In late 1944, reports of mysterious and slow-moving flying objects began cropping up across the
Pacific Northwest in the United States.
The sightings were often followed by a whistling sound and unexplained explosions.
It was a puzzle for local authorities, who initially feared that Japanese aircraft were
somehow reaching the U.S. mainland and dropping bombs with parachutes.
As to why the Japanese were targeting random forests was not known.
It was not until one of these unusual objects came crashing down intact that the U.S. military
finally understood what they were up against.
The device was a new kind of weapon, sent all the way from Japan.
It was a discovery so startling at the time, that the U.S. government asked American news
not to report it to the public...
Balloon Bombs
The end of the war was increasingly tough on the Japanese, particularly for its Imperial
Navy.
The morale among the citizens was exceptionally low following the American Doolittle Raid,
an attack on Tokyo in April of 1942.
Although the American bombers had done little damage to the city, it had left citizens feeling
vulnerable.
The Imperial Navy decided to explore balloon bombs, charging Technical Lieutenant Commander
Kiyoshi Tanaka to work on a prototype under the Army’s 9th Military Technical Research
Institute.
Although materials were scarce, he managed to design a working model.
By 1944 he had constructed a 29.5 feet balloon with rubber covered panels of silk.
The fabric lets the balloon be flexible enough to withstand expansion and contraction led
by varying air pressure while making it durable and leak-proof.
The Imperial Army separately developed another balloon, which would be more commonly used.
It was made of paper, which made it less expensive, although less reliably durable.
Even so, the paper balloons could carry more weight and measured 32.8 feet in diameter.
To keep the paper together, the makers used an adhesive made from the root of arums.
The balloons were made waterproof through a lacquer-like coat made from fermented green
persimmons.
Tanaka’s rubber balloons were only used to collect data.
Thirty-four were sent and none with explosives.
Only the paper balloons were used to bomb the enemy.
Four incendiary bombs of modest size would be placed inside each paper balloon along
with a 33-pound anti-personnel cluster munition bomb that would instantly explode upon arrival
and release shrapnel with a reach of up to 300 feet.
Taken for a Ride
The idea of using balloon bombs can be traced back to the occupation of Manchuria in the
1930s.
During the conflict, the Japanese wanted to attack the Siberian Soviets on the other side
of the Amur River.
They planned on doing so by sending balloons with propaganda leaflets.
The idea was never executed, but Japan’s military scientists still collected data and
made valuable assessments about flying balloons over long distances.
Later on, the Japanese would reassess the technique when considering options for special
troops transport and bombing.
Their new version was almost exclusively used to bomb the United States in the 1940s.
To get them to cross the Ocean, the Japanese relied on a brisk stream of air that moves
eastward over the Pacific Ocean.
In the early 1940s, the Japanese bought daily weather maps and reports from the U.S. Weather
Bureau following the discovery of Pacific Ocean jetstream, which traveled at high altitude.
Thanks to the jetstream, it was possible for a balloon to launch from Japan and fly 30,000
feet above the ocean for a couple of days, and then land in America.
The U.S. would not learn about the jet stream until it began long-distance bombing campaigns
towards the end of the war.
Project Fugo
Starting in the summer of 1942, the Japanese began toying with the idea of using balloon
bombs on the island of Guadalcanal.
One proposal was to attach grenades to piano wire held in the air by balloons so that U.S.
Marine fighter aircraft would crash into them as they took off from airfields on the island.
American dominance over the island beginning in September forced them to reconsider.
The Japanese then decided on a transcontinental bombing route with two possible outcomes.
One likely possibility was that incendiary bombs would cause fires in the forested areas
of the Northwest.
It was hoped that the explosions would bind military and civilian resources to America
as well as creating millions of dollars in damage.
The other possible outcome was to cause psychological distress to the United States.
They named the project Fugo, which James M. Powles described for the 2003 issue of the
World War II journal, saying [QUOTE] “called for sending bomb-carrying balloons from Japan
to set fire to the vast forests of America, in particular those of the Pacific Northwest.
It was hoped that the fires would create havoc, dampen American morale, and disrupt the U.S.
war effort.”
The paper balloons also carried sensors, triggering devices, and other mechanisms to ensure detonations
would only take place on the American continent.
On November 3d of 1944, the Japanese sent the first 6,000 balloon bombs across the ocean.
While the weather was not ideal for starting a forest fire, they hoped that the public’s
reaction would guide the continuation of the program.
The Japanese hoped the panic would demoralize the citizens of the United States while inspiring
their own soldiers.
The Trip
Estimates from expert historians and geographers have concluded that it took anywhere from
30 to 60 hours for a balloon bomb to travel from Japan to the West Coast.
One of the main downsides to this contraption was the lack of certainty over speed and target
by the variation in atmospheric conditions.
Geosciences expert Dave Tewksbury from Hamilton College in New York expressed that: [QUOTE]
“An awful lot of this was just ‘put them up there and see what happens.”
On the other hand, this provided the apparent benefit for the Japanese that was keeping
their soldiers out of harm’s way.
When the balloons started raining upon America, those who encountered the explosions had no
clue of where they came from.
Through forensic geology, the American military was able to identify Japan as the culprit.
It has been claimed that sand from one of the contraptions helped the U.S. Geological
Survey assess their origin.
The Threat
Airborne balloon bombs began showing up throughout the western side of America at the end of
1944.
The first attack was discovered on November 3d, near the coast of San Pedro, California.
It was intercepted by a U.S. Navy Patrol.
The device was one of the rubber Tanaka balloons with a radio transmitter.
The first recorded explosion took place on December 6th, on the outskirts of Thermopolis,
Wyoming.
A local newspaper reported on it, believing the bomb had been dropped from a plane because
witnesses reported observing a parachute with flares right before the explosion.
The local authorities did not search for the parachute since they believed the witnesses
had only seen a landing flare.
Allegedly there were no injuries.
Reports of the explosion primarily came from coal mine workers from the area.
Only a couple of days later, a bomb was found by Kalispell in Montana.
The local sheriff’s department assessed the device: a paper balloon with a gas relief
valve, and an incendiary bomb.
The authorities confiscated the equipment for review.
The FBI, Army, and Navy, all had a chance to inspect the device, concluding it came
from Japan but still unsure of how it arrived in the U.S.
One of the balloons that managed to cause some harm fell on a power line in Washington
state.
It cut off the energy of Hanford Engineer Works, where the government was manufacturing
plutonium for nukes.
After the war ended, reported sightings and incidents with the balloon bombs kept popping
up.
Seven Nebraskan towns received at least one of them.
One was found near Detroit and another by Grand Rapids.
In the years that followed, they kept being randomly found.
Towards the end of 1953, one of the balloon bombs was located and exploded by the Army
in Edmonton, Alberta.
One of the balloon bombs was found in Alaska in 1955.
In the mid-1980s, author and researcher Bert Webber set out to trace as many of these explosive
devices as possible.
He found 25 in California, 28 in Washington, 37 in Alaska, and 45 in Oregon.
The bombs kept popping up, as recently as 2014, when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
received reports of one of them in British Columbia.
They used C-4 explosives to destroy it.
America’s Response
American authorities reacted swiftly to the new threat.
They ordered all news organizations to ignore the balloon attacks, a request that the press
complied with.
Military and civilian authorities collaborated appropriately.
The FBI, the United States Forest Service, and the Department of Agriculture all mobilized
to help recover the balloons or residual material, which were then sent to Cal-Tech University
of the Naval Research Laboratory.
The FBI feared that Japan might use the balloons to commence a biological attack.
Although understandable on the American side, Japan never actually considered such a thing.
To protect American’s from the strange, randomized attacks, the Western Defense Command
sent planes to supervise the coast and around 2,700 troops to critical points for fire fighting.
Still, the most crucial front on the balloon war may have been the media.
The Japanese, who had to fuel their propaganda machine, published stories of massive fires
and high death tolls from their balloon attacks.
Most of these stories were fake or embellished beyond the point of even slightly resembling
reality.
The Japanese high command didn’t know much about the fate of their balloons until the
war ended.
The End of Fugo
The balloon attacks ended on May 1st, 1945.
There are two prevalent theories as to why the Japanese canceled the Fugo project.
The first theory holds that the Japanese high command was under the impression that none
or few of the balloon bombs were landing on America due to the lack of news reports on
the subject.
The second theory holds that the continued American air raids of Japan could have interfered
with the manufacture of balloon bombs.
Similarly, disruptions to railroads may have made it complicated, if not impossible, to
distribute the materials used to make the balloons.
In total, the Japanese Imperial Army launched over 6,000 balloon bombs.
Hundreds were seen flying above or were found on the ground in the United States.
To this day, only a couple hundred of the contraptions have been found, with the majority
unaccounted for.
Since America silenced the detonations by silencing the media, the true extent of Japan’s
balloon raid may never be known…