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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)."
Unless you actually read a book or watched Discovery channel in the past 20 years. I've seen that on there tons of times. And I read a story about it in high school which was almost 6 years ago. Maybe little known if you only know a little?
The BBC (or it may have been Channel 4 in the UK) did a programme about these balloons, explaining how the Japanese used the Jet Stream, and a clockwork mechanism to drop sandbags allowing the balloon to drop out of the stream once over the States - I believe many ended up in Canada.
I heard about this in my world history classes in high school and college, in my Japanese history class (well no shit I'd hear about it there), and on several occasions since, and I've never once gone actively looking for this information.
I think it's more well-known than most minor elements of WWII.
photos and more info here and an interesting photo of them being shot down from a plane.
Intersting stuff.
I saw a documentary about this as to why the AK-47 beats the M-16 in real combat. It basically came down the the fact that the M-16 was a rifle with autofire capabilities, while the AK-47 was a machine gun with rifle capabilities. The AK-47 worked much better in real combat, because it almost never jammed, and was quite easy to use, which is good if you don't have time to train soldiers. The AK-47 was also a lot heavier. Which allowed it to be used much more effectively at very close range. (AKA, using it to club the guy over the head)
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I'm also fairly certain that not many Japanese learn about the fact that Between 1932 and 1945 Japan experiments included testing biological weapons on humans, and attacked 11 Chinese cities with biological weapons.
John McPhee wrote about this in The New Yorker, 29 January 1996, 52:60. It's a really neat story on how Geologists figured out where exactly in Japan the balloons were being produced based on the sand used in the ballast the ballons held to make the long float across the Pacific.
This is how we first learned about the jet stream as well.
I'm pretty sure the story is in Annals of the Former World, a 1996 book by McPhee, all about geeky geology stuff, but it's a really interesting read.
Only by coincidence did the Yanks discover that the bombs really were coming from Japan. The sand used in the sandbags was analysed and turned out very unique. However, as the Americans had done a complete survey of Japan's beaches (your granddad's tax dollars at work), they were able to narrow it down to a sand composition at a single beach in Japan.
Curious, a couple planes were sent to investigate...
So until 1940-whatever... No idea the jet stream existed.
:wq
The US applied economic sanctions on Japan prior to Pearl Harbor. Some in the US government in 1931 were in favour of actions in response to the invasion of Manchuria, but Hoover decided against them. In July 1939, the Roosevelt administration abrogated the Japanese-American Treaty of commerce, and in July 1940 introduced a licensing system for exports of petroleum and scrap iron to Japan. In July 1941, the US froze all Japanese funds in the US, and suspended all trade.
As one who has contributed significantly to the Wikipedia article on the War of 1812, I need to clarify this. It was the British forces, not Canadian militia, who landed in Maryland, defeated the DC militia at Bladensburg, burned the public buildings, and then moved to take Baltimore. At Baltimore the landing force was soundly defeated at North Point, and the ship force could not crack Ft. McHenry, so they withdrew.
The Canadian militia performed very well, but they, like the American militia, faced problems when dealting with regular soldiers. General Winfield Scott and Jacob Brown led a regular US column into Ontario in 1814, mauling both Canadian and British forces at Chippewa. The British victory at Lundy's Lane in July 1814 was due more to Scott and Brown's wounding and the horrific casualty rate on both sides. The American forces actually took the Canadian and British guns, but were too weak to stay. They then mauled the Canadian militia at Fort Erie, Ontario, and moved back over the Niagara, guaranteeing a stalemate in the Northern campaign.
The War of 1812 was one of those rare wars where both sides accomplished much of their war goals. The US did not annex Canada, but the gateway to the Southwest opened up, enabling us to move westward into Spanish/Mexican territory. The British began to give American positions more respect internationally, including a preference to negotiate agreements rather than fight. Canada became a nation, though Quebec and the Red River settlements were both problematic. There are reasons why both nations celebrate it as a victory, though technically it was a draw.
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