Balloon Bomb

The Balloons of Doom

Many people believe that the United States was never attacked on the
home front during the second world war, but they are wrong. There were
a total of four offensives against the U.S. mainland, all by the Japanese.
Only one of these attacks killed anyone, and all were pathetic as far as
assaults go. The first attack was against the west coast when the
Japanese shelled an oil field and damaged a pump house. No one was
injured. The next attack occurred in Oregon and was preformed by a
different sub. They shelled a military fort and damaged a baseball
backstop. Yet another great victory for the Japanese navy. This
submarine’s crew later that year took the liberty of assembling a small
plane and starting several small fires in Oregon’s woods. They obviously
needed something better than this.

F?sen bakudan was the name of the campaign which the Japanese chose
to employ. The plan was to use a jet stream which the Japanese had
found led to America to sail over hydrogen balloons with high powered
explosives strapped to them. Theoretically, the balloons would land and
explode, killing people and starting fires. This plan had been come up with
by the Japanese Ninth Army Technical Research Facility, by a man named
Sueyoshi Kusaba. The jet stream, which was nine kilometers above the
earth, had the capability to carry a balloon over to the U.S. in three days.
The technicalities that were needed for this were very precise. The
balloon would explode if it got to big, and it would fall if it became too
small. Hydrogen, the gas used in the balloons, expanded when warm, and
shrunk when cooled. The Japanese had to devise an altimeter, and a
sandbag attachment for the balloons. If the balloon went to high or
expanded too much, the altimeter opened a valve to release hydrogen. If
the balloon got too low, the altimeter would release a couple of sandbags.
The altimeter had enough power for three days, which was enough time
to reach the U.S. When the time on the control system ended, a
gunpowder charge would be fired. This charge would light a 64 foot fuse,
and also arm the bombs. After 84 minutes, the fuse would expire,
activate a bomb that destroyed the balloon, and drop the payload to
explode on the ground. The balloons were constructed of Washi, a tough
impermeable paper made from mulberry leaves. Unfortunately, the
papers were individually not big enough for a balloon, so they were
pasted together by konnyaku, an edible paste made from devil’s tongue,
a plant. Hungry workers would steal and eat the paste. Most of the workers were teenage girls, because they were reputed to have the most
nimble fingers.

When large balloons started appearing over America, naturally everyone
became suspicious. Several balloons were found crashed, some with the
explosives still live. The air force did manage to shoot down twenty of the
balloons, they moved extremely fast, and one pilot somehow managed to
bump one of the balloons down to the ground, where it was examined.
When scientists managed to get a hold of the sandbags the balloons
carried, they were able to determine the exact beach that the Japanese
were launching from. Balloons were found far and wide across the U.S.,
they appeared in Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, Washington State, South
Dakota, Nevada, Colarado, Texas, North New Mexico, Michigan, Detroit,
and the list goes on. Some were even landing in Canada in such places as
the Northwest Territories. The Japanese only had one lethal attack which
happened in Lakeview, Oregon. Elsie Mitchell, a pastor’s wife, and five
children ages 11 to 13 were killed when they found a downed bomb.
Dragging it from the woods, they set it off, killing all of them. Elsie’s
husband, Archi Mitchell, watched as this happened. The Japanese
naturally assumed great victory, proclaiming America was burning and
10,000 had lost their lives in the attack. Actually, Japan never found out
about the attack, the U.S. media was in agreement with the government
not to publish any of the information regarding the attacks, so the
Japanese never knew what happened. The Japanese launched 9,000
balloons, and only 300 were ever found. The Japanese expected a ten
percent success rate, which was likely, as the balloons had a tendency to
land but not detonate. The payloads were very sensitive, and could last a
long time. There was a balloon bomb found in 1955 that still retained an
active payload. The most recent discovery was in 1992 in Alaska, the
bomb there had been corroded and the payload dead. Two of the balloons
were actually blown back into Japan, but did not cause any serious damage. The program did have a small victory, however. One of the
bombs landed at the Hanford Site, a facility of the Manhattan project. This
caused the scientists and officials at the site to practically have an
aneurysm, as the bomb landing there was a near disaster. The project
was abandoned after six months, the Japanese had heard nothing of the
balloons success, and only one story about a balloon landing in Wyoming
and not exploding. On top of that, B-29s had bombed the hydrogen
storage facilities used to store the hydrogen used for the project.
Needless to say, that went up like a torch, and the Japanese motivation
was dampened. Besides that, the workers had eaten all the glue, and the
bombs were obviously not working. It was a good idea, however it was
overly complicated. The damage was small, and the project had little
effect.

My most recent paper. You should see the one on bat bombs.