SOUTHERN JAPAN, December 1952December 1952

On the morning of December 14, 1952, three U.S. Air Force airmen at Tsutsu Saki in southern Japan spotted an unusual bright object in the sky. The men were radar operators and technicians stationed at the base. At around 0350 (3:50 a.m.), one of them noticed a yellow, glowing object hovering roughly 10 miles to the southwest, at an azimuth (compass bearing) of about 200 degrees. The object appeared to be between 2,000 and 3,000 feet high and resembled a bright star.

What made the sighting unusual was how the object moved. The airmen described its motion as highly erratic. It moved up and down, then side to side, varying as much as 7 to 10 degrees while drifting generally away from the station. As it climbed to an estimated altitude of 20,000 feet, the object's color shifted from yellow to a dull orange. One observer noted that the object cast a beam of light onto the water below, similar to a spotlight. The men heard no sound or saw any trail or exhaust. All three airmen agreed on the basic facts of what they witnessed, and their statements show a high degree of consistency. At 0415 (4:15 a.m.), the object disappeared below the horizon on a heading of roughly 200 degrees. The radar operators attempted to track the object on radar but found no contact. Weather at the time was clear with good visibility.

The Air Force intelligence officers who reviewed the case noted that the object was "starlike" in appearance and that its erratic movement could be explained by optical effects created by atmospheric haze and smoke in the area. The officers suggested possible explanations including searchlights from ships in the Tsushima Strait and refracted images of stars seen through surface haze. They concluded the sighting was probably astronomical in nature. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising nine pages.