ACUFO:

ACUFO is my comprehensive catalog of cases of encounters between aircraft and UFOs, whether they are “explained” or “unexplained”.

The ACUFO catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file.

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Burma, between 1942 and 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1942-00-00-BURMA-1

Summary:

A Japanese citizen named Rei Hani, introducing himself as the “founder member of ASIOS”, member of an “Institute for Potential Science”, published on the Japanese Tocana Website on August 15, 2015, four summaries of sightings by Japanese airmen in World War II.

One of them was that during World War II, a little later than 1942, or between 1942 and 1945, above the Burma front, a Type 100 reconnaissance plane from the headquarters one day encountered several aligned orange spheres. The Type 100 was the fastest reconnaissance aircraft in the Japanese army at the time, reaching speeds of over 600 km/h, but it was not equipped with any weapons as it specialized in high-speed flight. As the swarm of spheres approached, the pilot had tried to lose them at high speed, then he swung his wings from left to right to escape, but the spheres performed the same movements and could not be shaken. The spheres chased the plane for 15 minutes, then moved away at a speed faster than that of the plane.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	Between 1942 and 1945
Time:	?
Duration:	15 minutes.
First known report date:	2015
Reporting delay:	7 decades.

Geographical data:

Country:	Burma (Myanmar)
State/Department:
City or place:	On the frontline.

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	1 or 2.
Number of known witnesses:	?
Number of named witnesses:	0

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Japanese UFO article on the Web.
Visibility conditions:	?
UFO observed:	Yes.
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	Yes.
UFO action:	Follow, follow escape maneuvers.
Witnesses action:	Evasive maneuvers.
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Sensors:	[X] Visual: 1 or 2. [ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	?
Armed / unarmed:	Unarmed.
Reliability 1-3:	1
Strangeness 1-3:	3
ACUFO:	Unknown credibility.

Sources:

[Ref. rhi1:] REI HANI:

- Above the Burmese front

This seems to have happened a little later [than circa 1942 in WWII], but above the Burmese front, a Type 100 reconnaissance plane from the Headquarters one day encountered several aligned orange spheres. The Type 100 headquarters reconnaissance plane was the fastest reconnaissance aircraft in the Japanese Army at the time, reaching speeds of more than 600 km/h, but it was not equipped with any weapons because it specialized in high-speed flight. As the swarm of spheres approached, the pilot attempted to shake them off at high speed, then swung his wings from left to right to escape, but the spheres also made the same movements could not be shaken. In the end, the spheres pursued the reconnaissance plane for 15 minutes before flying away at a speed faster than the reconnaissance plane.

There are source references at the bottom of the article but we cannot know which reference(s) concerned which case(s) of the four that were reported.

These references were “UFO and Space”, May 1970 issue; “Spacecraft”, issue 2, “Flying Saucer News” February / March 1963, and August 1964; “Illustrated UFO” by Shintaro Sakurai, Shinkigensha.

Notes: “Flying Saucer News” was a “Contactees” bulletin published by the quasi-ufo-cult “Cosmic Brotherhood Association” (CBA) in Japan. “Illustrated UFO” by Shintaro Sakurai does exist and had at least 14 issues; issue 14 was published in April 2008.

Aircraft information:

The “Type 100 Command Reconnaissance Aircraft” Japanese Army reconnaissance plane was the Mitsubishi Ki-46-II, Allied code name “Dinah” (photo below).

It was designed as a long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft; specifications demanded an endurance of six hours and sufficient speed to evade interception by any fighter in existence or development.

It was introduced in July 1941 and retred in September 1945.

Some models were fitted with Type 89 machine gun flexibly mounted in the rear cockpit, other models had no weapons.

Its maximum speed was 604 km/h (375 mph, 326 kn) at 5,800 m (19,000 ft).

Discussion:

Japanese sighting reports of unexplained phenomena during World War II are extremely rare; the language barrier is perhaps an important factor.

There are “qualified” ufologists in Japan, but also a large number of people calling themselves ufologist who more belonged to the “Contactee” movement and of course did not care much for truthfulness.

The information on the case is not complete: there is no date, no witness information, no unit information, no exact place, no hour.

Evaluation:

Unknown credibility.

Sources references:

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

[rhi1] * "UFOs encountered by Japanese soldiers during the Pacific War", article by Rei Hani, "Institute for Potential Science, founder member of ASIOS", Japan, on the Tocana Website, Japan, August 15, 2015, at https://tocana.jp/2015/08/post_7079_entry_2.html

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editor:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	July 23, 2024	Creation, [rhi1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	July 23, 2024	First published.

This page was last updated on July 23, 2024.