tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post6885388584689124216..comments2024-03-29T08:29:55.105-07:00Comments on Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Pacific Jet Stream Terror Weapon: Fu-Go Fire BalloonsCliff Mass Weather Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-87120963373201183142015-05-20T14:59:47.317-07:002015-05-20T14:59:47.317-07:00There is a considerably less comical side to this:...There is a considerably less comical side to this: Japan's "Unit 731" germ warfare program, a bit of ugliness mostly lost in the sands of history.<br /><br />For centuries -- long before the industrial era -- Japan was a leader in ceramics. They still are today. After they took Manchuria and then China, the Japanese bred plague-carrying fleas. They were put into ceramic containers while alive, and floated on balloons over Chinese rural areas. They landed, broke apart, and the fleas infected peasants with the plague.<br /><br />Then the Japanese soldiers assigned to "Unit 731" went into those areas and, among other things, performed dissections of sick people, while they were alive, without anaesthesia, to monitor the progress and effect of the disease. At least 500,000 Chinese died as a result, and to this day there are periodic outbreaks of plague in China that are traceable to this activity.<br /><br />The Japanese had planned to do the same to us, but the failure of the bombs caused them to change the plan. Instead, they planned (and might have built one or two, I forget) gigantic submarines capable of carrying small airplanes. Their aircraft carriers had been destroyed; the idea was that the U.S. would never even look for subs in the Pacific.<br /><br />The subs would carry the planes, but instead of dropping explosives they would drop the insect-carrying containers over West Coast cities. Separately, the Japanese had two independent research units -- one in Tokyo and another in present-day North Korea, which the Japanese had invaded and occupied in 1915 and thereafter -- working on an atomic bomb.<br /><br />The Tokyo atomic effort was destroyed by the famous Doolittle raids that burned most of that city to the ground. The Korean effort is thought to have succeeded in exploding a test bomb. But it was too late: Auguist 12, 1945. When the U.S. and the Soviets divided Korea after the Japanese surrender, each side had separate reasons to keep the nuclear program under wraps; the truth came out in the '00s (or maybe the late 1990s), to hardly any notice or acclaim. I saw the interview with one of the scientists who directed it.<br /><br />The plague-bomb effort depended on the submarines, but American bombing so thoroughly decimated Japan's industry that they couldn't make the plan come together. So, as quixotic and almost comical as those balloon bombs appear today, this was not a casual effort. What I don't know is why the Japanese didn't just start with the plague insects from the beginning. <br /><br />Additionally, much of the Unit 731 history was buried after the war, when the U.S. military decided the data would be useful. The level of scrutiny and published detail about Japan's war crimes, of which Unit 731 was by far the worst, was far less than what was published about German war crimes.Placeholderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02967627809480888708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-8628578380007377332015-05-10T14:34:00.312-07:002015-05-10T14:34:00.312-07:00Radiolab did a program on it, which has more detai...Radiolab did a program on it, which has more details on the deaths in Oregon, and more photos:<br />http://www.radiolab.org/story/pictures-fu-go/<br /><br />And the podcasts:<br />http://www.radiolab.org/story/fu-go/<br /><br />Many of us with roots in the Northwest knew about the balloons. I remember my dad mentioning them many times. <br /><br />He may have known more than others since after graduating from high school in 1944, he joined the Army and was assigned as an MP for the Manhattan Project in Hanford. Obviously they were on the lookout for those balloons.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14428361191787397415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-48559409439951490222015-05-09T20:55:51.317-07:002015-05-09T20:55:51.317-07:00Here is more information on the balloon bomb.
htt...Here is more information on the balloon bomb.<br /><br />http://www.oregonlive.com/history/2015/05/past_tense_oregon_70_years_ago.htmlSomewhere in Central Oregonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02992923874444395406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-59494648296384278382015-05-09T19:51:16.717-07:002015-05-09T19:51:16.717-07:00I believe there is a historical marker near Klamat...I believe there is a historical marker near Klamath Falls, Oregon that states that several members of a Southern Oregon family were killed and injured by one of these balloons. If memory serves, it happened when they came across an unexploded one and investigated it.Bill Fhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14378699275582075247noreply@blogger.com