What did a "successful" balloon-bomb campaign look like in the imagination of Japanese planners?

And if you all are interested in learning more about Fu-Go, Mr. Coen gave a great lecture that's archived online here.

He's also written two other books: Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil: The Epic Voyage of the SS Manhattan through the Northwest Passage and The Long View: Dispatches on Alaska History as well as several articles and shorter pieces.

How much of the Balloon Bomb campaign was known to the American population? Was it kept totally "hush-hush" at the time? And if so, at what point was the whole thing declassified? (And if not, was there any real fear within the west coast populace about potential further attacks?)

As I understand it, the campaign was quite the failure, but I imagine the Japanese had better expectations for it in the planning stage. Was this the only hairbrained scheme that they concocted along these lines, or were there other outlandish attempts to attack America that didn't make it this far?

Why didnt the japanese attempt to drop plague infested rats or biological weapons from the balloons?

I remember hearing about this a few years ago and at first thinking it was silly but, on second thought, actually a pretty ingenious strategy. My understanding is that the main reason the balloons didn't do much was because they used the same winds that brought rain to the PNW and so the fires never really spread. Is this true? What realistic hopes did the balloons have?

Can you talk about your research process? How did you go about finding sources for this topic?

Mr. Coen, James Brooks here ─ thanks for doing this! One of the things I was surprised by was how many balloons reached North America. I'd only heard of the one that resulted in deaths and the one that disrupted Hanford, but there were hundreds. What's your favorite anecdote from those that reached the U.S., Canada and Mexico?

What was the usual weight of the bombs? How much did they change by the time the last bombs were produced?

What was the farthest east that one of the balloons made it in the US?

Also the Radio Lab podcast on this story was awesome! I should probably just go buy your book now :)

When was the last one found and how recently has someone been killed by one of these? I've heard some folks still stumble upon them while hiking/camping...

How much did it cost in terms of money, manpower, important natural resources - what I mean is, how much did it hurt their war economy?

Probably not as much as the German V2 program did, but the results (almost none) seem to be in no relation to any kind of effort that might have went into this.

What would a typical timeline be from launch to arrival, and were the bombs particularly sophisticated in any way?

What can you say about the theory that the Roswell UFO was a lost fu-go? Considering it would have to stay aloft for three years.

Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise with us!

How much intelligence did the Japanese have on the area they were targeting? Was the vulnerability of that area to wildfires well known by the Japanese? Did they base any of their projections for damage on previous wildfires, for example?

How did the Japanese engineers manage to calculate/ account for the wind currents that would take the balloons to America? Did they guess, or were these wind currents well understood at the time?

Late question: did the wind ever blow the bombs onto Japanese soil? It seems like it would be a really chancy thing, not to get blowback.

What attracted you to researching and writing about Balloon bombs?

How detailed are the records of where the few bombs that actually made it dropped? I'd love to see a map of it.

Could you tell me more about Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night?

In the podcast, a woman gives an vivd account of retaliation against Japanese internees in the Oregon town where the children were killed. Do you have any corroboration for that story? What else can you tell us about the reaction to the disaster?