HOKKAIDO ISLAND, JAPAN, December 1952December 1952

On December 29, 1952, a military radar base on Hokkaido Island, Japan received an unusual report from a B-26 bomber crew in the air. The crew said they had just spotted a UFO that looked like a cluster of rotating lights, colored red, white, and green. Moments later, radar operators on the ground picked up the same object. Because the B-26 was flying too slowly to attempt an interception, the crew had to let it go.

About fifteen minutes later, an F-94 jet pilot radioed in with a similar report. He also saw the object with its distinctive rotating colored lights. Then the call was heard by Colonel Curtis Low, who was commanding a fighter-escort wing in Japan and happened to be flying his F-84 jet at 27,000 feet. Low asked ground control for permission to try to intercept the strange craft.

As Low climbed higher, he switched off all his aircraft lights to test whether the object's lights were just reflections from his own canopy. The object's lights did not change, which proved it was not a reflection. Keeping his own lights off, Low climbed to 35,000 feet. When he got closer, he could see the object's lights rotating counterclockwise, making a steady rotation of about eight to twelve times per minute.

Low observed three fixed white beams of light shining outward from the object. The main body seemed to rotate, with colors shifting from red to white to green and back again in a constant cycle. The color changes were not simple on-and-off flashing. Rather, colors seemed to blend together during transitions, sometimes appearing as combinations like red-white or green-white. The three white beams, however, never changed their relative positions.

After watching for a moment, Low pushed his F-84 to full power, reaching over 500 miles per hour, and tried to close the gap. For a second or two, the object did not seem to react to his unlighted aircraft. Then it suddenly increased speed and pulled away. The object disappeared from view in about 30 seconds.

Five minutes later, circling at 35,000 feet, Low spotted the object again at the same altitude, moving parallel to his aircraft. This time, as a test, he kept his lights on and tried to close in. The object immediately turned west and sped up so rapidly it vanished in just five seconds.

The file states that Low was a colonel with extensive combat experience in World War II and the Korean War. He held responsible command assignments and was known to be stable and thoroughly reliable. Ground control had actually alerted him to watch for anything unusual after hearing a radio transmission from another aircraft calling a radar station. Low's actions during the sighting showed good judgment, including his decision to turn off his lights to rule out canopy reflections. His detailed descriptions of the object's behavior, appearance, and the sequence of events were consistent across multiple interviews.

Weather conditions at the time included partial overcast below 10,000 feet, with brilliant moonlight and good visibility. The temperature at 35,000 feet was 56 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds reported from various directions at different altitudes.

The U.S. Air Force's official evaluation of the case, as noted in the file, concluded it was "probably astronomical," referring to the planet Jupiter. The weather squadron added comments suggesting that Venus, Mars, or refraction effects from atmospheric conditions near the horizon might explain the phenomenon. However, the file also notes that Low's experience, his technical knowledge of aircraft limitations, and his persistent efforts to gather accurate information resulted in a "graphic description of an object naturally falling in the family of unconventional flying object."

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 50 scanned pages.