
Fu-Go Balloon Bomb - Thevet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb
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wespiser_2018
One of the most interesting aspects of this case, IMO, is that USGS geologists
figured out that the origin of the balloons was Japan a specific region of the
coast that could account for the minerals in the sample of sand. The Army Air
Force looked into this area further, and destroyed the hydrogen plants they
found there, which helped put an end to the project!
[http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/forensic_geology/Japenese%20ven...](http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/forensic_geology/Japenese%20vengenance%20bombs%20new.htm)

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nhylated
There's an interesting Radiolab episode on this. Highly recommended

[https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/fu-
go](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/fu-go)

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mirimir
> On March 10, 1945, one of the last paper balloons descended in the vicinity
> of the Manhattan Project's production facility at the Hanford Site. This
> balloon caused a short circuit in the power lines supplying electricity for
> the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but backup safety devices restored power
> almost immediately.[26]

It would have been quite the win if it had caused a meltdown. That _might_
have delayed the US nuclear attack on Nagasaki. Although perhaps enough
plutonium had been produced by then.

As I understand it, Japan didn't surrender until Nagasaki got nuked. And maybe
Russia would have invaded before the US managed it.

~~~
danielheath
The surrender came after Nagasaki (which is a plausible reason to surrender to
the US), but it also came at a time when a Russian invasion was imminent
(which is also a good reason to surrender to the US - in Europe, the US army
had been much gentler to civilians than the Russian one had).

~~~
mirimir
True, surrendering to Russians was a bad idea.

They had quite the grudge over Leningrad.

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shayanbahal
> The Office of Censorship then sent a message to newspapers and radio
> stations to ask them to make no mention of balloons and balloon-bomb
> incidents. They did not want the enemy to get the idea that the balloons
> might be effective weapons or to have the American people start panicking.
> Cooperating with the desires of the government, the press did not publish
> any balloon bomb incidents.[33] Perhaps as a result, the Japanese only
> learned of one bomb's reaching Wyoming, landing and failing to explode.

Find this ironically interesting. The same goes for almost every new cyber
attacks out there.

~~~
greggman2
> The same goes for almost every new cyber attacks out there.

It does? Back when the press mostly meant a few big companies in your own
country it was easier to suppress info. Now for example the US government
might be able to ask CNN/Fox/NYT etc but they can't likely ask the BBC or Al
Jazeera or the 1000s of news sites, bloggers, tweeters, facebookers.

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devicetray0
The fires were fought by the all-black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion [1],
acting as on-call firefighters... they "jumped" on many of the fires to get
there quickly. I read several personal stories of individual paratroopers, and
their courage was impressive!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555th_Parachute_Infantry_Batta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555th_Parachute_Infantry_Battalion_\(United_States\))

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platistocrates
Coincidence that "fugga" in hindi and "fuggo" in gujarati mean balloon?

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platistocrates
Apologies. It's actually "fuga" and "fugo", no hard "g"

