In 1972, a group of Japanese kids had run-ins with a UFO, which they managed to capture for a brief time. This incident could have been one of the inspirations for J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8.”
In the western world, there is not a lot of information about the strange incidents that happened on August 25, 1972, in Kchi City, which is located in Japan’s Shikoku Island. One of the individuals who caught the attention of the media was 13-year-old Michio Seo. He was on his way home from school when he saw the strange object hovering over a rice field.
As he watched the object move above the rice field, he was stunned by its appearance. The object looked like a silver hat with a narrow lip and a flat bottom. It had a curved dome at the top. According to him, the movement of the object resembled that of a bat that was making a series of hairpin turns in pursuit of its prey.
Upon seeing the object, his curiosity took over and he started to approach it. However, before he could get close enough, the saucer allegedly shot a blinding beam at him. He then left the area to avoid further confrontation with the UFO.
After returning home, he immediately contacted his friends to inform them about his strange encounter. Among his friends were Yasuo Fujimoto, Hiroshi Mori, and Katsuoka Kojima. Although they were skeptical, they started a search party for the saucer.
At around 7:00 pm, the group of boys went to the rice field. They had been keeping a close eye on the saucer as it hovered over the field for around an hour. Suddenly, the object returned and started to emit a multicolored light. The teenagers looked at the saucer with stunned looks. As the sun started to set, the device started to emit a dazzling light.
As the teenagers watched the UFO, one of them started to stalk it. He soon realized that it was moving erratically and started to emit a loud pop. The object then started to glow with a bluish-green color. This frightened the other teenagers and sent them running back to their homes.
After almost a week following their encounter, the boys went back to the area on September 4. They encountered the same UFO again at around 9:30 pm. The object, which was flying at an altitude of almost three feet above the ground, started to glow and moved toward them. The boys immediately ran away from the area.
The boys then decided to purchase a camera in an attempt to capture the saucer on film. They started their surveillance operation the following night. Although the saucer did not return, the following night would be different.
The boys’ persistence paid off on September 6 when they spotted the saucer in the middle of the field while they were on their way to the rice paddy. With their new camera, the teenagers took a photo of the UFO before they approached it.
After the flashbulb on the saucer broke, the object started to spin and rose into the air. A cameraman then captured another image of the saucer as it rose into the sky.
It’s unclear what exactly happened next. However, it’s widely believed that the saucer produced a bright light before crashing to the ground.
As the UFO continued to spin, it almost appeared to be burrowing into the ground. Fourteen-year-old Hiroshi Mori, who was the first to spot the UFO, decided to approach it. With his bare hands, he bent over and lifted the saucer. He claimed that he felt something inside.
The boys were stunned by the object, which they then wrapped in a plastic bag and placed inside their backpack. After examining it, the boys declared that it was almost 8 inches wide and almost 4 inches tall. According to them, the saucer weighed around three pounds.
The boys then noticed that the saucer had three different designs on its base. They believed that the designs represented various objects, such as clouds or waves. However, the saucer did not have a propulsion system.
After inspecting the saucer, the boys packed it inside a plastic bag and sent it to the home of their scientist friend, Yasuo Fujimoto. His father, Mutsuo, was the head of a science education center in Kchi.
Although he was not aware of the significance of the object, the elder Fujimoto decided to give it a superficial examination. He did this without taking the necessary time to thoroughly examine it.
The boys’ frequent trips out eventually caught the attention of their parents. As a result, Mutsuo told his son about the object. Although he did not give much importance to the object, he eventually decided to examine it. The saucer had a top down that was hard to open, and it had pieces that resembled radio components.
After Mr. Fujimoto’s brief encounter with the saucer, it was returned to the backpack of the scientist friend, Hiroshi Mori. Unfortunately, the saucer mysteriously vanished a day later.
Over the next couple of weeks, various individuals claimed to have spotted the same object in flight. These include Mori, Fujimoto, Yuji, and Seo. Although the group was able to catch the object on its second try, it mysteriously disappeared once more.
Trying to predict when the UFO would return, the boys decided to study the various factors that contributed to their numerous sightings. One of these is the fact that the object never seemed to move during rainy days. The boys then formulated a plan to capture the saucer.
The group went back to the rice paddy on September 19 to try and catch the UFO. This time, they brought along a bucket of water and some tattered rags. Unfortunately, they were not able to catch the object.
They then covered the saucer with the rags and poured the liquid over it. They then filled the holes at its base using the remaining greenish water. As the liquid entered the device, it produced a loud noise that they compared to a buzzing sound. The saucer’s interior also started to glow.
Suddenly, the boys were faced with the idea that the UFO might try and retaliate after they supposedly attacked it. The group then started to throw stones at the flying object. It remained stationary.
After returning home, the boys looked through the holes in the saucer and noticed various strange features. Some of these included drawings and Levers.
The boys then took more pictures of the object and tried to open it using a wire.
The boys were eventually able to hang the saucer upside down using the wire. As they tried to open it, the gravity pulled at the top of the dome, causing a slight separation between its bottom and top sections. They also noticed that there was a viscous material inside the device. The boys believed that the object’s strange electronic components might have been the remains of the pilot, who melted on contact with the water.
Using a hammer, the boys tried to measure the strength of the saucer’s exterior shell. After hitting it several times with the hammer, they discovered that the light metal parts of the saucer remained unblemished even after being hit hard. This is a common occurrence in the materials found at alleged crash sites.
The boys then tried to test the object’s strength by placing it inside an oven. However, Aiko Katsuoka, the mother of the UFO’s pilot, prevented them from doing this. She also told them that they could not store the saucer in her refrigerator. They believed that this might prevent the UFO from returning.
After coming to the conclusion that the object was most likely a remote-controlled surveillance device, the group decided that it was time to tell their friends about the mysterious mechanism behind the UFO. However, before revealing the object to their friends, the boys wrapped it in additional cloth to make it look like it could prevent it from leaking radioactive material.
The saucer was then given to Mori and Seo for safekeeping. The other boys went back to their usual chores and dinner. The young watchmen, who thought that the object was secure in their room, enjoyed a night of comic book consumption. They were anxious to see how the public would react when the saucer was revealed to them at school the following week.
The other boys went back to check on the saucer later that evening. They were disappointed to see that there was nothing to be found under the pile of rags. After conducting a fruitless search, the group concluded that the saucer had flown back to the coop once more.
After playing a game of ball with Mori that evening, Kojima suddenly lunged over the fence and found the UFO. He was surprised and delighted by his discovery. Mori and Kojima then went back inside the house and retrieved the saucer.
The group decided that they should paint the silver dome to prevent the saucer from disappearing. Doing so would help confirm that they have been encountering the same object over and over again. They assumed that if the saucer disappeared, it would eventually turn up somewhere in their backyards or rice fields.
On September 22, the group went to Kchi City on a bike ride. They then decided that they would all carry the saucer with them.
Mori then decided that the saucer would be stored inside a bag filled with water to prevent it from escaping. He also tied a piece of string to the wrist of whoever was going to carry it to make sure that no harm would occur to the object.
The saucer was placed inside a duffle bag, and it was inserted into the basket of the first carrier’s bicycle. The group proceeded to ride through the city, and the bag changed riders as they went through the streets. It eventually ended up in the basket of the last caretaker.
The group continued to travel until they came across a bicycle repair shop. During this time, the last rider suddenly felt his wrist, which was attached to the bag by a string, twist and pull with such force that he immediately ran to his friends.
The boys immediately untied the bag’s knots and opened it. However, when they looked inside, they saw that the saucer was nowhere to be found. They were disappointed to see that the object was nowhere to be found.
The Kera UFO Encounter Case Reopens
Although the incident was relatively unknown to the general public at that time, it was later covered in an illustrated retelling by UFO Comics in 2004. This led to an increase in UFO enthusiasts in Japan.
In 2007, the director of the JSPS, Shinichiro Namiki, decided to reopen the investigation. He asked the organization’s head, Kazo Hayashi, to speak with the other witnesses to see if they could still provide the same account.
During his investigation, Hayashi came across another strange UFO. It happened on the evening of June 6, 1976, in the same prefecture where the Kera incident occurred. At around 6:30 pm, a 9-year old girl named Sachiko Oyama was outside with her cat when she saw a bright yellow object in the sky.
Oyama decided to walk into the middle of the street to get a better view of the object. As she looked around, she saw that the saucer had descended into a nearby wooded area. She then followed it to the edge of the tree line. After it hit a tree, the saucer silently landed on the pavement, and it produced a “hissing” sound as it did so.
According to Oyama, the object looked like a silver hat with a diameter of around seven inches. She then bent over and touched it. She claims that the saucer was covered in a thick and slim substance that stuck to her finger.
Like the boys in Kera, Oyama felt scared as she saw the object. She immediately ran to her home to avoid getting hurt. However, when she looked over her shoulder, she saw that the saucer had started to glow again. She watched in disbelief as the object rose, rotated around, and then shot out of view.
Hayashi was able to confirm that Oyama still believed in her story in 2007. He then explained that the flying objects were actually interdimensional vehicles that got separated from their original planet after entering our solar system.
Hayashi’s theory seemed to satisfy him, but what should we make of the objects that mysteriously appeared in the sky over Japan in 1972 and 1976? It’s not clear if these were actually alien spacecraft or if they were just toys that the kids saw. As technology then was in its early 1970s, it would have been impossible for the saucer to have been capable of performing such intricate maneuvers.
Unlike the case of Malaysia’s micro-terrestrial invasion in the 1970s, the objects that appeared in the sky over Japan during the same period did not seem to have alien or human influences. They were only able to function properly due to their design.
The boys must have thought that the object was a remote controlled device that could be used to extract alien materials. As it turns out, this theory is more plausible than the notion that it was an alien spacecraft.
When I first heard about the incident, I initially thought that it was a prank carried out by some young prankster. However, after looking at the photos of the saucer, it’s clear that it was not designed to function properly. An aeronautical engineer would have a hard time believing that the device could have flown without a rotor or other driving force.
It has also been suggested that the saucer might have been a conscious being that was designed to perform similar functions as the aliens in Steven Spielberg’s 1987 film “*Batteries Not Included.” While I am not convinced by this theory, let’s take a closer look at the evidence that supports it.
If the reports are true, the object flew properly even though it didn’t have a propulsion system. Also, it exhibited a desire to defend itself by using loud noises and brilliant lights.
Like other living creatures, the saucer was also able to resist repeated attempts by the teenagers to incarcerate it. None of these actions are enough to prove that the object was an example of intelligent life.
It’s also possible that the object was a surveillance device that was designed to monitor the activities of humans. The strange markings on the surface of the saucer could have been produced by an unknown technology that was sent from another dimension or another world.
One obvious explanation is that the incident was a hoax. Some believe that the object was actually a training pot that was made to look like a toilet. However, if this is the case, it would be very disappointing for Mutsuo Fujimoto, the Kchi Center’s science education director. For over four decades, the teenagers who carried out the hoax have maintained that the UFO was a hoax.
A 2007 investigation by the Japan Society for Public Safety revealed that the incident was not a hoax. If the incident was truly a hoax, the teenagers would have probably grown tired of it as they got older.
The incident truly is one of the most interesting in the history of UFOlogy.
So, Aliens are small?