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Manchuria, in 1942:

Case number:

ACUFO-1942-00-00-MANCHURIA-1

Summary:

A photo (below) circulating in modern UFO magazines and on the Internet is said to show a “Foo-Fighter” near Japanese “Sally” bombers on the Sea of Japan. The date varies, “September 1942”, or “October 1, 1943”.

I found that an earlier source, the 1983 book “UFO's Over Modern China” by Wendelle C. Stevens and Paul Dong, showed the same photograph as having been taken in 1942, one morning, over Manchuria, China.

The book gave no context information, instead, it described and interpreted what anyone can see on the image, as a “dark spherical UFO” “3 feet in diameter”, that was “closely following a Japanese Imperial Army Air Force Kawasaki Ki-48-Ia, Army Type 99, Light Bomber of the 45th Sentai on the Northern China front.“

In 1997, Italian ufologist Giuseppe Stilo discussed the alleged “Foo-Fighter” photos that allegedly came from the Japanese Air Force during World War II. He indicated that they were punlished in many books that gave no source for them. He explained that “Foo-Fighter” specialist ufologists were not aware of any well-documented reports that would be linked to these photos, and that consultations with these ufologists revealed that they have a single and very questionable source.

This source, he said, dating from 1963 and 1964, was the Japanese “contactee” group “Cosmic Brotherhood Association”, led by Yusuke J. Matsumura. They had published many photos, none of which had any source from Western ufology, with a first series published in the second issue of the year 1963 of their newsletter Flying Saucer News.

Stilo explained that in the mid-1950s, Yusuke Matsumura was distributing mimeographed bulletins in English on behalf of a small group of enthusiasts called the “Flying Saucer Research Group”; that in 1958, in Yokohama, he formed the “Cosmic Brotherhood Association” with the administrator in Japan of the American contactee George Adamski, Hachiro Kubota, and launched the small magazine Flying Saucer News. Matsumura later claimed to have himself met the “Space Brothers”, who had taken him on a ride in their spaceship (etc.). From 1957 onwards, Matsumura was distributing dozens of photographs of unusual clouds, claiming that they were spaceships that he had photographed himself. He had ended up setting up a true apocalyptic cult, practicing fraud, getting money from his followers whom his extraterrestrial friends were to save from the imminent end of the world. He had continued to publish alleged UFO photos, which he had doctored.

The caption for the image in question here, Stilo said, was that “this image, which shows two Japanese Kawasaki Ki 48 Mod. I Lily light fighters, shows a small dark sphere placed on the tail of the second aircraft and a date was given as '1945'.”

I found the photo discussed here in the February - March 1963 issue of Flying Saucer News of the “Cosmic Brotherhood Association”, in the first series of these so-called “Foo-Fighters” photos published by the CBA. They stated that their “Scientific Research Department” had found the entire series of these photos at a university and that they had been taken by the Ichikoku Army Air Corps during World War II.

For this photo, the caption did not mention Manchuria or 1942, it only told that it shows a disc following a plane at a few meters.

Data:

Temporal data:

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Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. fsn1:] "FLYING SAUCER NEWS" - CBA:

In the ufology bulletin Flying Saucer News, of the “Cosmic Brotherhood Association” (CBA) of February - March 1963, a first series of these photos above of alleged “Foo-Fighters” was published by the CBA; which was the origin of the photo discussed here.

In the brief explanatory text in Japanese which accompanied them, the CBA stated:

The photo dealt with in this file was numbered “2” and is the first one on the top left.

The caption told that it shows a disc following a plane at a few meters.

[Ref. fsn2:] "FLYING SAUCER NEWS" - CBA:

In the ufology bulletin Flying Saucer News, of the “Cosmic Brotherhood Association” (CBA) of August 1964, a second series of these photos above of alleged “Foo-Fighters” was published by the CBA.

In the brief explanatory text in Japanese which accompanied them, the CBA stated:

[Ref. pdg1:] PAUL DONG AND WENDELLE C. STEVENS:

This Summary is followed by the picture:

And the picture has this caption:

[Ref. gso1:] GIUSEPPE STILO:

This Italian UFO researcher discusses alleged “Foo-Fighter“ photos which would come from Japanese aviation during the Second World War, which were published in numerous books giving no source. He explains that ufologists specializing in «Foo-Fighter« are not aware of any well-documented reports that would be linked to these photos, and that consultations with these ufologists revealed that they have a unique and very questionable source.

The source, dating from 1963 and 1964, was the Japanese “contactee” group “Cosmic Brotherhood Association”, led by Yusuke J. Matsumura. They had published numerous photos, none of which had a source from Western ufology.

A first series was published by the CBA in the second issue of the 1963 newsletter Flying Saucer News.

The caption for the image below, Stilo says, was that “this image, which shows two Japanese Kawasaki Ki 48 Mod. I Lily light combat aircraft, shows a small dark sphere placed on the tail of the second plane and a date is given as apos;1945apos;.”

Stilo explains that in the mid-1950s, Yusuke Matsumura distributed mimeographed bulletins in English on behalf of a small group of enthusiasts called the "Flying Saucer Research Group"; that in 1958, in Yokohama, he created the "CBA International (Cosmic Brotherhood Association)" with the administrator in Japan of the American contactee George Adamski, Hachiro Kubota, and launched the small magazine "Flying Saucer News". Matsumura then claimed to have met the "Space Brothers" himself, who took him into their spaceship (etc.). From 1957 on, Matsumura released dozens of photos of unusual clouds, claiming that they were spaceships that he had photographed himself. He ended up setting up a real apocalyptic sect and practicing fraud, having money paid to him by his disciples whom his extraterrestrial friends were supposed to save from the soon to come end of the world, which did not happen. He continued to publish alleged photos of UFOs, faked by him.

[Ref. jbu1:] JEROME BEAU:

Note: The photo is not displayed.

[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

[Ref. tkw1:] "THE KLEW" WEBSITE:

[Ref. gfn1:] WEBSITE "GREY FALCON":

This photograph appears with the caption:

[Ref. ute1:] A "UFO TIMELINE" ON THE WEB:

Aircraft information:

“Sally” or sometimes “Gwen” (photo below), was the US designation for the Mitsubishi Ki-21 Japanese bomber, used during World War II. It first flew in 1936 had begun operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In WWII it was used, among other places, to attack targets in Western China, thus it is nothing anomalous that it would fly on the Sea of Japan.

I spot an anomaly with the plane in the alleged “Foo-Fighter”: the bump at the bottom of the fuselage:

Apparently some Internet users suggested it was not a “Sally” but a “Betty”, aka Mitsubishi G4M. I can see why: it must be because of the bump under the fuselage, as it would approximately match the machine gun belly nacelle of the “Betty”. However, the tail of the “Betty” does not match the tail we see in the alleged “Foo-Fighter” photo here.

Update on May 16, 2024:

The 1983 source [pdg1] gave the correct information, it is indeed a Kawasaki Ki-48 «Lily»:

Discussion:

Below: the "Sea of Japan."

Below: Manchuria. Manchuria is a large region of Northeastern Asia with the largest extent in Northeastern China and a part East of Russia.

There are other alleged “Foo-Fighters” photos on the Web and in books allegedly near Japanese WWII aircraft. A common feature is that there is no context information, no “report” per se. One noted ufologist commented in the 1980's that as far as he know, the whole bunch of those photo came from a Japanese group called “Cosmic Brotherhood Association” which never provided any context for these photos.

We do see here that one source says it was in September 1942, the other says it was on October 1, 1943.

The multiple-photos set up as found by the Klew in “UFO Magazine” looks like a dumb trickery: it gives the impression that the object is only present in one of the photo, making believe it “approached”. It even may create the impression that there was a film. Not so: the two photos on the lower left are the same single photo, just cropped so that the “object” does not appear on them.

In my opinion, the credibility of the case is about null.

And given the poor quality of the photo, the so called “Foo-Fighter” could be just a fault on the negative of print.

Update on July 30, 2024:

With the source [fsn1], the origin of the image is now clear: the CBA UFO buffs found it in some book or magazine about WWII in some University library and thought it show a UFO following Japanese planes. They did not say it was in 1942, they did not say it was over Manchuria.

Evaluation:

Probable photo fault, no credibility.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [fsn1] * "Discs during World War II", article in the "Contactees" bulletin Flying Saucer News, by Yusuke Matsumura, of the "Cosmic Brotherhood Association" (CBA), Japan, February - March 1963.
• [fsn2] * "Discs during World War II", article in the "Contactees" bulletin Flying Saucer News, by Yusuke Matsumura, of the "Cosmic Brotherhood Association" (CBA), Japan, February - March 1963.
• [pdg1] * "UFO's Over Modern China", book by Wendelle C. Stevens and Paul Dong, UFO Photo Archives publishers, page 18, USA, 1983.
• [ume1] ? Ufology magazine UFO Magazine, U-K., January - February 2000.
• [gso1] * "Il ritorno di foo fighters, article by Giuseppe Stilo, in the ufology magazine Rivista UFO, Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici (CISU), Italy, No. 20, pp 7-8, December 1997.
• [jbu1] * "1942", Web page by Jérôme Beau, on his ufology website RR0, France, circa 2004, at https://rr0.org/time/1/9/4/2/
• [tai1] * "1943: UFO & Alien Sightings", web page of the Think About It website, as of January 1, 2016, at https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1943-ufo-alien-sightings
• [tkw1] * "Foo Fighter (with Japanese Sally)", Web page of the the klew Website, as of 2023 at https://theklew.com/ufosihaveknown/1940s/foo-with-japanese-sally
• [gfn1] * "Foo-Fighters - Photographs", Web page on the GreyFalcon Website, not dated, as of January 2024, at http://foofighters.greyfalcon.us/photos.html
• [ute1] * "UFO Timeline: A Chronology of UFOs through Time", anonymous ufology timeline on the Web, found 2023.

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This page was last updated on July 30, 2024.