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Japan's Fu-Go (Balloon) Weapon during WWII


Vincennes
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I picked up an interesting book at the Tulsa flea market today. It is JAPAN'S WORLD WAR II BALLOON BOMB ATTACKS ON NORTH AMERICA by Robert C Mikesh. It is Number 9 of the Smithsonian Annals of Flight series, published by Smithsonian Press in 1973.

 

The Author states that this is "a definitive study about the Japanese Balloon Bombs". It is 85 pages long with 90 illustrations, several tables, a bibliography, and an index.

 

He lists (and plots on maps) 285 locations where balloons, or parts of balloons, were found from Alaska to Mexico and as far east as Michigan. Japan launched the balloons with incendiary and anti-personnel bombs from November 1944 until August of 1945 depending upon  prevailing winds to deliver them to the U.S.

 

Six American civilians were killed, two small brush fires were ignited, and there was a momentary loss of electrical power at the Hanford, WA atomic energy plant which caused a slight delay in the production of materials for the atomic bomb which would later be used on Japan. (There is a lot of irony in that last report).

 

There is much more information (and pictures) of the Japanese side of this story than I have seen anywhere else. He also covers the use of US fighter aircraft to shoot down the balloons. He states that the US Government asked all the press media to NOT broadcast or print reports of the balloons reaching the US, so the Japanese would not know how successful the program was. And (believe it or not) the press complied.

 

There are extensive details including diagrams and pictures, on the construction of the balloon bomb covering the balloon, the bomb, the fuses, valves, and other parts.

 

There is a lot more in this book than I have mentioned, so if the subject interests you I recommend you try to find a copy of the book.

 

Paul

Balloon.jpg

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