ACUFO-1942-09-00-SEAOFJAPAN-1
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 no other information, and several reasons to assess this as very dubious.
|
| Date: | September 1942 or October 1, 1943 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Day. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | 1980? |
| Reporting delay: | Decades. |
| Country: | Japan |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | |
| City: |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 0 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 0 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Reporting channel: | UFO magazine U-K., 2000. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Day. |
| UFO observed: | ? |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| UFO action: | ? |
| Witnesses action: | ? |
| Photographs: | Yes. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Sensors: |
[ ] Visual:
[ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [X] Photo: 1 [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | DD |
| Armed / unarmed: | Armed, machine guns. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 1 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 1 |
| ACUFO: | Probable photo fault, no credibility. |
[Ref. jbu1:] JEROME BEAU:
September 1942
A Japanese imperial Sally bomber, on a mission over the Sea of Japan, is approached by a small, dark spherical object flying around and between the aircraft in formation. A cameraman-shooter on alert takes a photograph (opposite).
Note: The photo is not displayed.
[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:
|
Date: 1943
Location: Sea of Japan
Time:
Summary: World War II sighting
Source:
[Ref. tkw1:] "THE KLEW" WEBSITE:
|
October 1, 1943
[Photos]
Japanese Sea, Japan
Numerous UFOs photographed during WW2. They received the nickname ‘Foo Fighters’ from a maxim used by a cartoon comic character Smokey Stover. This comic was a favourite among US forces during WW2. Picture source : UFO Magazine UK Jan/Feb 2000. In this photograph, a Japanese Sally Bomber flies over the Japanese Sea in 1943, followed by a dark sphere.
Sea of Japan
via UFO Evidence, UFO Magazine UK Jan/Feb 2000, reprinted on UFOArtwork.com Original source webpage / article
Photograph ID: 133 ID: 133
[Ref. gfn1:] WEBSITE "GREY FALCON":
|
This photograph appears with the caption:
Interestingly enough, with all the sightings and reports, and all the gun cameras and high altitude photographs, no truly GOOD pictures of Foo Fighters from the period have surfaced.
[...]
A Japanese Sally bomber (some say it's a Betty), with a UFO (Foo Fighter) trailing it.
[Ref. ute1:] A "UFO TIMELINE" ON THE WEB:
1942
Japan: An Imperial Japanese Sally bomber aircraft, on a mission over the Sea of Japan, was approached by a small dark spherical object which flew around and betweenthe aircraft in the formation. An alert gun-cameraman snapped one photograph.
"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 nacel of the "Betty". However, the tail of the "Betty" does not match the tail we see in the alleged "Foo-fighter" photo here.
|
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.
Probable photo fault, no credibility.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 28, 2023 | Creation, [jbu1], [tai1], [tkw1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 28, 2023 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | January 22, 2024 | Addition [gfn1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | April 29, 2024 | Addition [ute1]. |
