Why would they want to shell Castroville? Something against artichokes? Was it a major place for Fort Ord troops in training to hit the bars? I can't find any WWII era military target there...
For all its coastline, there's relatively little of it that's of any strategic significance at all.
San Diego, Los Angeles - Long Beach. Malibu. Ventura. Santa Barbara. Pismo Beach. Big Sur. Carmel. Monterey. Castroville. Santa Cruz. Pacifica. San Francisco. Eureka-Arcata.
And that's along some 800 miles of coastline. Only the starred cities are of any particular size now, and most would have been far smaller during WWII. The Japanese may have chosen to avoid cities as they were more likely to be effectively defended.
Santa Barbara's oilfields would have been a modestly significant strategic target, though US oil facilities elsewhere, particularly in Texas, were vastly larger. California also had major inland fields near Bakersfield, Taft, and throughout the Los Angeles basin.
I have no idea. Castroville had a radio direction finder station during the war, but that didn't open until 1943. Maybe it was just a lightly defended place they could shell to cause panic?
San Diego, Los Angeles - Long Beach. Malibu. Ventura. Santa Barbara. Pismo Beach. Big Sur. Carmel. Monterey. Castroville. Santa Cruz. Pacifica. San Francisco. Eureka-Arcata.
And that's along some 800 miles of coastline. Only the starred cities are of any particular size now, and most would have been far smaller during WWII. The Japanese may have chosen to avoid cities as they were more likely to be effectively defended.
Santa Barbara's oilfields would have been a modestly significant strategic target, though US oil facilities elsewhere, particularly in Texas, were vastly larger. California also had major inland fields near Bakersfield, Taft, and throughout the Los Angeles basin.