47: The Battle for Los Angeles | Red Thread
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So

Something strange and mysterious happened on the night of February 25th, 1942 in Los Angeles. Residents of the city awoke in the early hours of the morning to sirens, aircrafts, flares and bright imposing military searchlight. An hour later, civilians reported that gunshots could be heard at a distance and anti-aircraft cannons roared deep into the morning at some unknown threat.

As the dawn broke, the confused civilians and mystified military could find no wreckage or evidence that there was even a threat in the first place. So what happened on this strange night? Why did the military suddenly turn Los Angeles into an active warground or war zone? And the question on everyone's minds, how does it connect to aliens? This is Red Thread and today we're talking about the

The Battle of Los Angeles. Hello guys, how are we doing today? Pretty good actually. I am doing fantastic. I feel great. Yeah. Yeah, you feel good? You ready to enter an active war zone? Strapping on our time machines, heading back to Los Angeles. Didn't know this existed. Had no clue about this until I did research this last week. The only short story I've ever written is about the Battle of Los Angeles.

Oh, really? Yeah. Wasn't there a movie based on this? I feel like there was a movie. Yeah, I think it was Tom Cruise, but it's like new, though. It's the new Battle of Los Angeles. Yeah, that movie is called Battle of Los Angeles, and it's like modern day military forces having gunfights with aliens in Los Angeles. I pirated it.

That doesn't surprise me. You pride yourself for that one? You pride yourself for pirating it? Yeah, I actually know a lot about the Battle of Los Angeles. There was a private first class named Ron Roper who was using a searchlight outside Los Alamos. There was all the happenings in Los Angeles with the sightings in the sky, and then there was more in Los Alamos and Groom Lake in Nevada.

And he was actually paralyzed and then he woke up in the hospital seven years later and he grew four feet. He was four feet taller.

And he was a giant and he didn't realize and that's that's the short story. I wrote that's not real. I didn't actually Say that was I was like seven years. I haven't heard that part of it. Yeah, I see what happened Yeah, but you heard of the growing four inches part Yeah Yeah, yeah, it's actually yeah, yeah pretty pretty cool. Yeah anyways, I

Yeah. Did you do that for like a high school literature class or something? Or was this just for fun? It's actually lore. We have a novella that is going to release alongside the game. And it's going to have that in it. It's really funny that we're doing the Battle of Los Angeles. Yeah, so this random topic. You started talking about it and I was like, huh? I know about that. You know what that means. Another chance to advertise your game, please. No! Easiest segue ever, but no, no, no. I refuse.

All right, well, I'll take over here with the advertisers. This episode is sponsored by AG1. You'll hear more from them later on. Big thank you to them. But also, a Red Thread first, guys. We now have merchandise available for the Red Threaders out there. Gives new meaning to Red Thread, really. Now you can wear it on your body with some nice custom threads. I'm wearing the design right now. I'll move my microphone out of the way. It's a Red Thread shirt featuring all three of us, as well as some cryptids like Mothman.

um, really cool art design. So you can go check that out over official dot men. Uh, it's available right now and you members over at official dot men get between 10 and 15% off. So highly recommend going and checking out that website and scoring yourself some red thread merchandise. Our very first one, uh,

It's very kind of you to put the guest on the shirt like that I think Oh yes yes yes It wasn't very annoying at all Replacing Charlie from this merchandise This merchandise has been in the works For like four months now It was finalized the day that Charlie left And then I was like fuck me Now we gotta go back to the Where is the merch I wanna look at it Can I see it Yeah I'll send you a link to it The guest doesn't get a no Aw shucks

But we're selling your face on it. But you don't get any of the profits from it. Oh, you get the profits. Don't worry. Let's see. Red thread crypto. Am I actually in this?

Yeah, you're the middle one. That's me? The guess is in the middle. That's so funny. That's really good merch. Holy fuck. The merch goes so hard. I love it. That's so good. Wow. It's really cool. I love it. It is now available. So if you're not meant to check that out, it's now available while supplies last. Get it before Christmas. Shipping will happen pretty quickly if you grab it now. So go check that out.

Big thank you if you do score yourself some official merch. Feel free to send through photos of you repping it. That'd be sick. But now, Battle of Los Angeles. Let's get on it, boys. Let's learn about the Battle of Los Angeles. Yes, sir!

Would you like to kick off since you're so excited, Caleb? Or should I kick it off and you get to the juicy part? Well, we're going to first have a bit of World War II history. So who's the most World War II history buff of us? Me, baby. That's me. Absolutely. Have you heard of a little known event called Pearl Harbor? Because if so, then you're... What? What's that? Pearl what? What's that? What happened in the harbor? Pearl what? It sounds like a Chinese restaurant. Pearl Harbor...

It actually does. It sounds like a Chinese buffet in a small town. It's called Pearl Harbor. Literally, I think there was in my small town. I think there was a Chinese restaurant called Pearl Harbor.

That would be the funniest fake outrage bait to get a bunch of people mad in small town Kansas or whatever. Yeah, I think it has to be like a newly immigrated family opens Pearl Harbor Japanese cuisine. I think it probably flew over better over here, which is why it existed in my hometown. It flew better over there? I bet it did. Yeah, it was fine over here. Not a lot flew that well at Pearl Harbor. No.

No, a very tragic event 100 years ago. So, yeah, it's okay to make these jokes. Yeah, definitely still reeling from it. Pearl Harbor. The United States was already on high alert in February of 1942. Why? Still in the middle of World War II.

I don't know. What happened? I don't know. Let's find out. Let's find out. Still in the middle of World War II, just a few months prior, on the evening of December 7th, Japan had surprised the U.S. with an attack on their naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. They wanted to expand their rule into Southeast Asia. One major roadblock in their way was the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

The attack came in two waves, the first involving 183 aircrafts with their main targets being the US battleships and airfields supplying and protecting the Pacific Ocean. Everything was perfectly timed by the Japanese and they came with the element of surprise. The first wave hitting America at the brisk time of 7:55 AM lasted just half an hour but caused mountains of destruction.

notably the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma being decimated by bombs and torpedo hits. The Japanese were dicks back then. Element of surprise. Where was the, weren't they meant to be honorable? That is such a funny downplay of like the rape of Dan King. Oh yeah. That's,

The mass incarceration and execution of foreigners. They did some pretty bad things. Like the Japanese Empire did some pretty bad things. They were rude. Yeah. Where's the honor, Japan? Where's the honor? You gotta give America warning before you strike their naval bases, at least. Give them a heads up. Yeah, you gotta let people know.

Was it the Arizona that those people were trapped in for like a week straight and they listened to him starve to death or whatever? I believe it was one of the ships that had catastrophic damage where people were trapped inside for like a week. Crazy. Yeah, that's pretty rough. Pretty rough way to go. With barely time to catch a breath, the second wave came 15 minutes later at 845. Any ships or facilities that had not been destroyed during the first wave were now the target.

While met with some form of resistance from the American forces, substantial damage was still made on several ships and buildings in the harbor until the attack finished at 9:45 AM. The Japanese withdrew to avoid the possible incoming retaliation. Catching the Americans unprepared for this attack, the Japanese were able to maximize their damage to the base while minimizing the risk of a prolonged fight and rebuttal.

If you want a good history lesson on Pearl Harbor, I highly recommend the movie from 2001, I think it was, by the same name, Pearl Harbor. The one with Ben Affleck? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. It had Ben Affleck. Yeah, it did. Directed by Michael Bay. Horrible movie. Terrible movie. Uh-huh.

but uh yeah i thought you were serious for a second i was like i don't think that's the comment it was truly an awful movie was there another one like a better pearl harbor movie that i could actually recommend uh there pearl harbor is a good scene in a lot of movies like in the opening of that movie um uh midway the opening of the movie midway is like a really cool attack on pearl harbor scene yeah yeah yeah

That entire movie goes hard. If you haven't seen it, there's these dogfight scenes that are just shot so well. That's such a cool action movie. Oh my god, that was directed by Roland Emmerich, the same guy who did Moonfall. No way. One of my favorite movies. No, Moonfall. Oh, Moonfall is fucking fantastic. That's a classic. Both of you all homework, you have to watch Midway. It is such a good movie.

Yeah, I haven't even heard of it. I mean, I've heard of Midway, the Battle of Midway, but not the movie. There's a scene in Midway where the Japanese have caught American survivors and they have the Americans' ankles tied to anchors. And if the Americans don't answer where their fleet's coming from, they're going to kick the anchor into the ocean. So, like, you know, you get dragged in. What are they, old-timey pirates? Yeah, pretty much, like tying weight to your leg.

So an American steps up and they're like, are you going to talk? And he's like, yeah, give me a cigarette. And then I give him a cigarette and he takes a puff of it. He's like, I'm not telling you anything. And then they kick the anchor and he drowns. But he just wanted to smoke before he died. I think about that all the time. That's crazy. It's a great, you need to watch it. Unrelated, but yeah. Yep. All right. Watch that one instead of the romance movie starring Ben Affleck. Yes. Watch the opening. I think it's like a 10 minute scene in Midway about Pearl Harbor. It's really good. Watch Moonfall.

Yeah, that had the best Pearl Harbor scene in it. Yeah, Pearl Harbor moon base. I'm pretty sure the moon crashed into Pearl Harbor during that movie. That's what happened, I think. That's what happened in real life, I'm pretty sure. Over 2,400 Americans were killed and another 1,000 wounded that morning.

200 of the US planes at the harbor were completely destroyed and 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, and more were severely damaged or were now underwater. The US military and public were left shocked after this attack, many fearing that cities like Los Angeles or New York would be next.

This fear was also fueled by the media at the time, reporting sensationalized stories on more possible invasions. This was a difficult time for many, and there was heightened racial tension growing throughout the country, Japanese Americans receiving the blunt of the mistrust.

There's a photo here from the Los Angeles, I think it's the Los Angeles Times, I'm not 100% sure, but it's a picture of a Chinese man, a Los Angeles worker, Howard Yip, and he's written a sign on his back permanently while he's working that says, Me Chinese, please no Jap, to avoid any possible abuse. Asian people had to walk around with signs declaring that they weren't Japanese at the time, which is fucking mental. How

I just, I can never fully comprehend the, like, just the very quick move post-World War II to how celebrated the Japanese became after that. Because obviously they incorporated rather nicely into Western civilization after the collapse of the Japanese Empire. But it's just crazy, like, how they were perceived then to how they were perceived very quickly after the fact.

I don't know. It's just really, really crazy how quickly that happened. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting. The reconciliation effort

Yeah, it's wild that seeing that guy with the sign that says me Chinese, please no Jap. That's like, I'm assuming he's trying to prevent himself obviously from being abused and from being... He looks like he's smiling there though in that photo. I'm wondering if there's like some kind of joke there. Yeah, the guy in the back is also smiling and laughing. I'm not sure. Well, the reason he's smiling is because he's actually Japanese, but thought it'd be a good idea to wear that jacket. Yeah, maybe. Just style.

It's just style. Oh yeah, I'll never know. It's street wear. It's the equivalent of wearing, like, putting a mustache on and being like, he went that way, officer. They rounded a lot of Japanese people up and put them in internment camps, right? Internment camps, yep. A lot of people. Where were those internment camps at? Arizona. That's a good question. Were they actually? They were in Arizona, yeah. The ones I know of were in Arizona. I'm Arizona sober. You guys know what that means?

Nope. Haven't smoked meth in eight months. Good shit. Do you get a coin? Do you get a little coin for that? Like, how's that work? Yes, sir. Nice. Good shit. Yes, sir, bud. Got me a little coin. It just looks like a normal quarter, though. Okay, so yeah, there were 120,000 Japanese, people of Japanese descent who were concentrated in 10 different camps, mostly in the western interior of the country.

Yep, pretty sad. Pretty not good, if you ask me. Nope, not very good at all. And it wasn't just Pearl, but that's tough talk coming from a penal colony person. And it wasn't just Pearl Harbor.

Wait, are you implying that I live in an internment camp of my own? I don't know what you're talking about. Who said that? I didn't say that. No one said that. It wasn't me. I'm free. I'm free. This is the land of the free. Freer than you. Yeah, that's what I'd say too if I was left on an island to figure out how to not die on it. I can get off anytime I want.

I just choose not to. Uh-huh. Yep. Yep. That is exactly what someone in a penal colony would say. And it wasn't just Pearl Harbor that laid the foundation. You kidnapped someone and put him on an island and he's like, I can leave this island whenever I want. That's what you sound like. Prove it. Exactly. Prove it.

And it wasn't just Pearl Harbor that laid the foundation to the growing tension across America. Two days before the Battle of Los Angeles, a Japanese submarine, I-17, rose out of the water around 2,500 yards offshore of Santa Barbara, California. This happened right as President Roosevelt was delivering one of his fireside chats. This one in particular was called "On the Progression of the War."

In this speech, Roosevelt spoke about America now being engaged in the current global conflict against countries like Japan and Germany.

Many were tuning in to hear the president assure the people that the government was being proactive about the challenges of war. While the public conversation was happening, the aforementioned submarine that rose at the same time was pointing directly at the Elwood oil field. Do presidents still do that these days? Like have this routine fireside chat? Yeah, I feel like they don't really talk to the public unless it's to campaign.

They don't talk unless it's to campaign or to say we're about to be in a gunfight. So you really don't ever want to hear from the presidents if it's just bad news. Yeah, I feel like he basically, President Roosevelt, had the very first podcast in a way. There's a reason he was in office for 16 years and died. Yeah, dude was kind of awesome.

Don't you know Jackson? I don't know anything about Roosevelt. Is he the one with the dam? No, that's Hoover. Hoover Dam. That's the one. And that's where the Transformers were hiding in one of the Transformer movies. That's the extent of my presidential knowledge with America. That's cool, Jackson. I'm happy for you, buddy. It's a good movie. Transformers rock.

They readied up their deck gun and aimed for the Richfield Aviation fuel tank. It was around 7 p.m. at night. Many shots missed their intended targets. Gasoline points, and though damage was minimal, the Japanese crew still shot down a derrick and pump house. But they did achieve their main goal, to incite fear into the American public. And their strange coincidental timing was to cherry on top. A quote from President Roosevelt during the fireside chat, or is this, yes, the same one? Yeah.

The broad oceans, which have been heralded in the past as our protection from attack, have become endless battlefields on which we are constantly being challenged by our enemies. We must all understand and face the hard fact that our job now is to fight at distances which extend all the way around the globe. Oh, God, that's hype. I'd do anything for that man. I'd lay my life down for that man. Well, think about everyone in your country.

It's like moving towards one objective. Everyone's either a part of the war or part of the war effort. And then the president's like, the oceans that once saved us are now battlefields wrapped around the earth. Like it... Like there's a reason... That's pretty cool. The...

Our grandparents used to talk about everyone used to be so together, so united because like, yeah, everyone was on the same team for a period of time. Yeah. Yeah. That would have felt so fucking well, apart from the fact that you were all dying. I just can't imagine. I just can't imagine not, I just can't imagine not going out in public and just hating half the people I see for no reason. Yeah.

I just can't imagine a world in which I don't just fucking hate people for no reason. Where you go out and you all feel unified in the same message and there's a sense of camaraderie. And you've got leaders that are like, meh, see?

I think the closest we've come is probably COVID where we were all kind of, even then though, obviously there were large pockets of people that were like, uh, warring against other pockets of people. Well that, and also like anti-maskers or masks, even that was still like, you know, divided. Yeah, it was very divisive.

but it's still probably the most together we've been. The first month of COVID, I had a bunch of gravy seal buddies back in Virginia. And they're all just like,

I heard they're going to shut down the county line and we're going to have to start lining up for rations. I was like, what? Are we watching the same news? What's going on right now? What the fuck? But I moved to Texas right as all that was fucking happening. And it basically just wasn't a thing here. And everyone was pretty unified. Pretty chill. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, same over here. I think most people are unified. You had the more extreme elements, fringe groups pop up and shit like that happening. But that's everywhere now. And I think that's just the extent of, or a byproduct of the internet, right? It's just everything is going to be this divided now because everyone's got different sources of information. Have you all ever seen the movie Master and Commander? No.

No. What the fuck? I think I have. Yeah, I think I, yeah. Very, very. The one about Napoleon, like on the oceans. So the opening text crawl of that movie, I always thought, even as a kid, I thought it was so cool. The opening text crawl, it says April 1805. Napoleon is master of Europe. Only the British fleet stands before him. Oceans are now battlefields. Oh,

Just so hard. I love it. Imagine going down in history as the greatest adversary of all time, like the opponent to entire kingdoms and nations. I mean, even to be the greatest adversary in the world for a time, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like to be the, to be the challenger, the challenger of the world, you know?

The conqueror of the world is almost more impressive back then too when everything was so kind of fluid. Like kingdoms were falling apart and stuff like that. I don't even know how true it is. If it's not true, I don't want to be corrected. But the whole thing that after Alexander the Great conquered the world that he drank himself to death because there was no more land to conquer. That goes so hard. He just got bored, dude. He just got fucking bored, dude.

That's toxic masculinity. Yeah, you know what? I get it, dude. Yeah. I get it. And your desperate need to conquer.

That's my vibe. I'm on that Alexander... I'm smoking that Alexander Hamilton pack. Whatever. I'm smoking that Alexander the Great pack. It's Alexander the Great. Alexander Hamilton was the founding father of the guy. Oh, right. Yeah, I don't... I don't subscribe to twits like Alexander Hamilton. Well, now I imagine...

Now I'm imagining Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton conquering the world and then drinking himself to death. We can only hope. Yeah. Those sideburns are next level. All right. Okay, I'm going to keep reading. Actually, wait, wait, wait. When you think about it, Lin-Manuel Miranda is probably the greatest conqueror of our generation. He took over the sound waves for a long time. Don't you dare say anything. He owns musicals now. I'm curious. Despacito. That makes me so mad.

Isn't he the Despacito guy? I think I know you well enough to know that you're joking, but I'm actually not. Dude, I'm just saying things that are not true. I'm just lying. I'm just seeing where it goes, dude. I'm trying to contribute. I'm trying really hard to contribute today. You're doing it. Anyways, sorry Isaiah. Okay, yeah, back to it.

Everyone was scared and on edge. The public was expecting an attack at any point from the Japanese. Blackouts are being enforced across the country, but specifically on the West Coast. Cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego going dark at night to avoid being easily found by the Japanese war machine. Which is a kind of existence we can't even think of, right? Yeah. Like, imagine your city shutting down so it can't be seen by submarines on the coast. That is actually insane. Yeah.

I wouldn't be able to survive. Fuck that. Turn the lights on. Who cares? Who cares if we get bombed? I need my internet. I'm going to get kamikaze'd. Am I right? Yeah. That'd be me unironically. It's like, get me. I'm right here. Oh, you can bet your ass. Like talking about unified. If this happened today, people would absolutely not stand for their internet being turned off. Even if there was like a monumental threat, like submarines off the coast. They'd be like, fuck no.

Keep the internet on. We need it. I want to see where the submarines are at. Let me see. I want to GPS tag them. I want to track them. If people didn't comply, they were faced with fines or angry fellow residents. Airway drills were practiced. Loud sirens routinely pierced through the air and every family had an evacuation plan regularly acted out. Films, posters, and radio broadcasts were telling the public to conserve resources and support the war effort.

paranoia and fear were understandably growing the public was reminded of the possibilities of an attack on their home soil every single day after pearl harbor which leads us into the night of the battle i can't imagine the psyche like the psychic damage you would have if every single day you were told like damage you're about you're about to be attacked

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean, but you get used to it though. That's the beautiful thing about being a human being and the fiery adaptation that is possible for all of us is just like,

It seems so bad and then you live in it and it's just like, oh, this is my new normal. I'm fine. I think yes, but we're also saying that as three people that have never existed in those kinds of conditions. I'm not saying that to devalue how difficult it is. I'm just saying humans can absolutely adapt to any horrible situation in general. I don't need to be in a terrible situation to be able to say that. Yeah, true. That's a...

Yeah, like they're, I mean, yeah, I feel like these people were probably happier than us, in all honesty. To be real. Because why?

Well, I mean, I think you need like a lot of people just have apathy and they just don't give a fuck. I mean, we're nobody likes each other anymore. A lot of people need a certain level of conflict or else they'll develop it themselves. Discomfort. There's like something to be said against like aligning against something, even if it's just I got to keep the lights on or off at night or I'll get killed by the Japanese.

And then you just go about your job during the day. It's like, that's cool. Everyone can relate at night. Everyone at the same time is like, hey, we're almost under attack. And so it's like, you know, the common enemy helps. Are you saying it gave everyone a level of purpose and we need purpose? Yeah, it gave everyone a level of purpose and community. Okay.

Because they're all fighting the same guy. Hey, let's spare eating this much or doing this much for rations so it can help the troops out who are overseas, stuff like that. Like everyone's on the same side of this fight. Everyone's together. Everyone like knows the drill, what's going on. There's no question of who do I support? Who am I against? Because it's laid out for you. Now that gets weaponized to a degree where you have neighbors reporting their Asian neighbors because they suspect they're with the Japanese and getting sent to internment camps.

obviously that's too extreme for it, but there is a balance somewhere in there where people feel together against a threat. Yeah, because it's like, I mean, we've only been really civilized for like

not that long in terms of where people just haven't been blasting each other and hurting each other all the time. Just, that's just, everybody knows somebody who's been murdered in some kind of war or tribal warfare. I mean, like, I mean, Redditors would say we're still not even civilized to this day. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, uh, I don't know. There's just so much, we're just like, there's just so much that's kind of ignored in terms of like what the burden of what's human beings are capable of and what we'd like to do without,

Being able to really analyze it. Modern civilization has only really existed for like 120 years, maybe. Yeah. So basically I'm saying bring it on, Japan. Fucking bring it on. I'll turn my lights off. Round two, baby. Round two. I'll turn my lights off. Wait, baby. We're ready this time. We won't be surprised again. Motherfucker. Watch his trap. Imagine if the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor again tomorrow or something. Just crazy out of nowhere.

No one was expecting South Korea to stage a coup d'etat or the South Korean president, I mean. Like that shit came out of nowhere. Yeah, but didn't they vote to like stop it or whatever? Yeah, within like two hours. Boo! Yeah. Lame. Get me excited for nothing. Nothing ever happens, gang. Rise up. That was pretty wild though. Waking up in the morning and reading that. Just like out of nowhere. Yeah, I was like, what the fuck's happening in South Korea?

I immediately googled status of all of my different K-pop groups that I follow just to make sure they're okay and they're fine. They have mandatory service over there. Even the K-pop stars have to serve in the military, which is crazy. Mandatory serve? Yeah. It's mandatory to serve? Yeah. You have a period of mandatory service. Okay.

So even the K-pop stars are like, I think one of the BTS guys had to serve for a little bit in the South Korean military. I don't know about that, but I think, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'd have to look that up. What about the old crones of South Korea? I think they're fine. I think the old fucking K-pop crones who have aged up to the age of 26. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Alright, real quick, a quick word from the sponsor of this episode, AG1, and we'll be right back. So I've been gearing up for my trip to Japan this December. I'm spending a nice few weeks over there. And one of the main things I'm definitely taking with me is AG1. Why? Because with the amount of things I'm planning on doing and the amount of traveling I'm planning on doing, the one thing I definitely need to have is AG1.

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I feel better and I myself love it.

That's drinkag1.com/redthread to start your new year on a healthier note. Thank you so much for checking them out. Thank you to AG1 for supporting the show. And now back to Los Angeles, the City of Angels. Okay, we're back. Now let's figure out what happened on the night of the Battle of Los Angeles.

Would you like to take this, Caleb, since this is your moment? Sure. This is my big moment. I also would like to warn both of you that I have some kind of severe respiratory illness, so I will probably mess up stuff and call... Oh, I can... Hold on. I can read. You don't have to suffer through an illness. I mean, I can try it. I can try it.

No, buddy, it's okay. Put the gun down. I think it's some kind of advanced COVID. It's taking hold of me. We're human beings. No, this is the only way he can get better is by forcing himself to do that. We just talked about human adaptation, Isaiah. Yeah.

You're right. Make the sick one read. You're just weakness masquerading as help, is what you are, Isaiah. Trying to help me. You read right ahead. Let's see if I do it again.

And things weren't that different on the day of the 24th of February. Remember, wait, okay, so that night. All right, let's get a little more context. That night. And things weren't that different on the day of the 24th of February. Remember, days prior to Roosevelt,

Let's break down the timeline for the 24th of February, 1942.

What? Unidentified objects? Those are called UAPs now. Yeah, this is old terminology. We're still a UFO. We're in UFO territory.

10:33 p.m. After nearly three excruciatingly long hours, the all clear was declared throughout the city. Residents breathed a slight sigh of relief, believing it had simply been a drill. 25th of February, 1:44 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Multiple radar stations across Los Angeles picked up an unidentified flying object traveling towards the city. The object was approximately 200 kilometers away from the shore.

The military was placed under green alert, indicating that they were ready to act if needed. That's confusing. Green means good to me. Same. Green alert. Red alert. That's what I would hear. Red alert. No, red alert would be like, shoot now, shoot now, don't ask questions, shoot now. Amber alert is when young people go missing. What about silver alert? That's when old folks go, they walk off. Is that actually? Yeah, they walk off. Yeah, silver alert. Yep, they walk off, they leave.

Yeah, that happens all the time. It does. It's really not funny, but I get them a lot on my phone. 2.25 a.m. to 2.43 a.m. The familiar sound of alarms rang throughout the city again as Los Angeles was plunged into a citywide blackout. Supposed to bunker down and shelter, some residents risked stepping out into the streets on their porches or even peering out the window to witness what was happening.

Anti-aircraft runners were told to prepare for possible action as the military continued to monitor their radars. Approximately 10 miles out from the city, an unidentified object was picked up. Search spotlights illuminated the sky in search of these supposed enemy planes. First seen over Long Beach, a Coast artillery colonel reported that around 25 planes at 12,000 feet were heading over Los Angeles. To the military, everything had indicated to them that Los Angeles was now under attack and they were prepared to hit back.

What is that? Anti-aircraft gun. What is that? Yeah, so there's a picture here of like an anti-aircraft gun on top of like a building in Los Angeles. Looks like a damn loose stuff. Yeah, it looks like a weird Lewis gun looking thing. Yeah, I'm like, what the fuck? It seems like it would work. It's got a barrel shroud over it. It's like water cooled. Interesting. Yeah. It's like they're holding it. It's got like the drum inside. It's clearly water cooled because they have the line running to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's not one of those little R2D2 things. It's mobile as well because they've got little sandbags on it so it's not like a proper installation or anything. It's not like a permanent fix. Crucial weapon there, partner.

307 a.m. to 430 a.m., the anti-aircraft guns were fired into the sky, attempting to shoot down aircraft seen over the coast, and the night skies erupted into a war zone. The sky was filled with lights from the searchlights, while dust and debris filled the air. Reports were coming in of slow-moving targets flying in formations across the city and even near important locations like the Douglas Aircraft Company. Important because the company had a big war contract in place to produce aircraft such as the Dauntless Dive Bomber and A-26 Invader.

aircraft that would be crucial in the success of the Allies. There were over 16 verifiable military eyewitnesses that saw various things like weather balloons to various amounts of enemy planes in the sky. Gunfire continued on into the morning, sporadically as reports of enemy planes in locations like Hollywood were slowly disproven. And this is a quote. What kind of voice should this be, this quote, do you think? For military report, I think it should be like an old transatlantic-like radio broadcaster. Okay.

At 0243, the gun officer reported unidentified planes between Seal Beach and Long Beach. A 306, a plane, a balloon. A 306, a balloon carrying a red flare was reported over Santa Monica and firing on it. Began at 307 on orders of the controller army to destroy it. A total of 482 rounds of 3-inch were expended at the planes. Without visible result, a temporary gun 3-3 reported setting one plane on fire. Was he getting sent down in the process? Oh my god. That's great.

I turned red that whole time. I just didn't take any breaths. And I'm already very sick and ill. That is the perfect role to give to someone who's dying from COVID or whatever at the moment as well. You're going to get healthy from that. That's great. I can feel the mucus and phlegm expelling from my lungs. I can feel it. My bronchioles are...

praising you. I love talking about bronchioles. 721 AM, the blackout was called off and the morning sun shone over the city. Through the destruction and chaos, there were no enemy planes, bombs, or any evidence to show that a war had just been waged on an enemy force. Over 1400 rounds were expended. No indications of aircraft wreckage were seen through the early morning and only shrapnel from the rounds were ever found. Interesting. So that it never happened.

Well, no. But, I mean, it definitely happened. Like, people saw the fucking anti-aircraft explosions in the sky and shit like that. It's the targets that are in question. Yeah, the target. We don't know what they were shooting at. The Japanese were never there. I don't think they knew. Yeah, the Japanese... They were just Chinese.

Yeah, the Chinese started to get involved. Okay, so the aftermath. Five civilians died that night indirectly from the air raid. Three were involved in a deadly car accident. I think the car accident was caused by looking at the anti-aircraft, which is why it's attributed to this. And one being a police officer and two passed away from heart attacks from the stress of the incident.

Properties and cars were damaged from shrapnel flying through the air. Many barely avoided injury, some later telling of how they had gone out of bed to see what was happening before fragments flew into their beds. And it wasn't quite over yet. There were also bombs in the city that had not gone off yet. Los Angeles was now a minefield. There's still like bombs being disarmed to this day from World War II in a lot of city centers, especially over Europe, right? Dude, in Europe, like borders and artillery. In Europe, for sure, yeah. Yeah, in Europe, it's wild.

France. Landmines were a really big deal I know in France for a long time. There are stories of like kids dying like 10 years after the war from stepping on landmines that were set up. Fucking mental. Landmines in general have had like such a negative impact on humanity just across the board. Yeah. Death. Landmines are a scary, scary implement, you know.

because it's like you put them out of the ground that ground forever it's poison it's strange once the japanese surprise attacked pearl harbor it's like honor went out of uh war now they're using land mines and stuff and giant underwater mines and you know surprised well land mines were being used prior to world war ii and like i know i'm being i'm not being serious obviously there's no honor in war it's like it's

It's not like World War I was like two people went out on the field and had a samurai battle and then that decided the war or anything. There's no honor in war usually. That's ever since caveman times. What about the Civil War, brother? Oh, yeah. Why else would it be called the Civil War? It ended with a handshake. Exactly. They're very civil. Yeah. They stood across. They just shot each other a lot.

Yeah. And if anyone said stop now, the general would look at his men and be like, you win. And they'd walk off. Yeah. And that one guy held his hand up for a long time. Stonewall. Can I shoot now? Yeah. Can I shoot now? Yeah. Timeouts were called often and they were respected. Wait, wasn't the Civil War the one where they actually, no, it was World War II, I think, where they took Christmas off. Both armies decided. That's World War I. World War I. Yeah. Where they decided.

You know, Christmas. Yeah. I mean, that one was not over shit. World War One was not over. It was over. It was because a bunch of empires wanted to test out weaponry and they haven't had a good war in a long time. One of their moment. Yeah. Yeah. So tragic.

So locals were terrified and as they looked for answers on what or who had caused the destruction, there was no answers. And then we have a picture here of Los Angeles resident Frank Stewart showing damage to his kitchen. I think he's trying to claim insurance money. Because I don't know how the fuck this was caused by anti-air cannons. Maybe just debris or like ricochet flying off. Everything else was fine. It's just this one pantry that got fucked somehow.

He's just really unlucky. Does this Frank Stewart guy to you guys look like the... Chris Hansen. Yeah, Chris Hansen. Looks exactly like Chris Hansen. That's what I was thinking. It's Chris Hansen. He's a time traveler. He looks like Chris Hansen, but cute. For a second, I thought it was Chris Hansen taking a picture at a museum with a destroyed cabinet. How the fuck did that happen?

How the fuck did that happen? How does that actually, and it's all burnt and stuff too. He's like, look, that's what I said. No, I think, I think what happened is that cabinet is facing an exterior wall. So like a round or whatever came through the wall, through the cabinet. I did that just exploded in there.

It's all charted there like there was a fire inside. Shoot an anti-aircraft round into a brick wall. What were they using though? What were the anti-aircraft rounds? That's really important. I think they were like 30mm back then, weren't they? 20-30mm? Something to tear apart planes. I guess I'm just basing it off that fucking weird-ass Lewis gun that they had on the roof. A little tater-trucker. It's like a 7.62 or something. I don't know. Yeah. I feel like this guy...

This guy, he just spilled his bucket of molasses and he's trying to get an insurance payout. That's what I'm saying. It's an insurance job. This guy, he's like, look, poured some gasoline in there. This is soot from an explosive round, not molasses. Do not taste it. It's soot. It's the Chris Hansen thing to do as well because he's been scamming people lately. Yeah, he loves scamming. Well, I shouldn't say that.

shooting from the hip. Allegedly. It says in that post we read a second ago that they were firing 3-inch rounds, right? Right. So 3-inch was like an old 30, I think it was like a 30mm, something like that. I forget what 3-inch was a designation of. So yeah, it was like 30mm they were firing. But it looks like there was fire inside, because look at the scorch marks and stuff. It looks like there was fire in the pantry. 3 inches would be...

Because a half inch is like 12.7, so it'd be like 70-something. It's 76.2. 76.2. Oh yeah, duh, because .3 inches is a .30 caliber 7.62. Alright, so for people who don't have access to guns, like myself, what does that mean?

A big bullet. Huge bullet. Yeah, huge. Very big bullet. Capable of tearing apart Chris Hansen's living room cupboard? Yes, yeah. Capable of tearing apart houses, yeah. A three-inch diameter bullet. I mean, look at your wrist, basically, and then just make that a circle and a little bigger. And that's a bullet. And that's a bullet, yeah. Okay. So it could potentially kill a human being.

Anything that bullet makes contact with doesn't exist anymore. I think it could potentially kill if you're really accurate. I think potentially if a bullet, if something the size of your arm makes impact with you at three times the speed of sound, I don't think you're doing okay.

If you're launching a baby's arm through space and time at three times the speed of sound, and it's a little fist and it punches you in the head, your fucking head's going to blow up. And also the baby's fist is made of lead and metal. And it's really dense. Yeah. So you're saying it should be fine if I get to the hospital pretty quickly? Uh-huh. Sweet. It'll go right through. For those of you who don't know anything about bullets, you'll be fine. Yeah. Nice. Good.

We should myth bust this. A press conference was held the following day by US Secretary of Navy Frank Knox. Cool name. I love that name. He announced that the incident had been a false alarm due to war nerves. He talked about how the reports that came flowing in were based on misinterpretation and while he admitted they were thinking of the importance of moving critical industries more inland for further security, people should not panic and they needed to remain calm.

That's pretty obnoxious after waging a war in Los Angeles over the previous night over like ghost planes basically. Fuck that, I'm not being calm after that. I'm getting the fuck out of Los Angeles.

The general consensus was that the shell bursts from the anti-aircraft guns were being caught in the searchlights and then mistaken for additional enemy aircrafts, leading to an endless sighting of unknown flying objects. But that doesn't really explain why the first gunshot went off. Because again, remember there was like radar pings, wasn't there? Yeah, allegedly. Let's ask our war correspondent. Over to you, wartime correspondent.

There were radar pings! Thank you, wartime correspondent. I'm glad we got you on payroll. You're welcome! Three shillings and one pence. As further reports began to be released by the army and navy, statements started to conflict with each other. Knox had reported that it was all a false alarm, but now it was revealed that it may have been commercial planes or aircrafts that had been launched from submarines. Commercial planes? Like fucking Boeing 717s? Yeah, just shoot them down. Oh my god, it's a plane!

Shoot it! Fuck! Wait, what? Commercial planes? What does that... I mean, I get what that means. This is starting to sound more and more like a big insurance claim, to be honest. Yeah, by Chris Hansen up here. He planned this entire thing to clean his classes. Well, it says commercial planes launched from submarines. So, does that mean, like...

I think it's commercial planes and then or aircraft that have been launched from submarines. So two different things. What the fuck kind of commercial plane gets launched? Like a balloon? I guess you could say off a balloon from a plane. Let's ask Will Smith. Or from a submarine. Maybe commercial. I'm really hung up on commercial planes. Like what would that even mean? Obviously not American commercial planes. That they were accidentally shooting at commercial airplanes.

Yeah, but that would have been pretty easy to, like, confirm after the fact, surely, when the fucking pilot of a 717 comes on the radio. Read the next sentence. Read the next sentence. Okay. These statements were speculatory in nature based on the fact that Japan had only days prior sent shots firing at the nearby oil field and they were expecting a possible escalation. Then, to confound the situation further, the Secretary of War himself, Henry L. Stimson...

claimed that as many as 15 planes may have been involved between elevations of 9,000 to 18,000 feet, directly contradicting the US Secretary of the Navy. Regardless, the second... So in other words, no one had any... No. Even within the military. Even within the military. Like two different reports from different branches of the military.

Regardless, the speculation through official channels and the differing of opinions reported in the media did very little to assuage the public. In fact, it made it worse. On the 27th, the War Department again issued a final report declaring that there were no confirmed sightings or reports of enemy planes, essentially summing it up as if it was an over-exaggeration and the false sightings were due to all the debris in the air. So I guess they got on the same page at that point and issued a joint statement. Yeah.

It went, yeah, see. And then they were like, we were wrong. Our war correspondent's a dumbass. He's fired. He's fired. Yeah. What happened to that voice? The, yeah, see, voice. Because that's my favorite voice. If you guys, I've been learning a lot about

It's going to sound really dumb, but like linguistics and just like language. You're stupid. It's not dumb. The way that I'm learning it is really dumb because it's just like in inordinately. I'm not learning it. And you're just, you're just listening to a guy say mercy. Yeah. Like it's happening. I'm waking up in the middle of the night to six hour lectures in linguistics basically. Uh, cause my phone auto plays, but, um,

adjacent to linguistics, the history of language and how people sounded, how people actually sounded, our founding fathers actually sounded and how that led to eventually the weird transatlantic accent and just how different everyone sounded even a hundred years ago. And then how much that's changed since the radio came out and everyone's voices have kind of, you know, melded into something that is less different.

Yeah, it's kind of homogenized, right? Yeah, yeah. And the intention of the transatlantic accent was to homogenize voice so everyone around the world could understand what's going on. There, see? Hey, boy. As long as it's like English. Yeah. Yeah, it was really interesting. So what happened to that voice? What happened to the, yeah, see, voice? Like, when did that stop?

I think people just realized it wasn't swag. And then they stopped because they're like, this is stupid. As soon as it went to TV. The transatlantic accent was never a naturally grown thing.

it was a purposeful projection. Oh, they put it on? I thought that just sounded like it was put on. Actors and news broadcasters put it on as a means of presenting themselves in a certain tone and cadence. But as it became more standardized to not be that way, it just died out. Right. So do we...

How we talk right now, obviously I have like a, you know, Australian accent, so not the same, but like with your guys' accent, the American accent, as we see it now, I know there's different, you know, types of American accent. Dialects. Were those dialects still present back in the 1940s? It's just that they would then put on airs basically by doing that air, see? Yes, yeah. Yes. Ah, interesting. Okay.

The American Southern accident is actually believed to be from old British royalty. Yeah, exactly. That was like the aristocracy voice. Hello, I'm from Georgia. Like that type of accent. Hello, I talk real slow. That's supposed to be like... Is that why people look down on Southerners then? Because they hate British royalty? They think British royalty is stupid? No, it's because the British royalty moved to the South whenever the area was like...

started to be colonized because that's where all the open land was to farm and stuff like that. So they moved. A lot of them moved down there. But the general disdain for Southerners developed over the course of the Americans' development didn't really have to do with the British influence because the entire country was British influence. It had to do with hookworms. There you go.

There's actually a lot. Some people will be like, wow, it's crazy that he knows about that. We'll save that for another episode. We'll save that for another episode. I'm sure we will. People will be waiting for that one.

Yeah.

into two million people or a mistaken identity raid or a raid to lay a political foundation to take away Southern California's war industries which is a fucking crazy thing to say as a like a representative a U.S representative basically like the government or the military did this just to uh like it was a political stunt basically to take away industry from

The papers and the broader media began to cover the Battle of Los Angeles immediately, with one of the first being the Los Angeles Times. They continued to update the story when new information came forward, and this began to show how conflicting all of the documents and reports were. This starts with Exaltation was in the air, so I feel like you should read this, Caleb.

Chris Hansen! Sorry, what? I said Chris Hansen. Oh, yeah, yeah.

The sheriff was particularly embarrassed. He had valiantly helped the FBI round up several Japanese nurserymen and gardeners who were supposedly caught in the act of signaling the imminent event of enemies. The secretary of war tried to save face by saying that while there were no enemy aircraft in the air, it was believed that 15 commercial planes flown by enemy agents had crossed the city. Likely story, chump. Chap.

Though no one believed this gross canard. Dude, gross canard. Gross canard. That's sick. That's insane. That is an awesome gamer tag. Gross canard. Though no one believed this gross canard, this harangue, most agreed with the secretary that it was better to be alert than to not alert enough. Bazinga! Perfect. Can you do that voice, Isaiah?

Pro... Ah, see? The city admitted its first taste of war with valor, see? I'm not going to say this. I got two voices, but I do like that. It was exhilarating, but exultation turned to embarrassment the next day. A little bit.

I like it. Now pay me in molasses, see? Meh. A lot came out of the Battle of Los Angeles, including a fantastic movie. A general mistrust towards the military began to grow with the many conflicting statements. Many began to doubt any information that was coming from the government and many more wondered if they were truly getting all the information about potential threats and the war itself.

Public confidence was down. The government also grew increasingly more suspicious of Japanese Americans who had already been suffering after the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. These events led to the internment of thousands of Japanese American citizens under an executive order, which was Executive Order 1966. The military-

I was trying, I was desperately trying not to, not to make the Star Wars reference. I couldn't help it. You said it. I know. Basically. It literally, it's, it's just like Star Wars. YouTuber when he hears about minority internments. Yeah. How can I relate this to Star Wars? How can I relate to Star Wars? Well, that one was easy though. That was a, yeah, that was a very Emperor Palpatine thing for the US government to do.

The military were looking at neutralizing potential internal threats and events like the Battle of Los Angeles reinforced their decision to take these extreme actions. Was it possible, Caleb and Isaiah, that this was a false flag operation intended to drum up further anxiety about the war and so public support for the war within America to allow lawmakers to push forward with actions like internment? What do you think? Seems possible.

You think they shot into the air a couple times and pretended that there was a threat there in order to...

push forward the internment plans basically to... I think that gives a little bit too much credit to the average Joe military people who wouldn't have thought that many steps ahead. If they wanted to throw people in internment camps, they just throw them in internment camps. No, I think it was legally impossible until executive order passed which they would have needed the political capital and public will to do that. And

And sure, the Times were probably more racist towards Japanese Americans at the time. But there was probably still legal ramifications to just pushing that through without something big to support. I feel like just in general, the sign of the Times, if people were probably... You asked the average person, do you think we should throw Japanese people in internment camps? We're at war with them. They attacked Pearl Harbor.

And the average person would probably be like, sure, that doesn't affect me or my wife that I beat or anything. They probably wouldn't give a shit. They'd probably just be like, yeah, that's fine. Let's do that. Yeah, they're not one of us. Sure. Yeah, exactly. I think that was a very strong sentiment that probably didn't need a false flag. I agree. I think the sentiment existed. But I think the reason for a false flag in this situation, I'm not saying I necessarily believe it, was because I think they still would have needed a...

another big event to point to that had more kind of relativity to the people of the country. And I know Pearl Harbor just happened, which they could have pointed to that. But yeah, I feel like they needed something big in order to point to, in order to push it through legally. Are you describing 9-11? I mean, yeah, I guess I am.

Because it's what it sounds like. He's putting together too many pieces. Stop him quick. Kill that guy! Shoot him! He's seen all the codes. I'm not saying I subscribe to this theory. I'm just saying I can see the rationality for that theory. You're postulating it. You're postulating it on a podcast with your bros. I'm chewing it. I'm chewing it around in my mouth. Tasting its flavor.

Little kitty at the CIA. Yeah, you're right there. Yeah, I've just, have you heard that Kitty History song by Trevor Moore? Trevor, yeah. Trevor Moore. Yeah, Jackson. Have you heard it? No, I haven't. I'll send it to you. Yeah, send it to me. Yeah, I'll send it to you. Pretty good. Sounds like easy listening. We need a new Pearl Harbor as far as we can. Sorry. I interrupted you. I'm really sorry. No, it's just the Discord delay. Don't worry.

There is so much more to the horrible story of the Japanese Americans who were taken from their homes and sent to prison camps, detained for the duration of the war while subjected to horrible conditions. Families were torn apart and generational trauma instilled on innocent people. The effect of this was felt for decades mentally but also their social and economic well-being was severely impacted for many decades to come.

In the 1980s, a formal apology was made by the government where they admitted that the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II was motivated by racism and war hysteria. Executive Order 1966 is considered by many as one of the worst violations of American civil rights to happen in the 20th century. It's entirely possible that the Battle of Los Angeles was conducted in order to make that happen.

Yeah, again, I can see why this theory exists, but at the same time, it is pretty extreme. I would more so lay... It puts way too much faith in the US government. I mean, there's already a Pearl Harbor. They're not that organized. Yeah, there was already Pearl Harbor. That's way worse. They didn't need more reason. Now they're invading the City of Angels. That's where you live.

Not just Hawaii. Remember that attack that happened? Well, they may maybe do something that kind of way again. We should ask Cole Phelps, protagonist of L.A. Noire. L.A. Noire. We need an L.A. Noire 2. I don't know why Rockstar doesn't make an L.A. Noire 2 other than the fact that that sold awfully, I think. Yeah, it sold awfully and Let's Players ruined it because nobody wanted to play the game. They just watched people play it.

Yeah, but it was so good. Fuck. It was amazing, yeah. And his last name is Phelps. That's like the only person ever who has the last name Phelps aside from me, of course. Also, Isaiah, that game came from Australia.

Checkmate. What? Okay. What's your point? I don't know. I just... Red Dead's better. Australian's like... Australian literally being like, oh, this game's so good and we made it. Like, okay. Glad you feel that way. Yeah. Well, we still get to play it, though. I'm sorry. I think the penal colony person tried to say something. Could you hear him? Penal colony? I can't hear you over your chains clanking. Okay.

a post-war investigation into the events claimed that quote it had been definitely ascertained that the blackout and anti-aircraft firing were caused by the presence of uh from one to five unidentified airplanes and this is still the quote well it's possible these airplanes were launched from japanese submarines i didn't even know submarines could do that launch airplanes yeah like paper ones yeah how does that work like i don't know i can get

They would have to obviously rise above the ocean and then take off, but wouldn't their planes be wet? I don't know how that works. Well, it is possible these airplanes were launched from Japanese submarines. It is more likely that they were civilian or commercial planes operated by unauthorized pilots. Okay, well, if submarines can launch airplanes, what's even the point of having an aircraft carrier? In World War II, the only nation to regularly launch airplanes from submarines was Japan. Wow, so they mastered the technology. No one else did that.

I think that planes can still fly when they're wet, to be honest. Birds can't. Well, no, birds can, actually. I was going to say, I think they just can't fly when they're submerged in water. I think that's the main physical limitation. Yeah, that would create an issue if planes would ever fly through rain. Yeah, or clouds. Yeah. Yeah.

That's awesome. That's really funny. How do they get in the planes if it's underwater? That's a good question. I don't know. Imagine if they could take off underwater as well. That would be way scarier if a plane just fucking flies out of the ocean. Maybe it's those little rocket planes. Little kamikaze rocket planes. That people just died in from the G-Force, but they didn't care. Yeah.

No information was found within Japan to corroborate that the Japanese military had conducted any operations within the area at the time frame in a post-war investigation. And as Japan had been forthcoming with other military information in the post-war time period, it doesn't make sense for them to have lied about this. So Japan's involvement was definitively ruled out.

Ah yeah, so, you know, they investigated the records after Japan had been westernized and there was no information about them attacking Los Angeles at all. So that was ruled out. The FBI had conducted their own search into who could have potentially flown aircraft in the area at the time, but they were unable to deliver any concrete theories or evidence. And due to this, the Battle of Los Angeles is pretty securely in the unknown territory filled with gossip and speculation.

and theories. So, who wants to take- who wants to talk about aliens? Who loves talking about aliens? I'm talking about- I'm absolutely talking about aliens. Please do. Yeah, my vote's Isaiah. If one was to believe that there were aircraft above Los Angeles that night, and it wasn't the Japanese, and it wasn't other more typical aircraft, then surely the only answer could be that it was aliens. One of the biggest conspiracy theories surrounding the Battle of Los Angeles is that the military were fighting off UFOs, but how did this theory come to be?

It all comes back to one photograph, the one at the start of this document, depicting a beacon of light in the middle of the sky with rays pointing up to it. It's an iconic image from that night, showing us what thousands of people saw as the United States military waged war against an unknown threat. However, when a researcher named Dr. Bruce McAbee examined the picture, he found something astonishing. When he brightened the picture, he found what looked to be a circular kind of object the beams of light were reflecting off of.

Okay, so I assume that's the top picture here of the spotlight hitting like a circular object. Seeing is believing. But a bunch of reflections shooting off it. Like a lot of those are spotlights shooting up at it, but there are definitely like lights reflecting off it. You can see to the left and the right, the reflection of the light. But that would happen if a spotlight was hitting like a metal plane or a balloon. What if it was wet?

Well, then, yeah, then it would soak up the reflection. But wait, how is it even flying then? Yeah, I think this picture is like really iconic and cool. Yeah, it's a really interesting photo. I'm just like, I just have been staring at it ever since I've scrolled down. It's a bunch of spotlights hitting this object and then like also white dots around, which I assume are the anti-aircraft explosions. Yeah. Molasses. Filled with molasses. Yeah. Yeah.

And then there's also a picture underneath it, which I'm too stupid to comprehend, which is like the different directions the lights are going. I think it's meant to mean something. Convergence region. Yeah, it's like the... I think it's the lights bouncing off of each other. If you're lame, that is. It's actually aliens. Well, no, I think this is the point that people are making, that it is aliens, because apparently UFOs are the only things that can reflect light, maybe. Yeah.

They're saying there's a giant circular object there that doesn't match any other known aircraft and the light is hitting it and then bouncing the light off it. This is proof, Isaiah, that it is an alien. I see. Seeing is believing, Isaiah. Yeah. Yeah.

While this picture was ultimately enough to fuel decades worth of UFO conspiracies surrounding the event, there have been controversy with this image. It was published in the LA Times, which gives it a shred of credibility, but it was actually heavily retouched. When the article was republished, they commented this on the image being edited. The comment read,

February 26th, 1942. The LA Times published a photo page that included a retouched version of the above searchlight photo. Fake news! It was fake news in 1942. Edited Photoshop. Losers! Retouched version.

is the iconic image seen worldwide. Back in 2011, I viewed the two negatives. The non-retouched negative is very flat, the focus is so soft and it looks underexposed. Although I could not tell if the negative was the original or a copy negative made from a print, it definitely showed the original scene before a print was retouched.

Second at negative is a copy negative from a retouched print. Certain details, such as the white spots around the searchlight's convergence, are exactly the same in both negatives. In the retouched version, many light beams were lightened and widened with white paint while the other beams were eliminated. It's the same thing that happens to your face in Creepcast thumbnails. Wow. Man, you got me so good.

Wow, you got me good with that one, bro. Thanks. You're welcome. You owned me. I didn't mean to own you. It was meant to be more of a... I have to quit the podcast now. This is your fault. How do you feel? It was meant to be more of a, I'm getting on all fours and you are my mecca. Oh. Oh. All right. Well, anyone who's mad about that comment, you can direct your complaints to Caleb. His phone number is 483-24...

And my email address is brands.sour.gg. Caleb would happily give the rest of his contact information. He probably would for the fun of it. I love talking to people. I love people. In the 1940s, it was common for newspapers to use artists to retouch images because of poor reproduction. The retouching was needed to reproduce this image, but I wish the retouching had been more faithful to the original.

The Los Angeles Times published another retouched version of the image on October 29th, 45. The white spots near the convergence of the searchlights are larger than in the 42 version. This print is in the LA Times library and in poor condition. So they doubled down on the retouching and made it even more dramatic after the fact. Yes, that's what I would do.

Release a new one now and make the white lights even brighter. Put a little gray alien in there somewhere waving at us. Now we're talking. Use AI on it. Change the expression. Make it surrealist. There were reports from civilians who believed that they saw strange lights and shapes in the sky that they could not explain. And it appeared that objects did appear on military radars. Could it have been UFOs?

I've seen that maybe dismissing enemy planes were attempts to obscure the real nature of the threat that loomed over LA that night. But wouldn't you want there to be something to blame so the public don't find anything suspicious? There's also so much stress and hysteria going around that people were seeing things they believed could be linked to aliens when it was just a result of the chaos around them.

Plus, explosions in the night sky mixed with the blackouts could potentially look like UFOs. Maybe the people of Los Angeles were simply seeing actual stars for the first time due to the blackout and were confused. Haha, timely reference. I appreciate it. I like that. It's good. Yeah. I've never seen a star before in my life. I'd probably think it was an alien too. I believe you. Yeah, I believe you, Penal Colony. Probably never looked up. There were... My neck doesn't go that way. I only look down.

supposedly people were calling the story is people were calling the police because they could see the night sky for the first time. I think in reality people were that's always been the story. I think in reality people were calling like local astrology departments to report new stuff in the night sky when in reality they could just see it for the first time. Still pretty intense. Yeah.

pretty pretty sad when you think about it so yeah i don't i don't necessarily believe their claims of aliens that much if it were me i believe it of course yeah i would i don't yeah it doesn't seem that realistic alien now if a good old boy had said it then i'd believe him but la no sir fortunately i regret to inform you there's likely an answer in that of weather balloons ufo fans hate them and this is why

1948, a former Army Air Force major named William Goss conducted an investigation into the events at the behest of the U.S. Air Force. He came to the conclusion that the raid was nothing more than a weather balloon. Several officers had testified that they had originally confirmed that the target was a weather balloon carrying a red flare. They had chosen not to fire after they had learned that the weather balloon itself was released by the military themselves. This testimony was further corroborated by a general who confirmed that at least two balloons had been released near the area that night.

This would also explain the rather slow speed that the UFO had as it required 30 minutes to cover a distance of 40 kilometers. I love how they used terminology like they had been released near the area that night, like they're wild animals basically just roaming the area. We don't know what this thing's going to do. They go where they fill lead. This old bitch, this old fucking balloon. These things got minds of their own. They'll roam for a bit and then they'll come back in.

But then, why on God's earth did the military open fire on their own weather balloons? In 1949, former Army Colonel named John Murphy penned an article where he claimed that when the regional controller in San Francisco received word of the, quote, balloon over Los Angeles, he had incorrectly thought the report had been describing an enemy Zeppelin.

Due to the misunderstanding, and perhaps in conjunction with the tensions already being enormously high, he had given the order to open fire and, once that had happened, the situation deteriorated due to the action. Another counterpoint that is brought up is the question of, how is it possible that 1,400 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition was unable to bring down a balloon?

I don't have an answer for that beyond the understanding that weather balloons are rather small and travel horizontally and vertically, so they would be rather hard to hit, but even that is a rather unconvincing answer. According to Colonel John Murphy, however, he assured the balloon survived, writing, both balloons, as I remember, floated away majestically and safely. Man, that guy loves balloons.

That's pretty funny that they never shot him down. What probably happened is they saw him in the air and then everyone started firing wildly and then they never even shot where the balloons were at. Well, yeah. So I think that they saw the balloons and then they got confirmation from one of the generals or whatever the regional controller in San Francisco that gave them confirmation to start shooting and

and then they started shooting and then in the viewfinders or whatever they're called, rangefinders or sites or whatever, they were just seeing the various explosions, like the anti-aircraft explosions and then just shooting at those, basically. Because it was at nighttime, they would have seen like dust and smoke and thought it was other aircraft. So it was just kind of compounding on itself, basically. Do you think that's possible, Isaiah? Do you think like they were just shooting at smoke?

Yeah. I think they were just shooting. I think it was just hysteria. People were on edge already and they had their fingers on a lot of triggers. And then they see something, which I do believe they saw something in the balloon. And then that just sets off a whole chain of events where everyone's shooting at the sky and nothing happens. Yeah. Every time we shoot this, every time we shoot, there's more of them. What do we do? I just believe old Colonel John Murphy. He's a lunar.

He's a lunar. Loves balloons. It would be so funny. I mean, it wouldn't because people would have died, but if they got so scared they thought the other anti-aircraft positions were the Japanese. So all the rooftops are shooting at each other. Oh my gosh. How did the Japanese get here so quickly? They're in the roofs. Oh my gosh. They've got their own lights. Their own searchlights. Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that Japanese battalion looks exactly like one of our anti-aircraft positions. Yeah, one of them's up there like, they built a city right under us. There's no honor in war. They're just just like us. Gotta start shooting. They're wearing our uniforms. They're wearing our uniforms. Quick, they're hiding in the preschool. Open fire. Oh my gosh.

No drone strikes yet. I'll take this last paragraph. It's impossible to know the actual events that took place during the Battle of Los Angeles, but the most logical...

and therefore boring answer is that a weather balloon was released and a misidentification led to the military opening fire on it. Then, due to the chaos and the smoke and debris, the military inadvertently convinced itself of a larger scale attack than just two balloons. This is corroborated by the testimony of the acting commander at the time, who stated that he was certain that he'd seen enemy aircraft until he realized he had only seen drifting smoke that had been produced by the exploding shells of the anti-aircraft guns.

even still it's a hardly convincing argument overall but it's not hard to see why there are so many theories and speculative stories about the event to this day and we don't have a definitive answer so it could be aliens the only proof we have of aliens is that photo of it like a circular object maybe being behind there but obviously that's enough for me

We either believe the liars, the Photoshop users from the LA Times, or we believe the looner. The guy who loves fucking balloons and he's got some kind of weird fetish. So we have to choose as Americans. I'm with you. I will always choose the loon. I'll choose the loon who loves balloons. I'm a loon. I'm a loon who loves balloons.

Those are our two options apparently is a lunar who loves balloons and lunas who make alien photos. Just like the rubbing sound. When you put the balloons together. Oh, that's when I had two balloons. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Fair enough. Yeah, any last thoughts about the case, guys? Any little anecdotes or theory or funny witticisms? I like it. I like that one. Yeah, it was a good one. It was fun.

It's very good. I enjoyed it. I think it's just a fun story not a lot of people talk about, especially because it was in the midst of World War II. There's a lot of other stuff that was happening people talk about. But it's cool to bring up just over LA, a bunch of people fired guns thinking they were under attack. And yeah, that's all we know about it. So that's pretty cool. Yeah.

Cool little story. I enjoyed it. And it's pretty harmless story as well. I mean, people, five people did die, but that was due to unrelated kind of things happening at the time, like a car crash and stuff like that. So I don't know if you could directly attribute it to it, but Chris Hansen's living room was rattled a little bit, which is a shame. His molasses spilled. Yeah, he lost all his molasses. So that is a downside to the events for sure. I,

I just, I've gone back up to that photo and he's a time traveler. It looks one-to-one with Chris Hansen. It's like him, but cute. No, it's him, but younger. It's like him, but slightly kawaii. Yeah. We're going to put this picture up on screen again. You guys let us know what you think. Chris Hansen, time travel. Yes, I know. That might be the next episode. We'll do a deep dive into Chris Hansen's history and what other time periods he may have visited in the past.

That's going to do it for this episode, though. Thank you very much for joining us for this episode of Red Thread. Let us know what you thought below and recommend some interesting cases for next time as well. I want to hear what you guys are wanting. So let us know. Again, the merchandise, Red Thread shirt. I'm going to move this out of the way. Yeah, you can go get this at official.men. 10% to 15% off. Go check it out.

Yeah, let us know if you grab it and send us tag us in the pictures and stuff online That's gonna do it for this episode. Thank you very much YouTube for joining me Yeah, thank you very much. See you next time. See you guys. Bye fellas. Thank you all for watching Be sure to shoot shots randomly into the sky. Bye