Editing Fu-Go balloon bomb (section)

===Censorship campaign===
On January 4, 1945, the U.S. [[Office of Censorship]] sent a confidential memo to newspaper editors and radio broadcasters asking that they give no publicity to balloon incidents; this proved highly effective, with the agency sending another memo three months later stating that cooperation had been "excellent" and that "there is no question that your refusal to publish or broadcast information about these balloons has baffled the Japanese, annoyed and hindered them, and has been an important contribution to security."{{sfn|Coen|2014|pp=162, 169}} The Imperial Army only ever learned of the balloon at Kalispell from an article in the Chinese newspaper ''[[Ta Kung Pao]]'' on December 18, 1944.{{sfn|Coen|2014|p=83}} The Kalispell find was originally reported on December 14 by the ''Western News'', a weekly published in [[Libby, Montana]]; the story later appeared in articles in the January 1, 1945, editions of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazines, as well as on the front page of the January 2 edition of ''[[The Oregonian]]'' of [[Portland, Oregon]], before the Office of Censorship sent the memo.{{sfn|Coen|2014|p=68}} Starting in mid-February 1945, Japanese propaganda broadcasts falsely announced numerous fires and a panicked American public, further claiming casualties in the hundreds or thousands.{{sfn|Mikesh|1973|p=37}}

One breach occurred in late February, when Representative [[Arthur L. Miller]] mentioned the balloons in a weekly column he sent to all 91 newspapers in his Nebraska district, which stated in part: "As a final act of desperation, it is believed that the Japs may release fire balloons aimed at our great forests in the northwest". In response, intelligence officers at the [[Seventh Service Command]] in Omaha contacted the editors at all 91 papers, requesting censorship; this was largely successful, with only two papers printing the column.{{sfn|Coen|2014|p=162}} In late March, the [[United Press International|United Press]] (UP) wrote a detailed article on the balloons intended for its national distributors; the Army officer who reported the breach commented that it included "a lot of mechanical detail on the thing, in addition to being a hell of a scare story".{{sfn|Coen|2014|p=167}} Censors contacted the UP, which replied that the article had not yet been [[Teletype|teletyped]]; all five copies were retrieved and destroyed. Investigators determined the information originated from a briefing to Colorado state legislators, which had been leaked in an open session.{{sfn|Coen|2014|p=168}} 

In late April, censors investigated the nationally-syndicated comic strip ''[[Tim Tyler's Luck]]'' by [[Lyman Young]], which depicted a Japanese balloon recovered by the crew of an U.S. submarine. In subsequent weeks, its protagonists fought monster vines which sprang from seeds the balloon was carrying, created by an evil Japanese horticulturalist. A few weeks later, the comic strip ''[[The Adventures of Smilin' Jack|Smilin' Jack]]'' by [[Zack Mosley]] depicted a plane crashing into a Japanese balloon, which exploded and started a fire upon falling to the ground.{{sfn|Coen|2014|pp=164–167}} In both cases, the Office of Censorship deemed it unnecessary to censor the [[Sunday comics]].{{sfn|Coen|2014|p=167}}