HISTORY DETECTIVES

Japanese Balloon Bomb – The granddaughter of a World War II veteran from Austin, Texas, has a wartime memento with a note claiming it’s a piece of Japanese balloon that floated across the Pacific Ocean in 1945. The alleged balloon scrap could be evidence of a unique weapon in modern warfare: the Japanese balloon bomb. More than 9,000 of these incendiary weapons were launched from Japan during the war via the jet stream with the intention of causing mass disruption and forest fires in the American West. The existence and purpose of the balloon bombs were kept secret from the American public for security reasons, until a tragic accident forced a change in policy. The balloon bombs caused the only fatalities on the U.S. mainland due to enemy action during World War II. HISTORY DETECTIVES host Tukufu Zuberi travels to Austin, Texas and to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, to learn whether this souvenir is a missing piece of a secret weapon.

Society Circus Program – In her school’s drama closet, a young girl from Oregon finds a curious, yellowed circus program that reads ”Official Program of Cobina Wright’s Society Circus for the benefit of the Boy Scout Foundation, Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President, Season 1933.” Who was Cobina Wright and what do the Boy Scouts, FDR and Cobina’s Circus — with its lengthy “who’s-who” celebrity list — have in common? HISTORY DETECTIVES host Gwendolyn Wright explores New York City’s 1930s high society and illuminates a connection between FDR and the Boy Scouts that inspired one of the most popular and effective pieces of the president’s New Deal program.

Camp David Letter – Maryland’s Camp David has served as a presidential retreat for more than 60 years and is possibly best known for the Camp David Accords, the famous Egyptian-Israeli peace agreements signed there in 1978. A self-styled dumpster diver in San Francisco has recovered a windfall of memorabilia that reveals a story of Camp David’s beginnings. The salvaged items appear to have once belonged to a three-generation Navy family headed by John H. Kevers. Among photos, dog tags and epaulets, one letter in particular caught the contributor’s attention: It’s from Ronald Reagan to Kevers’ widow, stating “… Captain John H. Kevers gave many years of service to Presidents, starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt … Because of Captain Kevers, we have the enjoyable facility of Camp David …” In Los Angeles and San Francisco, HISTORY DETECTIVES host Wes Cowan searches presidential archives and Navy history to pinpoint Kevers’ connection to the secret mountaintop hideaway that was FDR’s “Shangri-La.”

See previews and find out more at pbs.org

Watch it Monday, July 14th at 9pm on KUAT6 and KUAT-HD