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. [47], The remains of balloons have continued to be discovered after the war. Word of the Bly, Oregon, deathsand the strange mechanism that had killed them was overshadowed by the dizzying pace of the finale in the European theater. On Nov. 3, 1944, the first of more than 9,000 bomb-bearing balloons were released. Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita dropped two large incendiary bombs in Siskiyou National Forest in the hopes of starting a forest fire and safely returned to the submarine; however, response crews spotted the plane and contained the small blazes. ", "Japan's Secret WWII Weapon: Balloon Bombs," by Johnna Rizzo, On a Wind and a Prayer, a film by Michael White, "Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America," by Robert C. Mikesh, Fu-go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America by Ross Coen, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------. While the tragedy of that day in Bly has not been repeated, the sequel remains a realif remotepossibility. Between November 1944 and April 1945, more than 9,000 incendiary "balloon bombs" were launched by Japan during the war in hopes of sparking fear, chaos and forest fires in the Western U.S. In the months of November to March, there were only 50 anticipated favorable days, and they expected to launch a maximum of 200 balloons from their three launch sites per day. The girls, however, would not be told what they were making. Atmospheric uncertainty made for an uncontrolled attack. The Japanese Military Scientific Laboratory originally conceived of the idea of balloon bombs in 1933. It wasnt until two weeks later, when more sea debris of the balloons were found, that the military realized its importance. [17] The bombs carried most commonly were: A balloon launch organization of three battalions was formed. February 3, 2023 at 3:02 p.m. EST A Japanese bomb-carrying paper balloon in North America in 1945. 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 sailed nearly 10,000 km eastward across the Pacific . "They put some C-4 on either side of this thing," Proce said, "and they blew it to smithereens. Sightings of the airborne bombs began cropping up throughout the western U.S. in late 1944. Fu-Go ([], fug [heiki], lit. The 9thMilitary Technical Research Institute, better known as the Noborito Research Institute, was charged with discovering a way to bomb America, and they revived the idea of Fu-Go. Left: A Japanese balloon bomb reportedly discovered and photographed by the U.S. Navy in Japan.Large indoor spaces such as sumo halls, sound stages, theaters, and aircraft hangers were required for balloon assembly. 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. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? ", This screen grab from a Navy training film features an elaborate balloon bomb. "[30] The Imperial Army only ever learned of the balloon at Kalispell, from an article in the Chinese newspaper Ta Kung Pao on December 18, 1944. [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. Jeff Quitney/YouTube "Code 'Fu' [Weapon]") was an incendiary balloon weapon (, fsen bakudan, lit. It was a tragic thing that happened, says Judy McGinnis-Sloan, Betty Mitchells niece. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and National Geographic Traveler. [14], In late 1942, the Imperial General Headquarters had directed the Navy to begin its own balloon bomb program in parallel with the Army project. Named Fu-Go, the so-called 'balloon bombs' were 10 metres (33 feet) tall, with the ability to carry four 11-pound (5.0 kg) incendiary devices plus one 33-pound (15 kg) anti-personnel bomb. 7777https://youtu.be . The balloon caused sparks and a fireball that resulted in the power being cut. 129 McNutt Hall, 1400 N. Bishop Ave. Rolla, MO 65409-0230. Hisscholarly report on these Fu-Go balloonsis a definitive work on this obscure topic. Your Privacy Rights Winds of war: Japans balloon bombs took the Pacific battle to the American soil. The Winnipeg Tribune noted that one balloon bomb was found 10 miles from Detroit and another one near Grand Rapids. "Most likely it had been coming from a small chunk of beach east of Tokyo," he added. [2] In 1933, Lieutenant General Reikichi Tada began an experimental balloon bomb program at Noborito, designated Fu-Go,[a] which proposed a hydrogen balloon 13 feet (4.0m) in diameter equipped with a time fuse and capable of delivering bombs up to 70 miles (110km). The balloons were supposed to blow themselves up after releasing anti-personnel and. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. They also concluded that the main damage from these bombs came from the incendiaries, which were especially dangerous for the forests of the Pacific Northwest. A hydrogen balloon measuring 33 feet (10m) in diameter, it carried a payload of four 11-pound (5.0kg) incendiary devices plus one 33-pound (15kg) anti-personnel bomb, or alternatively one 26-pound (12kg) incendiary bomb, and was intended to start large forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. From November 1944 to April 1945, Japan's Special Balloon Regiment launched 9,000 high altitude balloons loaded with bombs over the Pacific Ocean. The 'extreme cruelty' around the global trade in frog legs, What does cancer smell like? 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. 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. I ran to one of the cars and asked is Dick dead? Those gathered embodied a sentiment echoed by the Mitchell family. But the eyewitness accounts of Archie Mitchell and others would not be widely known for weeks. Japan reportedly launched 9,000 balloons during a six-month period at the end of the war. One of the thousands of bomb-carrying balloons they launched into the jet stream toward North America knocked out electricity for a . Following the end of the war, a team of American scientists arrived in Tokyo in September to create a report on Japanese scientific war research. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. The balloons would claim six American lives on May 5, 1945, but they were widely considered a military failure. [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. 42 15.106 N, 102 13.745 W. Marker is near Ellsworth, Nebraska, in Sheridan County. Using that knowledge, in 1944 the Japanese military made what many experts consider the first intercontinental weapon system: explosive devices attached to paper balloons that were buoyed across the ocean by a jet stream. In January 1955, the Albuquerque Journal reported that the Air Force had discovered one in Alaska. A large explosion occurred; the four boys (Edward Engen, 13; Jay Gifford, 13; Dick Patzke, 14; and Sherman Shoemaker, 11) were killed instantly, while Joan Patzke (13) and Elsie died shortly afterwards. [31] The Kalispell find was originally reported on December 14 by the Western News, a weekly published in Libby, Montana; the story later appeared in articles in the January 1, 1945, editions of Time and Newsweek magazines, as well as on the front page of the January 2 edition of The Oregonian of Portland, Oregon, before the Office of Censorship sent the memo. Elsie called to her husband back at the car. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? Two days after the initial launch, a navy patrol off the coast of California spotted some tattered cloth in the sea. It looks like some kind of balloon. The pastor glanced over at the group gathered in a tight circle around the oddity 50 yards away. 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. Still largely unknown, these armaments were a byproduct of an atmospheric experiment by the Axis power. It was meant to be "revenge" for the Doolittle raids on Japan. We do know of one tragic upshot: In the spring of 1945, Powles writes, a pregnant woman and five children were killed by "a 15-kilogram high-explosive anti-personnel bomb from a crashed Japanese balloon" on Gearhart Mountain near Bly, Ore. [8], Each launch pad consisted of anchor screws drilled into the ground and arranged in a circle the same diameter as the balloons. Using 40-foot-long ropes attached to the balloons, the military mounted incendiary devices and 30-pound high-explosive bombs rigged to drop over North America and spark massive forest fires. OMAHA, Neb. [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. But by then, Germanys surrender dominated headlines. The silence meant that for decades, grieving families were sometimes met with skepticism or outright disbelief. At the end they all were dead except Archie. Like most in the community, the Patzke family had no inkling that the dangers of war would reach their own backyard in rural Oregon. Though relatively simple as a concept, these balloonswhich aviation expert Robert C. Mikesh describes in Japans World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America as the first successful intercontinental weapons, long before that concept was a mainstay in the Cold War vernacularrequired more than two years of concerted effort and cutting-edge technology engineering to bring into reality. "That's when I saw the paper balloons come over. The last few set sail around this time of year,. [43] A bomb disposal expert guessed that the bomb had been kicked or otherwise disturbed. Another balloon bomb struck a power line in Washington state, cutting off electricity to the Hanford Engineer Works, where the U.S. was conducting its own secret project, manufacturing plutonium for use in nuclear bombs. They also learned that the campaign was designed to offset the shame of the Doolittle raid, Coen notes. "It just made a big hole in the ground.". Is Jay dead? When does spring start? Map with recorded balloon bomb attacks. [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. In response, intelligence officers of the Seventh Service Command in Omaha called editors at all 91 papers, requesting censorship; this was largely successful, with only two papers printing Miller's column. Prompted by the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942, the Japanese developed the balloon . Moments . Follow me @NPRHistoryDept; lead me by writing to lweeks@npr.org. They called it Operation Fu-Go. They were afraid of bacterial warfare.. The year was 1945 and the United States was in the middle of World War II. Intent on burning forests and terrorizing the American public, the attacks ultimately failed. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, followed three days later by another on Nagasaki. On March 13, 1945, two balloons returned to Japan, landing near, This figure includes 11 balloons shot down by the, "Japan's Secret WWII Weapon: Balloon Bombs", "How Geologists Unraveled the Mystery of Japanese Vengeance Balloon Bombs in World War II", "Military unit blows WWII-era Japanese balloon bomb to 'smithereens', Report by U.S. Technical Air Intelligence Center, May 1945, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fu-Go_balloon_bomb&oldid=1142217578, Fu-Go balloon reinflated in California, January 1945, one Type 92 33-pound (15kg) high-explosive, or alternatively to the anti-personnel bomb, one Type 97 26-pound (12kg) incendiary bomb, containing three, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 04:13. Fu-Go Balloon Bombs were experimental weapons launched by the Japanese late in 1944, destined to explore on American soil. [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. The silk material was an effort to create a flexible envelope that could withstand pressure changes. By then, the balloons would be expected to reach the mainland; an estimated 1,000 out of 9,000 launched made the journey. The balloons rose to about 30,000 feet, where winds aloft transported them across the Pacific Ocean. Japanese Balloon Attack Almost Interrupted Building First Atomic. Mitchell would go on to marry the Betty Patzke, the elder sibling out of ten children in Dick and Joan Patzkes family (they lost another brother fighting in the war), and fulfill the dream he and Elsye once shared of going overseas as missionaries. One bomb fell in Medford, Ore., Webber said. consternation and prevent the Japanese from discovering their mission's success. Additional launches followed in quick succession. They each carried four incendiaries and one thirty-pound high-explosive bomb. "Japan was a logical guess," said Tewksbury. 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. It's a quirky story [of] World War II. 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. Their Proposed Airborne Carrier research and development program explored several ideas, including the initial idea of balloon bombs, according to Robert Mikesh. The initial reaction of the military was immediate concern. The Japanese were the first to mount a sustained campaign. Each measured 33 feet in diameter, was inflated with 19,000 cubic feet of hydrogen, and . It was hoped that the fires would create havoc, dampen American morale and disrupt the U.S. war effort," James M. Powles describes in a 2003 issue of the journal World War II. I put a hole in it and it went down. 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. [37], By mid-April 1945, Japan lacked the resources to continue manufacturing balloons, with both paper and hydrogen in short supply. The balloons were to be made of washi, a paper made from the bark of thekozotree, and schoolgirls from neighboring schools were to be the labor force, conscripted as part of thetotal war effort mindset preached by the Japanese Empire. [20] The best time to launch was just after the passing of a high-pressure front, and wind conditions were most suitable for several hours prior to the onshore breezes at sunrise. Between 1944 and 1945, Japan launched more than 9,000 bomb-rigged balloons across the Pacific Ocean. 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. In subsequent weeks, the strip's storyline saw the protagonists fight monster vines that sprang from seeds the balloon was carrying, created by an evil Japanese horticulturalist. 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. Vincent Bud Whitehead, a counter-intelligence agent at Hanford, recalled chasing and bringing down another balloon from a small airplane: I threw a brick at it. The military kept the true story of their deaths, the only civilians to die at enemy hands on the U.S. mainland, under wraps. When you talk about something like that, as bad as it seems when that happened and everything, I look at my four children, they never would have been, and Im so thankful for all four of my children and my ten grandchildren. National and state agencies were placed on heightened alert, and forest rangers were asked to report sightings or finds. 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. Archie and Elsye had taken them on a Sunday school picnic up on Gearhart Mountain. As recently as 2014, aballoon was discovered in Canada, and it was technically functional. But it shut down the plant cold, and it took us about three days to get it back up to full power again.. 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. In the waning days of World War II, the Japanese devised balloon bombs that could travel more than 5,000 miles via the jet stream to explode on North American soil. May 5, 2022. The program was cancelled by the Navy. Flashes of light, the sound of explosion, the discovery of mysterious fragmentsall amounted to little concrete information to go on. Japans latest weapon, the balloon bombs were intended to cause damage and spread panic in the continental United States. The balloons were carried by high-altitude and high-speed currents over the Pacific Ocean, now known as the jet stream, and used a sophisticated ballast system to control altitude. Heres why each season begins twice. Little was known about the purpose of these balloons at first, and some military officials worried that they carried biological weapons. Special thanks also for the use of their music to Jeff Taylor , David Wingo for the use of "Opening" and "Doghouse" - from the Take Shelter soundtrack, Justin Walter 's "Mind Shapes" from his album Lullabies and Nightmares . About 1.5 metres in diameter, the mysterious metal sphere has been the source of intense speculation online Police and residents in a Japanese coastal town have been left baffled by a large iron . On April 18, 1945, a Japanese balloon bomb - one of thousands released toward the U.S . [45] The surrounding Mitchell Recreation Area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The plan was diabolic. Attached were bombs composed of sensors, powder-packed tubes, triggering devices and other simple and complex mechanisms. The bomb that exploded . Records uncovered in Japan after the war indicate that about 9,000 were launched. They designed balloon bombs to be launched from Japanese submarines on the West Coast of America. Each carried two incendiaries and a 33-pound antipersonnel bomb. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Reportedly, these were the only documented casualties of the plot. On Paper Wings shows them meeting face-to-face in Bly decades later. [19] The Army estimated that 10 percent of the balloons would survive the journey across the Pacific Ocean. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. [41] Furthermore, much of the western U.S. received disproportionately more precipitation in 1945 than in any other year in the decade, with some areas receiving 4 to 10 inches (10 to 25cm) of precipitation more than normal. The balloons not only required engineering acumen, but a massive logistical effort. And so ends a sensational chapter of the war, it noted. As a result, a single one achieved its goal. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. [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. 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. Reports of fallen balloons began to trickle in to local law enforcement with enough frequency that it was clear something unprecedented in the war had emerged that demanded explanation. [33], One breach occurred in late February, when Congressman Arthur L. Miller mentioned the balloons in a weekly column he sent to all 91 newspapers in his Nebraska district. Japanese bomb-carrying balloons were 10 m (33 ft) in diameter and, when fully inflated, held about 540 m3 (19,000 cu ft) of hydrogen. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine All Rights Reserved. Japan halted the operation in April 1945. Christopher Klein is the author of four books, including When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Irelands Freedom and Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan. The American government, however, continued to maintain silence until May 5, 1945. [49] Remains of another balloon were found near McBride, British Columbia, in 2019. Three hundred sixty-one of the balloons have been found in twenty-six states, Canada and Mexico. Between November 1944 and April 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army launched about 9,300 balloons from sites on Honshu, of which about 300 were found or observed in the U.S. and Canada, with some in Mexico. [40] As predicted by Imperial Army officials, the winter and spring launch dates had limited the chances of the incendiary bombs starting forest fires due to the high levels of precipitation in the Pacific Northwest; forests were generally snow-covered or too damp to catch fire easily. Japan's balloon bombs remain little known 70 years after the end of World War II for several reasons. They each carried four incendiaries and one thirty-pound high-explosive bomb. Known as "fire balloons," these balloons were reportedly filled with hydrogen and carried bombs that weight as much as 33 pounds. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Schoolgirls were conscripted to labor in factories manufacturing the balloons, which were made of endless reams of paper and held together by a paste made of konnyaku, a potato-like vegetable. [26], Army Air Forces and Navy fighters were scrambled on several occasions to intercept balloons, but they had little success due to inaccurate sighting reports, bad weather, and the high altitude at which the balloons traveled. About 300 of the balloons were found in the United States and one was blamed for the deaths of six people in Oregon. There were barely any morekozotrees, which was needed for the paper production. Please be respectful of copyright. Several hundred were spotted in the air or found on the ground in the U.S. To keep the Japanese from tracking the success of their treachery, the U.S. government asked American news organizations to refrain from reporting on the balloon bombs.