Tachikawa & Yokata AFB, Jap, January 1958January 1958

Insufficient Data

Summary

On January 4, 1958, a pilot and witnesses at Tachikawa Air Base and Yokota Air Base in Japan reported seeing an unidentified flying object. The sighting lasted only a couple of seconds, but was vivid enough to document.

The first observer, aboard an aircraft, saw the object break apart, emit smoke, and change brightness and shape repeatedly. The object flickered, shifting from red to greenish-white, before it disappeared. Just before vanishing, it appeared to have the shape and size of a football about two feet in diameter.

A second sighting occurred at nearly the same location. This observer saw an object that flickered between white and greenish-white. It was tear-shaped and roughly the size of a quarter in the sky, with a tail about half as long as the main body.

The Air Technical Intelligence Section prepared a report following Air Force regulations. The officers noted that neither Tachikawa nor Yokota air bases detected the object on radar. They reviewed the weather conditions at the time (calm surface winds, light cloud cover, good visibility) and checked with local residents and police. No physical evidence of any impact was found on the ground.

The preparing officer concluded that the sighted object could possibly have been a meteor or other meteorological phenomenon. The file notes that civil information about meteors in Japan is typically forwarded to the Oriental Astronomical Society, which publishes a monthly magazine including amateur and professional sightings. However, the reports were at least two months old by publication time.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 25 pages.

Reported location

Tachikawa & Yokata AFB, Jap, January 1958

Date of incident

January 1958

State / country

? / XX

Page count

25 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 31

all rs oe A mm wi ; Sb iii a IER Ee ba a dh ait fetus oan RE bak i 3 PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 1. DATE 2 LOGRmioN | 12. CONCLUSIONS HERAT : 3 y : O Was Balloon 4 Jan 53 (2 sightings) Tachikaws& Yokata AFB, J: P Brobably tbls 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Possibly Balleon : Local DOL _civen by 1 obs] XKGround-Visual O Ground-Radar os il a LE AIREY LT SS 2 AirVisual O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft 5. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE O Was Astronomical = : OYes I Probably Astronomical © No Military O Possibly Astronomical 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE CE Other: sowitividorsiieg sulin ll 2 or 2 secs 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation] | % Gm RE O Unknown i= 1 8ecs one down 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS 1} Obj broke up, save off smoke, changed Fm data given, obj appears to 1 brightness & shape & flickered, Color have heen a meteor, | yfaostar oat first, then turned creen : Just betore disapp=arance, Seamed to | ave ghans nf €oothall 2 ft in diamstdr. 2) Obj flickered, white to :re=enish vBite, tear shaped, size of quarter, had trail about half as long as main 0): : 5 J ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) Ip PR AR Ei hie AS ERT iw AMR has HRA A IE Ph EP ERR ) 4 > '