It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s a killer balloon! Though seemingly innocuous, the paper balloons launched by the Japanese during World War Two were anything but; the fearsome globes known as “Fu-Go” were filled with a pair of five-kilogram explosives meant to set America’s west coast lethally alight. The Land of the Rising Sun let upward of a thousand of em’ fly between the years of 1944 and 1945 alone, but only one met pay dirt in Bly, Oregon. The consequences were fatal.
Disaster stuck on May 5, 1945, when the Mitchell family decided to stretch their legs and enjoy the great outdoors with a few friends. They had just begun to revel in Bly’s vistas when the grim reaper assumed the shape of a Fu-Go. Whilst feasting al fresco, one of the kids noticed a 70-foot tall paper blob hanging from a nearby tree. This same child decided he was the tot meant to dislodge the crumbled bomb. Little did any of he know that the explosive had not yet detonated.
Mr. Mitchell ran toward his family screaming not to touch it, but the little Mitchell still gave a tug. That tiny gesture set the Fu-Go off, killing six picnickers, including the pregnant Mrs. Mitchell.
Their deaths were the only that occurred at the hands of the enemy in the continental U.S. during World War Two. The site, since designated the Mitchell Recreation Area, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The ominous orb that struck in 1945 was not the Beaver State’s inaugural dance with Pacific warfare. A Japanese sub reportedly surfaced in the Columbia River back in 1942. This incident, too, involved explosives, but the damage was extremely minimal and contained within the limits of a vacant baseball field. Moreover, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force stepped things up that same year by dropping fire bombs along Oregon’s wooded coastline. This barrage was the first time the continental U.S. was attacked by aircraft. Only one of the thousands of Fu-Gos had any real impact; this was of course, in Bly.
Only 361 Fu-Gos have been recovered since the War. Although some experts say they may have been rigged with a self-destruct mechanism, those that remain lost in the great American wilderness are generally thought to remain live.
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