Balloon Bombs

This podcast tells the story of Balloon bombs that crossed the United States, sent from Japan at the end of World War II, carried by the jet stream.

Transcript

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Welcome to Kitts Myths and Mysteries, listened to in all 50 states and 39 countries, stories from a world you thought you knew. And this story in particular deals with an issue of the Japanese invasion of the United States, a story you won't read in the history books. Easily Mitchell almost didn't go on the picnic that sunny day in Bly, Oregon. She had packed a chocolate cake the night before in anticipation of their outing, her sister would later recall. But the 26-year-old was pregnant with her first child and had been feeling unwell. On the morning of May 5, 1945, she decided she felt decent enough to join her husband, Reverend Archie Mitchell, and a group of Sunday school children from their tight-knit community as they set out for nearby Gearhart Mountain in southern Oregon. Against a scenic backdrop far removed from the war raging across the Pacific, Mitchell and five children would become the first and only civilians to die by enemy weapons on the United States mainland during World War II. While Archie parked their car hastily, and the children stumbled upon a strange looking object in the forest, and she shouted back to her husband. The Reverend would later describe that tragic moment to a local newspaper. I hurriedly called a warning to them, but it was too late. Just then there was a huge explosion. I ran up and they were all lying there dead. Lost in an instant were his wife and unborn child, along with Eddie Engen, thirteen, Gay Gifford, thirteen, Sherman Shoemaker eleven, Dick Pitsky fourteen, and Joan Cis Pitsky thirteen. In the months leading up to that spring day on Gearhart Mountain, there had been some warning signs, apparitions scattered around the western United States that were largely unexplained, at least to the general public. Flashes of light, the sound of explosions, the discovery of mysterious fragments all amounted to little concrete information to go on. First, the discovery of a large balloon miles off the California coast by the Navy on November fourth, nineteen forty four. A month later on december sixth, nineteen forty-four, witnesses reported an explosion and a flame near the Thermopolis, Wyoming home. Reports of fallen balloons began to trickle into local law enforcements with enough frequency that it was clear something unprecedented in the war had emerged that demanded explanation. Military officials began to piece together that a strange new weapon with markings indicating it had been manufactured in Japan had reached American shores. They did not yet know the extent or capacity or scale of these balloon bombs. Japanese scientists carefully studied what would become commonly known as the jet stream, realizing these currents of wind could enable balloons to reach the United States shore in just a couple of days. The balloons remained aloft through an elaborate mechanism that triggered a fuse when the balloon dropped in altitude, releasing a sandbag and lightening the weight enough for it to rise back up into the jet stream. This process would repeat until all that remained was the bomb itself. By then the balloons would be expected to reach the mainland. An estimated 1,000 out of the 9,000 launched made the journey. Between the fall of 1944 and the summer of 1945, several hundred incidents connected to these balloons had been cataloged as reports of isolated sightings and theories on how they got there, ranging from submarines to saboteurs, made their way into a handful of news reports over the Christmas holiday. Government officials stepped in to censor stories about the bombs, worrying that fear itself might soon magnify the effect of these new weapons. The reverse principle also applied. While the American public was largely in the dark in the early months of 1945, so were those who were launching these deadly weapons. Japanese officials later told the Associated Press that they finally decided the weapon was worthless and the whole experiment useless because they had repeatedly listened to radio broadcasts and had heard no further mention of the balloons. Ironically, the Japanese had ceased launching them shortly before the picnicking children had stumbled across one. Be sure to listen tomorrow to another story from a world you thought you knew. This is Kit Crom. Thanks for listening.