About 300 of the balloons were found in the United States and one was blamed for the deaths of six people in Oregon. "[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. ", So how was the situation handled? In the months leading up to that spring day on Gearhart Mountain, there had been some warning signs, apparitions scattered around the western United States that were largely unexplainedat least to the general public. The bombs were ineffective as fire starters due to damp conditions, causing only minor damage and six deaths in a single civilian incident in Oregon in May 1945. In all, seven fire balloons were turned in to the Army in Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Northern Mexico, Michigan, and even . 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. The Bly incident also struck a chord decades later in Japan. Sherman Shoemaker, Edward Engen, Jay Gifford, Joan Patzke, and Dick Patzke, all between 11 to 14 years old, were killed, along with Rev. Japan launched nearly 10,000 such balloons from Nov. 3, 1944, to April 1945. It was meant to be "revenge" for the Doolittle raids on Japan. Advertising Notice 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 balloons continued to be discovered across North America on a near daily basis, with sightings and partial or full recoveries in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan (where the easternmost of the balloons was found at Farmington), Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; as well as in Canada in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest and Yukon Territories; in northwestern Mexico; and at sea by passing ships. [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. When inflated with hydrogen, the balloons grew to 33 feet in diameter. Each measured 33 feet in diameter, was inflated with 19,000 cubic feet of hydrogen, and . Still largely unknown, these armaments were a byproduct of an atmospheric experiment by the Axis power. They called it Operation Fu-Go. [24] In all, about 20 of the balloons were shot down by aircraft. On Nov. 3, 1944, the first of more than 9,000 bomb-bearing balloons were released. 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. May 5, 2021. Witnesses remembered these giant jellyfish drifting off into the sky, Mikesh details. On May 5, 1945, five children and local pastor Archie Mitchell's pregnant wife Elsie were killed as they played with the large paper balloon they'd spotted during a Sunday outing in the woods near Bly, Oregonthe only enemy-inflicted casualties on the U.S. mainland in the whole of World War II. Once aloft, some of the ingeniously designed incendiary devices weighted by expendable sandbags floated from Japan to the U.S. mainland and into Canada. National and state agencies were placed on heightened alert, and forest rangers were asked to report sightings or finds. 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). In January 1955, the Albuquerque Journal reported that the Air Force had discovered one in Alaska. Between then and April 1945, experts estimate about 1,000 of them reached North America; 284 are documented as sighted or found, many as fragments (see map). Despite the launches being top secret, once released, balloons were not hidden to those in the neighboring areas. These skeletons may have the answer, Scientists are making advancements in birth controlfor men, Blood cleaning? [39] The Fu-Go balloon was the first weapon system to have intercontinental range, with its flights being the longest-ranged attacks in the history of warfare at the time. Just then there was a big explosion. "The control frame really is a piece of art. [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. They wouldnt have been if that tragedy hadnt happened, Betty Mitchell told Sol in an interview. But by then, Germanys surrender dominated headlines. Early U.S. theories speculated that they were launched from German prisoner of war camps or from Japanese-American internment centers. But the eyewitness accounts of Archie Mitchell and others would not be widely known for weeks. [24] A report by U.S. investigators, based on interviews with Imperial Army officials after the war, concluded that there had been no plans for chemical or biological payloads. The weapon was a huge balloon made of four layers of impermeable mulberry paper. As a result, a single one achieved its goal. Winds of war: Japans balloon bombs took the Pacific battle to the American soil. The women folded 1,000 paper cranes as a symbol of regret for the lives lost. The Sentinel reported that a bomb had been discovered in southwest Oregon in 1978. Throughout the years, Japan's balloon bombs have continued to be discovered. A mans world? The researchers noticed that a strong air current traveled across the Pacific at about 30,000 feet. Archie Mitchell, and a group of Sunday school children from their tight-knit community as they set out for nearby Gearhart Mountain in southern Oregon. [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. Japan reportedly launched 9,000 balloons during a six-month period at the end of the war. Hitching a ride on a jet stream, these weapons from Japan could float soundlessly across the Pacific Ocean to their marks in North America. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! They drove east from Bly, Oregon, a little . Most of the balloon bombs. 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. The first battalion included headquarters and three squadrons totaling 1,500 men in Ibaraki Prefecture with nine launch stations at tsu. By the end of May 1945, however, the military decided in the interest of public safety to reveal the true cause of the explosion and warn Americans to beware of any strange white balloons they might encounterinformation divulged a month too late for the victims in Oregon. The silence proved invaluable: the American populace was not alarmed and Japan, believing the mission had failed, ceased all balloon launchings only six months after the first one was released in November 1944. fter the Mitchell party tripped a balloon bomb in 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. The trip took several days. They did not yet know the extent or capability or scale of these balloon bombs. total war effort mindset preached by the Japanese Empire, an interview with Stephane Groueff in 1965, Fu-Go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America, Japans World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America. [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. WARSAW, N.D. (KFYR) - The Chinese spy balloon isn't the first to cause a stir in the Upper Midwest. The alleged balloon scrap could be evidence of a unique weapon in modern warfare: the Japanese Balloon Bomb. Please be respectful of copyright. In November 1953, a balloon bomb was detonated by an Army crew in Edmonton, Alberta, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Map by Jerome N. Cookson, National Geographic; source: Dave Tewksbury, Hamilton College. It was made of 600 pieces of paper. Their launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honsh. Fu-Go ([], fug [heiki], lit. They were call Fu-Gos, or balloon bombs. Location. They stated that all records of the Fu-Go program had been destroyed in compliance with a directive on August 15. 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. 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. "It would have been far too dangerous to move it. [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. 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. In Bly, Oregon, a Sunday school picnic approached the debris of a balloon. 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. The Japanese Military Scientific Laboratory originally conceived of the idea of balloon bombs in 1933. [47], The remains of balloons have continued to be discovered after the war. 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. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. His team of geologists knew it wasn't a type of sand found in North America or Hawaii. After bombs of Japanese origin were found, it was believed that the balloons were launched from coastal submarines. It wasnt until two weeks later, when more sea debris of the balloons were found, that the military realized its importance. Balloon bombs launched from Japan were intended for the United Statesmany hit their mark. The Japanese were the first to mount a sustained campaign. The girls, however, would not be told what they were making. 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. Prompted by the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942, the Japanese developed the balloon bombs as a means of direct reprisal against the U.S. mainland. [28] Statistical analysis of valve serial numbers suggested that tens of thousands of balloons had been produced. A canister from the balloon's incendiary bomb was found by a man. Engineers hoped that the weapons impact would be compounded by forest fires, inflicting terror through both the initial explosion and an ensuing conflagration. 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?". [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. At night, cool temperatures risked the balloon falling below the currents, an issue that worsened as gas was released. Each carried two incendiaries and a 33-pound antipersonnel bomb. The balloon and parts were taken to Butte, [Mont.] The Japanese balloon bomb, in all its terrible splendor. Map of Fu-Go incident locations in North America. 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. Nearly three-quarters of a century later, these unknown remnants are a reminder that even the most overlooked scars of war are slow to fade. Coincidentally, the largest consumer of energy on this power grid was theHanford siteof the Manhattan Project, which suddenly lost power. The effects of that moment would reverberate throughout the Mitchell family, shifting the trajectory of their lives in unexpected ways. [13], Fu-Go carriage, with labeled ring, electrical circuits, fuses, ballast, and bombs, Top view of carriage assembly, with control device removed, Altitude control device, with central master aneroid barometer and backups, Reconstructed balloon at the moment a blowout plug is detonated, Changing pressure levels in a fixed-volume balloon posed technical challenges. 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. [35] In both cases, the Office of Censorship deemed it unnecessary to censor the comic strips. [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]. [43] A bomb disposal expert guessed that the bomb had been kicked or otherwise disturbed. Photograph courtesy of Karen Melkonian. On November 3, 1944, Japan released fusen bakudan, or balloon bombs, into the Pacific jet stream. Edward Melkonian. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. When the balloons made landfall, there were no obvious clues as to where they originated. 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. Stocks of decontamination chemicals, ultimately unused, were shipped to key points in the western states. [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. [19] The Army estimated that 10 percent of the balloons would survive the journey across the Pacific Ocean. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Japanese harnessed air currents to create the first intercontinental weaponsballoons. A relief valve was added to allow gas to escape when the envelope's internal pressure rose above a set level. The balloons, or "envelopes", designed by the Japanese army were made of lightweight paper fashioned from the bark of trees. As one of the children reached down to touch it, the minister began to shout a warning but never had a chance to finish. In the late 1980s, University of Michigan professor Yuzuru John Takeshita, who as a child had been incarcerated as a Japanese-American in California during the war and was committed to healing efforts in the decades after, learned that the wife of a childhood friend had built the bombs as a young girl. Although many Bly locals knew the truth, they reluctantly followed military directives and adopted a code of silence about the tragedy as the media reported that the victims died in an explosion of undetermined origin.. The reverend would later describe that tragic moment to local newspapers: Ihurriedly called a warning to them, but it was too late. "Code 'Fu' [Weapon]") was an incendiary balloon weapon (, fsen bakudan, lit. The silence was successful, as the Japanese only heard about one balloon incident in America, through the Chinese newspaperTakungpao. The initial reaction of the military was immediate concern. 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. Published: Feb. 6, 2023 at 5:38 PM PST. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. 42 15.106 N, 102 13.745 W. Marker is near Ellsworth, Nebraska, in Sheridan County. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. [19], The first balloons were launched at 0500 on November 3, 1944. 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. The silk material was an effort to create a flexible envelope that could withstand pressure changes. The silence meant that for decades, grieving families were sometimes met with skepticism or outright disbelief. "An awful lot of this was just 'put them up there and see what happens,' " said Dave Tewksbury, a member of the geosciences department at Hamilton College, New York. 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. J apanese weapon straight out of a pulp science-fiction magazine created a lot of problems for the U.S. government in the waning months of World War IIproblems not of national defense, but of public information and morale.. [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. As recently as 2014, aballoon was discovered in Canada, and it was technically functional. "That's when I saw the paper balloons come over. 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. When 13-year-old Joan Patzke spied a strange white canvas on the forest floor, the curious girl summoned the rest of the group. Follow me @NPRHistoryDept; lead me by writing to lweeks@npr.org. 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. Most of the balloon bombs. [12] Two submarines (I-34 and I-35) were prepared and two hundred balloons were produced by August 1943, but attack missions were postponed due to the need for submarines as weapons and food transports.
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