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China or Japan, between 1937 and 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1940-00-00-JAPAN-2

Summary:

Among the alleged “foo-fighters” photographs claimed to have been taken near Japanese aircraft during World War II, we find:

I show that the plane on the photograph is a Mitsubishi Ki-30 “Ann” light bomber and trainer aircraft of the Japanese army that started to fly in 1937. I was used in 1938 against China, and later on the Pacific theater.

This means that the photo might have been taken between 1937 and 1945, over China or Japan or the Pacific.

The photo was tilted for some reason, the plane should have been horizontal. The three bright spots claimed to be “foo fighters” may just be reflection of the sun on distant planes.

In 1997, the erudite Italian UFO researcher Giuseppe Stilo wrote about the series of alleged “Foo-Fighter“ photos which allegedly came from Japanese aviation during WWII He explained that ufologists specializing in «Foo-Fighter« 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 unique and very questionable source, dating from 1963 and 1964: the Japanese “contactee” group “Cosmic Brotherhood Association”, led by Yusuke J. Matsumura who published this photo and other photos in the second issue of their 1963 newsletter Flying Saucer News.

Stilo said that this photo shows a Japanese plane Ann in flight with three white spheres in the right part of the photo, at the bottom of the sky.

Stilo explained 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”. 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.

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[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.

Stilo commented the above picture:

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. www1:] ON THE WEB:

A scan of a page appeared on the Web in the 2020's; it showed several of the known and alleged “foo-fighters” photographed over Japan. Nobody explained where the page came from. Below is the part that relates to the photograph dealt with in this case file:

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

This photograph appears with the caption:

[Ref. jsn1:] JEAN-CLAUDE SIDOUN:

This author publishes the same image with this caption:

Aircraft information:

The Mitsubishi Ki-30, (Photo above) Allied code name “Ann”, was a Japanese light bomber, trainer, and ground attack aircraft that started to fly in 1937. It was used in the second Japanese campaign against China in 1938, much less on the Pacific theater.

The armament was 2 7.62 mm Type 89 machine guns, one fixed wing-mounted and another manually aimed from the rear cockpit.

Discussion:

A first note I want to make is that the photo appearing on the web was oriented falsely. The cloud layers indicate that it should appear in this orientation:

This of course indicates that the original photos, it it existed, was not only titled but cropped.

The origin of the photo is never indicated on the Web. I note that most of the other, similar “Japan foo-fighters” photos came from a book by Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong called “UFOS over Modern China” (1983), and, from U.S. ufologist Jan Aldrich, we learn that the images in the book originated with the “Cosmic Brotherhood Association” (C.B.A) UFO group in Japan, of which late ufologist Jun-Tchi Takanashi said that all their “foo-fighters” photographs were spurious, published without pedigree.

The bright spots claimed to be “foo-fighters” may just be reflections of the sun on more distance planes; such a sun reflection can be seen on the cockpit of the Ki-30.

Update on July 19, 2024:

In addition to the information by Giuseppe Stilo, I found out that the image is indeed a cropped version of an original photo:

This image appears as a public domain image on images collection Websites and aviation Websites in pages about this Japanese plane, without source. Example below:

As one can see, there is no "Foo-Fighters" - no bright spots - on the image; which would mean at first sight that Yusuke Matsumura did fake an original photo by adding the "Foo-Fighters" to an original print that showed no "Foo-Fighters". But I looked at the background clouds and noticed that they were artificially "blurred" in comparison with the version Yusuke Matsumura published. So, what happened in my opinion is not that Yusuke Matsumura added the spots to a photo where they didn't appear, but that modern publishers of the image on the Web blurred the background so that the alleged "Foo-Fighters" would disappear.

Of course this was not some foul plot "cover up UFOs"; this just means that the person who blurred the background thought that the bright spots were some defect or artefact that did not look nice, and so decided to clean-up the image. The opposite of a "UFO photographic hoax", somehow!

My idea is that at the time, Yusuke Matsumura did not have the equipement and / or the skills to fake photographs. He probably found the images he published in some Japanese book or magazine about Japanese aviation during WWII, and picked up all of them that showed what he believed to be UFOs, or what he wanted us to believe to be UFOs.

Stilo told that at the time, Yusuke Matsumura did this with "weird clouds" photographs; this adds some fuel to my idea.

If he had faked photographs, he would certainly have created more "impressive" UFOs than those.

Evaluation:

Probable sun reflections on planes.

Sources references:

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

• [fsn1] ? "Contactee" bulletin Flying Saucer News, by Yusuke Matsumura, "Cosmic Brotherhood Association", Japan, 1963 or 1964.
• [gso1] * "Il ritorno di foo fighters, article by Giuseppe Stilo, in the ufology magazine Rivista UFO, Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici (CISU), Italy, No. 20, page 8, December 1997.
• [gfn1] * "Foo-Fighters - Photographs", Web page on the GreyFalcon Website, not dated, as of January 2024, at http://foofighters.greyfalcon.us/photos.html
• [jsn1] * "L'Enigme des Foo-Fighters", book by Jean-Claude Sidoun, JMG publisher, France, page 22, 2022.

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This page was last updated on July 19, 2024.