What’s a “balloon
bomb”?

Toward the end of the war,
the army developed a
weapon that attached
bombs to balloons about 10
meters in diameter. They
released them into the jet
stream to send them across
the Pacific to attack America.
It was created by the Army's
Technical Research Institute
and launched by the Army
Balloon Regiment.

They launched about 9,000 of
them from three coastal
areas—along the Pacific in
Ibaraki, Fukushima, and Chiba.
Nearly 1,000 made it all the
way to the U.S., and some
even caused casualties. What
a terrifying weapon…