The balloon bombs have been so overlooked that during the making of the documentary On Paper Wings, several of those who lost family members told filmmaker Ilana Sol of reactions to their unusual stories. [8] According to U.S. interviews with Japanese officials after the war, the balloon bomb campaign was undertaken "almost exclusively for home propaganda purposes", with the Army having little expectation of effectiveness. 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. The Japanese government withdrew funding for the program around the same time that Allied forces blew up Japanese hydrogen plants, making the commodity needed to fill the balloons scarcer than ever. At some point during World War II, scientists in Japan figured out a way to harness a brisk air stream that sweeps eastward across the Pacific Ocean to dispatch silent and deadly devices to the American mainland. 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. These animals can sniff it out. Or Joan dead? On Paper Wings shows them meeting face-to-face in Bly decades later. Additional launches followed in quick succession. At the same time as Bly residents were absorbing the loss they had endured, over the spring and summer of 1945 more than 60 Japanese cities burned including the infamous firebombing of Tokyo. What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? Between November 1944 and April 1945, the Japanese military launched more than 9,000 of the pilotless weapons in an operation codenamed Fu-Go. Most of the balloons fell harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean, but more than 300 of the low-tech white orbs made the 5,000-mile crossing and were spotted fluttering in the skies over the western United States and Canadafrom Holy Cross, Alaska, to Nogales, Arizona, and even as far east as Grand Rapids, Michigan. 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. Japanese scientists carefully studied what would become commonly known as the jet stream, realizing these currents of wind could enable balloons to reach United States shores in just a couple of days. [36], In late March, the United Press (UP) wrote a detailed story on the balloons intended for its distributors across the country. [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. The combined launching capacity of the sites was about 200 balloons per day, with 15,000 launches planned through March. During WWII Japan launched its new war balloon weapon on America. US Army Air Corps Chinese surveillance balloon's flight over the US has highlighted the military. But by then, Germanys surrender dominated headlines. On the morning of Saturday, May 5, 1945, Rev. Matthias recalled that although the Hanford plant did lose about two days of production, we were all tickled to death this happened because it proved the back-up system worked. The balloons rose to about 30,000 feet, where winds aloft transported them across the Pacific Ocean. In a snow-covered, heavily forested area southwest of the Montana town, two woodchoppers found a balloon with Japanese markings on it. [10], Engineers next investigated the feasibility of balloon launches against the United States from the Japanese mainland, a distance of at least 6,000 miles (9,700km). They were afraid of bacterial warfare.. Seeking to deepen their newly planted roots, the Mitchells invited five children from their Sunday school classall between the ages of 11 and 14on a picnic amid the bubbling brooks and ponderosa pines of nearby Gearhart Mountain on the beautiful spring day of May 5, 1945. They said a second factor was the lack of information about whether the balloons even reached America and caused damage. Marker Text During World War II the Japanese built some nine thousand hydrogen-filled, paper balloons to carry small bombs to North America, hoping to set fires and inflict casualties. Launching proved to be difficult as it took 30 minutes to an hour to prepare one balloon for flight, and required approximately thirty men. The Japanese military had been tinkering with the idea of a balloon weapon since 1933, considering designs which would drop bombs or shower propaganda leaflets behind enemy lines after flying a fixed distance, as well as a balloon large enough to carry a soldier. They were the only Americans to be killed by enemy action during World War II in the continental USA. For Reverend Archie Mitchell, the spring of 1945 was a season of change. Look what we found,. (Tribune News Service) Right around New Year's Day, 1945, the Japanese army released an unmanned balloon from the east coast of the main island of Honshu. Close to 300 were either found or observed in the U.S., according to Atlas Obscura. She had baked a chocolate cake the night before in anticipation of their outing, her sister would later recall, but the 26-year-old was pregnant with her first child and had been feeling unwell. [36] Censors contacted the UP, which replied that the story had not yet been teletyped, and that only five copies of it existed; censors were able to retrieve and destroy the copies. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. [49] Remains of another balloon were found near McBride, British Columbia, in 2019. The team was co-headed byKarl T. Compton, a longtime scientific advisor to the US government, and Edward Moreland, a scientist hand-picked by General MacArthur. The balloons sailed nearly 10,000 km eastward across the Pacific . [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 investigators learned that the Japanese had planned to make 20,000 balloons, but had fallen short of that mark. Since the 13th century when a pair of cyclones foiled the fleets of Kublai Khans Mongol invaders, the Japanese had long believed that the gods had dispatched divine winds, called kamikaze, to protect them. While Archie was moving the car, Elsie and the children found the balloon and carriage, loaded with an anti-personnel bomb, on the ground. By late May, there was no balloons observed in flight. Japan reportedly launched 9,000 balloons during a six-month period at the end of the war. Flashes of light, the sound of explosion, the discovery of mysterious fragmentsall amounted to little concrete information to go on. After each question they answered yes. The alleged balloon scrap could be evidence of a unique weapon in modern warfare: the Japanese Balloon Bomb. The closest the balloons came to causing major damage was on March 10, 1945, when one of the balloons struck a high tension wire on the Bonneville Power Administration in Washington. Each launch took between thirty minutes and an hour, depending on the presence of surface winds that made releases difficult. The Navy program was subsequently consolidated under Army control, due in part to the declining availability of rubber as the war continued. Vengeance Balloon Bombs in World War II. I ran up and they were all lying there dead. Lost in an instant were his wife and unborn child, alongside Eddie Engen, 13, Jay Gifford, 13, Sherman Shoemaker, 11, Dick Patzke, 14, and Joan Sis Patzke, 13. The memorial commemorating the six Oregonians killed by a Japanese "Fu-Go" balloon bomb during WWII near Bly in the Mitchell Recreation Area. Hisscholarly report on these Fu-Go balloonsis a definitive work on this obscure topic. But they have never been bitter over it., These loss of these six lives puts into relief the scale of loss in the enormity of a war that swallowed up entire cities. A one-hour activating fuse for the altimeters was ignited at launch, allowing the balloon time to ascend above these two thresholds. One of the thousands of bomb-carrying balloons they launched into the jet stream toward North America knocked out electricity for a . In all, seven fire balloons were turned in to the Army in Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Northern Mexico, Michigan, and even . While the balloons failed to be an effective weapon, they were a product of wartime scientific innovation. "They put some C-4 on either side of this thing," Proce said, "and they blew it to smithereens. Most of the balloon bombs. Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. The tsu site featured its own hydrogen plant, while the second and third battalions used hydrogen gas manufactured at factories near Tokyo. Japans bizarre WWII plan to bomb the continental U.S. by high-altitude balloons claimed its first and only victimsan Oregon church group in 1945. Fu-Go Balloon Bombs were experimental weapons launched by the Japanese late in 1944, destined to explore on American soil. Witnesses remembered these giant jellyfish drifting off into the sky, Mikesh details. Japan launched more than 9,300 paper balloons carrying bombs over the Pacific Ocean from late 1944 to early 1945 to attack the United States, including Iowa, in an attempt to instill fear and terror during World War II. Investigators later determined the origin of the story was a discussion held in an open session of the Colorado General Assembly. Hitching a ride on a jet stream, these weapons from Japan could float soundlessly across the Pacific Ocean to their marks in North America. May 5, 2022. [19], The first balloons were launched at 0500 on November 3, 1944. I radioed in that I had found it and got it. [6] On September 9, 1942, the latter was tested in the Lookout Air Raid, in which a Yokosuka E14Y seaplane was launched from a submarine off the Oregon coast. All rights reserved. Another bomb was espied a few days later near Kalispell, Mont. In the "Sunset Project" initiated in early April 1945, the Fourth Air Force attempted to detect the radio transmissions emitted by tracking balloons using sites in coastal Washington; 95 suspected signals were detected, but were of little use for interception due to the relatively low percentage of balloons with transmitters, and observed fading of the signals as they approached the coast. After American aircraft bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities during the Doolittle Raid of 1942, the Japanese military command wanted to retaliate in kind but its manned aircraft were incapable of reaching the West Coast of the United States. February 3, 2023 at 3:02 p.m. EST A Japanese bomb-carrying paper balloon in North America in 1945. The currents had been investigated by Japanese scientist Wasaburo Oishi in the 1920s; in late 1943, the Army consulted Hidetoshi Arakawa of the Central Meteorological Observatory, who used Oishi's data to extrapolate the air currents across the Pacific Ocean and estimate that a balloon released in winter and that maintained an altitude of 30,000 to 35,000 feet (9,100 to 10,700m) could reach the North American continent in 30 to 100 hours. They would be telling someone about the loss of their sibling and that person just didnt believe them, Sol recalls. [Courtesy: National . "Code 'Fu' [Weapon]") was an incendiary balloon weapon (, fsen bakudan, lit. "When launched in groups they are said to have looked like jellyfish floating in the sky. Each carried two incendiaries and a 33-pound antipersonnel bomb. Lieutenant Commander Kiyoshi Tanaka headed an group that developed a 30-foot (9.1m) rubberized silk balloon, designated the B-Type (in contrast to the Army's A-Type). For two years the military produced thousands of balloons with skins of lightweight, but durable, paper made from mulberry wood that was stitched together by conscripted schoolgirls oblivious to their sinister purposes. In 1945, a Japanese Balloon Bomb Killed Six Americans, Five of Them Children, in Oregon The military kept the true story of their deaths, the only civilians to die at enemy hands on the U.S.. "Japan was a logical guess," said Tewksbury. The program was cancelled by the Navy. [28] Statistical analysis of valve serial numbers suggested that tens of thousands of balloons had been produced. Then, over the next four weeks, various reports of the balloons popped up all over the Western half of America, as Americans began spotting the cloth or hearing explosions. Photograph courtesy of Karen Melkonian. They appeared from northern Mexico to Alaska, and from Hawaii to Michigan. The downside to such secrecy was that American citizens didn't know what these weapons were. Feb. 21, 2023 4:50 AM PT In late 1944, the Japanese military began launching 9,000 unmanned bomb-carrying balloon across the Pacific to bombard the West Coast. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. Tiny Thermopolis in central Wyoming was among the first locations in the United States where a Japanese balloon bomb was reported after exploding. On the morning of May 5, 1945, she decided she felt decent enough to join her husband, Rev. Check out p ictures of the ghostly balloons here. Fu-Go ([], fug [heiki], lit. On May 22, the War Department issued a statement confirming the bombs origin and nature so the public may be aware of the possible danger and to reassure the nation that the attacks are so scattered and aimless that they constitute no military threat. The statement was measured to provide sufficient information to avoid further casualties, but without giving the enemy encouragement. These so-called balloon bombs were launched in great numbers during late 1944 and early 1945. More appeared near Thermopolis, Wyoming, on December 6 (with an explosion heard by witnesses, and a crater later located) and near Kalispell, Montana, on December 11, followed by finds near Marshall, Alaska, and Estacada, Oregon, later in the month. [29], On January 4, 1945, the U.S. Office of Censorship sent a confidential memo to newspaper editors and radio broadcasters asking that they give no publicity to balloon incidents; this proved highly effective, with the agency sending another memo three months later stating that cooperation had been "excellent" and that "there is no question that your refusal to publish or broadcast information about these balloons has baffled the Japanese, annoyed and hindered them, and has been an important contribution to security. On November 3, 1944, Japan released fusen bakudan, or balloon bombs, into the Pacific jet stream. Their deaths caused the military to break its silence and begin issuing warnings to not tamper with such devices. According to a Dec. 14, 1944, newspaper article in the Thermopolis Independent Record, three men and a woman at the Ben Goe Coal mine west of Thermopolis saw a parachute lit up by flares. Between 1944 and 1945, the Japanese launched an estimated 9,000 balloon bombs across the Pacific. The dastardly contraption was one of thousands of balloon bombs launched toward North America in the 1940s as part of a secret plot by Japanese saboteurs. Two days after the initial launch, a navy patrol off the coast of California spotted some tattered cloth in the sea. One was found as recently as October 2014 in the mountains of British Colombia. When inflated with hydrogen, the balloons grew to 33 feet in diameter. Because the military worried that any report of these balloon bombs would induce panic among Americans, they ultimately decided the best course of action was to stay silent. The final balloon design was 33 feet (10m) in diameter, and had a gas volume of 19,000 cubic feet (540m3) and a lifting capacity of 300 pounds (140kg) at operating altitude. Japans latest weapon, the balloon bombs were intended to cause damage and spread panic in the continental United States. [37], By mid-April 1945, Japan lacked the resources to continue manufacturing balloons, with both paper and hydrogen in short supply. But the eyewitness accounts of Archie Mitchell and others would not be widely known for weeks. At night, cool temperatures risked the balloon falling below the currents, an issue that worsened as gas was released. [15] The B-Type balloons were later equipped with a version of the A-Type's ballast system and tested on November 2, 1944; one of these balloons, which was not loaded with bombs, became the first to be recovered by Americans after being spotted in the water off San Pedro, California, on November 4.[16]. When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Irelands Freedom, Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan. This screen grab from a Navy training film features an elaborate balloon bomb. The Fu-Go balloon was the first weapon system with intercontinental range, with its attacks being the longest-ranged in the history of warfare at the time. consternation and prevent the Japanese from discovering their mission's success. During World War II, the military thought the winds could save them once again since its scientists had discovered that a westerly river of air 30,000 feet highknown now as the jet streamcould transport hydrogen-filled balloons to North America in three to four days. Two years later, Rev. . To resolve this, engineers developed a sophisticated ballast system with 32 sandbags mounted around a cast aluminum wheel, with each sandbag connected to gunpowder blowout plugs. Against a scenic backdrop far removed from the war raging across the Pacific, Mitchell and five other children would become the firstand onlycivilians to die by enemy weapons on the United States mainland during World War II. The bomb that exploded . Balloon bombs launched from Japan were intended for the United Statesmany hit their mark. 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. Experts estimate it took between 30 and 60 hours for a balloon bomb to reach North America's West Coast. [b][23], Balloon found near Alturas, California, on January 10, 1945, reinflated for tests, Balloon found near Bigelow, Kansas, on February 23, 1945, Balloon found near Nixon, Nevada, on March 29, 1945, Aerial photograph of a balloon taken from an American plane, American authorities concluded the greatest danger from the balloons would be wildfires in the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest during dry months. Tests of the design in August 1944 indicated success, with several balloons releasing radiosonde signals for up to 80 hours (the maximum time allowed by the batteries). May 5, 2021. "Code 'Fu' [Weapon]") was an incendiary balloon weapon (, fsen bakudan, lit. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Omaha seemed relatively safe until one night in April when a Japanese bomb dropped in Dundee. On Nov. 3, 1944, Japan unleashed some 9000 balloon bombs over a five-month period, all destined for mainland over the Pacific. Mitchells wife Elsie, who had been five months pregnant. 7777https://youtu.be . Ultimately, Fu-Go was a military failure. Fu-Go ([], fug [heiki], lit. A Japanese "Fu-Go" balloon bomb in flight during WWII . The reverend would later describe that tragic moment to local newspapers: Ihurriedly called a warning to them, but it was too late. I ran to one of the cars and asked is Dick dead? [1], No wildfires were positively identified as being caused by balloon bombs. The Japanese balloon bomb, in all its terrible splendor. [24] The most tactically successful attack took place on March 10, 1945, when one of the balloons descended near Toppenish, Washington, colliding with power lines and causing a short circuit that cut off power to the Manhattan Project's production facility at the state's Hanford Engineer Works. From November 1944 to April 1945, Japan's Special Balloon Regiment launched 9,000 high altitude balloons loaded with bombs over the Pacific Ocean. Is Eddie dead? Karl F. Hasselmann Chair in Geological Engineering. 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. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, followed three days later by another on Nagasaki. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The balloons weren't designed to navigate themselves and that's part of the wonder of this Japans offensive. Early U.S. theories speculated that they were launched from German prisoner of war camps or from Japanese-American internment centers. Those who forget the past are liable to trip over it. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. This discovery greenlighted the mass production of 10,000 balloons in preparation for the winter winds of 1944 and 1945. An estimated 1,000 were believed to have reached the U.S. Only around 300 were reported as landing on U.S.. They. The project was stopped by 1935 and never completed. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. The plugs were connected to three redundant aneroid barometers calibrated for an altitude between 25,000 and 27,000 feet (7,600 and 8,200m), below which one sandbag was released; the next plug was armed two minutes after the previous plug was blown. What the Japanese military lacked in technology, however, it made up for in geography. The Gordon Journal published the column, which said in part, "As a final act of desperation, it is believed that the Japs may release fire balloons aimed at our great forests in the northwest". He can be found online at www.christopherklein.com or on Twitter @historyauthor. The carriage was attached and the guide ropes were disconnected. 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. When there were no reports of actual damage in the US, the Japanese media had made up fake stories about the weakening of American resolve.