Surprised Again: Japan's Attack on America's Homeland
Episode 11: Surprised Again; Japan’s Attack on America’s Homeland
March 5, 1945 was a picnic worthy Sunday day in Bly, Oregon. The day was indeed worthy enough that the Reverend Archie Mitchell decided to take his pregnant 26 year old wife and five young teenagers from their Sunday school class on a picnic. Little did they know that they would become part of American history, but certainly not in the way they would have wanted.
Today, in Episode 11 of the Where Heroes Walked podcast, we're going to take a look at an event from World War II I'm quite confident most Americans are unfamiliar with, an event marked by tragedy, and an event that could have been very, very impactful to the course of the war with Japan. Join me for an episode titled; “Surprised Again: Japan’s Attack on America’s Homeland”
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TEXT:
Most Americans are aware of the significance of December 7, 1941 and the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that claimed 2403 American lives. In the aftermath of that attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on the United States military to find a way to strike back, to somehow do something that would raise the morale of a country reeling from the devastating blow in Hawaii. That act of revenge, of defiance that Roosevelt wanted would come six months after Pearl Harbor, April 18th, 1942. 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers under the command of General Jimmy Doolittle took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on a mission to bomb Tokyo. Dolittle’s Raiders, as they would become known, flew over the Japanese mainland virtually undetected, surprising the Japanese leaders and civilians by dropping their bomb loads on designated targets.
The raid, however, did little damage but it did have other effects. And that effect was fourfold.
First, as hoped it lifted the sagging morale of the people in the United States who were encouraged to know that we still had the ability and fortitude to quickly and decisively responded to Pearl Harbor.
Second, it would make a Japanese people—who had been assured they were untouchable—suddenly feel vulnerable. They demanded greater protection of their homeland. The defenses of the homeland islands were indeed stepped up and over 2,000 American airman would pay a deadly price for this in the coming years.
Third, the bombing of the Japan’s homeland forced the Japanese military to somewhat hurriedly undertake the planning and execution of what they hoped would be a knockout blow to the Americans in the Pacific. Fought in June 1942, the Battle of Midway would be a resounding victory for the American forces and would mark the beginning of a downward spiral of the Japanese Navy. Thanks to skillful and shrewd intelligence work, the American Navy would sink four Japanese carriers and set the Japanese back on their heels in their plans to take control of the Pacific.
Finally, the Japanese military then felt an increasing urgency to find a way to strike their own blow the United States mainland. It would come in the development of a weapon with the unlikely codename Project FuGo.
Simply translated, a FuGo was a Balloon Bomb and, as is always the case, FuGo technology built upon much earlier and simpler technology.
First off, balloons had been used for military purposes as early as the 1700s.
Second, explosive weapons had become more sophisticated, creating bombs and explosives of all sizes and types compatible with various delivery systems, a necessity for FuGo.
Third, Japanese scientists had recently discovered the presence of high speed, high altitude winds that flowed west to east from from the skies above Japan to the northern reaches of the United States, Today we know these winds as Jet Streams. Best of all for Japanese purposes, the Jet Streams provided a reliable delivery system for the FUGO balloon that required nothing further on the part of the military. All they had to do was develop a satisfactory balloon and explosive combination to complete the mission.
Ultimately, all this technology came together to combine with ancient balloon technology to give the Japanese the weapon they would need to attempt a strike at the American homeland. The FuGo would become the worlds first intercontinental weapon. And while it was remarkably simple in concept—strap some explosives to a balloon and send it to the US, it was complicated in execution.
The FUGO had been in the development stages long before World War II, somewhere around 1933 but the results were nowhere near satisfactory for the building of a Balloon Bomb capable of reaching the US. It required an rather intricate system of ballasts and barometers and other devices to keep the balloon in the jet stream for the 6000 mile + Journey.
So what did the FUGO look like.
The FUGO was a Hydrogen filled balloon approximately 33 feet in diameter, capable of carrying a platform loaded with a variety of incendiary and anti-personnel explosives. Once released they would rise to catch the Jet Streams then travel the 6000 miles from Japan, descend into the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The explosives would then detonate, starting widespread forest fires and incite panic among the population.
It’s important to remember that to this point America had suffered no enemy intrusion on its homeland. There was a sense of security knowing that at this point in the war neither Japan or Germany had aircraft or other technology capable of reaching our shores.
Or so we thought.
On November 3, 1944 the first of the FUGO balloons were launched. In all the Japanese would send 9,300 FUGOs into the jet stream.
Few Americans could have suspected that a deadly threat floated over their heads in the night skies. A Japanese surprise attack was about to unfold.
Estimates vary but probably 300 or more survived the journey to North America.
Carried on the jet stream, FuGo Balloon Bombs traveled as far as eastern Michigan. Pieces were found in Canada and Mexico as well as in Hawaii, Alaska and most of the states in the western US.
When finally identified by the United States government and FBI, strict censorship was enforced concerning their discovery in an attempt to prevent any panic among the American public. The censorship was also designed to prevent the Japanese gaining a valuable propaganda tool by announcing they had bombed America. A simple Sunday School picnic in Oregon would change all that.
Elsye Mitchell woke up on May 5, 1945 uncertain as to whether or not she would accompany her husband Archie, the pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Bly, Oregon on a planned Sunday School picnic. She was pregnant with their first child and didn’t think she felt well enough to accompany her husband and the five teenagers—four boys and a girl—that would be picnicking with them. Their destination was nearby Gearhart Mountain.
But as the morning progressed she decided to go. It would be a fateful decision.
After they arrived at the park Elsye and the teenagers left Archie unloading the car and ventured into the nearby woods. Someone shouted to Archie that they had found something.
“I hurriedly called a warning to them,” Archie Mitchell later recalled, “But it was too late.”
A tremendous explosion rocked the camp area.
“I ran up,” Mitchell further explained, “and they were all lying there dead”.
Elsye Mitchell, her unborn child, and the five teenagers would have the tragic distinction of being the only citizens of the United States to die in the homeland during World War II.
As tragic as the event was American military and intelligence experts knew the FUGO project could have had much more dangerous and deadly outcomes. Had the Japanese known that many of the FUGO Balloons had indeed found their target, and had the military enlisted the weapon for a campaign of biological or germ attacks it is difficult to imagine the costs in lives and morale in a country already war-weary. Fortunately, they did not travel that road or the war could have turned out very differently.
But With the news of the end of the war in Europe unfolding in the days following the Mitchell tragedy, very little attention was paid to the Fo-Gu bomb explosion and the six deaths beyond the immediate Bly area. The town was left to mourn on its own.
The tragedy of the Oregon FUGO balloon deaths is, of course, but one of thousands upon thousands of incredible stories from World War II but it remains unique in the fact that it marked the only time our enemies managed to attack the United States and kill civilians on US soil.
It was also the second time a surprise Japanese attack was successful.
(Music)
(Outro)
Well, I hope you have learned a little bit more about the epic story that is World War II from today’s episode of the Where Heroes Walked podcast.
My name is Ron Eckberg and I am the “proud son of a World War II front-lines combat infantryman” and it is my honor to bring these stories to you.
Of course, if you enjoy, learn, or are inspired to did deeper in the story told in this episode I greatly encourage it. There is a fascinating documentary about the FUGO project on Youtube titled, “On Paper Wings” and a number of excellent articles available on line. Do some digging. You’ll be glad you did.
And of course, I would love to have you subscribe, like or comment about this episode or any of the other 10 episodes of the Where Heroes Walked podcast. Also, I would love to hear from you. Just send me a comment at, heroes@roneckberg.com .
That’s it for episode 11. I’ll look forward to seeing you soon on the Where Heroes Walked podcast.
