Flashback: WWII - Japan used balloons over U.S. soil.

"'''Balloons Carrying Bombs Drift Over Oregon

…. "By November 1944, almost in a cruel and desperate afterthought to what seemed a lost cause, balloons launched from Japan and carrying explosive and incendiary bombs drifted east on the jet stream to the United States. Once again, the goal was to start forest fires and wreak devastation. On December 6 after a "mysterious explosion" in Wyoming, officials found balloon parts and bomb casing fragments from what had been a 33 pound high explosive bomb. During the next several months, Japan launched over 9,000 balloon bombs resulting in over 342 incidents registered throughout western United States and Canada. Oregon alone counted 45 balloon incidents. While they varied in size and design, many balloons measured about 100 feet in circumference and about 33 feet in diameter. The ingenious design helped them drift along the newly discovered fast moving jet stream at an average elevation of 30,000 feet'''." [Footnote 6 - Bert Webber, Retaliation: Japanese Attacks and Allied Countermeasures on the Pacific Coast in World War II (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1975), Page 133.]

Moar article info and these documents at link below:

Related Documents

• Reports and Newspaper Clippings Describing the Events In the Aftermath of the Aerial Bombing Near Brookings, Sept. 14-29, 1942. Folder 5 , Box 17, Defense Council Records, OSA.

• Confidential Memoranda Describing Actions Taken In Relation to Balloon Bombs, Jan. 8, 1945-March 28, 1945. Folder 14 , Box 12, Defense Council Records, OSA.

https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/ww2/Pages/threats-bombs.aspx