Why no civilian deaths in us during World War 2?

Answer 1

During WWII, as through all its previous history to that point, the US was secure behind two huge oceans, isolated from the seat of conflict. No bombers of the day could cross the Atlantic and bomb the US and then return to Europe, let alone Asia. There were no neighbors just over a land border itching to invade. So the US did not suffer the horrors of warfare on its own soil, or the nightmare of aerial bombing.

There were still a handful of civilian casualties. In the early days of US involvement in the war, Japanese submarines surfaced a few times off the west coast and used their single deck gun to bombard coastal oil refineries. On the east coast German submarines operated within sight of land and sank numerous cargo vessels, all watched by horrified citizens on the beaches. The area off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina was an especially fruitful hunting ground, and added to its reputation as the graveyard of the Atlantic.

One of the small tragedies of the war involved a highly secret Japanese plan to "bomb" the US. This was the "Balloon Bomb" campaign. The Japanese, without means to strike directly at the US, innovated and decided to make use of prevailing winds at high altitude over the Pacific. These winds run up to two hundred miles an hour and almost invariably blow from Japan toward the US. The Japanese decided to send up thousands of tiny balloons, like toys, each with a small incendiary bomb suspended beneath, into these high speed wind currents. It was hoped these winds would carry them across the Pacific to the northwestern US, where their incendiary bombs would set fire to the great forests covering that part of America, for whatever good that would accomplish. A few of these actually did reach America, but caused no huge fires. Nevertheless, the authorities kept the Balloon Bombs hush-hush, so the Japanese would not know that any were reaching the US (they eventually quit because they thought none were getting through), and also to avoid panicking the public. The family of a minister, on a picnic in Oregon, came across one of the Japanese Balloon Bombs, and having no idea what it was, picked it up to examine it. It exploded and killed five or six children.