Jun-Ichi Takanshi has sent me an English translation of his Japanese
UFO Science Society magazine, no 93, which contains the
disturbing news that only 3 formations appeared in Japan during
1992 - and one of those was a confessed hoax ! According to
Takanshi's records, crop circles first appeared in Japan in 1990
(although Professor Ohtsuki reports at least 13 Japanese circles
between 1979 and 1989). During 1991 and 1992 Takanashi believes
that more than 300 circles appearing at over 40 different
locations. Then, "just as if the mystery circles in Japan
realized their illegitimate origin and realized their defeat,
wanted to make their last bow, (so) in 1992, they appeared in
only two places in Japan".
(1) A Mystery Circle Shaped Like A Man's Figure
Appeared in A Pasture (at Fukada-Machi, Kuma-gun, Kumamoto
Prefecture).
A passer-by found a mystery circle in a pasture owned by
Tokutoshi Nasu (62) on the afternoon of January 27, 1992.
According to the local newspaper (reporter?) Kumamoto Nichinichi
Shinbun, the single circle was 3 metres in diameter in a field of
grass 30 cms high. There was a 10 metre long track (c 10-20 cms
wide ?) stretching from the circle then splitting into two
"opened legs". This line is crossed by two
"arms", which "give the impression of a man lying
flat on his back in the pasture, with both legs and hands
outstretching on both sides". The passer-by informed the
"Education Committee" (school ?) of the circle and it
caused a "considerable sensation" in the town. The
formation bore a distinct resemblance to the stick man at
Roundway Hill near Devizes in 1991. Perhaps we have some jet-
setting hoaxers ??
(2) Two Mystery Circles Appeared in an Uncultivated
Field in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture.
On the afternoon of May 11th, 1992, around 5 o' clock, two
circles were found in an uncultivated field by Mitsuko Koyama
(68), who was walking her dog. The clockwise circles were both
about 3 metres in diameter and separated a metre apart. They
appeared in 20 cm high vetch/weeds and despite the fact that it
had rained the previous day there was no trace of anyone having
entered the field. The local newspaper reported the discovery
with a large photograph. However, as soon as the circles were
reported two junior high school boys came forward and confessed
to having made the circles. Their families visited their
neighbours to apologise. The boys claimed that one stood in the
centre with a pole whilst the other attached one end of a short
rope to the bottom of the pole and the other end to his foot. The
circles were created by trampling.
(3) Six circles found at Kisen-cho, Rikuzen-Takada
City, Iwate Prefecture. A news cutting reports the discovery of
six circles, all about 1.5-2 metres in diameter, found in an
uncultivated field on December 7th from north Japan. The circles
were separated by about 2 metres and were discovered by a workman
who reported seeing similar circles in a nearby field on December
6th. No photograph or details of these other circles was
published. Takanshi reports that these circles were
"rough" with no characteristically sharp edges. This,
he concedes, could indicate a natural origin.
Takanshi has promised to send us further information about the
Tanaka/Kikuchi eye witness case described in CW13. In the
meantime he has sent me a colour photograph of a "tin
can" allegedly photographed by Roger Beard (exact spelling
not known) which was shown on Japanese TV on September 30th. This
resembles the film shown on BBC TV Daytime Livea few years
ago which I believe was taken at Westbury. If readers know
anything more about the Westbury film please let me know so that
we can determine the authenticity of these films. Our thanks to
Takanshi for his help.
If you want a copy of this material write to Jun-Ichi
Takanshi, C.P.O. Box No 1437, Osaka, 530-91; JAPAN.
News from John Stepkowski in Victoria, Australia. Keith
Basterfield reports that despite its national collecting network
the UFO Research Australia team has received not one single
report of a crop circle during the 1991/92 growing season.
Obviously this doesn't auger well for a "natural"
anomaly and only lends credence to the Skeptics' view that all
crop circles are hoaxes.
According to The Guardian (April 22 1993)
"The Edinburgh Science Festival - which ends on Saturday - was always marked by solemn irrelevance. Last night Professor Archie Roy of Glasgow was contemplating the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence and the awful thought that an advanced civilisation on Proxima Centauri might be watching episodes of Saturday Night Live broadcast four year ago. "There is a sphere, expanding at the speed of light and centred on the Earth, which is carrying at the front of it the first instalments of Coronation Street and also the very heavy Distant Early Warning radar signals. And what another intelligent species would find is that the star we call the Sun would be anomalously bright in the short wave radio region; they would argue that this was unusual and they would argue that this was unusual, and they would be able to detect one year modulation as a result of the Earth going round the Sun." After which, they might be looking for us.
"They might even have left a message. At a different lecture Professor Roy took up the theme of crop circles. 'So many people have looked upon them as validating their pet theories - the landing pads of UFOs, complex symbols of the earth's distress at pollution and so on,' he said. 'Others, who are rather less ambitious, think it could be hundreds of hedgehogs stamping round in circles'."
If readers have any further details about Roy's lecture I'd be
very happy to publish selected excerpts to see how many eye
witness accounts/multiple arrests of hoaxers/historical cases
were disseminated to the public by the CCCS' most famous
supporter.
Both MUFON UFO Report and The HUFON REPORT carry
articles reviewing the Paramount Pictures movie Fire in the
Sky, which is the movie version of the famous Travis Walton
case of 1975. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story,
Walton was a member of a logging team who allegedly encountered a
bright light in an Arizona forest. The "UFO" emitted a
brilliant light that struck Walton before lifting him up several
feet in the air and then slamming him down. In blind panic the
loggers abandoned their colleague and drove off in their tipper
truck. Returning only minutes later Walton has disappeared.
Despite a widespread search no trace of Walton could be found.
FIVE DAYS LATER Walton staggered into the nearby village of
Snowflake and told his story of being taken aboard a flying
saucer. Then the fun really began!
The case has been billed by Paramount as the "true
story" of an "alien abduction", a claim various
members of CSICOP have tried to have removed from bill
posters advertising the film. According to the HUFON Report,
the film is less of a dramatic reconstruction of an alleged UFO
event and more of a study of the effect of Walton's claim on the
local community and the witnesses. The MUFON UFO Journal
(February issue) carries Walton's own views on the way he was
treated by the skeptics. Fire in the Sky will be released
in Britain on June 25th. We'll try to evaluate the case itself
when the film is released.
The April issue of the HUFON UFO Report also carries a
brief description of what sounds like an important UFO case.
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, two police
officers piloting a helicopter encountered a glowing pear-shaped
UFO the size of a basketball which literally flew in circles
around the helicopter, which was flying at speeds of up to 100
mph. According to the account the UFO was first sighted close to
the ground and resembled a bonfire. Officer Kenny Graham shone a
1.5 million candlepower spotlight on the light and it slowly
floated up to the helicopter's height (500 ft) where it hovered
for several seconds. "Then it took off at a speed I've never
seen before", Graham reported. The UFO made two huge
counter-clockwise loops and then approached the helicopter from
its rear. As Graham pushed the helicopter speed over 100 mph the
UFO shot past and then instantly climbed hundreds of feet into
the air. Then the UFO descended and flew near the helicopter
before emitting three baseball-sized fireballs from out of its
middle towards the helicopter. The fireballs fizzled into
nothing. As the helicopter banked away the UFO disappeared.
Intriguingly two police officers on the ground also saw the UFO
although only one saw the three fireballs. Officer Joe Smolenski
tried to chase the UFO in his patrol car but soon gave up ! The
encounter occurred at 12.30 am in the morning over the General
Electric Appliance Park (hmmm). Curiously security staff at the
Park only saw the police helicopter, not the UFO. In addition
nothing turned up on radar at the local airport. Pilot Graham
(39) had been flying for 11 years whilst his co-pilot Kenny Downs
(also 39) had been flying for 5 years. Rick Lasher of the
National Weather Service dismissed the possibility that the
helicopter had encountered a "lightning ball" or a
meteorological fireball. It had been snowing earlier in the
evening but this stopped at 7:48. Temperatures were in the 20s,
the solid cloud cover was beginning to disperse and no thunder or
electric storms were reported. A university professor ruled out a
meteorite whilst a professor of mechanical engineering ruled out
any known aircraft. Instead he suggested that possibly the pilots
may have misconstrued reflections created by the snow and heavy
atmospheric conditions. Well, if the facts were as reported this
would really be a cracking case. However, The Crop Watcher's
international fame and influence extends so far that we actually
have two subscribers in Louisville - Erik and Mary Albrektson -
who have kindly sent us the following information recalled from
their local press reports:
"About 3 days after the enclosed article appeared, a local couple contacted the paper and informed them that, somewhat to their embarrassment, they were responsible for the incident. It seems that this young couple had a fairly long and well established history of constructing small hot air balloons from balsa wood and plastic dry cleaner bags. They would assemble these items, place several small birthday cake candles inside, and launch a homemade hot air balloon. A rather odd hobby perhaps, but nevertheless a hobby that was confirmed by neighbours. They reside in the immediate vicinity of the incident. They reported that on the evening of the 'dogfight' they had launched one of these balloons and then watched in amazement as a police 'copter flew into the area and appeared to 'investigate' the balloon. They saw the copter direct a high-intensity searchlight onto the balloon, circle around and then fly off into the night. They did not think the incident particularly newsworthy until they learned of the UFO report some time later. The police officers have refused to back down from their story that they saw something other than a small hot air balloon. The entire affair totally disappeared from the papers with the publication of the 2nd story. The impression was left that the police department and particularly the officers involved were extremely embarrassed and wanted to distance themselves from it ASAP."
Well ! What an astonishing revelation. Is it really possible
that two "veteran" pilots could really be fooled into
believing that they had fought a "dog-fight" with a
small lighted laundry bag ? If so this would extend the
boundaries of professional fallibility right off the end of the
scale. But let's examine the report to see if we can see if the
facts agree with the explanation. To begin with the pilot's
description of the way the UFO slowly floated upwards as he shone
his searchlight on it fits very well with a small lighted
balloon. We might speculate that on reaching 500 feet the balloon
would be caught inside the horizontal cork-screw vortex that
surrounds all aircraft as they move through the air - this vortex
would presumably suck the balloon through two large loops, thus
giving the impression that the helicopter was being chased. After
such violent movement the balloon might have simply collapsed,
thus accounting for the UFO's rapid disappearance. In short the
hot air balloon makes an excellent explanation. But what about
the 3 tiny fireballs ? And would such a flimsy contraption remain
fully-lighted when being swirled around at 100 mph ? We will keep
you informed on this one. Thanks are due to Erik and Mary for
their kind help.
Finally, and I've wanted to say this for quite some time, I'd
like to make it clear that we too never believed those vicious
stories about Jason Donovan, the well known "massive hetero-
sexual figure". Jason is clearly a real man/stud and anyone
who dares to suggest otherwise deserves to have the pants sued
off them (??) in the High Court. And as for John Major's Libel
action against The New Statesman, well if we can't comment
on things which have already been published elsewhere just what
is the world coming to ?
High quality aerial photographs of crop circles available from
Richard Wintle, Calyx Photo News, Marlborough House, 26 High
Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 3EP. Telephone 0793-520131 and
ask for Julie.
Quality aerial photographs of the 1992 Wiltshire formations.
6" x 4" = # 1.25. Posters also available. For a full
list and detailed description please send a sae to Anthony Horn,
23 Sea View Drive, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 3HY.
The Crop Watcher is printed by Northern Arts
Publishing, Roper Lane, Thurgoland, South Yorkshire. S30 7AA.
Telephone 0742 883235.
Crop Circles, A Mystery Solved by Jenny Randles and
Paul Fuller (Robert Hale Ltd), # 5.99 pb. A new and extensively
updated edition will be published in 1993.
GEM, Gloucestershire Earth
Mysteries, PO Box 258, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL53 0HR
(sample issue # 2.75).
HUFON REPORT, PO Box 942, Bellaire, Texas 77402-0942,
United States of America. $ 2 plus p&p. per issue.
MUFON UFO JOURNAL, 103 Oldtowne Road, Seguin, Texas
78155-4099, United States of America. Subscription for UK
residents $ 30 per year for 12 issues.
Japan UFO Science Society Newsletter. Jun- Ichi
Takanashi, C.P.O. Box No 1437, Osaka, 530-91; JAPAN.
Northern UFO News, 37 Heathbank Road, Cheadle Heath,
Stockport, Cheshire, SK3 0UP. Six for # 7.
Yes, we too have just read George Wingfield's allegations
about supporters of the "plasma-vortex theory" being
involved in hoaxing in Tim Good's new book. We will be issuing a
full statement denying these false allegations in our next issue
and are taking legal advice.