The Untold Secret When Japan Bombed Michigan

During World War II, Japan launched an attack on America that impacted Michigan and no one ever knew about it.  

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, The United States launched a secret attack known as The Doolittle Raid which caused very little damage in Japan but it was enough for them to launch an attack on the U.S. that you probably never heard of.

Japanese scientists studied air currents and formulated plans to launch Balloons that would float to the U.S. mainland. Sounds crazy, right? well, it worked, almost, and one balloon actually made it to Michigan.

These so called Fire Balloons did make it to land but never caused any real damage and any report was quickly covered up. Wikipedia says this,

The bombs caused little damage, but their potential for destruction and fires was large. The bombs also had a potential psychological effect on the American people. The U.S. strategy was to keep the Japanese from knowing of the balloon bombs' effectiveness.

As a result,

With no evidence of any effect, General Kusaba was ordered to cease operations in April 1945, believing that the mission had been a total fiasco.

A story from WZZM reported That some Michigan boys in Dorr, saw a balloon overhead and watched it land. They took it to a house and later contacted the authorities who told them to never speak of seeing the balloon.

However, because of the cover-up, Wikipedia reported that there was a single incident resulting in death.

On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman, Elsie Winters Mitchell, and five children were killed when they discovered a balloon bomb that had landed in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon.

Check out this Navy training video posted by Youtuber Jeff Quitney.

Have you ever seen or heard of these bombs? Share with us in the comments.

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