Goleta in World War II: The Ellwood Bombardment and Refugio’s Prisoner of War (POW) Camp

Ever wondered what it was like to live through World War II in Goleta? Or wondered why Santa Barbara people are SO INTO mentioning that time a Japanese submarine shelled the shore in Ellwood, north of Goleta? Find out about two big incidents in the Goleta area: the Bombardment of Ellwood and the largely-unknown Refugio Prisoner of War (POW) Camp. Plus, why do some Santa Barbara people pronounce Refugio like ReFUFio? Summers tells us the answers to these burning questions and more as we talk about yet another dark side of paradise on this episode of The Ghoul’s Guide to Santa Barbara.
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More about this episode...
The Bombardment of Ellwood: February 23, 1942
A Japanese I-17 submarine surfaced off the Ellwood Oil Field, in the evening of Monday, February 23, 1942. The submarine’s crew shot approximately 16 shells from its deck gun at the shore, doing minor damage to oil refinery structures and the Ellwood pier, and whizzing past the historic Ellwood gas station. Find out why the timing of the attack–the first enemy naval bombardment of the United States mainland since the War of 1812–was strategically lined up with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first fireside chat radio address since Pearl Harbor, and how it led to major wartime panic and an intensifying of xenophobia against people of Japanese descent.
The Refugio Prisoner of War (POW) Camp at Edwards Ranch: 1944-45
The major prisoner of war camp at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air/Space Force Base) had numerous smaller satellite camps, allowing prisoners to be loaned out as laborers to local Santa Barbara County-area farms. Find out who the POWs were, what their working lives were like, and why most wartime (and peacetime) agricultural labor programs failed. With side topics including the United States War Information Office’s internal propaganda work (think Rosie the Riveter) and 1965’s failed A-TEAM program, which tried to trick the sporty youths of America’s high schools and universities into working on farms in the summer.
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