December 12, 1957 - Tokyo Japan

The UFO Evidence describes this sighting as:December 12, 1957--Tokyo, Japan. Radar-visual sighting of vari-colored UFO, jets scrambled. [VIII] G, V1

Section VII states:

GCI radar tracked UFO seen by ground observers as vari-colored object, jets scrambled.2 Their source for this sighting is the January 1958 APRO bulletin, which provides the details:

12 December, 195?, Tokyo, Japan. At 7:30 p. m., I/Lt. F. R. Durn of the 1Sth Tactical Reconnaissance squadron was flying his RF-84-F aircraft to an undesiginated station from tbe

Tokyo Central Control Area via air routes RED 27, RED 19, RED 17, RED 15, AMBER 7. As Lt.

Dunn was in flight, GCI (Ground Controlled Intercept) notified him that an unidentilied object had been and still was flying parallel to his left wing. He was requested by GCI to

watch the area to his left and report if he sighted tbe object. He replied that he saw nothing. GCI stated that they had had the object in radar contact since Dunn departed Tokyo and apparently GCI had received a report or reports from ground observers as GCI asked him to watch for different colored lights if he sighted it. The Lt. never did establish visual contact. Shortly, Air Defense ordered two F-86-Ds into the air to intercept the unknown. The interceptors returned, one on emergency with a bad control mechanism. Our informant indicates that this might be just a coincidence, or perhaps the fighter actually did intercept and engage the object. At any rate, further information was not available. 3

While this is interesting, it appears mostly second hand. It turns out that Blue Book had a file on this case and it was far more infor- mative than the APRO bulletin.

Blue Book sheds light and reveals an old friend The APRO bulletin article appears to be a garbled version of what actually transpired between December 12-15, 1957 at Chitose AFB almost 500 miles away from the location given in The UFO Evidence. Two F-86s were scrambled from Misawa AFB but they failed to reach the radar target. They did see a bright object in the direction of the radar contact but never reached it.4 They thought it was a bright star.5 Additionally, an RF-84-F on a training flight was asked to look for the UFO. They did not see anything and had to land at Misawa after running low on fuel.6 If this is not the same event, it is an extremely odd coincidence.

There is more to the story than what is described in The UFO evidence. The Blue Book files reveal that the incident began when ground observers noticed a bright light in the southwest. Radar operators then looked for a target and found one. This prompted the intercept by the two F-86s.

Upon further review by Blue Book, it was determined that what the ground observers actually saw was the planet Venus. There is even a hand written note on the message traffic signed by Dr. Hynek stating:

Definitely Venus with an attempt to correlate with radar.7 It was visible in the southwest that evening and set around the time the observers lost sight of the UFO (See stellarium image below for 0950Z). It is very probable that the radar was caused by anomalous propagation conditions because, despite approaching the radar contact, the pilots saw nothing but, what they described as, a bright star.

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