yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Japanese Balloon Bombs | The Strange Truth


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

By mid 1944, Japan is getting hit on a daily basis from B29 bombers. They are literally obliterating cities. Japan was dying, and Japan's only reaction to this is to strike back. Japan is faced with a serious problem: they can't develop a high-tech weapon. Our problems in the brain inside of the Japanese head, there are 70 million of these in Japan. But perhaps a low-tech weapon like a balloon could be launched against America.

A brain of thought in the modern way could be taught to use the latest modern weapons. They develop a technology that is absolutely brilliant, simple in its approach. But the technical ability of this bomb to be able to float to America and, on its way, be controlled by a series of sandbags gets it to its target. It is incredible. Someone had to sit down and run the numbers to come up with exactly how many sandbags, exactly how far they could project the balloon to move.

I find that to be pretty incredible. That same brain today remains the problem. Our problem: over a thousand were lodged. They went as far as Texas, and as long as they stayed airborne, they could carry great distances. So, depending on the wind and the altitude they maintained, they were falling all over western America.

In May of 1945, a minister, his wife, and five children from their parish were out on an outing near a town called Lake View, Oregon. The minister was parking the car; he let his wife out and the children. They went into the forest. He heard her exclaim, "Look what we've found!" and seconds later, by the time he got up there, his wife, who was pregnant at the time and only 26 years old, and these five children were dead.

It's tragic to think just how unlucky this family was—the only known deaths in the continental United States caused by the enemy during World War II. The wrong place, the wrong time, and the innocent curiosity that went horribly wrong. There are still balloons out there. Obviously, of the thousands, less than a thousand have been discovered. So you have to think that in the massive forests of the Pacific Northwest—Canada, Washington, Oregon—there are some balloons out there.

If you're hiking in the Northwest, be a little careful, and if you see an element like a wheel with teeth on it, that's a sharp end of a disaster awaiting you, as it can explode. They're still there; they're still waiting to be found.

More Articles

View All
Pterosaurs 101 | National Geographic
(Dramatic music) - [Narrator] Much like today’s birds, pterosaurs ruled Earth’s Mesozoic skies. (Pterosaur cawing) Adapting to many different habitats while their dinosaur cousins roamed below. But these were no birds. Pterosaurs were flying reptiles, and…
The Beginning of Everything -- The Big Bang
The beginning of everything. The Big Bang. The idea that the universe was suddenly born and is not infinite. Up to the middle of the 20th century, most scientists thought of the universe as infinite and ageless. Until Einstein’s theory of relativity gave …
2017 AP Calculus AB/BC 4b | AP Calculus AB solved exams | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy
We’re now going to tackle Part B of the potato problem. It says, “Use the second derivative of H with respect to time to determine whether your answer in part A is an underestimate or an overestimate of the internal temperature of the potato at time T equ…
15 Things You Should Know About Your Haters
Fifteen things you should know about your haters. Welcome to A Lux, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. Hey there, A Luxers! So, we have a juicy video for you today. As you know, success and haters go hand-in-hand. In fact, a good i…
10 TRUTHS YOU NEED TO ACCEPT ABOUT PEOPLE | STOICISM INSIGHTS
Every day, we encounter a sea of faces, each with a narrative that could fill volumes, but despite our close proximity, true comprehension of those around us is frequently just out of reach. What if I told you that behind the diverse manifestations of eve…
The Sacrifice of Cassini | Cosmos: Possible Worlds
[Ethereal music] Why do some worlds have rings and others don’t? Why no rings for Earth or Mars? We wouldn’t recognize Saturn without them. He looks naked without his rings. But how did he get them in the first place? This is exactly what the French astr…