The Japanese Hydrogen Bomb Balloons
The Japanese decided to launch incendiary attacks against the United States using about 9,000 hydrogen balloons with small incendiary weapons that can burn over an hour and 33lb (15kg) of high explosive anti-personnel bombs.
The Japanese released the balloons from Ibaraki Prefecture on the western side of Honshu.
Japan released them into the high-attitude jet-stream so that the weapons can be carried across the Pacific to North America.
The balloons were made with paper called washi. The balloons were mostly made by students and women from nearby towns.
The washi paper was glued together with ‘devil tongue’ gel that is made by boiling the roots of arum lilies which are also eatable.
Although the plan seems impossible, it worked. Most of the balloons burst or deflated and landed in the sea because they were too heavy and unbalanced. However, over 1000 of the secret balloons reached North America and around 25 of them were capable of damage, causing mostly a small forest fire.
At first, the first few fireballs falling from the skies were not given so much attention, but closer to 1944, the authorizes realized that the balloons were bombs that contained magnesium as an incendiary device to set fire to the balloons on landing but also to ensure that the device was consumed in the blaze so that the Americans would not figure out the existence of the secret balloon bombs.
285 balloon bomb incidents have been reported and some of the balloons reached as far in as Michigan. One was found was a group of 6 holidaymakers in Oregon woods, all of whom were killed when they tried to move it and the anti-personnel mine exploded.
However, in reality, when the American authorities discovered about the bombs, many balloons were shot down by warplanes in mid-flight. The United States made secret arrangements with the newspaper editors so that the reports of successful attacks were never published. After about 5 months, the Japanese were discouraged of the silence and discontinued their attacks.
The idea of a balloon travelling all across the Pacific seems later illogical, however, the fact that it succeeded is a surprise. With the Japanese hydrogen balloon bomb, the intelligence of both countries, United States and Japan can be highlighted. Japan’s military intelligence and creativeness was obviously shown off becaus not a lot of people would think to send a balloon from Japan to United States. Also, it showed the intelligence of United States because the US showed their ability to handle the problem without their enemy getting their weak spot. On the other hand, the six people who died could not even go recognized which a negative aspect of the US authorities not releasing the news about the hydrogen balloon bombs.