Earlier quoted context omitted.
> months before WW2 What's the definition of WW2 here? US supplied oil and metal to Japan until 1941 [0], 3 years after Japan invaded China [1]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Events_leading_to_the_attack_o... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
My dad's uncle fought for the USA in the Pacific. At one point during the war, he was close to a Japanese bomb when it exploded. He survived. The interesting part of this story is that some scrap metal from the bomb had a stamp that said "Framingham, Massachusetts". He was from Northampton, MA, and he'd almost been kill by scrap metal made at a factory less than 100 miles from his home. https://goo.gl/maps/npoRDeSFHK…
Ye gods. That reminds of Felix, a character from the book Armor, by John Steakley.
> It turned out the Japanese had stuffed the hill with explosives
Well, there you go. Nothing is new under the sun. Beneath Hill 60 [0] is a movie about the Allies doing the same thing to the Germans in WWI. The explosion was heard in London, about 250km away. It killed around 10,000 Germans [1], but according to the movie had very little effect on the eventual outcome.
I thought it must have been pretty unique event. Apparently not.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_Hill_60 [1] https://www.military-history.org/articles/world-war-i-hill-6...