10. The Fu-Go Fizzles
The first Fu-Go bomb-laden balloon was released on November 3rd, 1944, followed by 9300 more in subsequent months. Planners calculated that about 10% of them would make it across the Pacific to North America. Within days, the first balloon was found floating near Los Angeles. Soon, others were found as far away as Wyoming and Montana. To avoid a panic, American and Canadian authorities imposed a news blackout on the fire balloons.
That not only kept civilians from panicking, but also kept the Japanese in the dark about their campaign’s impact. The greatest hoped-for effect, the sparking of massive wildfires in the forested Pacific Northwest, never materialized because unusually heavy rains kept the forest too damp to ignite. Between that and the news blackout, the Japanese eventually concluded that the Fu-Gu campaign had been a complete flop, and abandoned it in April, 1945.
