The Empire Of The Rising Sun Strikes Back: The Balloon Bomb Incidents

           By 1944 the Japanese Empire had suffered major setbacks in their total war against the allies, and the options for a strike on American and Canadian soil had long since passed. Gone were the days of Japanese submarines and reconnaissance aircraft attempting raids on the coastlines as all assets were either tied up or destroyed, or simply too far away to cause any damage. The Japanese needed a solution; their allies in Europe faced a similar situation, and found an answer in flying bombs- the V1 and later on the first ballistic missile, the V2. The problem was however that the technology for the rockets at the time didn’t allow for them to reach targets across oceans, so how could the Japanese create an answer to the German wonder weapons? That answer came in the form of the Fu-Go fire balloon.

          The Fu-Go fire balloon was a hydrogen balloon equipped with light explosives, usually anti-personnel or incendiary. The balloon was designed to cruise along the jet stream above the Pacific Ocean to their targets, where they would hopefully cause destruction and fear, such as forest fires. It would take time for the balloons to reach their targets, so of course they were launched days before someone caught sight of one descending. The balloons themselves were quite advanced for what they were; a control system was included that would manage altitude, ballast, and release of payload. 

         So you’re probably asking yourself what this has to do with aviation in the prairies? Well I’ve got the answer! It turns out Fu-Go balloons often targeted Saskatchewan due to their indiscriminate nature. At least eight bombs were found in Saskatchewan during the last year of the war in 1945. Minton, Moose Jaw, and Yorkton all experienced sightings or the bombs themselves being found in the surrounding area. The balloon threat was considered serious enough that three Hawker Hurricanes from 133 Squadron RCAF (then part of Western Air Command) were sent to Yorkton to patrol for the balloons and if necessary shoot them down. One of these Hawker Hurricanes is owned by Vintage Wings and is currently under restoration, and another one that still survives is located at the Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary Alberta. However, more than just Hurricanes were involved with the interception of Fu-Go balloons. The P-40s of WAC also played a vital role and even shot down balloons off the coast of BC, as well as the various patrol aircraft of the RCAF, such as a Canso that managed to force a balloon down; the military later on examined the balloon and gained a technical understanding of just how the balloons managed to work. 

          Little did anyone know it in Canada at the time, but for the first time in aviation history a nation could bomb another nation from across the world- and it all happened right here in the prairies! North America would never be safe from enemy attack on the mainland again- within a decade of the Japanese balloon bombs the USA and the USSR were beginning to figure out how to launch rockets towards each other right over our heads. So how successful were these first intercontinental aerial attacks on North America?

          On first glance it would seem the Japanese had overwhelming success with the Fu-Go; of the thousands launched only nineteen were ever reported to be shot down, with three definitely being attributed to RCAF pilots. But there’s a silver lining to that number! The amount of damage and casualties the balloons themselves caused was less than nineteen; zero in Canada, to be exact. The Japanese had if anything, shown North America that they would fight to the bitter end. Despite the abysmal amount of damage the Japanese managed to cause with the balloon bombs, they did have an affect that wasn’t physical- psychological. After the news blackout lifted, many reports flooded in, often erroneous of Japanese balloon bombs being sighted. Clearly people had the threat of the Fu-Go balloons in the back of their heads; which leaves us to wonder- how many Japanese bombs actually made it to Canada?

          Truthfully, we’ll probably never know. Perhaps that’s a good thing too, since we don’t have the population density to find out the hard way. Occasionally however, Fu-Go balloons do show up. In 1953 one was found in the area around Edmonton and the army was called in to dispose of the explosive payload. Another balloon was reportedly found in BC by a logging crew, and EOD specialists again had to come and deal with the situation. In 2019 a hunter also found the remnants of one in BC while hunting mountain goats and there was also evidence that the bomb successfully detonated and started a small fire. It isn’t out of the realm of impossibility that the RCAF did miss quite a few and they currently sit (Hopefully!) undisturbed in remote areas of BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, or even Manitoba. 

         All the information I’ve provided today has been sourced from the CBC, Legion Magazine, The Hangar Flight Museum, Vintage Wings, and the Calgary Mosquito Society. If you’d like to see a real Fu-Go balloon bomb there is an intact one on display in Canada at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa Ontario. If you’d like to know more about Canadian involvement against the Japanese in the Second World War, both the Canadian War Museum’s physical location and website have great amounts of information pertaining to our nation’s involvement with the Pacific Theatre of WWII.