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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In or near Japan, in 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-00-00-JAPAN-13

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 near the end of World War II, a formation of “Shidens”, a “Japanese naval fighter plane that intercepted the B-29's, also encountered Foo Fighters.” He said that several spheres appeared and danced around the fighter like playful puppies, that multiple pilots fought valiantly in the air, but the “Foo Fighters” suddenly rose vertically as they approached, making it impossible to target them. A pilot attempted “to descend from the sky and hit nearly 10 Foo-Fighters, but as he approached, they suddenly disappeared.” The planes then tried to return to their base, but the spheres reappeared and followed them 4 to 5 meters above the formation. Then, they “suddenly passed the formation at high speed and left.”

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	1945
Time:	?
Duration:	?
First known report date:	2015
Reporting delay:	7 decades.

Geographical data:

Country:	Japan
State/Department:
City or place:	In or near Japan

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	Several.
Number of known witnesses:	?
Number of named witnesses:	0

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Japanese UFO Website.
Visibility conditions:	?
UFO observed:	Yes.
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	Yes.
UFO action:	Followed, evasive maneuvers, left.
Witnesses action:	Attempt intercept, in vain.
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Sensors:	[X] Visual: Several. [ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	?
Armed / unarmed:	Armed, 4 20 mm guns.
Reliability 1-3:	1
Strangeness 1-3:	3
ACUFO:	Unknown credibility.

Sources:

[Ref. rhi1:] REI HANI:

- B-29 crews, Shiden pilots, and towards the end of the Pacific War, B-29 crews bombing Japan often saw Foo Fighters.

A formation of Shidens, a Japanese naval fighter plane that intercepted the B-29, also encountered Foo Fighters. At that moment, several spheres appeared and danced around the fighter like playful puppies. Multiple pilots fought valiantly in the air, but the Foo Fighters suddenly rose vertically as they approached, making them impossible to bet targeted. A pilot attempted to descend from the sky and hit nearly 10 Foo Fighters, but as as he approached, they suddenly disappeared. The planes then tried to return to their base, but the spheres reappeared and followed them 4 to 5 meters above the formation. Then they suddenly passed the Shiden formation at high speed and left.

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 Kawanishi N1K-J “Shiden” (“purple lightning”) (photo below) was the land-based version of the Imperial Japanese Navy's N1K seaplane, allied code name “George.” Towards the end of the World War II, it was one of the best fighter planes of the Japanese, due to its heavy armament and its very good maneuverability. It was the only one capable of competing with the best Allied fighters of the end of the war, such as the F6F Hellcat, the F4U Corsair and the P-51 Mustang.

It was first operational in early 1944.

Discussion:

The question here is that of the credibility of the story, the sources of which are unclear, and for which I found no earlier source so far.

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 24, 2024	Creation, [rhi1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	July 24, 2024	First published.

This page was last updated on July 24, 2024.