From
The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) August 15, 1945
Jap
Balloons Fell In Sixteen States
SEATTLE, Aug. 15 -- AP -- Japan landed more than 200 bomb carrying unmanned paper
balloons in western North America, out of perhaps thousands launched, but the
bizarre attack fell flatter than a pancake as a military weapon.
Details
of the strange balloon attacks, hitherto largely secret to keep the enemy from
learning the results, were disclosed today with relaxation of censorship.
As
of the end of July, nearly 230 of the lethal balloons or their exploded remnants
had been recovered. They fell from Alaska to Mexico and as far east as Michigan,
but most frequently in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California and Montana.
Many
more were sighted and still are being recovered in isolated areas, where unexploded
bombs remain a menace. Possible duplications in reports of balloons sighted and
the fact that many may have come down unseen in mountainous areas make uncertain
the exact number that actually reached this continent.
Unknown
too, unless Japan tells, is the number launched. But official guesses that it
may be in the thousands are based partly on a navy task force report that hundreds
were sighted in a single day off the Aleutians, headed for California. It was
at the time of the San Francisco [United Nations] security conference and the
report caused apprehension and a redoubled watch. But not one of these was sighted
ashore, all apparently falling into the sea.
Flop
As Weapon
Except for killing six
persons who tampered with a bomb near Lakeview, Ore., perhaps causing two small
fires, and diverting manpower for their investigation and control, the balloons
flopped badly as a war weapon. Not one ever dropped in a city or war plant, although
several came down near the Hanford atomic bomb factory in south central Washington
state and one dropped on the Bonneville Dam power line, momentarily stopping power
to the Hanford project.
The two fires possibly started by balloon bombs were
a small brush blaze in Shasta county, Calif., and one on a turkey farm in Oregon,
but neither was definitely established as balloon caused.
The
Japanese radio threat to send balloons carrying suicide pilots never materialized.
There was no indication any balloon was manned.
Authorities
quickly imposed secrecy on balloon landings. Investigation showed the balloons
were 33 foot [diameter], hydrogen filled bags made of five layers of paraffined
rice paper and that they traveled at around 30,000 feet with prevailing Pacific
winds, coming from Japan in three and a half to four and a half days at 80 to
120 miles an hour. Each carried five bombs, four incendiaries and a 33 pound fragmentation
type anti-personnel bomb.
Combating the balloons quickly became an important
defense project under the army's western defense command. The army and navy set
up joint operations centers from which planes were dispatched to shoot down the
balloons. Comparatively few were destroyed by planes, however. Cooperation of
state and local authorities was enlisted, and the military stationed "recovery
teams" which pursued and disposed of balloons when sighting reports were
received. Recovered balloons were sent to the aerological laboratories at Anacosta,
D. C., where they were studied.
Poor
Workmanship
Authorities found the design
of the balloon, and the ballast dropping device intended to keep it aloft until
it reached this country, was so good some suspected they were of German origin.
But the Japanese workmanship was sloppy, and the equipment frequently failed to
function properly -- a factor which helped make the attacks unsuccessful. About
half the bombs dropped or were dragged off before the balloons were found.
The
balloon traffic reached a peak last March and dropped to a mere dribble the last
two months, but authorities attribute this to the fact summer winds are unfavorable
for sending gasbags from Japan.
Near
Moxee City, Wash., a sheepherder found a fallen balloon with live bombs, dragged
it behind his automobile and kept it in a building two weeks before authorities
learned of the incident.
A small boy
in Washington state found an anti-personnel bomb, which looked to him like a toy
airplane. He wound the "propeller" -- the arming device in the nose
-- until it was within one-sixteenth of an inch of exploding the bomb.
The
lad was pretty disappointed when his plaything was removed, but not more so than
the Indian children near Wapato, Wash., who found part of a paper balloon and
used it to make a beautiful tepee in their back yard. They were crushed when the
officers snatched it away.
From
the Seattle Times August 18, 1945
Jap
Balloon Blew Up Near Tacoma Feb. 28; One Found Near Orting
Japan's weird balloon-bomb attacks on North America, during which at least 228
balloons or bombing devices landed in the United States, Canada and Mexico, dwindled
sharply in the three months before Japan surrendered.
Now
that censorship has been lifted it can be revealed that on Feb. 27, a balloon
exploded in the air near Goldendale, Wash., and the next day another blew up in
the air 10 miles northwest of Tacoma.
Another
one of the balloons landed on a farm between Puyallup and Orting on March 3. Investigating
officers were sworn to secrecy at the time of the discovery and the farmer who
notified them of his find did not confirm until Thursday his suspicions of it
being a Jap balloon.
Land
on Mt. Rainier
It was also reported that
five or six of the balloons were found in the Mount Rainier park area, but no
damage was done.
Another one of the balloons
landed on telephone wires at Keyport, near Bremerton. An FBI demolition squad
was called after telephone linemen cut down the missile.
It was learned that
one of the balloons hit a military objective but no damage was done. The balloon
landed on the runway at Paine field, an army airfield at Everett.
The Tacoma
office of the state patrol was the "funneling" point for reports of
discovery of the balloons. All reports received were then referred to the army
and the FBI.
58 in One
Day
The highest number of balloons reported
seen in one day in the state was 58.
The balloons were first made out of paper,
but later models were composed of high-grade latex and fabricated silk.
Authoritative
sources revealed that crews of B-29 planes had seen hundreds of the balloons in
the air on bombing missions and that the starting point for them was Tokyo.
The
first balloon equipped with bomb devices was discovered in December of 1944 at
Kalispell, Montana, by two woodchoppers. Its bombs apparently already had been
dropped automatically into the wilds or the ocean without damage.
In
the first action by fighter planes against the gas bags, Royal Canadian air force
planes shot down a balloon before it had penetrated 500 yards beyond the American
west coast, 20 miles north of Bellingham, Feb. 22.
Radar
was used extensively in detecting the approach of the balloons offshore, and thereafter
they were tracked by navy blimps and planes.
Close
to Paine Field
Scattered balloon arrivals
continued until March 13, when Everett had its closest call. A gas bag landed
at the edge of Paine field, with one incendiary still attached. Two other balloons
were found elsewhere in the state the same day by farmers.
In
Yakima, a boy unknowingly carried around a Jap anti-personnel bomb he found for
several days before white-faced authorities persuaded him it was dangerous. If
he had twisted the armed bomb's detonating device 1/16th of an inch it would have
exploded.
On April 18, near Yakima, an
Indian family was found to have built a tepee of fabric from a balloon which crashed
nearby.
Last on
May 16
The last two balloons to
land in the state came down near Apotin, May 28, and Tampico, Yakima county, June
20.
The possibility that the Japanese
launched many thousands of the balloons may be indicated by the numbers on certain
parts of the devices -- numbers which ranged as high as 15,980.
At the time
of the United Nations conference in San Francisco, several hundred Jap balloons
were reported at sea drifting toward the Golden Gate, but presumably all crashed
harmlessly into the ocean.
From
the Seattle Times October 3, 1945
Jap
Balloons Boomeranged
TOKYO---(UP)---Japanese bomb-carrying balloons, directed against the United States,
boomeranged against Japan, a Japanese official said Wednesday.
The
balloons, whose gas bags were made of paper, were designed to follow high altitude
winds to the United States. However, tricky winds over the home islands returned
at least two of the balloons to spots near their launching points in the early
days of the experiment.
Many balloons
were shot down in the Aleutians and one dud carried an inspection tag through
which the U.S. Air Force located the manufacturing plant and bombed it out of
existence.
An analysis of the sand ballast of the balloons revealed their
launching points and these, too, were bombed.
The
Japanese knew the bombs carried by the balloons were too small to be of any great
military value, but hoped they would land in a city or cause forest fires.
The
Japanese conceded their first concrete evidence that a balloon actually had reached
the United States was an official American announcement.
RELATED
NEWS ARTICLES:
