From the article:
The documentary "On a Wind and a Prayer" tells the long, complex tale of Japan's dedicated but futile attempts to harass North Americans by creating panic and tying up various kinds of service crews with unpredictable but widespread damage....Japan's spotty but persistent assaults on America came by submarine and hot-air balloon. The Gearhart Mountain fatalities resulted from a balloon that had been launched from Japan. Of about 9,200 balloons sent into the prevailing winds starting in November 1944, some 920 should have reached North America, by Japanese estimates. By 1946, 265 had been found. Another 40 have turned up over the decades.
"On a Wind and a Prayer" also touches on Japan's submarine assaults on the U.S. coast, including the February 1942 shelling of an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, Calif. On June 20 another sub bombarded Vancouver, B.C., and the next night another sub fired on Fort Stevens near Astoria. On Sept. 9, 1942, a float plane launched from a Japanese submarine started a small forest fire near Brookings.
The raids caused little damage and no injuries. Nor was there damage or injury to the Japanese subs and crews; decades later, we must admit they were intrepid. They also exemplified the sorry state of coastal security in 1942.
"Wind" also mentions the "Battle of Los Angeles," a profoundly confused panic in which U.S. military units fired some 1,400 artillery and anti-aircraft shells based on rumors. The melee inspired Steven Spielberg's 1979 epic farce "1941." The farrago actually occurred in late February 1942, Spielberg's title notwithstanding. Spielberg did not mention the three people killed by artillery fallout or the three people known to have died of heart attacks caused by the frenzy.
Sounds like a good documentary to watch out for.
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