Their launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honsh. 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 Mitchell was later kidnapped from a leprosarium while he and Betty were serving as missionaries in Vietnam; 57 years later his fate remains unknown). 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. In December 1944, a military intelligence project began evaluating the weapon by collecting the various evidence from the balloon sites. They. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. In February 17, 1945, the Japanese used the Domei News Agency to broadcast directly to America in English and claimed that 500 or 10,000 casualties (the news accounts differ) had been inflicted and fires caused, all from their fire balloons. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. The Fu-Go balloon bomb. 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. ", "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, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------. [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. A month later, on December 6, 1944, witnesses reported an explosion and flame near Thermopolis, Wyoming. OMAHA, Neb. [36], In late March, the United Press (UP) wrote a detailed story on the balloons intended for its distributors across the country. Their deaths caused the military to break its silence and begin issuing warnings to not tamper with such devices. Once aloft, some of the ingeniously designed incendiary devices weighted by expendable sandbags floated from Japan to the U.S. mainland and into Canada. Reverend Archie Mitchell was about to yell a warning when it exploded. [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. Records uncovered in Japan after the war indicate that about 9,000 were launched. Just a few months ago a couple of forestry workers in Lumby, British. The American government, however, continued to maintain silence until May 5, 1945. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? Balloon bombs launched from Japan were intended for the United Statesmany hit their mark. One bomb fell in Medford, Ore., Webber said. Japanese balloon bomb kills 6 in Oregon. Witnesses remembered these giant jellyfish drifting off into the sky, Mikesh details. 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. Engineers hoped that the weapons impact would be compounded by forest fires, inflicting terror through both the initial explosion and an ensuing conflagration. The Winnipeg Tribune noted that one balloon bomb was found 10 miles from Detroit and another one near Grand Rapids. US Army Air Corps Chinese surveillance balloon's flight over the US has highlighted the military. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. [49] Remains of another balloon were found near McBride, British Columbia, in 2019. 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. 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. 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. He can be found online at www.christopherklein.com or on Twitter @historyauthor. 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. 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. They would be telling someone about the loss of their sibling and that person just didnt believe them, Sol recalls. 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. Mitchells wife Elsie, who had been five months pregnant. Cookie Policy 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. Japanese fire balloon reinflated at Moffett Field, California, after it had been shot down by a Navy aircraft January 10, 1945. "That's when I saw the paper balloons come over. US Army Those who forget the past are liable to trip over it. 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. 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. When the balloons made landfall, there were no obvious clues as to where they originated. [44], A memorial, the Mitchell Monument, was built in 1950 at the site of the explosion. [24] Through Firefly, the military used the United States Forest Service as a proxy, unifying fire suppression communications among federal and state agencies and modernizing the Forest Service through the influx of military personnel, equipment, and tactics. Just after the war, reports came in from far and wide of balloon bomb incidents. While much of the American public may have forgotten, the families in Bly never would. On November 3, 1944, Japan releasedfusen bakudan, or balloon bombs, into the Pacific jet stream. 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. The combined launching capacity of the sites was about 200 balloons per day, with 15,000 launches planned through March. For Reverend Archie Mitchell, the spring of 1945 was a season of change. 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). Japanese Balloon Attack Almost Interrupted Building First Atomic. They confirmed that even if the war had continued on for another year, the balloons would not have been used in the upcoming winter winds. [11] The original proposal called for night launches from submarines located 600 miles (970km) off of the U.S. coast, a distance the balloons could cover in 10 hours. Japan reportedly launched 9,000 balloons during a six-month period at the end of the war. [46] A nearby ponderosa pine still bears scars on its trunk from the bomb's shrapnel. "Most likely it had been coming from a small chunk of beach east of Tokyo," he added. 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. [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. The balloons not only required engineering acumen, but a massive logistical effort. Reverend Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife Elsie (age 26) drove up Gearhart Mountain that day with five of their Sunday school students for a picnic. The project was stopped by 1935 and never completed. Experts estimate it took between 30 and 60 hours for a balloon bomb to reach North America's West Coast. What U.S. military investigators sent to the blast scene immediately knewbut didnt want anyone else to knowwas that the strange contraption was a high-altitude balloon bomb launched by Japan to attack North America. Not only were the minister and his wife, Elsie, expecting their first child, but he had also accepted a new post as pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in the sleepy logging town of Bly, Oregon. 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. "The control frame really is a piece of art. [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. (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. The Beatrice Daily Sun reported that the pilotless weapons had landed in seven different Nebraska towns, including Omaha. Investigators later determined the origin of the story was a discussion held in an open session of the Colorado General Assembly. [21], Two weeks after the discovery of the B-Type balloon off San Pedro, an A-Type balloon was found in the ocean off Kailua, Hawaii, on November 14. 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. 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). Just a few months ago a couple of forestry workers in Lumby, British Columbia about 250 miles north of the U.S. border happened upon a 70-year-old Japanese balloon bomb . How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. "balloon bomb") deployed by Japan against the United States during World War II.A hydrogen balloon measuring 33 feet (10 m) in diameter, it carried a payload of four 11-pound (5.0 kg) incendiary devices plus one 33-pound (15 kg) anti-personnel bomb, or . 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. National and state agencies were placed on heightened alert, and forest rangers were asked to report sightings or finds. 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. Map by Jerome N. Cookson, National Geographic; source: Dave Tewksbury, Hamilton College. Can we bring a species back from the brink? [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]. Location. The girls worked long, exhausting shifts, their contributions to this wartime project shrouded in silence. 1. The officials determined that the balloon was of Japanese origin, but how it had gotten to Montana and where it came from was a mystery.". Utilising the jet stream, Japanese forces launched these hydrogen f. The first was launched November 3, 1944. On April 18, 1945, a Japanese balloon bomb - one of thousands released toward the U.S . On the morning of Saturday, May 5, 1945, Rev. May 5, 2021. A Japanese Fu-Go balloon found near Bigelow, Kansas, on February 23, 1945. As recently as 2014, aballoon was discovered in Canada, and it was technically functional. 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.. [8], Each launch pad consisted of anchor screws drilled into the ground and arranged in a circle the same diameter as the balloons. "balloon bomb") deployed by Japan against the United States during World War II. 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. 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. The first balloon bomb was set free on Nov. 3, 1944. In a snow-covered, heavily forested area southwest of the Montana town, two woodchoppers found a balloon with Japanese markings on it. [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. A Japanese-launched balloon bomb like this one apparently exploded near Farmington in March 1945 during World War II. 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. Upon retrieval, they noted its Japanese markings and alerted the FBI. [24] In all, about 20 of the balloons were shot down by aircraft. The trip took several days. 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. They were the only Americans to be killed by enemy action during World War II in the continental USA. The balloon did not have any major consequences. 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.. In addition, it is included in the Nebraska State Historical Society series list. 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. 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. 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.. 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. The balloons were supposed to blow themselves up after releasing anti-personnel and. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. The year was 1945 and the United States was in the middle of World War II. Heres why each season begins twice. [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. Tiny Thermopolis in central Wyoming was among the first locations in the United States where a Japanese balloon bomb was reported after exploding. 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. On September 19, two Americans spoke with Lieutenant Colonel Terato Kunitake and a Major Inouye. 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. On Nov. 3, 1944, the first of more than 9,000 bomb-bearing balloons were released. As part of their report, they interviewed officials from Noborito who had worked on the Fu-Go program. Most of the balloon bombs. Japan's balloon bombs remain little known 70 years after the end of World War II for several reasons. The effects of that moment would reverberate throughout the Mitchell family, shifting the trajectory of their lives in unexpected ways. Military personnel who arrived on the scene observed that the balloon had snow beneath it, unlike the surrounding area, and concluded that it had lain there undisturbed for weeks until discovered. 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. Japanese officers later told the Associated Press that they finally decided the weapon was worthless and the whole experiment useless, because they had repeatedly listened to [radio broadcasts] and had heard no further mention of the balloons. Ironically, the Japanese had ceased launching them shortly before the picnicking children had stumbled across one. Is Eddie dead? The balloons rose to about 30,000 feet, where winds aloft transported them across the Pacific Ocean. These so-called "fire balloons" were filled with hydrogen and carrying bombs varying from 11 to 33 pounds, and were part of an experimental Japanese military offensive. 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. But it shut down the plant cold, and it took us about three days to get it back up to full power again.. [43] A bomb disposal expert guessed that the bomb had been kicked or otherwise disturbed. This also helped prevent the Japanese from gaining any morale boost from news of a successful operation. [c][27] Experiments conducted on recovered balloons to determine their radar reflectivity also had little success. Follow me @NPRHistoryDept; lead me by writing to lweeks@npr.org. In January 1955, the Albuquerque Journal reported that the Air Force had discovered one in Alaska. 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. A mans world? Photograph courtesy of Karen Melkonian. In 2014, a couple of forestry workers in Canada came across one of the unexploded balloon bombs, which still posed enough of a danger that a military bomb disposal unit had to blow it up. [28] Statistical analysis of valve serial numbers suggested that tens of thousands of balloons had been produced. 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. 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 . Hundreds were discovered up and down the west coast, and even as far inland as Indiana and Texas. Edward Melkonian. They called it Operation Fu-Go. At night, cool temperatures risked the balloon falling below the currents, an issue that worsened as gas was released. Little was known about the purpose of these balloons at first, and some military officials worried that they carried biological weapons. Despite the launches being top secret, once released, balloons were not hidden to those in the neighboring areas. They designed balloon bombs to be launched from Japanese submarines on the West Coast of America. An estimated 1,000 were believed to have reached the U.S. Only around 300 were reported as landing on U.S.. Sites marked with a black dot. 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. 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. 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. Most of the balloon bombs. Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. May 5, 2022. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. 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. The silence meant that for decades, grieving families were sometimes met with skepticism or outright disbelief. hide caption. 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.