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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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Mount Fuji, Japan, in 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-00-00-FUJIYAMA-1

Summary:

In 1945, Lieutenant-Colonel Jo Chamberlin was a war correspondent and visited the airmen of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron in Eastern France. He heard from them about the mysterious lights that followed their planes, which were dubbed “Foo-Fighters”, and published the first and famous background article about it in the Amrican Legion magazine in December 1945.

Chamberlin also learned that similar phenomena were occurring on the Pacific theater where in 1944 and 1945, crews of the US B-29 bombers also told of “balls of fire” that sometimes followed their planes, sometimes despite evasive actions, and never attacking them.

One of the cases Chamberlin told about was:

“During the last months of the war the crews of many B-29s over Japan saw what they described as “balls of fire” which followed them, occasionally came up and almost sat on their tails, changed color from orange to red to white and back again, and yet never closed in to attack or crash, suicide-style.”

“One B-29 made evasive maneuvers inside a cloud, but when the B-29 emerged from it, the ball of fire was following in the same relative position. It seemed 500 yards off, three feet in diameter, and had a phosphorescent orange glow. No wing or fuselage suggesting an aerial bomb or plane was seen. The ball of fire followed the B-29 for several miles and then disappeared just as mysteriously as it had appeared in the dawn light over Fujiyama.”

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: Before September 1945
Time: Dawn
Duration: ?
First known report date: December 1945
Reporting delay: Hours, 9 months.

Geographical data:

Country: Japan
State/Department: Shizuoka and Yamanashi
City or place: Mount Fuji

Witnesses data:

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

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Jo Chamberlin.
Visibility conditions: Night and dawn.
UFO observed: Yes.
UFO arrival observed: ?
UFO departure observed: Yes.
UFO action: Follows despite evasive action.
Witnesses action: Evasive action.
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: NL DD
Armed / unarmed: Armed, 12 Browning M2 12.7 mm machine guns.
Reliability 1-3: 2
Strangeness 1-3: 3
ACUFO: Possible extraterrestrial craft.

Sources:

[Ref. jcn1:] JO CHAMBERLIN:

One B-29 made evasive maneuvers inside a cloud, but when the B-29 emerged from it, the ball of fire was following in the same relative position. It seemed 500 yards off, three feet in diameter, and had a phosphorescent orange glow. No wing or fuselage suggesting an aerial bomb or plane was seen. The ball of fire followed the B-29 for several miles and then disappeared just as mysteriously as it had appeared in the dawn light over Fujiyama.

[Ref. hws1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:

Came 1945, and the Foo Fighters made their appearance in the seas of the Far East-the other side of the globe from the German Rhine-over Japan, and over Truk Lagoon, in mid-Pacific. Crews of U.S. B.29 bombers reported to Intelligence, after missions, that balls of fire, of mysterious types, came up from below their planes over Japan, hovered over the tails of their bombers and winked their lights from red to orange, then back from white to red. Exactly as had happened a few months before on the other side of the globe, over the Rhine! Here, too, in the Far East, the weird balls were inoffensive, just 'nosey' and exploratory.

On one occasion, at night, a B.29 flier rose into a cloud in order to shake off one of these balls of fire. When his plane emerged from the cloudbank, the ball was still following - behind him! He said it looked to be about three and 1uw-ltalf feet wide and glowed with a strange red phos-phorescence. It was spherical, with not a sign of any mechanical appendages such as wings, fins, or fuselage. It followed his bombers for five or six miles, and he lost sight of it as the dawn light rose over the mystic peak of Mount Fujiyama, some 60 miles southerly of Tokyo. Here, it seemed to vanish; for it became invisible, exactly like H. G. Wells' Invisible Man.

[Ref. gld1:] GORDON LORE AND HAROLD DENEAULT:

At about the same time [1945], a B-29 near Fujiyama tried unsuccessfully to outrun a “ball of fire” that stalked the bomber for several miles. The circular, phosphorescent orange glow, about three feet in diameter, took a position 500 yards behind the B-29. The pilot made evasive maneuvers, heading for the nearest cloud. When the aircraft emerged, the ghostly light tagged along in the same relative position. It disappeared just as mysteriously as it had appeared in the dawn light over Fujiyama. The object's departure was extraordinary. One second it was in view, the next, completely out of sight.

The source is said to be the article by Jo Chamberlin in The American Legion Magazine in December 1945.

[Ref. sua1:] WEBSITE "SATURDAY NIGHT UFORIA":

[...] illustrates the difficulty of discerning which is conventional and which is not, when reviewing reports from the Pacific air war.

A situation which is summarized in Jo Chamberlin's December, 1945, article in American Legion magazine...

During the last months of the war the crews of many B-29s over Japan saw what they described as “balls of fire” which followed them, occasionally came up and almost sat on their tails, changed color from orange to red to white and back again, and yet never closed in to attack or crash, suicide-style.

One B-29 made evasive maneuvers inside a cloud, but when the B-29 emerged from it, the ball of fire was following in the same relative position. It seemed 500 yards off, three feet in diameter, and had a phosphorescent orange glow. No wing or fuselage suggesting an aerial bomb or plane was seen. The ball of fire followed the B-29 for several miles and then disappeared just as mysteriously as it had appeared in the dawn light over Fujiyama. Some B-29 crews said they could readily lose the ball of fire by evasive maneuvers, even though the ball kept up with them at top speed on a straight course; other B-29 crews reported just the opposite.

Aircraft information:

The Boeing B-29 “Superfortress” was the heaviest bomber of the U.S. Army Air Forces, used in operations from May 8, 1944 and on. Its maximum speed was 574 km/h.

Its defensive armament was 12 Browning M2 12.7 mm machine guns.

B-29.

Discussion:

Map.

The “last months of the War” would mean the few months before September 2, 1945.

The report makes it clear that the following light was not an aerial bomb, not an airplane, the usual strange features that it followed despite evasive action, despite the cloud, and that it never attacked the B-29, is there.

Evaluation:

Possible extraterrestrial craft.

Sources references:

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

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 December 30, 2023 Creation, [jcn1], [gld1], [sua1].
1.0 Patrick Gross December 30, 2023 First published.
1.1 Patrick Gross July 20, 2024 Addition [hws1].

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This page was last updated on July 20, 2024.