Japanese...somewhere in Oregon?

That was a baloon bomb that didn't go off till after the war if I remember my obscure history trivia.

The bomb killed a newlywed couple, during the war. It was hushed up for security reasons. The Japs also used a plane from a sub to try to start forest fires on the West Coast, no luck there.

The Germans landed a sabatoge team on the East Coast, but they were all caught before they did any damage.

"That was a baloon bomb that didn't go off till after the war if I remember my obscure history trivia."

Nope, during the war. The amazing thing is that it wasn't until much later that we 'discovered' the jet stream that they knew about and were using for the balloons.

balloon.html

The Balloon Bomb Offensive

Japanese Balloon Bombs From a Gun Camera on a F6F Hellcat

In 1942.the Japanese realized that they could not hold Guadacanal from the Americans.So,they decided to make the war so costly for them that they would sue fo peace.But, the Japanese failed to realize that they were going against an enemy that was willing to accept heavy losses to win.So, in late-1943, Japanese scientists thought of a way to strike the American homeland.Since no Japanese bomber had the range to strike America, and they did not have any island bases near enough to the American coast, they made the balloon bomb.It was just as the name says it is.The balloon was made out of rubberize paper and carried 300 lbs. of bombs.They would release the balloon and it would rise up into the stratosphere, where the jet stream would carry it all the way to the United States.Then it would fall out of the sky and explode on anything it hit.Now, the ballon bombs actually worked! One made it all the way to Oregon and one actually was found in upper Michigan.But, they did not work the way they expected them to, not because of the bombs themsleves, but of the American government.In 1944, one of these bombs were found by campers in Oregon.When they decided to drag the bomb back to camp, it exploded, killing an adult and four children.When the American Army found out about this, they immediatly set up air patrols to found and destroy these bombs before one hit a city.Also, to keep the Japanese from finding out about the people that were killed, they asked the presses not to publish the story.Now, after a while, the Japanese became discouraged by the lack of news from the United States.So, they let up on launching the balloon bombs until they quit in mid-1945.

You know, the scariest thing about the balloon bombs is that if the Japanese knew about the five people killed in Oregon, they would've sent more, and with biological warfare test they were doing to the Chinese in Manchuria, they could've sent a biological bomb to the U.S. and well, you pretty much know what might happen.Even with that, I don't think the Japanese would've won anyway.The American Navy was too close and America itself was too powerful by late-1943 to make too big of a difference.So, it was just another terror weapon like the German V-1 and V-2.