Balloons

In 1945 on this date, seven miles north of Spokane, two balloon bombs from Japan were found.  There are considered the first two balloon bombs to be discovered in Washington.  In November of 1944, the Japanese launch maybe as many as 9,000 of these balloon bombs in hopes that they would cause forest fires on the west coast of North America which would require war resources to be diverted to deal with the them.  The plan was super villain clever and like most super villain plans it didn't work very well.  One bomb did however blow up a Sunday school teacher and five of her students in Southern Oregon.  Ironically, in the long run the plan's failure probably ensured the creation of modern Japan.  Had the plan worked, the Russians would have likely invaded and brought Marxist-Leninism with them or the United States would have dropped a lot more nuclear bombs on Japanese cities.  Tonight's photo then is of a balloon bomb on display in Victoria, B.C.