Blind Bombing Filmed by a Bat (2020)

During WWII the Japanese army developed experimental balloons able to cross the Pacific Ocean and reach the West Coast of North America in 36 days Armed with explosives they were given the code name fugo or fusen bakudan fire balloons or balloon bombs in an attempt to instill a culture of fear like that caused by the far more deadly American firebombing of Japanese cities The US responded by enacting a censorship campaign requesting newspapers avoid reports of fugo landings or sightings Living near the remains of a fugo launch site in Fukushima Prefecture Takeuchi mimics their flight takeoff using a drone camera and traveling to North America follows their arrival across the shoreline and rural landscapes using a bats echolocation as narrative device to place fugo and Fukushima as echos across history