The Forgotten History of the Japanese Balloon Bomb That Killed Americans in World War II
This photograph of a Japanese bomb-carrying paper balloon in the air was taken over North America on July 2, 1945.
The balloons are supposed to blow themselves up after releasing anti-personnel and incendiary explosives.
In late January, a mysterious balloon was spotted floating over U.S. waters and later hovered around Montana above missile sites.
The balloon, which turned out to be a surveillance balloon from China, was shot down when it was safely off the coast of South Carolina.
Last week, another unidentified balloon was tracked over Hawaii, raising apprehension and curiosity yet again.
On Tuesday, a defense official said that balloon posed no danger to aviation or national security.
This is not the first time balloon incursions have been of concern to the American public. In fact, a balloon floating into U.S. airspace once caused fatal consequences: May 5 marks the 78th anniversary of a relatively unknown tragedy caused by balloon bombs at the tail end of World War II, when one set off a deadly explosion in the pine forests near Oregon.
It was a beautiful spring day when Rev. Archie Mitchell, the new minister at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Bly, Oregon and his pregnant wife Elsie, invited five Sunday school students on a picnic and fishing trip. That halcyon jaunt would end as the only lethal attack by an enemy on the continental United States during World War II.
While the pastor parked the car, the children and Elsie Mitchell got out of the car and headed toward Leonard Creek. He heard his wife call out, “Look what we found. It looks like some kind of balloon.”
What Elsie and the children didn’t know—but Archie Mitchell did—is that the Imperial Japanese Army had developed an incendiary balloon bomb.
This bomb was transported by jet stream 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean by hitching a ride on a balloon, and they had launched about 9,300 of them toward the Western United States.
Just as Archie was about to issue a warning, there was a fierce explosion.
He was spared the brunt of the blast, but was slightly injured when he rushed to the scene and tried to extinguish fires on his wife’s clothing.
His wife and the children were all killed.
Source : Time
Richard Koomson| mediacentralonline.info |Ghana
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