Despite there being no enemy planes there was still damage incurred by residents and buildings, mostly coming from the exploding anti-aircraft shells. Shrapnel from the shells ripped through buildings and broke windows. Several people had their houses severely damaged by 3-inch artillery shells. There were also a few deaths. Five people in total died, two due to heart attacks and three died in car accidents caused by the blackout. Many volunteer Civil Defense air raid wardens were injured as well. Most received nasty cuts and gashes and some even broke bones as they made their way through the darkness to try and ensure everyone's safety. Twenty Japanese-Americans were also rounded up and arrested for allegedly signalling the “attacking” planes, of course this was all just hysteria and the sheriff's office later apologized for the arrests.

Causes

The days immediately following the incident saw contradictory reports from both military and media sources. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called it a false alarm triggered by “jittery nerves”, while Secretary of War Henry Stimson believed there were at least 15 planes that flew over the city. Stimson even said that he believed the theory that commercial planes were hijacked by enemy operatives in order to spread fear throughout the public, though he later recanted that statement.

The biggest issue with finding a reasonable explanation was the thousands of people who claimed they did see aircraft. An editorial in the New York Times claimed that many had seen, “a big floating object resembling a balloon” while others continued to maintain that they saw as many as several dozen aircraft. The blimp theory can be easily explained away as smoke from the ack ack fire being illuminated by the spotlights but explaining away the planes was not so easy. Some Navy scientists said it was weather balloons but the only evidence at the time to back up this idea was a statement by a soldier who said, “I was a radar operator at Esplanade on Redondo Beach. We were called and told there was gonna be a target coming in. Our radar had a range of eighteen miles. We had to wait til that target got within our range. We picked it up finally, and we turned the lights on it; it was meteorologist balloon, with a wavelength of wire tied to the balloon, so that the radar would pick it up!”

Even after the war was over there was no clear answer. The Japenese stated later on that they never flew any sort of aircraft over Los Angeles, and official documents released backed up their claim. Some soldiers did come forward and say that they did not see anything and that there was a misfire at one of the stations which could have prompted others to start firing. As the years passed the most likely explanation remained that the soldiers nerves coupled with the rudimentary radar technology of the time created a false alarm that led to the incident.