8. Revenge Fantasies Swept the United States After the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
The rage that swept America after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was unequaled until the 9/11 attacks. Like many Americans, Pennsylvania dentist Lytle S. Adams was mad as hell when he first heard of what the Japanese had done, and like many of his countrymen, he fantasized about payback. His mind began to drift towards 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?
The vulnerability of Japanese houses to fire was no secret, as it was common knowledge that the Japanese usually built their houses out of bamboo and paper. In 1923, a powerful earthquake had struck Tokyo, and triggered fires that devastated the city. The numbers of killed and wounded were in the 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: a plan that relied upon bats to deliver the devastation.
