In November of 1944, Japan released the first of more than nine thousand Fugo Balloon bombs into the Pacific Jet Stream, launching a long-range aerial attack on the North American Continent.

It has been estimated that nearly one thousand of the potentially deadly bombs fell over a broad area from Alaska south to California and east as far as the Mississippi. As many as six hundred of them may still be lying undiscovered in remote regions of the North American continent, possibly still explosive.

The ingeniously designed balloon bombs took the lives of six Americans, the only victims of World War II to die on American soil. Apart from that they caused only minor damage, but their potential for destruction, fire and public panic was awesome.

The voluntary media silence on the balloon story makes a compelling case for the virtues of wartime censorship, but one consequence is that most people still do not know about this attack today.

On a Wind and a Prayer takes an in-depth look at the Japanese Fugo Balloon bomb offensive and highlights its place in World War II history.