WWII: Terrorism From The Sky? (Part 1)

WWII: Terrorism From The Sky?  (Part One)

In the winter and spring of 1944-45, the Japanese military sent 9,200 paper balloons to bomb North America. The best historical evidence guesses state approximately ten percent, or 920 made it across the Pacific Ocean and onto North America. However, according to United States National Archive records, only 268 balloon incidents were recorded, leaving more than six hundred balloons unaccounted. Historians familiar with the attack, however, now call the attacks the only intercontinental ballistic missile attack ever on North America,  in the time of war. Additionally, they state those six hundred unaccounted for balloons may continue to pose a risk to anyone unfortunate enough to find them. Each balloon was loaded with approximately 45 pounds of explosives. Because they would now be very unstable, they continue to be dangerous, and may still explode, and would either kill the people who find them, or may start fires in dry areas. Furthermore, no one knows how many of the balloons continue to pose a risk. However, it is likely the balloons, if they really do exist, are probably in very difficult terrain to transverse, making it less likely very many people would be injured by any potential blast. Last, while it is  likely few major problems would happen from any of the unaccounted for balloons, it is also just as likely educated terrorists have heard the story and  may attempt to duplicate the Japanese military efforts some time in the near future. 

Since the 1960s, many terrorist events have taken place. Although it is impossible to say with any certainty, it seems likely that many terrorist attacks had their planning roots in historical events. Many terror leaders are educated individuals. During their education, many became professionals in their fields of studies. Furthermore, even the most scientific fields require history lessons. Since many terrorist are well read, it is also likely that the terror planners probably develop their plans based on historical records. For example, while no one knows for certain where the idea for the September 11, 2001 came from, it seems likely that someone planning that event probably knew about the bomber that flew into the side of the Empire State Building near the end of WWII. To give you a better understanding of why that event is important to understand, here is a short overview of what happened:

On July 28, 1945, the United States Army-Air Corps B-25 Bomber, “Old John Feather Merchant,” flying from New Bedford, Mass., to LaGuardia Airport in New York, through heavy fog, was diverted to Newark Airport because of that heavy fog. Instead, the aircraft accidentally crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building when the pilots tried to avoid hitting the Chrysler Building. The aircraft fuel then exploded and caused a fire that burned everything to the 75th floor. The plane itself was destroyed, with the force of the impact so great that one engine smashed all the way through the building and ended up in the penthouse of the building across the street. Investigators found small parts of the aircraft in and on top of other nearby buildings. To give you a better understanding of the forces involved, one only needs to look at the famous records of the Guinness Book of World Records, which claimed one woman has the world record for surviving an elevator fall of seventy-five stories when the second engine of the B-25 snapped the elevator cable for the car she had been riding in. According to the notes, once the cable snapped, the elevator car went into a free fall until the automatic breaks kicked in. Then the engine fell down the shaft and landed on top of the elevator car. Even so, the woman survived and was eventually pulled from the wreckage by rescuers. Although she was lucky, some did not  survive. In the end, fourteen people died: three in the aircraft, and eleven more who worked for the War Relief Services department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. The accident also caused about a million dollars in damage to the Empire State Building. 

Although this aircraft accident was a historical event, Tom Clancy wrote about a fictional attack on the White House several years before 9-11 too. Could Clancy’s writings also have been the catalyst for the September 11 attacks? No one knows for sure, but it seems likely that either the historical event or fictional event may have led to the 9-11 attacks. If so, this example of the WWII Japanese balloon attacks on U.S. and Canada soils may provide a useful historical guide for anyone attempting to predict future attacks by anyone who knows the historical record.

Part Two of “Terror From The Sky: Balloons” will give a short history of the Japanese Balloon Attacks and the North America military response to the balloons. 

Part Three will discuss the successes and failures of the Japanese attacks from both the Japanese and the US and Canada points of view. 

Part Four will address the worst case scenarios which includes germ warfare, and explains why the US and Canada WWII military intelligence organizations were so nervous about the Japanese balloon attacks and why they pressed so hard to keep the American Free Press from reporting the story.

Part Five will examine what might happen if new attacks takes place on American soil today and examines the questions raised by the previous posts.