Futility Closet

Toward the end of World War II, Japan launched a strange new attack on the United States: thousands of paper balloons that would sail 5,000 miles to drop bombs on the American mainland. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast, we'll tell the curious story of the Japanese fire balloons, the world's first intercontinental weapon. We'll also discuss how to tell time by cannon and puzzle over how to find a lost tortoise. Sources for our feature on Japanese fire balloons: Ross Coen, Fu-Go, 2014. James M. Powles, "Silent Destruction: Japanese Balloon Bombs," World War II 17:6 (February 2003), 64. Edwin L. Pierce and R C. Mikesh, "Japan's Balloon Bombers," Naval History 6:1 (Spring 1992), 53. Lisa Murphy, "One Small Moment," American History 30:2 (June 1995), 66. Larry Tanglen, "Terror Floated Over Montana: Japanese World War II Balloon Bombs, 1944-1945," Montana: The Magazine of Western History 52:4 (Winter 2002), 76-79. Henry Stevenson, "Balloon Bombs: Japan to North America," B.C. Historical News 2