The initial panic over a Chinese ‘spy balloon’ shot down by American jets in February may have died down (see FT430:28-29), even though two subsequent unidentified balloons were also downed, but many questions remain about just what they were and what they were doing.
First, a little history. The Japanese attacked the US Pacific coast with a wave of small Fu-Go balloons dropping incendiary bombs in 1944-45, in an attempt to set the Pacific forests on fire (see ). Were the balloons launched from merchant ships off the coast, or from submarines? Did they come from inside the
