During the final years of World War II, Japan launched a weapon unlike anything the world had ever seen — the Fu-Go balloon bomb. Silent, drifting high above the Pacific, these hydrogen-filled balloons carried explosives designed to ride the jet stream and strike the U.S. mainland — over 6,000 miles away. This was the world’s first intercontinental weapon — a bold and desperate attempt to bring the war to American soil. Thousands of these ghostly balloons were released, floating unseen across th