(This story was contributed via our Commons (reader-submitted) section. Thanks, Christina! Other readers who wish to contribute to the Commons should click the link above that says “Write for the BHB.” — Ed.)

Local, volunteer-powered Beacon Hill Meaningful Movies screens the documentary On Paper Wings on Friday, August 21 at the Garden House (2336 15th Ave. S.) at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:15. Free movie, free popcorn!

During World War II, the Japanese military developed a new weapon intended to strike directly at the American continent — the balloon bomb. Thousands of hydrogen-filled balloons were attached to bombs and then launched into the jet stream to drift toward North America.

When six civilians found a balloon bomb in southern Oregon (near Bly), the device exploded. They became the only people killed on the continental US as the result of enemy action during World War II.

On Paper Wings is the story of four Japanese women who worked on the balloon bombs, the families of those killed in Oregon, and the man whose actions brought them all together forty years after World War II and the balloon bomb project.

Event organizers are hoping to have local Japanese-American residents whose lives were forever changed by the removal and internment experience as guests to share their stories.