Arakawa further found that the strongest winds blew from November to March at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour (320km/h). On May 5, 1945, six civilians were killed near Bly, Oregon, when they discovered one of the balloon bombs in Fremont National Forest, becoming the only fatalities from Axis action in the continental U.S. during the war. Balloon bombs aimed to be the silent assassins of World War II. Some balloons in each of the launches carried radiosonde equipment instead of bombs, and were tracked by direction finding stations in Ichinomiya, at Iwanuma, Miyagi, at Misawa, Aomori, and on Sakhalin to estimate the progress of the balloons towards North America. Winds of war: Japans balloon bombs took the Pacific battle to the American soil. Once aloft, some of the ingeniously designed incendiary devices weighted by expendable sandbags floated from Japan to the U.S. mainland and into Canada. The silence was successful, as the Japanese only heard about one balloon incident in America, through the Chinese newspaperTakungpao. In addition, B-29s had bombed the Showa Denkochemical plant, which heavily limited Japans hydrogen resources. On Nov. 3, 1944, the first of more than 9,000 bomb-bearing balloons were released. Archie Mitchell and his wife Elsie packed five children from their Sunday school class at the Christian Missionary Alliance Church into their car and headed out on a fishing trip. [10] The balloons were constructed from four to five thin layers of washi, a durable paper derived from the paper mulberry (kzo) bush, which were glued together with konnyaku (Japanese potato) paste. Reportedly, these were the only documented casualties of the plot. The only casualties they caused were the deaths of five innocent children and a pregnant woman, the first and only fatalities in the continental United States due to enemy action in World War II. A mans world? [34] On April 22, officers investigated the nationally-syndicated comic strip Tim Tyler's Luck, which depicted a Japanese balloon being recovered by the crew of an American submarine. US Army Air Corps Chinese surveillance balloon's flight over the US has highlighted the military. Early U.S. theories speculated that they were launched from German prisoner of war camps or from Japanese-American internment centers. This screen grab from a Navy training film features an elaborate balloon bomb. The balloon bombs were possibly viewed as a means of exacting some revenge for the extensive US bombing of Japanese cities, which were particularly vulnerable to incendiary attacks. "They put some C-4 on either side of this thing," Proce said, "and they blew it to smithereens. An analysis of the ballast revealed the sand to be from a beach in the south of Japan, which helped narrow down the launch sites. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? The risk seemed justified as weeks went by and no casualties were reported. After that luck ran out with the Gearheart Mountain deaths, officials were forced to rethink their approach. They each carried four incendiaries and one thirty-pound high-explosive bomb. [1], The balloon bomb concept was developed by the Imperial Japanese Army's Number Nine Research Laboratory (also known as the Noborito Laboratory), founded in 1927. The combined launching capacity of the sites was about 200 balloons per day, with 15,000 launches planned through March. [19], The first balloons were launched at 0500 on November 3, 1944. Japan's balloon bombs remain little known 70 years after the end of World War II for several reasons. As one of the children reached down to touch it, the minister began to shout a warning but never had a chance to finish. Intent on burning forests and terrorizing the American public, the attacks ultimately failed. National and state agencies were placed on heightened alert, and forest rangers were asked to report sightings or finds. Archie and Elsye had taken them on a Sunday school picnic up on Gearhart Mountain. Flashes of light, the sound of explosion, the discovery of mysterious fragmentsall amounted to little concrete information to go on. Carried by wind currents, the balloon bombs traveled thousands of miles to western U.S. shores. On a Wind and a Prayer produced and directed by Michael White, PBS Home Video, 2008, Koichi Yoshino, "Balloon Bombs, Documents of the Fugo, a Japanese Weapon", The Japanese Noborito Laboratory, which became the Noborito Institute for Peace Education on Meiji Universitys campus, has. [24], Few American officials believed at first that the balloons could have come directly from Japan. Map of Fu-Go incident locations in North America. Follow me @NPRHistoryDept; lead me by writing to lweeks@npr.org. On September 19, two Americans spoke with Lieutenant Colonel Terato Kunitake and a Major Inouye. Another bizarre explanation is that it was a balloon bomb launched by the Japanese. Photograph courtesy of Karen Melkonian. [7], Also in September 1942, Major General Sueki Kusaba, who had served under Tada in the original balloon bomb program in the 1930s, was assigned to the laboratory and revived the Fu-Go project with a focus on longer flights. To date, only a few hundred of the devices have been found and most are still unaccounted for. Investigators later determined the origin of the story was a discussion held in an open session of the Colorado General Assembly. After laying out a deflated envelope, hoses were used to fill the envelope with hydrogen before it was tied down with guide ropes and detached from the anchors. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. [11] Engineers sought to make use of strong seasonal air currents discovered flowing from west to east at high altitude and speed over Japan, known now as the jet stream. Few balloons reached their targets, and the jet stream winds were only powerful enough in wintertime when snowy and damp conditions in North American forests precluded the ignition of large fires. [4], After the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, in which American planes bombed the Japanese mainland, the Imperial General Headquarters directed Noborito to develop a retaliatory bombing capability against the U.S.[5] In summer 1942, Noborito investigated several proposals, including long-range bombers that could make one-way sorties from Japan to cities on the U.S. West Coast, and small bomb-laden seaplanes that could be launched from submarines. However successful censorship had been in discouraging further launches, this very censorship made it difficult to warn the people of the bomb danger, writes Mikesh. He facilitated a correspondence between the former schoolgirls and the residents of Bly whose community had been turned upside down by one of the bombs they built. The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? The last few set sail around this time of year,. The second battalion of 700 men in three squadrons operated six launch stations at Ichinomiya, Chiba; and the third battalion of 600 men in two squadrons operated six launch stations at Nakoso, Fukushima. The Army mobilized thousands of teenage girls at high schools across the country to laminate and glue the sheets together, with final assembly and inflation tests at large indoor arenas including the Nichigeki Music Hall and Rygoku Kokugikan sumo hall in Tokyo. [45] The surrounding Mitchell Recreation Area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. The weapon was a huge balloon made of four layers of impermeable mulberry paper. [32] Starting in February 1945, Japanese propaganda broadcasts falsely announced numerous fires and an alarmed American public, further declaring casualties in the hundreds to thousands. Throughout the years, Japan's balloon bombs have continued to be discovered. A significant historical date for this entry is February 22, 1945. [50] Many war museums in the U.S. and Canada exhibit Fu-Go fragments, including the National Air and Space Museum and Canadian War Museum.[51]. After lumbering up a one-lane gravel road, Mitchell parked his sedan and began to unload picnic baskets and fishing rods as Elsie, five months pregnant, and the children explored a knoll sloping down to a nearby creek. Sites marked with a black dot. "Code 'Fu' [Weapon]") was an incendiary balloon weapon (, fsen bakudan, lit. Cookie Settings, Photo courtesy Robert Mikesh Collection, National Museum of the Pacific War, Japans World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America, a military bomb disposal unit had to blow it up, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, 5,000-Year-Old Tavern With Food Still Inside Discovered in Iraq, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, The Surprisingly Scientific Roots of Monkey Bars. [25] In the "Lightning Project", health and agricultural officers, veterinarians, and 4-H clubs were instructed to report any strange new diseases of crops or livestock caused by potential biological warfare. Japan's latest weapon, the balloon bombs were intended to cause damage and spread panic in the continental United States. [44], A memorial, the Mitchell Monument, was built in 1950 at the site of the explosion. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. Heres why each season begins twice. I radioed in that I had found it and got it. A Japanese Fu-Go balloon with bombs attached near Bigelow, Kansas, on February 23, 1945. Citing the need to prevent panic and avoid giving the enemy location information that could allow them to hone their targeting, the U.S. military censored reports about the Japanese balloon bombs. In December 1944, a military intelligence project began evaluating the weapon by collecting the various evidence from the balloon sites. The balloons, or "envelopes", designed by the Japanese army were made of lightweight paper fashioned from the bark of trees. And thats really what the Japanese people went through., In August of 1945, days after Japan announced its surrender, nearby Klamath Falls Herald and News published a retrospective, noting that it was only by good luck that other tragedies were averted but noted that balloon bombs still loomed in the vast West that likely remained undiscovered. The Sentinel reported that a bomb had been discovered in southwest Oregon in 1978. The Japanese harnessed air currents to create the first intercontinental weaponsballoons. A captured Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb photographed during post-war testing to evaluate its potential desctructive capabilities. Just a few months ago a couple of forestry workers in Lumby, British. Known as Operation Fu-Go, Japan first started toying with the idea of bomb-laden balloons in the 1930s, but the program began to take on a bit more urgency after April 18, 1942. The balloons, each carrying an anti-personnel bomb and two incendary bombs, took about seventy hours to cross the Pacific Ocean. The first one Americans found was Nov. 4, 1944, floating in the ocean 66 miles southwest of San Pedro, Calif. That one was believed to have been a test balloon launched before the main launch. [48] A carriage with a live bomb was found near Lumby, British Columbia, in 2014 and detonated by a Royal Canadian Navy ordnance disposal team. Each carried two incendiaries and a 33-pound antipersonnel bomb. [38] In total, about 9,300 balloons were launched in the campaign (approximately 700 in November 1944, 1,200 in December, 2,000 in January 1945, 2,500 in February, 2,500 in March, and 400 in April), of which about 300 were found or observed in North America. When Col. Sigmund Poole, head of the U.S. Geological Survey military geology unit at the time, was given sand from one of the balloon's ballast bags, he is alleged to have asked, "Where'd the damn sand come from?". The propaganda largely aimed to play up the success of the Fu-Go operation, and warned the US that the balloons were merely a prelude to something big.. In March 1945, one balloon even hit a high-tension power line and caused a temporary blackout at the Hanford, Washington, plant that was producing plutonium that would be used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki five months later. "balloon bomb") deployed by Japan against the United States during World War II.

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