Giant 5,000-Mile Bombs - Japan's Secret Attacks on America in WW2
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Pictured: Japanese children push a giant balloon in a Fu-Go balloon bomb factory.
In late 1944, reports of mysterious and slow-moving flying objects began cropping up across the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The sightings were often followed by a whistling sound and unexplained explosions. It was a puzzle for local authorities, who initially feared that Japanese aircraft were somehow reaching the U.S. mainland and dropping bombs with parachutes. As to why the Japanese were targeting random forests was not known.
It was not until one of these unusual objects came crashing down intact that the U.S. military finally understood what they were up against. The device was a new kind of weapon, sent all the way from Japan. It was a discovery so startling at the time, that the U.S. government asked American news not to report it to the public...
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Dark Docs brings you cinematic short military history documentaries featuring the greatest battles and most heroic stories of modern warfare, covering World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and special forces operations in between.
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.
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We actually learned about this in our high school history class. Its probably not common curriculum for most schools, but when your school is in one of those Nebraska towns that took a hit from one, you can bet they are going to teach it.
I heard about this in school too I think.
japan: here'e some bombs floating on balloons!
america: here is an atomic bomb
im half Japanese and i found this funny so if there is any people offended you a snofflake
@@seijiedmundson2932 *You're
Quality people! Not quantity
@@nicks3608 cool
Accurate 😁😂
That's the second time this channel has informed me on something I had never heard of. Thanks
Seriously? You must be about 12
What was the first time?
I'm in my 50s, a veteran and a history lover, especially military history. I get what he's saying. This channel presents material that often isn't common historical knowledge. I rather enjoy when a subject comes up that I hadn't read about previously.
Channel is trash
Agreed. Brilliant channel.
Does that mean Bloons Tower Defence was a realistic military strategy game?
Yes
Yes
Lmao
Never thought I'd see this
Ill never forget this game
Japan: Muhahaha have some spicy floating lanterns!
The United States: Taste the sun.
Six people were killed in Oregon.
I am disappointed that they were not mentioned.
From Wikipedia:
"On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman and five children were killed when they discovered a balloon bomb that had landed in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon. Archie Mitchell was the pastor of the Bly Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. He and his pregnant wife Elsie drove up to Gearhart Mountain with five of their Sunday school students (aged 11-14) to have a picnic. They had to stop at this spot near Bly, Oregon, due to construction and a road closing. Elsie and the children got out of the car at Bly, while Archie drove on to find a parking spot. As Elsie and the children looked for a good picnic spot, they saw a strange balloon lying on the ground. There were two explosions; the boys were killed immediately, and Elsie died as Archie used his hands to extinguish the fire on her clothing. Joan Patzke survived the initial blast, but died later. A bomb disposal expert guessed that the bomb had been kicked. They were the only people whose deaths were attributed to the balloon bombs deployed on American soil."
That's informative. However, UA-cam has been terribly strict about mentioning deaths in the videos lately. So it was a deliberate elimination rather than a mistake I am sure.
@@gamefreakdudes are you kidding? Why?
Wikipedia is notoriously wrong. Find another source.
@@madtrucker0983 No idea mate.
@@LadyCatFelineTheSeventh It's the most accurate and up to date compendium of human knowledge. Every article has multiple citations, follow them if you want to read the source information.
"It's a bird!
it's a plane!
Oh sh*t, no! It an *origami balloon bomb!* "
That face when the Japanese invented weather guided ordnance. °o°
_ _
O
Does the Otaku touching glasses move
i like how the japanese unknowingly disrupted the Manhatten project
With balloons of all things
Lucky it was only a blip..
You missed the story of the family that discovered on of these balloons and it killing them
The survivor, later went to Vietnam as a missionary, and was kidnapped, and likely killed by the Viet Cong.
Yeah, Mitchell monument just outside of Bly, Oregon. I ran across that moment years ago and had never heard of it.
A teacher and some students found one in Oregon and killed all of them i believe.
@@TheDutchman1980 Was a pastor and his wife, and five kids they taught in school, the wife was 5 months pregnant.
Yep, used to live near there. It was in the forest near Bly, Oregon. There is a monument and a map is by the highway so that you can find it.
That was pretty desperate and clever of them at the same time.....
yes the fake news they published about massive fires and casualties proves they were desperate for ANY kind of attack on U.S.
Several members of a family on a weekend picnic were killed when one on the ground exploded. I think it was in Oregon. There's a monument to the incident near there now. It could have worked far better than it did.
@Frank Pitts We're catching up fast in the US, with the Great Orange Humiliation screwing America over. Then of course there are the probable hundreds of treaties the US violated during the Indian Wars period... I'll admit that Jackson was way worse than Trump in that sense.
RealityIsTheNow the previous leader was no saint. Killed a lot of brown children in a sandy place. Of course we’re not allowed to talk about that are we
@@jshaw1503 Whataboutism. How trumpian. How Soviet.
The small town sheriff that caught one is a badass
Who else is watching this February 2023,
History repeats
The RAF also did this in the late part of ww2 with balloons trailing wires dragging across power lines and power stations etc.
They started it earlier in the war (20 March '42). but Operation Outward did last until Sep '44.
Awwwwww SNAP!
Nemosis... You got out-nerded!
He even named the Op!
You need to step up your research game, big homie.
Japan : We'll burn down their cities and forests with incendiary balloon bombs.
America : Burns down hundreds of thousands of acres of forests by announcing "IT'S A BOY!"
Absolutely was obsessed with these attacks as a teenager. I’d forgotten about them for years. Thank you for reminding me and getting me excited about the topics again!
Thought this would be of interest. "May 5, 1945: Japanese Balloon Bomb Kills 6 in Oregon."
My Grandfather was a US Forester and found one of these that had partially exploded and was still smoking near Brookings, Oregon. He showed me pieces he had collected. They are now on display in a museum in Brookings. It was neat to handle part of WWII history as a kid in the 60s.
Dark Docs - - my Mother was a Child in WWII in Japan, everyone in her Village was Forced into Labor , building these Balloon Bombs, the bombs were made from scrap metal and scrap silk cloth for the balloon.
the Japanese balloon bombs were not effective.
They Were the first unmanned, intercontinental aerial robotic bomb ordinance in history. A crude but working unmanned drone. Crude by our standards but the Wright brothers first airplane was crude by our standards. You make history by being the first.
@SidtheKid Source?
Bs
Excellent video love your channel thumbs up stay awesome and everyone have a great day.
Narrator's voice sure is creepy though.
Japan: these balloon bombs will show them who's vulnerable
Gen. Groves: hold my beer
I read an article in a magazine in the 80's that said due to the poor quality of adhesive used to hold the paper balloons together that it's likely around 80% of them failed at high altitude and fell into the ocean which explains why such a low percentage of them ever turned up.
They dropped balloons, we dropped nukes.. I think its easy to say we got the final laugh.
You missed out on explaining an interesting bit of the story the reason why so many were found years later. Apparently some of the balloons stayed in the air for years. I may be misinformed about this but I feel like I heard somewhere that they kept being recirculated in an odd air current.
UFO lol
Stuff made in those days lasted a lot longer.
One of these killed some people pretty close to where I live in Oregon.
I'm suprised that wasn't mentioned in the video. They were the only civilian deaths of American on the mainland.
It's kind of adorable how much the Japanese underestimated the scale of the Unites States.
ET Hardcorgamer if the Japanese never dragged the U.S. into the war with Pearl Harbor I think Germany and the axis powers may have won WWII
@ET Hardcorgamer The Japanese always thought they were going to win because their emperor was literally God to them. Even up until the last moments they thought they could turn it around because Americans could never take the mainland (Which is debatable. We might have, but you'd have to convince marines to go kill old people, women, and children.)
They really missed a naming opportunity here they should have called them bomb-loons.
CRINGE
You should do the Laconia Incident. It's dark.
Mark Felton just did that may 1st. It's ironic because this channel (dark) does topics that Mark Felton does on a regular basis. Or vice versa. I'm not saying anyone is stealing topics but people like to point it out when it happens.
@@boxedfender4810 right there's a community of us that watch both channels
Thank my ancestor, Erich Weudermann for saving so many people ❤️
Based on this and previous titles, I have to ask: was there anything in WW2 that wasn't "secret"?
alisdair - yes, the Liberty Ships were vital to the US war effort, but were NOT secret , Project was NOT classified.
They were highly classified top secret projects and operations at that time. Being there was spies everywhere. Most countries declassified everything after the war had ended.
Back in those days, it was not hard to get everyone "on board" to keep secrets in order to defeat the enemy. If the Manhattan Project happened today, CNN would be selling Russia the Plutonium themselves...
way too many adds man
Surprised that you didn’t mention the unfortunate victims who died here in Oregon when they found a fallen balloon on a picnic. I have been to the monument. Due to the media blackout they had no idea what they had discovered or any warning of the danger.
Crazy how relevant this is in Feb 2023.
And *today's* children are worried about statues ...
We have a Yahtzee.
If CNN was around in 1945, they would of been cheering the Japanese.
Wow, alot of Ads on this vid!
The "winds of change" that information isn't free 👎
This is entertainment, and it takes time to make. You can look this up for free online. It doesn’t cost you anything to watch a short ad, and it supports the creator.
Ad blocker app.
I'm content with having ads, but I agree. I also noticed more than usual with this channel
About a mile from my favorite camping spot deep in the Mt. Hood NF, one was found way up in a tree.
One of these landed 3 miles from where I live now in Michigan, it landed in the city of Farmington where there is now a Dairy Queen.
Mark Felton already did a story on it a while back
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the death the happened by these bombs. Really surprised
Parts from the bomb that killed the children in the Oregon picnic incident , is in my local museum , Haggin museum, Stockton California .
I have been aware of these Japanese balloon bombs , from the early 60's...a true military threat that has been obfuscated for many decades , it's secrecy is still being held !
Can you say fukushima radiation ...hit west coast U.S. after , 3 days in jet stream...!
KNOW YOUR HISTORY ...!
So many of WW2's programs and attempted weapons read like an episode listing for 'MacGyver'
Thank god they didn’t work. Imagine if they would have burned down the red woods.
the only time the jet stream runs from japan to U.S. is in the rainy season in pacific northwest...not much chance of starting massive fires then...
Redwood bark is like asbestos and occur in areas heavy with fog.
Coastal Redwood forests rarely burn.
Actually I don't know why he didn't mention it but one did work in Oregon. It killed and injured one or two people. I would have to look it up. It didn't explode like it was supposed to but some people were on a picnic found it, messed with it and boom 💥
Mad Trucker
Teacher and school children
Sunday school. Church picnic
@@giordanobruno1333 Thank you Sir. Yeah seven people if your like me and count the feticide
I remember learning about this while attending the Joint Military Intelligence College, or JMIC (now, the National Intelligence University (or NIU) back in the early 2000s). Very interesting subject indeed. Well done.
I learned About it when reading my JANE's Defence Weekly 1944 - 1945 edition.....LOL.
And we've just discovered that your a spy 😂 jkn. Sure your not
You can find an intact balloon bomb on Vancouver island, British Colombia, in an airforce museum at RCAF Comox. Among other cool things in there is some ordnance, a full size ejector seat mockup that you can walk around, and an outdoor area featuring a T-33 which is pretty much a F-80, an F-104, DC-3, and an F-101 Voodoo on a pedestal at the entrance to the museum and base. If your anywhere near it’s a great place to visit.
I believe they used an altimeter to release sand bags during night when the balloon would drop to help maintain altitude along with other triggering devices mentioned.
Wow good vid as always. I was shocked that in 2014 one hit Canada's west coast. I dont know how you get your content but props to you 10/10
32 of those balloons came here to Montana. One about 25 miles of where I am now. Of the over 9000 launched only 277 made it to the U.S. and Canada. One balloon killed 6 people, 5 kids and one pregnant young woman, in Oregon when they accidentally detonated it while looking to see what it was they had found.
Keeping the reports of these balloon bombs under wraps was a good idea. If the Japanese learned that these weapons were reaching America they would continue to send more of these things perhaps on a greater scale. Maybe even develop an improved version.
I had heard of these before, but I never realized how sophisticated these things actually were (though still relatively simple). They even look more advanced than what I thought it would look like.
By far my favorite channel
i wonder if this could explain the 'battle of LA' ?
most likely
I was thinking exactly the same thing.
I'm talking out my ass here , but I think there was a several years difference between the incidents.
Too early - the Japanese were operating aircraft over the west coast from submarines in 1941 and 1942 however and shelled oil refineries from submarines in the same period.
The Germans had a plan to shell New York with Tabun nerve gas on May 10 1945 from submarines but that was aborted by the German surrender on May 9. The submarine then went to Argentina and dumped the shells on route.
"Its The Water!"
You have a video in your ads.
Wow, another Yahtzee. Well played friend.
Fascinating research! Thank you for sharing
If memory serves me correctly, someone on the west coast found one in the 70s or 80s and got kill or injuried when they were playing with it and it blew up
Ufo speculation about battle los angeles seems even less credible now
just got an unskippable 20 sec ad... nice to see they're ramping up again...
Great work on this video
too many ads...sheeesh... good content.. but 7 ads for one vid???
Great channel thank you.
I knew about this but had no idea so many actually made it here. I was under the impression from previous stories that it was only a handful. Thanks for the doc, Doc.
This leaves out an important event. One of the ways the military discovered these was because one landed in a wooded area and when a woman and a couple children came on it they did something and it exploded, killing them. It may have been the only casualties from the balloon bombs but it did happen.
Why no mention of the half-dozen civilian war time deaths one of the balloons caused?
I was wondering about that myself. To my understanding, Japan, after the war, issued an official apology and paid reparations to a family that was out on a picnic, or something like that, who were killed by one of the balloons.
Odd that this was not mentioned
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1945-japanese-balloon-bomb-killed-six-americansfive-them-children-oregon-180972259/
I knew of the balloon bomb attacks, however, I had no idea they had that much success or how far inland they actually reached. Nicely done.
Cool info/ video 👍
Roswell explained. Thanks.
Hey look, the balloons are back in town
Excuse me : could you speak clearly, slowly, without eating words ? Thanks !
This was really innovative on their part. The Americans discovered a much more effective way of lighting fires during this time though.
Yeah using civilians as tinsel
group adds ?? What adds?
I had no idea this video was posted 15min ago🤦♂️ but great content and thank you for the entertainment!!!!😃💯🔥
You were so excited you told us twice. Lol
back when the press, media and universities worked to help the effort instead of working against it for political ideologic reasons...
Back when clickbaith was not a thing
That like really scary in my opinion
It is scary
After seeing the cruelty towards nanking city the cruelty to prisoners and their bio weapons program I feel pride that we nuked them and knowing what I have seen and heard if I was in charge Japan would be a forgotten memory
@@nerfninja661 I dont think you realise the difference between people in the japanese army and civilians wich there was alot off civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki so I dont think nukes were good and all children were turned to ash playing at schools.
@@shotdriven1953 A certain military man said: "War is Hell." Modern warfare (1936 and onward) is Total War, which means that everyone/everything is a target. The only thing stopping wholesale death from the skies is the willingness/reluctance of enemy combatants to "pull the trigger."
Great documentary on something I thought I knew a fair amount about to begin with (but ended up learning a lot more)!
As soon as I pressed this video, I subscribed.. it’s always something intriguing.. I wake up around this time (3:16am) & get back to watching for some reason certain nights 🤔🏄🏾♂️💯
60 and I've never heard about these. Live in BC and didn't hear about the one found in 2014. Glad I watched this... 🤗
wow still found them in 2014???? that's crazy. so i guess I gotta go and look for balloon bombs now
My favorite Tanaka balloons belong to Hitomi Tanaka
Dang, grand rapid Michigan? That's my area. That's crazy the balloons can make it that far.
Wow. Never heard of any of this now over a decade out of school
Japan: Oh no ! We lost the war.
Also Japan: Anyways...
Phff! What's next, weaponized bats?!?
I see what you did there
Very well narrated and full of excellent detail! Superb! Well done 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😊
0:47 with the music and the bag thing dropping I legit thought that something was going to detonate
NPR radio lab did a episode about this. Crazy story
The balloon presents in Animal Crossing make a lot more sense now. Very funny Nintendo.
My father found one of these in a field of my grandparents' farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, he was 9 yrs old at the time. The local media went public with it and then it was hushed fairly quickly afterward. The one my Father found was one of many duds that landed.
Much respect for this channel 🙏👍🏼
was just about to frag some nubs in PubG... then Dark Docs posted this vid. Those nubs can live for 13 more minutes.
10:18 That typo though...
japan: lets send balloons with incendiaries into forests.
america: lets send two big nukes.
Balloon time
Very interesting and well done video. Thank you for your efforts. Appreciate it a lot.
sounds like a weird desparate attempt to inflict any kind of damage they could.
9:05 Well Japan you almost succeeded in disrupting part if Americas Nuclear program with a balloon weapon, good job
Never heard of this. Wow!
You should do a video on unit 731
How did you miss the fact that a Sunday school group on a picnic was killed by one of these during the war? This is probably the biggest story about the balloons. A minister and about 7 children of his church were killed in Southern Oregon. The true reason for the deaths was kept secret until after the war.
Found some in santa barbara if I recall correctly. Glad they never went off.
Use the metric system.
My grandpa was in the Fu-Go project. He referred to it as cowardice and foolish. He lived in the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s before the war. So burning is something he was vocal about to the point he was nearly court martialed. Even accused as a Japanese American sinve his English was impeccable. So he knew it was futile.
Somehow you missed the one baloon bomb that did cause fatalities in Oregon. A tree near the site still bears scars and shrapnel from the blast.
I want to point out some mistakes in the episode The Soviet Red Star MiGs That Weren't Supposed to Exist in the Korean War. First of the North Korean Air Force used the IL 10 Strike aircraft which was developed from the famous WW2 IL 2 Sturmovik. Secondly i don't think the IL 28 was used during the war as I cannot find about its combat record in Korea. Rather the WW2 era Tupolev Tu-2 was used
Did I miss something or did you just accidentally comment on the wrong video?