During the Second World War the Japanese tried to use Fu Go fire balloons made from Washi paper which were made by Japanese schoolgirls who were unaware of what they were doing. These balloons carried bombs propelled in the jet stream over to the west coast of the USA. The strategy failed: however members of a Sunday school family party were killed in May 1945, the only Americans to be killed on US mainland. Pieces of washi paper came down far inland. Eventually the diatoms in the sand used as ballast were analysed and found to be from a specific beach in Japan.
I made a book from the strong but light Washi paper, washed and dried.
A beautiful documentary film "On Paper Wings" has been made by Ilana Sol about the reconciliation 40 years after the war of the Japanese and Americans whose lives were affected by the paper bomb project. http://www.onpaperwingsthemovie.com/about.html
