Japanese Fire Balloons

On Saturday, May 5, 1945, Joan Patzky and four other junior highers were out on a Sunday School picnic in southern Oregon with their pastor and his 5-months-pregnant wife. They had been hiking that morning, and while the pastor was getting their lunch from the car, Joan saw what looked like a balloon stuck in the trees. She reached for it and yanked. It exploded, killing all but the pastor.

The balloon was one of more than 9,000 fire balloons launched by Japan, and one of the 300 that were found or observed in North America. The six who died that day (seven, really, if you include the pastor's wife's unborn child) were some of the few civilians who died from an Axis attack on North America.

Usually, civilian deaths during war are considered unfortunate side effects of an armed conflict. They're very rarely treated like murders. Intentionally performing actions that are intended to kill civilians and which the agents know may likely kill civilians is called "murder" when the agents are in street clothes and "duty" when the agents wear a uniform.

War is just a really big drive-by shooting. Some people who died deserved it, some people who died didn't, and there's no real way to make sure the only ones who die deserve it. Every government that shells or bombs cities inhabited by civilians intentionally performs acts that obviously will result in civilian deaths, and is nothing better than a criminal gang with big guns and fancy outfits. Killing bystanders in a drive-by shooting is still gang-related murder; killing civilians in war is no different.

The Japanese military was clearly one of the murderers of the seven Oregonians. It launched the balloons, knowing that they may kill civilians, and with the apparent intent to kill civilians. But the Japanese military may not be the only party responsible for the wrongful deaths.

The first launch was in November of 1944. On January 1, 1945, Newsweek ran an article on the "Balloon Mystery". The next day a newspaper ran a similar article. In response, the Office of Censorship instructed newspapers and radio stations to make no mention of balloons and balloon bomb incidents. Reporting on the bombs would "embolden" Japan.

The media complied, and the result was postive, in a way. The Japanese military gave up on the balloon offensive in April. But compliance had its cost. The American public didn't know their country was littered with unexploded ordnance. Had the press reported on the fire balloons, Joan Patzky may have known not to reach for the one she saw, and she and her brother and her friends may have lived fuller lives.

An uninformed public is a vulnerable public. Act to keep them in the dark, and you act against their lives.

The press was guilty of obeying, so maybe they weren't as liable as the government agency that taped their mouths. And since the Office of Censorship didn't intend to kill the Oregonians, it isn't guilty of murdering them. But it is liable for manslaughter. Of course, you don't have to look that hard to find murders that the U.S. Government actually intended.

The U.S. lifted the press blackout after the Oregon deaths. Since the War's end, the remains of 14 fire balloons have been found. The last-known discovery of a functional fire balloon was in 1955 - its payload still lethal after 10 years of rust.