Bly Balloon Bomb Tragedy of WWII, Pt. 1

The Reference Desk

In this episode, Hailee is bewitched by the Bly Balloon Bomb Tragedy of WWII.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States officially entered WWII. Immediately, Americans began interrogating and then incarcerating Japanese Americans, many of them citizens, along the west coast. After America responded to the Pearl Harbor attack by bombing Tokoyo, Japan was infuriated that America remained relatively untouched by warfare. So, they tasked scientists with creating a weapon that would reach American soil. They came up with a balloon capable of using the recently discovered Jet Stream to carry bombs across the Pacific. The balloons were manufactured by children and were responsible for the only civilian casualty on United States mainland during the war.

Staff Picks

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Peace is a Chain Reaction by Tanya Lee Stone

Recommendations

Movies

• On Paper Wings

Non-Fiction

• Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Patridge
• Fu-go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America by Ross Coen
• They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

Fiction

• We Are Not Freeby Traci Chee
• Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey
• When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
• Displacement by Kiku Huges

If you are interested in any of the books we talk about in this episode, please consider purchasing them through our affiliate link with Bookshop.org.

Sources

• Bombs Fall on Oregon: Japanese Attacks on the State
• Mitchell Monument
• Beware Of Japanese Balloon Bombs
• On Paper Wings - Documentary
• From Engagement to Peace
• Pearl Harbor, History.org
• Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II
• Japan’s World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America
• Author Maggie Tokuda-Hall Takes a Stand Against Censorship and the “Deeply American Tradition of Racism”
• Topaz History: Topaz Museum
• The “Loyalty Questionnaire” of 1943 Opened a Wound that has Yet to Heal

Support the show