Bly Balloon Bomb Tragedy of WWII, Pt. 2

The Reference Desk

In Part Two of the Bly Balloon Bomb Tragedy, we learn about the manufacturing of the Japanese Balloon Bombs by young Japanese schoolgirls in terrible working conditions. We also learn about the terrible loyalty questionnaire given to incarcerated Japanese Americans, which, when answered “incorrectly” sent hundreds of families to a maximum security incarceration camp. And, we will learn about the only civilian casualties on mainland American soil during the war.

Staff Picks

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Peace is a Chain Reaction by Tanya Lee Stone

Recommendations
Movies

• On Paper Wings

Non-Fiction

• Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Patridge
• Fu-go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America by Ross Coen
• They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

Fiction

• We Are Not Freeby Traci Chee
• Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey
• When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
• Displacement by Kiku Huges

If you are interested in any of the books we talk about in this episode, please consider purchasing them through our affiliate link with Bookshop.org.

Sources

• Bombs Fall on Oregon: Japanese Attacks on the State
• Mitchell Monument
• Beware Of Japanese Balloon Bombs
• On Paper Wings - Documentary
• From Engagement to Peace
• Pearl Harbor, History.org
• Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II
• Japan’s World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America
• Author Maggie Tokuda-Hall Takes a Stand Against Censorship and the “Deeply American Tradition of Racism”
• Topaz History: Topaz Museum
• The “Loyalty Questionnaire” of 1943 Opened a Wound that has Yet to Heal
• Densho

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