On March 11, 1945, a Japanese balloon bomb that was shot at over British Columbia, was recovered in Edson, Alberta. (A photo of the bomb, less the balloon, above - photo by Joshua Wills.)
That's what I found on an old Canadian military calendar presented to me by Canadian Brigadier-General Gaston Cloutier, who works out of our National Defence headquarters in Ottawa.
A Japanese balloon bomb - in Canada? Japan was attacking Canada during WWII? I had no idea. So I did some research. Damn my curious mind. I just wanted a short three paragraph entry!
The balloon bomb or Fu-Go (風船爆弾 - fūsen bakudan) was a hydrogen balloon carrying either a 12-kilogram (26 pound) incendiary device OR a 15 kilogram (33-pound) anti-personnel bomb plus a total of four five kilogram (11-pound) incendiaries.
The Japanese plan, quite simply enough, was to get the balloons up into the jet stream to land (eventually) and cause damage to wherever the wind would carry it, in the U.S. and Canada.
Despite some 9,300 balloon bombs launched by Japan during a six month period (November 1944 - April 1945), there were only six recorded fatalities. This happened on May 5, 1945 when a pastor and his pregnant wife took five Sunday school kids (aged 11-14) to the forested area of Gearhart Mountain in the southern part of Oregon, U.S. Seeing the balloon on the ground, the woman and kids approached it (Pastor Archie Mitchell was trying to park the car) - only to have it explode into a fiery ball. While Mitchell tried to put the fire out by hand, there was nothing he could do, and all died quickly.
Notice the date. May of 1945. The last one was launched in April of that year, implying it probably laid there on the site for days...
Like Pearl Harbor, this certainly is another example of an attack on (North) American soil by a foreign power... actually, more so since Hawaii hadn't yet joined the Union. Technically, as a protectorate, it was under U.S. jurisdiction (which is why when Miss Puerto Rico wins a Miss Universe pageant, the U.S. claims it as a win for the U.S.... even though they have their own participant - but I digress).
Check out the image below, for a look at all of the parts of the Japanese balloon bomb:
If you look at the numbers on the diagram:
- The balloon: Diameter - 33 1/2 feet; volume - approx. 19,000 cubic feet; material - paraffin treated paper;
- Rubber shock cord or bungee;
- Sketch of incendiary-type bomb found at Medford, Oregon;
- Japanese 15KG antipersonnel bomb found at Thermopolis, Wyoming;
- Rope arrangement of skirt section (enlarged);
- Battery unit of balloon. Includes: metal poles, bakelite plate, aluminum ring, squib fuse, and aneroid barometer;
- Release arrangement;
- Fuse housing bolted beneath the center of the cross-beams.
When fully inflated, the balloons were 10 meters (33-feet) in diameter, held some 540-cubic meters (19,0000-cubic-feet) of hydrogen gas.
Conceived of by Japan's Number Nine Research Laboratory, in Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken, the lab's chief focus was the creation of unconventional war-time applications including energy and biological weapons, poisons, intelligence and spy tools and even the counterfeiting of currencies.
With some 1,000 scientists working there at its peak in 1944, the lab (1937-1945) was disbanded at the war's conclusion.
The war balloon was developed by Major Takada Teiji (surname first) and his team, under the auspices of Major General Kusaba Sueyoshi (surname first).
As mentioned, the balloon weapon look to take advantage of the jetstream to have the balloon travel relatively quickly across the Pacific to its no specific targets in Canada and the U.S. But... keep in mind, the Japanese apparently discovered the as yet un-named jetstream.
Choosing to launch their balloons during the late fall, the Japanese assured themselves that because the jetstream is stronger at this time of year - the Americans wouldn't see it coming. Of course, if the bombs exploded near a forest, the dampness would ensure a minimum of actual damage to the area.
According to Oishi Wasaburo (大石 和三郎), the jet stream discoverer born in Tosu, Saga-ken (1874-1950, ) these high-altitude winds (30,000 feet or 9.15 kilometers) would be able to move the balloon bombs over a distance of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) from Japan to North America in just three days. It was expected, however, that only about 10 percent of the launched balloons would actually find its way across to Canada or the U.S.
Theory aside, great care was taken to build the balloon bombs.
I'm going to borrow heavily from Wikipedia here:
A hydrogen balloon expands when warmed by the sunlight, and rises; then it contracts when cooled at night, and falls. The engineers devised a control system driven by an altimeter to discard ballast. When the balloon descended below 9.15 km (30,000 ft), it electrically fired a charge to cut loose sandbags. The sandbags were carried on a cast-aluminium four-spoked wheel and discarded two at a time to keep the wheel balanced.
Similarly, when the balloon rose above about 11.6 km (38,000 ft), the altimeter activated a valve to vent hydrogen. The hydrogen was also vented if the balloon's pressure reached a critical level.
The control system ran the balloon through three days of flight. At that time, it was likely over the U.S., and its ballast was expended. The final flash of gunpowder released the bombs, also carried on the wheel, and lit a 19.5 meter (64 ft) long fuse that hung from the balloon's equator. After 84 minutes, the fuse fired a flash bomb that destroyed the balloon.
So... if 9,300 balloons were launched and only 10 per cent were expected to make it across to North America, that would be an expected total of 930.
However, best guesstimates show only about 300 balloons to have either landed or spotted over Mexico, Canada and the U.S. Where did they go? Possibly into the water, or did land and were detonated with no one around.
Initially, the skin of the balloon bomb was fabricated from rubberized silk. Then it was determined that washi - a paper made from mulberry bushes - would be tougher to pierce.
But, after an order for 10,000 balloons was made, the real work started. The main problem was that the washi supplies was only available in squares 'the size of an unfolded road map' - let's say 1.83 meters x 1-meter?
So, these pieces of paper had to be joined to make the balloon. So... a glue was required - or rather a paste made from the root of the konnyaku plant. Now, it was said that sometimes the hungry workers - all female - would steal the konnyaku paste to eat because they were hungry.
I used to eat konnyaku at least twice a week with my Japanese junior high school prepared lunches - and let me tell you... if it is good for you, great - but I hated the solid gelatinous texture and the non-taste. All filler - no thriller. If people were eating it rather than trying to help the war effort, I can only say they must have really been hungry.
Japan, wanting to tell its populace how successful they had been in attacking America told its citizens that there were some 10,000 casualties from the fire balloon. All hooey, of course.
But.. the balloons did worry the U.S., who kept a tight lid on things, as the U.S. Office of Censorship informed newspapers and radio stations to not mention these balloon - loose lips, sink ships - so that Japan wouldn't get a swelled head.
A more patriotic media of the day, agreed. Only once did news of a balloon bomb reaching Wyoming and failing to explode get to Japan. It may be why after six months, the attacks ceased. Of course, U.S. B-29 bombers had destroyed two of the three hydrogen plants that the Number Nine Research Laboratory had used to make the balloons.
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
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