Fu-Go balloon bombs · 1945
Japan sent 9,000 paper balloons to bomb America
Japan sent over 9,000 paper balloon bombs on the jet stream. About 300 arrived. On 5 May 1945 six died in Oregon, the only such deaths in the lower 48.
What is said in this reel
Japan sent more than 9,000 paper balloons to bomb America. They called it Fugo. Japan's code name for a balloon bomb. Stay, and you'll see why America kept it quiet. They rode the jet stream, a river of wind. So did it actually work? About 300 arrived, but the woods were too wet to burn. One cut power to the plant making plutonium for the atomic bomb. Then came May 5, 1945. Oregon. Five children and a pastor's wife found one in the woods. It exploded. Six died. The only enemy attack deaths in the lower 48 states. Remember why it was kept quiet? The press blackout lifted 17 days later. In 1987, women who'd glued them as schoolgirls delivered a thousand paper cranes to the families. Paper made the bombs. Paper made the peace.
Credits and sources
- Film: Japanese Paper Balloon, U.S. Navy training film (1945), National Archives (NARA 80-MN-5083, public domain)
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons (public domain): U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, National Archives, U.S. Forest Service, Mikesh
- "Mitchell Monument, Bly, Oregon" and "Shrapnel Tree - Mitchell Monument, Bly, Oregon" by Michael (a.k.a. moik) McCullough, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons / Flickr
- Narration: AI-generated voice.
