During World War II, the Japanese military floated thousands of balloon bombs to the United States, its wartime enemy. The casualties were surprisingly few, but two Minnesota children would number among the victims of the campaign.
Transcript
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May 5, 1945, it was a beautiful Saturday as Pastor Archie Mitchell headed to Fremont National Forest in South Central Oregon for a little fishing and a picnic. With him were his pregnant wife and his Sunday school class. Among those five students were Jane and Joe Patzke, a sister and brother whose family had relocated from Cass Lake, Minnesota. In a few days, World War Two would be over in Europe. What a relief. The Patzkes had lost an older brother in Germany. And hopefully the Pacific war would end soon too. While the pastor parked, his wife and the kids ran into the woods where Jane Patzke spotted an innocent-looking balloon caught in a tree. Someone tugged the rope—and set off an explosion. The Japanese government had floated thousands of these balloon bombs to America's West Coast to create havoc among its wartime enemy. The pastor ran towards the explosion, but no one had survived.
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