Abstract

Mythologizing the bomb

In 1943, with the war against Japan intensifying in the Pacific, Dr. L.F. Fisser of the National Defense Research Committee designed a tiny incendiary bomb for the use of the U.S. Army Air Force. The two-ounce bomb was to be dropped on Japan affixed to free-tailed bats, of which there happened to be an ample supply in Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. The bat bombs were to be chilled to hibernating temperature in ice-cube trays, packed 180 to a box and sprung free at a thousand feet above the ground, where they would thaw and, in great hunger, swoop down on the wood and paper homes of Tokyo. Something may be insane, but it is only crackpot when it doesn't work. Another plan to bring the total warfare concept to the Japanese capital was conceived by General Curtis LeMay.