I-25 was one of the large fleet subs the Japanese navy put out to sea during the war. Built in 1939, the boat was 357 feet long and packed a large collection of torpedoes, a 5.5-inch deck gun and even a fold-up seaplane.
The reason I-25 is so important to Oregon stems from a visit it paid to the Beaver State the year before it sank. In the course of that visit, the I-25 sank two merchant ships, shelled a coastal battery and sent its airplane ashore to try and start a forest fire. It left Oregon not that much worse for wear, but the psychological effect was considerable as Oregonians wondered if this were just the beginning.
It wasn’t, of course. It was just a single submarine. A single very busy submarine
