In Memory Of...
On May 5, 1945, a pastor, his wife, and five children from the Alliance Church in Bly, Oregon, went on a picnic. five children and one adult were killed in Bly, Oregon by a Japanese balloon bomb that had landed at the site, but failed to go off. It went off when one of the kids touched it.
In Memory Of...
- Mrs. Mitchell
- Sherman Shoemaker, 12
- Jay Gifford, 12
- Eddie Engen, 13
- Joan Patzke, 11
- Dick Patzke, 13.
Decades later, a letter from several Japanese women who had helped create the balloon bombs while children, arrived to families of the victims. It read:
"We, the undersigned, humbly offer our prayers from the bottom of our hearts for the souls of the six who lost their precious lives due to one of the balloon bombs we helped build.
On the 44th anniversary of the tragic event that took the lives of your loved ones, we send to you these dolls from Yamagachi as a symbol of our earnest resolve never again to go to war and our fervent hope to bring the people of the world together in genuine love, to live in peace and friendship among us all."
A monument was established at the site of the balloon bomb accident where it remains to this day in Bly, Oregon.
