Stealthily, the submarine's periscope broke water. Inside the boat an aviation warrant officer gazed through the eyepiece. Through prismed glass, he saw a sandy coastline, a haze-covered mountain range and, dead ahead, the unmistakable shape of Oregon's Cape Blanco lighthouse. The time was dawn on Sept. 9, 1942, and the sub was the 1,950-ton Japanese 1-25, on station 25 days after leaving Yokosuka.
With a smile, Chief Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita surrendered the periscope, while above him, in a watertight compartment on the forecastle deck, waited his Geta float plane. In it,...