In the final months of World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded in the quiet evening sky over the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. These “fire balloons,” filled with hydrogen and carrying bombs weighing between 11 and 33 pounds, were part of an experimental Japanese military offensive.

The bomb that exploded in Omaha on April 18, 1945, was one of over 9,000 balloons launched during a six-month period near the war’s end. It was also one of nearly 300 found or observed in the United States. These experimental weapons brought the war closer to American soil than most people realized. The Dundee explosion, part of this larger offensive, remains one of the many lesser-known incidents of the war.

Few people initially realized a bomb had detonated. Some witnessed a flash of light, while others heard noises they mistook for fireworks. By the next morning, nearly everyone in the neighborhood knew something had happened. According to newspaper reports at the time, residents described seeing a “ring of fire” in the sky. The plaque commemorating the incident notes that “the incendiary device flared brightly in the night but caused no damage.”

Japanese military leaders deployed these balloon bombs hoping to incite panic and gain widespread media attention, which would help them chart future attack courses. While a few explosions were reported in various outlets, the U.S. Office of Censorship—established to censor wartime communications—requested that media outlets not publish news of the balloon bombs. Consequently, the Dundee explosion and others were not widely reported until after the war had ended.

Beyond Nebraska, Japanese balloon bombs were dropped in 26 other states and Mexico. Most of the attacks caused little damage or injury, but one explosion in Oregon two weeks after the Dundee incident resulted in the deaths of a woman and five children who found an unexploded bomb in the woods. Remains of the fire balloons continued to be discovered after the war, with the most recent find occurring in 2014 in Canada.

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