Latest / Ridiculous History / Nobuo Fujita Bombed Brookings, Oregon -- and Then Became a Town Hero

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Nobuo Fujita Bombed Brookings, Oregon -- and Then Became a Town Hero · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. That's our one and only
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: super producer. Give it up for him. His name is
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Max Williams. They called me, they called me Ben. Uh No.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I think everybody at some point in their life has
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: needed to make a heartfelt apology. It can be difficult,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: but it's it's an important thing to do and usually
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you'll be the better for it. Well, let me take
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: this as an opportunity to make a heartfelt apology to you. Ben.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It was I that ate your leftover verse in the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: uh the office fridge. Now, to be fair, they've been
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: in there for months. I probably got definitely ill as
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a result of eating them. So that was my own
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: come uppance. And you probably forgotten about them in the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: first place. And yet somehow I feel the need to
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: make a big to do about apologizing. Your name was
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: on it, Ben, and I disregarded that, And uh, is
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: that a true story? No, it's not a true story,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: but it's okay story. You're not a leftover lever, Ben.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: You know your know thyself. I feel like you know
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you can apologize to me. Yeah, for drinking all your
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: your nice whiskey. No, no, for you know just call
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: me your nemesis on every podcast despite not doing anything
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: to you. Well, I mean that's all that's debatable to you.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: How does one do something to someone you know? And
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I see how it is. Yeah, No, I do apologize.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I drink. I drink a lot of your fancy whiskey
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: one time, and then I do apologize for that while
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I was watching curling. Well, now that we're all uh,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: now that we're all good, I will of one example. Uh,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: this is old school how stuff works lore. I hope
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I don't get in too much trouble for this. But
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I did have a fridge thief fridge thief interaction many
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: years ago at our old office and Buckhead. I had
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: saved half of the Philly cheese steak sandwich on a Friday,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and I came in to the office on the weekend
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  Speaker 1: because I was always I still always I'm going in
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  Speaker 1: on the weekend, and uh, I found that my Philly
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  Speaker 1: cheese steak was missing, and I was on a mission
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to figure out who did it. So I started investigating.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I hit the streets or the hallways and the cubicles,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and I eventually learned that my cheese steak had been
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  Speaker 1: taken none other by none other than my dear friend,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: a good friend of the show, Josh Clark in his advance.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: In his defense, he did come clean when I asked him,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and he said, why do you care? And I said,
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  Speaker 1: because it's it's like beyond a party, foul man, you
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you ate my cheese steak. And he did feel kind
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of bad, but I do think it was. It was hilarious.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: So every time I look at Josh, I still think
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: that guy owes me half a cheese steak. Yeah, it was.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: It was it good. I mean, cheese steaks don't really
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  Speaker 1: keep super well, to be fair, That's why I was
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: in the day after he moved quick. It was. It
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was clearly half an eaten cheese steak wrapped in foil.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: It's like, clearly not something left over from a party.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: That's just up for grabs. But anyway, forgiveness, apologies. That's
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: what this story is about. And this I thought I
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: had had a wholesome ending. So this is this is
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: an interesting, fascinating tale from history. It does have some
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: ridiculous moments, but we can't wait to dive in. Let's
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: start with a tragedy. If you live in the US,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you are well aware of the events of Pearl Harbor
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: on December seven, nineteen forty one. And if you don't
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: live in the US. Want a primery, you should watch
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the Michael Bay documentary Pearl Harbor um starring uh what's
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: his name? Yeah, that's right. It's apparently quite bad, but yeah,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: it's it was a big deal. It's it was a
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: big deal. It was one of the only times we've
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: actually been directly attacked, you know, on American soil. Nine
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: eleven is often compared to Pearl Harbor. Yeah, yeah, but
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I love you point this out. It was one of
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the only times, but it was not the only time
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the US was under air attack by Japanese forces. If
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you go to September nine, there was a Japanese float
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: plane piloted by an officer named Nobu Fujita, which took
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: off from a submarine that was off Cape Blanco on
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  Speaker 1: the southwestern Oregon coast. And this attack occurs in the
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  Speaker 1: context of a couple of other attacks earlier that year.
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  Speaker 1: In February twenty three, nineteen forty two, there was an
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: attack on the Elwood oil field outside of Santa Barbara,
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  Speaker 1: and this attack sparked a panicked in the US populace.
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  Speaker 1: They were not used to dealing with war on the
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  Speaker 1: home front because you know, the US is geographically quite
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  Speaker 1: fortunate in terms of uh its security. There are two
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: massive oceans on either side, too friendly countries to the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: south and the north. It's hard to get here if
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: you are an army that is attempting to attack. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: people are still very concerned, Like I, I think you're
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: nine eleven. Comparison is pretty aptinal because you remember, in
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the aftermath the attack on September eleven, two thousand and one,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: people all over the country were worried that their town,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: no matter how big or small, might be the next target.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: And that's kind of how people were feeling during World
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: War Two. They thought Japanese forces would be able to
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: get past the ocean, would be able to touch them
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  Speaker 1: on home soil. This was not a crazy fear, you know,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: it didn't come out of the blue. There were several attacks,
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  Speaker 1: as we have mentioned, and at this time the Imperial
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Japanese Navy was super formidable. It was actually the most
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: powerful navy on the planet. During the Pearl Harbor attacks.
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  Speaker 1: It had the biggest, most heavily armed battleships ever built,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the Yamato and the Musashi, and their naval aviation was
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: super awesome. Japanese forces made the largest submarines of World
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  Speaker 1: War Two. They could carry their own aircraft, which might
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: sound pretty crazy today. And this I to five submarine
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: we're talking about how his surprise that submarines today do
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  Speaker 1: not possess. They had planes that can fly from the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: sub and then fly back to the sub. They were
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  Speaker 1: retrievable usable they did this by folding up. The technology
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  Speaker 1: is amazing. But that's where that's where our story takes place.
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  Speaker 1: The we can talk about the stats sum if you want. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: it was pretty big. Seventeen torpedoes had a naval gun
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: hundred forty millimeters individuals aboard, and it had one Yokosuka
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: E one four y sea plane. The Allied forces called
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: this the Glen and this was responsible for the only
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  Speaker 1: attack on a mainland American military site during World War Two.
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  Speaker 1: So the other one that wasn't Pearl Harbor. Yeah, And
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  Speaker 1: on June twenty one two along the Oregon coastline. This
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  Speaker 1: was the only mainland attack of an American military site
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  Speaker 1: during World War Two. Uh, and it was along the
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  Speaker 1: Oregon coastline, and um, there wasn't a American fishing vessel.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Uh that the Japanese submarine I very sneakily used to
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  Speaker 1: evade capture, to evade detection, they kind of what would
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: you say, Ben, kind of tailed them a little bit,
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  Speaker 1: I guess, or you know, it's sort of the equivalent
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of like drafting someone in Mario Kart, or if you
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: hang out behind them, it's sort of like guards you
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  Speaker 1: from others and even pick up a little extra steam.
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  Speaker 1: That wouldn't have been the case here, but certainly would
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: have been a way to keep under the radar as
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: it were, because I mean they would have seen the
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  Speaker 1: fishing vessel and maybe not paid attention to what was
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  Speaker 1: close around. But its surfaced around Fort Stevens, which was
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  Speaker 1: a kind of long in the tooth army base that
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: actually dated back to the Civil War, so it was
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in really poor uh state, needed some TLC. But just
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  Speaker 1: before midnight the ive used, Um it's above deck weapon
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  Speaker 1: like a gatling gun kind of thing, or I don't know, Ben,
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  Speaker 1: when you say it's a hundred and forty millimeters, So
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  Speaker 1: is that like shells. There's that like we would you
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  Speaker 1: call that like an ordinance, like a like a larger
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  Speaker 1: scale mortar situation, or it's somewhere in between just regular
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  Speaker 1: machine gun shells and larger ordinance, right, yeah, I would
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  Speaker 1: call it. I would say, think of it like a
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  Speaker 1: tank gun. So not a massive mortar around, but somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in between, like an anti aircraft gun or something like that,
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  Speaker 1: or a tank gun like you said. And they shot
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  Speaker 1: seventeen of those forty millimeter bad boys at that fort,
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  Speaker 1: and the commander of Fort Stevens actually ordered his men
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  Speaker 1: not to return fire because he didn't want to give
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  Speaker 1: away their positions, and he thought that the flashes from
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  Speaker 1: the gun muzzles of the installations there on the fort
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  Speaker 1: would have revealed that. And this, you know, apparently worked.
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  Speaker 1: At first, I was kind of like, well, well, why
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  Speaker 1: why did this matter? Because but again, because of the size,
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  Speaker 1: the medium size of the rounds that are being fired
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  Speaker 1: by the Japanese, they needed to be able to focus
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  Speaker 1: um into areas where they were actually going to kill personnel,
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  Speaker 1: because this wouldn't have been enough to like take down
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  Speaker 1: the whole fort, for example. So by kind of hiding
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  Speaker 1: their positions, they essentially rendered the attack a little bit
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  Speaker 1: null and void. So instead a nearby baseball field actually
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  Speaker 1: took a lot of the damage. Yeah yeah, which been
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  Speaker 1: the bombardment wasn't very successful. The Fort Stevens plan worked.
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  Speaker 1: But this just goes to show you how how good
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  Speaker 1: the I was at getting close enough to do some damage.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And forgive me, fellow ridiculous historians. Every time I'm saying night,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I know it's the submarine, but it keeps making me
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: think of interstates. So the submarine, which is not an interstate,
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  Speaker 1: makes history again when it does the first ever bombing
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  Speaker 1: of the mainland continental United States by an enemy aircraft.
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  Speaker 1: This is collectively known as the Lookout air raids. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this is where we share a guy. Warrant officer Nabu Fujita.
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  Speaker 1: His commander, Meijitagami, tells the crew to deploy that aircraft
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  Speaker 1: were talking about, the Glenn. Armed with two pretty big
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  Speaker 1: and century bombs sixty eight pounds each. Fujita is flying
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  Speaker 1: under the cover of darkness, crosses onto dry land. The
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  Speaker 1: idea is that if they dropped these incendiary bombs in
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  Speaker 1: the right place, they can maybe start a forest fire
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  Speaker 1: and have people in a panic. I wanna shout out
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of sources here. Of course history dot com
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: several articles from there, and of course Civilian Military Intelligence Group.
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  Speaker 1: This comes from a blog post, but it's worth checking
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  Speaker 1: out because it has pictures where you can see the
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  Speaker 1: actual submarine we're describing, as well as the plane that
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  Speaker 1: Fujita was flying. Americans didn't realize they were under attack
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  Speaker 1: for a while. Uh. Some people have heard the ship,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: heard the plane while they were on the ground. It
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: wasn't until six in the morning the next morning that
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  Speaker 1: a U. S. Forest Service guy named Howard Gardner was
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  Speaker 1: at the Mount Emily fire lookout and spotted the plane.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: He said the engine sounded like a Model T backfiring
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  Speaker 1: and he called it in and no one. No one
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  Speaker 1: thought it was a threat. They were like, look, this
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  Speaker 1: is just some guy in a plane. He's over the
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  Speaker 1: wilderness in the middle of nowhere. Cool your jets, gardener,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: pump your brakes. Watched the forest and another really good
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: resource to check out, by the way, is a site
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  Speaker 1: called now I Know dot com. Uh, and there is
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: an article from about the lookout area which was actually
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: about to get into so later that day the forest
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  Speaker 1: fires were discovered, and this UH Forest Service ranger guy,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I guess he went to check it out, and they
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  Speaker 1: initially thought that lightning had caused them. They later found
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  Speaker 1: a crater and they can only have been caused by
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: bomb fragments or bombing from airings. And eventually they found
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the nose cone of the bomb and of course had
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: tell tale markings on it that indicated that they were
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  Speaker 1: of Japanese origin. UH. Three weeks later, on September twenty nine,
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  Speaker 1: early in the morning, Fujita led a second round of attacks.
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  Speaker 1: He dropped two more bombs into the forest near Port Orford,
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  Speaker 1: which around fifty miles up the coast from Brookings, Oregon.
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  Speaker 1: And again the planes were sighted. Yeah, yeah, they found them,
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  Speaker 1: and the U. S. Forest Service employees also described things
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that sound like bombs, flashes, smoke. They searched the area,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: they don't find anything, and they say, okay, you know
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: what probably happened. There's probably a small wildfire that burned
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: out because the forest is so damp. So again they
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: go back to that other explanation, lightning strikes. They say
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they don't find any fragments, bombs. They don't release any
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: information about this until the next year. Uh, and let's
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: look at Fujita. This is where I think the story
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: gets really really interesting. So Fugita himself, Yeah, he very wholesome. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he he survives until the end of World War Two
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and all the you know, horrors that happened in Japan
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: at that time. He eventually opens a hardware store near
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Tokyo and like the kind of Tokyo suburbs. Unfortunately, the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: hardware store goes bankrupt later and he takes a job
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: where he works at a wire company for a pretty
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: long time, and he doesn't really talk about his time
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: in the military. It doesn't come up. And if you've
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: ever had a veteran in your family from any war,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: you know that often people have survived war, it's not
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: their first topic of conversation, and understandably so. So it
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: came to pass that Fujita's entire family had no idea
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: that he attacked to the US mainland until in ninety
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: sixty two he gets invited to Brookings, the place he
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: tried to bomb, and Uh, the Japanese government takes a
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: minute and they say, okay, we gotta figure out if
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: they're gonna try you as a war criminal. And they
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: say all right, we get the vibe that they're not
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: going to try as a war criminal, and so he says, okay,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go, and he takes along with him his
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: family's samurai sword. It's been in his family for four
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: hundred years. His plan is, look, I'm gonna present this
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  Speaker 1: to the town as an apology from my attack, and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: if they don't accept my apology, I'm going to commit sepuku,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: a ritual suicide. That is intense, man. I mean, it's
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: it's not uncommon. I mean, you know, in the if
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: a Japanese, a very proud Japanese person is shamed in
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: some way or brings Sina's being a shame on their family,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: this thing is absolutely on the table. His daughter, your
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Eko A Sukar told The New York Times in an
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: interview quote, he thought perhaps people would still be angry
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and would throw eggs at him if that happened. As
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: a Japanese, he wanted to take responsibility for what he
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: had done. That's a pretty heavy way of taking responsibility.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: So I just just understand, I mean, he's apologizing, or
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: he's he's regretful because he made a mistake, or because
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: he did not agree with the mission of the war anymore.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I I think the idea is that he's a he's
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: officially no. Apologies are a big, big thing in that culture,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: so I think he is. His motivation, if we could guess,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: is to apologize for possibly putting civilians in danger, possibly
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: destroying you know, wilderness, and it's his way of making
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: peace or atoning. We should talk about sepuko if no one,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: if if you're not aware of it, ridiculous historians. It's
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: sometimes called Harry Carey in the in the West, and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: it is super grizzly. It starts by you stab yourself
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: in the stomach, in your belly with a short sword,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and then you cut across, turning the blade upwards, slicing
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: open your stomach. It's almost like disemboweling yourself. And then
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, it requires a buddy who then
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: chops your head off, or at least in some I've seen. Yeah, yeah,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: kaisha kunen they're called uh yeah. You can read more
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: what is sepuku and history dot Com by Evan Andrews.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: But yes, he was serious about this, and and think
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: of his think of his poor kid. There's a lot
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: to find out, right, one day, your dad says, I
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: have to look. I was in the war, as you know,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: but I I bombed the United States. They've invited me
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: to come back. I'm taking this. I'm taking our family's sword,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to commit grizzly suicide if they don't
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: accept my apology. That's a lot for a Tuesday, you
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, no joke, Yeah, I mean it's
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: almost a flex in a way. I mean, I get it.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the sentiment, but man, not necessary. You know.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Water under the bridge been thankfully. Thankfully that's what it was,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and town welcomed him and appreciate it. The gesture so
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: much the local churches and businesses actually raised money to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: help him come visit in nineteen sixty two, essentially gave
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: him the key to the city. He was made Grand
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Marshal of the Azalea Festival, which sounds delightful, and he even,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: single out of his own pocket, paid for students from
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Brookings to go to Japan as well, so almost started
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: like a little exchange you know, foreign exchange student kind
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: of situation. He also donated money to the town's library
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: for kids books on Japan and their culture. Hopefully got
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: one on Sepaku for kids, because that that that's important
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to know about. I think I remember that from the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Scholastic Bookarah really colorful stories. It was in the style
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Yeah. Uh, and the Tugrod
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Adventure version is kind of grim though, so be Warren folks.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Uh godda loa Scholassic book fairs and book it well anyway,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: so this is so this is so beautiful, it's so wholesome.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: He did, by the way, present the sword even if
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: they didn't want to accept it. It was kind of
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: like he felt obligated to do so, and it is
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: to this day in the city hall. It's displayed in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the library of the city Hall. He was made an
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: honorary citizen of the town shortly before he passed away
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: in and per him and his family's request, some of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: his ashes were buried at the bombing site when he
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: he donated the sword in nineteen sixty two, and he
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: had just a beautiful quote about it. Do you do
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: you want to do the honors? Know? I sure do,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: he said. It's in the finest Samurai tradition to pledge
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: peace and friendship by presenting a sword to a former enemy. Wonderful.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: And you know, this period of time is so full
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of obscure stories and ridiculous history. You know, we uh,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: if you're interested, we have a another story about a
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: failed assault on mainland US by Japanese forces. It's an
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: episode we did a while back. The concept was novel,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: though it was ultimately unsuccessful. It was the fire balloons.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: You remember that one. Yeah, I believe they're called FuGO
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: balloon bombs, which is a lighter than air balloon. You
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: know that it has a payload of essentially an anti
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: personnel bomb that are only about twenty six pounds. Uh.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: They're incendiary bombs. They're essentially their fire bombs. Uh. And
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: it's I believe it detects altitude and once they dropped
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: to a certain altitude, the payload is released. It's really interesting.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: In the episode we talk about sort of the mechanism
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: behind it and how that works and uses like a
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: like a very simple altimeter. Uh. And these types of
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: weapons can be very useful, especially you know in back
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: in the day when you know a lot of homes
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and things were built out of very flammable material, and
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: if you had like a convoy of these things. The
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: clusters of them, they could really do some serious damage. Yeah,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: and they're the interesting fact, they're the first ever intercontinental weapon.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: They're the ancestor of uh I c B s, that's right.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: And they weren't particularly effective, as you can imagine. I mean,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: it is very little fi, low fi technology. And they
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: released them UM in a handful of these around Alaska
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and Alberta, Canada, Arizona, British Columbia, California. Why why are
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: they messing with Canada during all this? What do they
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: have to do with anything? I guess their allies uh Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Mexico, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: North Dakota, Oregon. There's Oregon getting them getting hit again,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and the Yukon Territory. UM.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: They launched around nine thousand of these things throughout the project,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and they were hoping that around nine hundred of them
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: would release would actually reach America, but I think only
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: three hundred did because they literally it was like a
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: kind of spray balloon. Yeah, it's gonna go with the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: jet stream, gonna get guided and then like you know,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: you throw a bunch of them at the wall and hopefully,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: you know, a handful of them stick, but they did
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: not meet their predicted expectations. I mean, who are we
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to judge? That's basically what we do with uh, with
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: our show, hoping a few of these will stick in
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: your mind and you'll have some weird facts to throw
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: out with your friends at parties and gatherings. I was
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: thinking a lot about balloons recently because we had a
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: balloon launch as a memorial for thinking of my family,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and I know that they can be kind of controversial
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: because you don't know where the balloons will end up
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: or what they what they might end up doing. But
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: we also have here in Atlanta, we have a really
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: cool lantern parade every year and sometimes and people also
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: will release those lanterns that fly up based on the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: you know, the heat admitted by the candle. Is that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: how it works? Is that correct? I think that's right, Yeah, exactly,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: It creates heat and the hot air rises, so it
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: pushes them up and they all go up in in
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a flurry. And that's really kind of a beautiful site.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I believe that's coming up not too far. We're kind
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: of entering festival and parade season here in Atlanta. I
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: went to the Inmand Park Festival over the weekend and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: saw a great parade, and it was my first one
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of the season left for everyone likes a good parade,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: uh and a good festival. So hopefully you're taking some
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: in around your neck of the woods and men, isn't
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: there a balloon festival or some sort of a hot
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: air balloon that we've talked with. We've threatened to go
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: check it out together, but I can't remember where it's not.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: It's in Norcross, I think, right, yeah, I think it all.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: It may have already happened this year. It is held
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: every no, it's coming up. It's this May. I just
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: checked it. Okay, So it's the end of May, Friday
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: May seven to Sunday, May twenty nine. That's the regular
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: balloon festival. Then there's a hot air balloon festival the
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: same weekend in Gwynette. I don't know if the Atlanta
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Balloon Festival lets you fly in the balloons, but would
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: love to get up in one. I think we talked
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: about it, you Max, you were you were the most
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: reticent on that one. Right. I'm doing absolutely I think
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I think, I think Nolan I were both like the bottom.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Go with God, my friend. I will watch you, pray,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: pray for your well being and safe returnament con candy.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I'll be munching on it while I watched you go
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: up there. I am not getting up there at all.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I get in the air and I freak out. You're
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: not even you don't even like fights, right, you're not
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: a huge air travel fan. I'm fine with it gets going.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm claustrophobic and afraid of heights, so like
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: planes just kind of like make me like pretty uncomfortable.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: But like like if I'm at somebody's apartment it's like
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: five stories up, we're going on the balcony. I'm like, no, no,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: not not doing this, tuff. I'm okay with with heights
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: as long as it's been closed and I feel like
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: it's sturdy, but like a basket. Are you kidding me? Oh? Yeah,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: what is life if not to be lived? Well, you
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: know what, at least you guys told me before the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: three of us were walking up to the balloon, when
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the two at which point the two of you would
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: have been, would have dipped back and said, hey, take
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: some pictures, all right, see you man? Um, So I'll
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: take some too from the ground, buddy. To be honest,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: at least, we've not told you this twice. We have
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: this on record. Yeah, yeah, you've got the receipts. Take
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: get it. But barring our ballooning adventures, we know this
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: one was maybe a little shorter than usual. But we
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: thought it was so wholesome and it was such a
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: beautiful human moment, a beautiful ending to a story that
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: could have been horrific and tragic. We hope you enjoyed
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: this as much as we did. We can't wait to
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: hear your accounts of other strange stories largely left out
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: of textbooks. So let us know, let us know your
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: cool stories. You can find us on the internet, not
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: just as a show, but as individuals. That's right, you
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: can find us as individuals. I am exclusively on Instagram
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: at how Now Noel Brown? How about you? Ben? You
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: can find me on Instagram, where I'm getting into any
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: number of ill informed escapades and adventures. You can learn
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: more about that balloon launch and follow me at at
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Ben Bulling bow l I N. You can also find
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: me on Twitter if you want to look at some
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: of the research on and off the record that I'm
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: getting into over there. Bonus points for following me on
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Twitter Appen Bullen hs W is that you will also
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: inevitably run into Mr Max Williams. Yes, you can find
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: me at at l Underscore Max Williams, where you know,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I'll just be tweeting about stuff I like and stuff sports.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Sure why not? Or no scores just scores, just spores
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: and there are a lot out there to discover. Anyway,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: story for another day. Thanks to you, Max, thanks to
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Eve's Jeff Coat, thanks to Casey Pegram, Christopher Ossiotis you're
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: in spirit returning soon? Um, I don't know. You think
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Jonathan strictly Decay the Quister would go up into balloon
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: with me. I'm gonna say no, Yeah, I'm with you.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: It's the soft note from me dot. We'll see you
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: next time, folks. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.