 2: The nineteen forty nine report from the US Coast Artillery 336 00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:25,480 Association confirmed that a meteorological balloon released at one am 337 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:29,159 started all the shooting. A later nineteen eighty three study 338 00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:31,440 by the Office of Air Force History backed this up, 339 00:16:31,759 --> 00:16:34,440 calling the whole thing a textbook case of war nerves 340 00:16:34,759 --> 00:16:38,639 triggered by that balloon and then amplified by well by 341 00:16:38,639 --> 00:16:39,559 the defense itself. 342 00:16:39,879 --> 00:16:42,879 Speaker 1: This is a key Why did they fire on four 343 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:45,519 and forty rounds at what was essentially. 344 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,320 Speaker 2: Nothing, Because after the first few shots, the vast majority 345 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:50,840 of the firing was aimed at their own anti aircraft 346 00:16:50,879 --> 00:16:54,200 shell bursts and the smoke clouds they created. It was 347 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,080 a self perpetuating illusion, a feedback loop. 348 00:16:57,159 --> 00:16:59,440 Speaker 1: Okay, walk me through that, because it sounds wild. I'm 349 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:01,960 a gun around it's pitch black. I'm terrified. 350 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:05,079 Speaker 2: Right, Another battery fires a shell. It explodes thousands of 351 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:07,079 feet up, creating a bright flash and a puff of 352 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,559 white smoke. Immediately, the searchlights, which are programmed to lock 353 00:17:10,599 --> 00:17:13,519 onto any potential target, all converge on that brightly lit 354 00:17:13,559 --> 00:17:14,200 puff of smoke. 355 00:17:14,519 --> 00:17:17,480 Speaker 1: And to me on the ground, that illuminated smoke cloud 356 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:19,920 against a black sky looks like a solid object. 357 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:23,759 Speaker 2: It looks exactly like a solid object. It visually confirms 358 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:26,720 in your mind that there's a target up there. So 359 00:17:26,799 --> 00:17:29,880 your battery fires at the smoke cloud. Your shell explodes, 360 00:17:30,039 --> 00:17:31,519 creating another puff of smoke. 361 00:17:31,319 --> 00:17:33,039 Speaker 1: Which becomes the target for the next sky. 362 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,279 Speaker 2: It's a chain reaction of perceptual error. The defense was 363 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:40,039 literally manufacturing its own targets over and over again. 364 00:17:40,079 --> 00:17:43,160 Speaker 1: That explains the sheer volume of fire. They weren't just 365 00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:45,559 shooting randomly into the sky. They thought they were firing 366 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:47,839 at confirmed, visual targets. 367 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 2: And this is what fed the idea that they were 368 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:53,079 fighting a really advanced, nimble enemy. When a gun crew 369 00:17:53,079 --> 00:17:56,039 fired at a smoke puff and missed, what happened. The 370 00:17:56,079 --> 00:17:58,680 smoke would naturally start to dissipate or drift away on 371 00:17:58,720 --> 00:17:59,960 the high altitude. 372 00:17:59,519 --> 00:18:02,279 Speaker 1: Winds, which to a stressed out observer doesn't look like 373 00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:03,279 smoke dissolving. 374 00:18:03,519 --> 00:18:06,200 Speaker 2: No, to them, it looked like the enemy craft just 375 00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:11,119 executed a highly advanced evasive maneuver to dodge their shell. 376 00:18:11,599 --> 00:18:13,920 They'd see it vanish and then re pier somewhere else 377 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,680 as another shell burst lit up a different patch of sky. 378 00:18:17,839 --> 00:18:22,839 That perceived evasiveness just justified firing even more Wow. 379 00:18:23,279 --> 00:18:27,119 Speaker 1: The Coast Artillery Association's report even says that once the 380 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:31,200 firing started, imagination created all kinds of targets, and that. 381 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,160 Speaker 2: Explains the witness reports, which were just all over the map. 382 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:37,880 People reported seeing everything from a single object to swarms 383 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,440 of hundreds of planes. Their speed estimates were from very 384 00:18:41,519 --> 00:18:44,839 slow to over two hundred miles an hour, their altitude 385 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:47,160 from a few thousand feet to over twenty thousand. 386 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,799 Speaker 1: Those aren't the characteristics of a squadron of airplanes. 387 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:52,480 Speaker 2: Not at all. But they are the perfect description of 388 00:18:52,519 --> 00:18:56,200 scattered smoke clouds at different altitudes, drifting on different wind currents, 389 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:59,319 being lit up intermittently from different angles. The enemy was 390 00:18:59,319 --> 00:19:02,000 in Japanese. It was a weather balloon followed by a 391 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:03,559 fireworks show of their own making. 392 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:07,920 Speaker 1: And despite this very clear logical explanation, the Battle of 393 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:11,519 Los Angeles is still a cornerstone of modern UFO mythology. 394 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:13,599 We have to talk about why that myth was so 395 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:15,680 powerful and why it's been so hard to shape. 396 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:19,119 Speaker 2: Well, as we said, it all started with that institutional dissonance, 397 00:19:19,279 --> 00:19:22,240 the government's two stories. The army insisted on the presence 398 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,680 of unknown craft, and that official ambiguity was all the 399 00:19:25,759 --> 00:19:27,599 opening the UFO narrative needed. 400 00:19:27,839 --> 00:19:30,839 Speaker 1: If the government admits something was there but they don't know. 401 00:19:30,799 --> 00:19:34,240 Speaker 2: What it was, then maybe, just maybe it was something 402 00:19:34,319 --> 00:19:37,880 so extraordinary, so secret they couldn't possibly tell the public 403 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,079 the truth, especially in the middle of a world war, 404 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:45,880 they accidentally created the perfect setup for an extraterrestrial explanation, 405 00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:46,599 and that. 406 00:19:46,599 --> 00:19:50,400 Speaker 1: Myth got its biggest boost from one single image, the 407 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,839 famous photograph from the Los Angeles Times on February twenty sixth, 408 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:56,799 the one that shows all the searchlight beams converging on 409 00:19:56,839 --> 00:19:59,119 what looks like a solid saucer shaped object. 410 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:02,920 Speaker 2: That photo is the Mona Lisa of ufology for this event, 411 00:20:03,079 --> 00:20:06,279 but it's a piece of unintentional deception. We now know 412 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:08,440 that the photo was heavily retouched before it. 413 00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 1: Was published, so it was fate. 414 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,559 Speaker 2: Not with Malicia's intent. In the nineteen forties, photo retouching 415 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:16,039 was a standard practice at newspapers. They did it to 416 00:20:16,039 --> 00:20:18,759 make images clearer for printing on cheap newsprint with black 417 00:20:18,759 --> 00:20:21,519 and white ink. The artist's job was just to make 418 00:20:21,519 --> 00:20:24,079 the searchlight beams pop against the dark sky. But in 419 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:27,599 doing that, in doing that, by manually painting over the 420 00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:30,519 light beams and darkening the negative space around them, he 421 00:20:30,559 --> 00:20:34,160 accidentally solidified what was really just an ephemeral collection of 422 00:20:34,279 --> 00:20:38,720 light and drifting smoke into a single, hard edged, mysterious shape. 423 00:20:38,799 --> 00:20:41,319 Speaker 1: So you're saying, one of the most iconic UFO photos 424 00:20:41,319 --> 00:20:44,400 of all time is basically an artifact of old school 425 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:45,119 graphic design. 426 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,160 Speaker 2: That's exactly what it is. An attempt to clarify an 427 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:52,400 image for a newspaper accidentally created the visual proof for 428 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,359 a myth that would last for eighty years. 429 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:58,160 Speaker 1: It's really incredible, and that retouched photo is so convincing 430 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,480 that it's been used as real evidence ever since. 431 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:04,440 Speaker 2: Absolutely. The film historian Larry Harnish did a deep dive 432 00:21:04,519 --> 00:21:06,920 on this and found that the photo was used completely 433 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:09,519 out of context in the marketing for the twenty eleven 434 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:13,559 sci fi movie Battle Los Angeles, right alongside totally fabricated 435 00:21:13,559 --> 00:21:16,680 newspaper headlines, just to sell this idea of a historical 436 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,880 alien invasion. It cemented the myth in popular culture. 437 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,680 Speaker 1: And for the UFO theory to be true, you'd have 438 00:21:21,759 --> 00:21:24,319 to believe in a massive conspiracy. 439 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:26,599 Speaker 2: A conspiracy of thousands of people, which is where it 440 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:30,079 really falls apart. Stephen Nelson, who's the director of the 441 00:21:30,079 --> 00:21:32,880 Fort mccarth Museum right there in LA He makes this 442 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:38,240 point perfectly. The idea that thousands of soldiers, gunners, officers, 443 00:21:38,319 --> 00:21:41,599 air raid wardens, all of whom were confused and terrified 444 00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,680 that night, would all collectively agree to keep the secret 445 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,240 of an alien visitation for the rest of their lives, 446 00:21:48,279 --> 00:21:51,480 he says, just defies logic. It's far more likely that 447 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:53,720 they were confused by smoke and light than that they 448 00:21:53,759 --> 00:21:57,960 all signed an intergalactic non disclosure agreement exactly. The event 449 00:21:58,000 --> 00:21:59,960 did find its way into culture in other ways, though 450 00:22:00,319 --> 00:22:03,680 Steven Spielberg made the comedy nineteen forty one, which is 451 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:05,640 loosely based on the panic of that night. 452 00:22:05,799 --> 00:22:07,759 Speaker 1: I've heard that many of the veterans who were actually 453 00:22:07,759 --> 00:22:09,160 there didn't appreciate the humor. 454 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:12,440 Speaker 2: No, many reportedly felt the film makes them look stupid, 455 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:16,440 which highlights a serious point for those men behind the guns. 456 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,000 This was not funny. They thought they were in a 457 00:22:19,039 --> 00:22:21,920 real battle, defending their country from attack. So to have 458 00:22:22,079 --> 00:22:24,920 history later judge it as this great comical screw up 459 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:27,240 that was a bitter pill to swallow for some. 460 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:31,039 Speaker 1: We've covered the fear, the timeline, the physics, the politics, 461 00:22:31,319 --> 00:22:34,880 but this event has a much darker historical significance, one 462 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,759 that's deeply tied to the racial and political climate of 463 00:22:37,799 --> 00:22:38,200 the time. 464 00:22:38,519 --> 00:22:40,160 Speaker 2: It absolutely does, and this is the part of the 465 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,519 story that often gets overshadowed by the UFO talk. The 466 00:22:43,559 --> 00:22:47,160 timing of the Battle of Los Angeles is just it's 467 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:49,119 horrific when you look at the broader context. 468 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,440 Speaker 1: It happened just days after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 469 00:22:52,559 --> 00:22:53,759 nine zero sixty six. 470 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:57,519 Speaker 2: Just six days after Executive Order nine zero sixty six 471 00:22:57,759 --> 00:23:00,720 was the order that authorized the US military to begin 472 00:23:00,799 --> 00:23:04,559 the process of rounding up and forcibly removing all Japanese 473 00:23:04,599 --> 00:23:06,039 Americans from the West Coast. 474 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,440 Speaker 1: And this panic in Los Angeles, this battle, it played 475 00:23:09,519 --> 00:23:11,880 right into the hands of those who were pushing for internment. 476 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:16,240 Speaker 2: It became immediate local proof that the policy was necessary. 477 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:20,079 It weaponized the public's fear against their own neighbors, against 478 00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:21,920 American citizens of Japanese descent. 479 00:23:22,039 --> 00:23:23,680 Speaker 1: How direct was that connection. 480 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,359 Speaker 2: It was extremely direct. In the hours after the shooting stopped, 481 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,599 the Los Angeles Police Department started circulating completely unfounded reports 482 00:23:31,839 --> 00:23:36,039 that Japanese American citizens have been caught signaling Japanese aircraft 483 00:23:36,519 --> 00:23:37,839 from the ground during the. 484 00:23:37,839 --> 00:23:41,039 Speaker 1: Raid, signaling aircraft that we now know didn't even exist. 485 00:23:41,279 --> 00:23:44,519 Speaker 2: It made no difference, the evidence didn't matter. The pre 486 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,319 existing racial prejudice, now supercharged by the terror of a 487 00:23:48,319 --> 00:23:52,799 supposed air raid, made those lies feel true. It solidified 488 00:23:52,799 --> 00:23:55,480 the false narrative that there was a fifth column of 489 00:23:55,559 --> 00:23:57,920 Japanese Americans ready to aid an invasion. 490 00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:01,400 Speaker 1: So this bizarre phantom battle in the political cover and 491 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,839 the psychological justification for leaders to move forward with the 492 00:24:04,839 --> 00:24:07,920 mass removal of nearly one hundred and twenty thousand people. 493 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:10,119 Speaker 2: Two thirds of whom were American citizens born and raised 494 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:12,559 in the United States. So the Battle of Los Angeles 495 00:24:12,599 --> 00:24:15,839 stops being just a story of military buffoonery and becomes 496 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:19,440 this tragic catalyst. The fear it generated helped destroy the 497 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:21,920 lives and livelihoods of thousands of innocent people. 498 00:24:22,079 --> 00:24:24,480 Speaker 1: It's a crucial part of the story, and yet it's 499 00:24:24,519 --> 00:24:27,559 also important to remember the perspective of the people on 500 00:24:27,599 --> 00:24:29,240 the ground firing those guns. 501 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,759 Speaker 2: It is while history rightly judges the event as a 502 00:24:32,799 --> 00:24:36,359 massive overreaction for the soldiers of the thirty seventh Coast 503 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:41,400 Artillery Brigade, it was very real that Museum director Steven Nelson, 504 00:24:41,519 --> 00:24:43,680 he's talked to many veterans over the years, and he 505 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:45,640 said almost all of them told him that night was 506 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,160 their first experience with battle conditions. 507 00:24:48,559 --> 00:24:50,839 Speaker 1: They truly believed they were fighting for their lives and 508 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:51,480 for the city. 509 00:24:51,599 --> 00:24:55,119 Speaker 2: They did, and the general threat wasn't imaginary. The Japanese 510 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,039 really did bomb Dutch Harbor in Alaska. Later on they 511 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,319 landed troops in the Aleutian Islands. A Japanese submarine even 512 00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:03,759 launched a plane that dropped bombs on a forest in Oregon. 513 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:08,079 The war was real, the threat was real. It's just 514 00:25:08,079 --> 00:25:11,400 that on that specific night in Los Angeles, the target 515 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:11,680 was not. 516 00:25:12,039 --> 00:25:14,119 Speaker 1: So in the end, the Battle of Los Angeles was 517 00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:18,319 this perfect storm. You had unreliable technology, immense political pressure 518 00:25:18,319 --> 00:25:21,440 on the military, a society gripped by fear, and all 519 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,920 of it combined to create this massive, deadly response to 520 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:26,319 a self generated illusion. 521 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,440 Speaker 2: The unseen enemy that night wasn't from Japan, and it 522 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:32,680 wasn't from outer space. It was mass anxiety given form 523 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:34,480 by the physics of searchlights on smoke. 524 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,920 Speaker 1: So when you boil it all down, the US government 525 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,079 fires over fourteen hundred anti aircraft shells, kills five of 526 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:44,400 its own civilians, damages property all over the city, and 527 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:47,759 then has two of its highest ranking cabinet secretaries give 528 00:25:47,839 --> 00:25:50,839 completely contradictory explanations for what happened. 529 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,599 Speaker 2: And that's the takeaway. The chaos wasn't just in the sky, 530 00:25:53,839 --> 00:25:57,200 it was in the official response. A single weather balloon, 531 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,680 followed by the fireworks of their own making, created a 532 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,799 political crisis that directly fueled one of the worst civil 533 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:06,640 rights violations in American history. 534 00:26:06,759 --> 00:26:10,440 Speaker 1: The true unidentified flying object was an optical illusion, but 535 00:26:10,519 --> 00:26:14,039 the lasting damage came from that fractured official story. The 536 00:26:14,079 --> 00:26:16,480 second the Navy said it was nothing and the Army 537 00:26:16,519 --> 00:26:19,839 said it was one to five enemy craft, they created 538 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:23,319 a mystery. In human nature abhors a vacuum. People will 539 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,480 always rush to feel with something more exciting, more conspiratorial. 540 00:26:26,559 --> 00:26:30,119 Speaker 2: It's a textbook example of how fragile truth becomes under pressure. 541 00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,119 The Army felt it had to justify its actions, so 542 00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:35,720 it bent the story and trying to solve a short 543 00:26:35,799 --> 00:26:38,880 term pr problem, they created a historical myth that has 544 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:40,319 lasted for almost a century. 545 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,799 Speaker 1: We've seen how fear and conflicting official stories can turn 546 00:26:43,839 --> 00:26:47,400 a phantom into a perceived enemy with consequences that were 547 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,440 far more real and devastating than any imaginary bomb. 548 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:52,440 Speaker 2: So we want to leave you at this question to 549 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:55,599 think about, given that the Battle of Los Angeles proves 550 00:26:55,640 --> 00:27:00,119 how easily mass hysteria, official panic, and visual misinterpretation and 551 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,960 can create an enduring myth with real world consequences. What 552 00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:05,759 modern event do you think we might look back on 553 00:27:05,799 --> 00:27:07,720 in eighty years and see as a similar case. 554 00:27:07,839 --> 00:27:10,319 Speaker 1: What are the weather balloons, the smoke clouds, and the 555 00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,720 searchlights of our time. We'd love to hear what you think. 556 00:27:12,799 --> 00:27:13,279 Let us know