20. Burning Japan With Bats
Like many Americans, Pennsylvania dentist Lytle S. Adams was livid when he first heard of the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, and like many of his countrymen, he fantasized about payback. In his case, he got to thinking about what was then commonly known about Japanese cities: that most of their houses were flimsy wooden constructs. Wouldn’t it be grand, he thought, if somebody could take advantage of that?
That idea in of itself was neither revolutionary nor original. It was common knowledge that the Japanese usually built their houses out of bamboo and paper. In 1923, an earthquake struck Tokyo, triggering fires that devastated the city, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands. So the vulnerability of Japanese cities to flames was well known. What set Adams apart was the creative method he dreamt up for igniting such fires: bats.
