Red Rain - Softcover

Wendel, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0975440217 ISBN 13: 9780975440216

Publisher: Writers Lair, 2008

Synopsis

Assembled from paper by schoolchildren and women in the waning years of the war, the Japanese fire balloons were launched from fields near Tokyo and Kyoto. They often reached the U.S. mainland in just three days and two nights. Armed with incendiary bombs, the balloons original goal was to ignite forest fires throughout the western states, which they did at an alarming rate. Wendel s research at the National Archives and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., reveals that the balloons touched down in the U.S. more than 300 times from 1944 to 1945. The balloons proved to be a better weapon than the Imperial Army ever knew. One sailed as far east as Michigan. At one point, the Japanese high command considered replacing the incendiary bombs with nerve and gas warfare. But it never came to that largely because of the U.S. military s ability to keep a secret.

About this title

About the Author:

Tim Wendel is an award-winning novelist and journalist. He is the author of a half-dozen books, including Castro’s Curveball: A Novel; and The New Face of Baseball: The One-Hundred-Year Rise and Triumph of Latino’s Favorite Pastime, which was named Top History Book for 2004 by the Latino Literary Awards. His stories have appeared in Gargoyle and The Potomac Review, and his articles in The New York Times, Esquire, GQ, Washingtonian and USA Today, where he is on the Forum’s op-ed Board of Contributors.Wendel teaches fiction and nonfiction writing at Johns Hopkins University, where he was honored with the 2004 Professional Achievement Award. He is a Walter Dakin Fellow, and Tennessee Williams Scholar to the Sewanee Writing Conference, and a Pen/Faulkner visiting writer to the Washington, D.C. Public Schools. Wendel received a Master’s Degree in Writing from Johns Hopkins University, and has worked on both coasts, covering everything from the Olympics to the America’s Cup. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife and their two children. More of his stories can be found at www.timwendel.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Writers Lair
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0975440217
• ISBN 13: 9780975440216
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 258