'ON PAPER WINGS' DOCUMENTARY TO BE SCREENED ON JUNE 27

A documentary that recounts a World War II Japanese military campaign that forced young Japanese women to help make balloons that were then armed with bombs and sent into the jet stream toward North America, resulting in the death of a woman and five girls in Oregon, and a Japanese American scholar who brought together some of the unwitting builders and the residents of the Oregon town, will be screened at the Japanese American National Museum on Saturday, June 27, at 2 p.m.

"On Paper Wings", a documentary by filmmaker Ilana Sol of Portland, Oregon, pulls together these seemingly disparate pieces, leading to a sense of reconciliation 40 years after World War II. Sol has worked in the film industry for more than decade, often doing freelance research and production work. Her love of history led her to pursue the subject of the Japanese balloon bombs, their origins, and the one American town that felt its effects: Bly, Oregon.

The documentary begins with the Japanese military’s balloon bomb campaign. Teenage girls in high school were conscripted to make Japanese paper (washi) in factories. Most had no idea that the paper would be assembled into balloons, filled with hydrogen, and then armed with bombs. The balloon bombs or fire balloons were more sophisticated than just an incendiary device on a rope. Each balloon had a device with an altimeter that could allow the balloon to rise and fall to stay in the strong wind pattern at about 30,000 feet. The use of more durable paper over a rubberized silk showed the amount of effort that the Japanese military put into the project.

From November of 1944 to the spring of 1945, the Japanese launched approximately 9,000 balloon bombs. Officially, 300 were found from Alaska, the West Coast and as far east as Michigan, Texas and Iowa. Balloons made it to Canada and Mexico as well. While a few of the bombs caused some infrastructure damage or exploded near eyewitnesses, only one set of fatalities was recorded in the small town of Bly, Oregon.

As the documentary explains, the Rev. Archie Mitchell was on a picnic with his wife and some local children on May 5, 1945. One of the girls spotted the balloon in a tree and in trying to untangle the balloon, detonated the explosive, killing her, four other girls and Rev. Mitchell’s wife, who was pregnant. These are the only known fatalities from the Japanese balloon bomb operation.

While the families in Bly dealt with their tragedies and the American public braced itself for more balloon bombs, young Yuzuru "John" Takeshita was living in the government-run domestic concentration camp in Tule Lake, California, with his family. The U.S. government falsely incarcerated Takeshita and thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II because of their ancestry, forcing them to leave their homes and businesses without charge and without trial.

Four decades later, Takeshita, who became a university professor, encountered a group of Japanese women who were among those who were conscripted to make the Japanese paper that would be used for the balloon bombs. Takeshita knew of the Bly fatalities and sent the names and ages of those killed to the women. They were shocked and saddened by the information. Their own lives were difficult as Japan wound up devastated by the war, so the Japanese women chose to make a gesture that would promote peace for everyone. "On Paper Wings" follows the story of the Japanese women as they reach out to the town of Bly and the families affected by the Japanese balloon bomb campaign.

"On Paper Wings" has won several awards, including "Best Documentary" from the Kent Film Festival. One review called the documentary a "richly textured film... that resonates with issues we face today. 'On Paper Wings' documents the power of forgiveness and illuminates our common humanity." This was Ilana Sol’s first documentary.

This program is free to National Museum members or with general admission. For more information, call the Japanese American National Museum at (213) 625-0414, or go to www.janm.org.