Japanese Balloon Battle

mw2040 writes "Slate reports on a little-known method used by the Japanese during WWII - hydrogen-filled paper balloons with deadly payloads floated without a guidance-system across the Pacific. Both amazing low-tech warfare and a cautionary tale about censorship during wartime. More links (even one for our neighbors to the North) (shamelessly stolen from the article)."

Comments

Re:The need for censorship

[carcosa30]

In the stage of the war during which the balloon bombs were used, Japan was no longer a conventional threat to the United States.

It was kind of the United States to "liberate" the Philippines, especially after the American occupation of the Philippines earlier in the century wherein we massacred hundreds of thousands of islanders.

Was the war on Japan a war of survival for the US? It was certainly necessary for us to remove them as a threat. Would we have given a damn about their invasion of the Philippines, Burma etc. and the Rape of Nanking if it were not for Pearl Harbor? I think not.

Your emotional and idealistic view of history is quaint.