Between 1944 and 1945, the Japanese military launched almost ten thousand bomb-bearing balloons across the Pacific ocean. Intended to spark forest fires and shake American morale, the balloons were beset by technical problems and never achieved their destructive potential, but were nonetheless responsible for the only six war deaths on the United States mainland.

Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America provides a comprehensive account of this obscure chapter in modern warfare. Filled with photographs and diagrams, it traces both the technological and political development of the program and documents its effects on America.