Hot Idea Wins Free Trip to Japan

--In a promise made 23 years ago, the only Japanese pilot to bomb the U.S. mainland during World War II told Brookings, Ore., he would make amends by bringing some American students to Japan. On Sunday, Nobuo Fujita, who dropped two incendiary bombs near coastal Brookings on Sept. 9, 1942, kept his promise as one of the sponsors of an all-expense-paid trip to Japan for three local high school students. Flying Warrant Officer Fujita, now 73, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Yukio Okuda catapulted in their seaplane off the 30-foot deck of a small Japanese submarine. With Fujita at the controls, the plane headed over the forests on the slopes of 2,296-foot Mt. Emily a few miles east of Brookings. The idea behind the incendiary bombs was to start forest fires that would spread to the cities, causing panic on the West Coast. However, the bombs failed to set off the expected fires. In May, 1962, Brookings made Fujita the guest of honor at its Azalea Festival in a gesture of forgiveness and good will. During the visit, Fujita made his promise, and now students Robyn Soiseth, Sarah Cortell and Lisa Phelps are on their way for a week in Japan.

--People are accustomed to seeing President Reagan’s face on television, in films and in print, but sharing space on Mt. Rushmore along with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt? If Jack VanSchoick has his way, Reagan’s face may be a permanent fixture on the mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. “It’s a dandy national monument, but it would be a lot dandier if Ronald Reagan was up there too,” he said. VanSchoick, 61, of Sturgis, Mich., says that he has placed ads in national newspapers and that “I’ve gotten 25 or 30 letters and about $50 in contributions so far. But this thing is just beginning to grow.” He expects to gather 20 million signatures in support of his idea by the end of summer.

--Greg and Stephanie McKay claim that a bear-like animal attacked their campsite near Greenwater, Wash., and “ordered” them off the property. The couple told Pierce County sheriff’s deputies that the animal was eight feet tall, ugly and smelly, with curly brown hair. “You may think this sounds crazy, but the bear talked to us,” Stephanie McKay, 35, said. “It asked us what our names were and asked whether we had permission to use the campsite,” she said. “We said we had gotten permission, but the bear told us to get off the property immediately. We ran like anything.” As they gathered their belongings from the campsite, the bear stood on its hind legs and began throwing rocks at them, she said. “It must have weighed almost a ton,” she said. “He was big, hairy. It didn’t sound human. It had a very high-pitched voice.” Sheriff’s Sgt. Terry Schmid said: “We’re investigating.”