Following my recent posts about how the 1947 Roswell Incident strongly fits the template for a cipher mystery, I’ve moved on to wondering how arch-Ufologist Nick Redfern’s profoundly non-Ufological theory (where, according to his “Black Widow” witness, the debris found in Roswell was actually caused by the crash of some kind of high-altitude balloon experiment using disabled Japanese people as live test subjects) fits into this. The challenge is how to temper Redfern’s effusive research enthusiasm with actual historical insight: can we build up a reliable picture of the things that might have contributed to his story?
I’ve therefore been reading books that try to build up solid factual accounts of the historical contexts into which Redfern would like his narrative inserted. Which is important because there remain many aspects of his books I’m still extraordinarily uncomfortable with.
Ross Coen’s “Fu–go: The Curious History of Japan’s Balloon Bomb Attack on America”
Though written in a comfortably US-archive-centric popular history vein, Coen’s book is actually a nice, easy read that covers a lot of ground (all the way from Mexico to Alaska, in fact) in understanding how Japan’s war-time balloon bomb blitz was responded to in America.
Perhaps unwittingly, Coen works hard to pop a lot of the balloon-based conspiracy bubbles that Redfern notes floating around the edges of the discourse. For example, he says that:
- the Japanese top brass halted the balloon programme simply because – thanks to the US news blackout on balloon bomb explosions – the people running the programme couldn’t supply them with any solid proof that the 9,000 Fu-go balloons they had launched had militarily achieved anything;
- there was no plan for bigger, bolder, better balloon bombs – claims to that effect were in fact just part of internally-focused Japanese propaganda aimed at its own people
- despite American fears that the balloon bombs might be a precursor to a far more deadly Bacteriological Warfare attack from the skies, this simply wasn’t part of what was planned at all.
- it wasn’t direct & deliberate American attacks on Japanese hydrogen plants that made things logistically difficult for the Japanese balloon bomb makers, but instead ruptures to their train lines and widespread supply shortages
For me, the biggest takeaway from Coen’s book was simply how well the Americans came to understand (and indeed appreciate) the inner workings of the Japanese balloon bombs: their fuses, their internal wiring, their ‘wheel’, their battery, their antifreeze, etc. The Fu-go balloon bomb was in many ways a masterpiece of low-cost engineering and pragmatic ingenuity, coupled with solid meteorological understanding and actually quite daring thought.
Yet given that the US Military went on to build its own balloon bombs (though with a bacteriological warfare payload) from 1950 onwards, one of the broader questions I had before reading Coen’s book was to do with whether the Americans would have needed help from Japanese engineers to get them to 1950. But, perhaps surprisingly, the answer to that seems to be a resounding no: by the end of the War, the US Military had been able to reverse-engineer everything they needed to know about the Fu-go balloons.
Moreover, you finish Coen’s book somewhat reassured as to the idea that these balloons could have been used for waging Bacteriological Warfare: in his account, this seems to have been primarily a US Military defensive fear, that by 1950 was then redirected into an offensive (in both senses of the word) opportunity.
Amanda Kay McVety’s “The Rinderpest Campaigns”
Unfortunately for Coen, McVety’s book reports (p.73, footnote 86) the 1990 testimony of Noboru Kuba, who started work at the Noborito Research Institute in 1943 to create an “acute contagious disease” to infect cattle, and to use that toxin to bring America to its knees. Kuba reported carrying out tests on a group of cows in Busan (in Korea), all ten of which died ten days later, thus proving that it did what they hoped it would.
In Kuba’s recounting, the development of the toxin happened in parallel with the Fu-go balloon bombs, but it was clear to many in the Imperial Japanese Army that the two technologies were a good match for each other. And so the proposal was made in September 1944 to use 20 tons of rinderpest toxin as the payload for Fu-go balloon bombs. However, this was rejected by Hideki Tojo, a former prime minister (and by then general), on the grounds that the Americans would likely retaliate against Japan’s rice crop in the harvest season, causing enormous problems.
What this throws up is that Coen’s book relies heavily on the post-war Compton Report, which (as Mercado makes clear in “The Shadow Warriors of Nakano”, a fascinating read too) was weakened to the point of uselessness not only by the immediate burning of just about all the documentary evidence that could be burned, but also by the deception and lack of cooperation of the (now-suddenly-former) Noborito Research Institute members.
And yet at the same time, the US Military seems not to have known about any of this at the time. All the interesting Big Conspiracy Theories about this period tend to focus on the miserable Mengele-like atrocities inflicted by The Imperial Japanese Army’s Unit 731 upon the people of the Japanese puppet state on mainland China, which perhaps suggest why Nick Redfern got so caught up with that side of the history.
It’s certainly true that a number of Unit 731 personnel were given something not entirely unlike an amnesty, and that it is likely that a good few were swooshed – Operation Paperclip-style – into America not long after the war. So it’s certainly possible that some of these awful, immoral, dehumanised Japanese ‘scientists’ from Unit 731 contributed to the US Military’s research in the post-war years. Having said that, perhaps more relevant to American Bacteriological Warfare research would have been the activities of Unit 100 (elsewhere on mainland China), which focused on anthrax, glanders, and red rust.
But all the same, I think the picture that emerges here about what was happening is quite unlike the one presented by Redfern in yet different ways from the one presented by Coen.
Tularosa Balloons
Speculative stuff aside, the account given by Nick Redfern’s “Black Widow” witness (who claims to have worked at Oak Ridge) is actually rather specific. The core of her story is a series of unethical high-altitude balloon tests carried out at night in May, June, and July 1947 at Tularosa on fifteen live (but anaesthetised) subjects, with horrific and fatal results.
It’s no secret that the Tularosa Basin was indeed used for American high-altitude balloon experiments from 1945 onwards, such as Project MANHIGH III. In his book “The Pre-Astronauts” (which I haven’t yet read, though I’ve ordered a copy), Craig Ryan notes (quoted here):
“One of the first postwar manned balloon flights sponsored by the military was launched from the Tularosa Basin in 1947 with the intent of crossing the Rockies and landing somewhere along the Eastern Seaboard. Unfortunately, the entire flight’s supply of ballast was expended in the crossing of the Sacramento range to the east of Alamogordo and the balloon’s journey ended just short of Roswell.”
So it seems eminently clear that US Military balloon experiments – that is, ones specifically involving people, so not weather balloons or Project MOGUL – were not only launched from Tularosa in 1947, but were also in range of Roswell. Even if how these things mesh together isn’t yet clear, Tularosa is certainly not an entirely unreasonable launchpad.
“A Small Island in the Pacific”
Separately, Redfern’s Black Widow claims that these test subjects were “acquired […] in early 1945 after a battle between American and Japanese troops on a small island in the Pacific”, where the Americans discovered “a small medical laboratory where Japanese doctors and scientists were conducting all manner of atrocities on both physically and mentally handicapped people”.
Where could this have been? If we roll the clock back to 1944 (note the sentence says “in early 1945 after a battle”, so the battle itself could easily have been in 1944), the battles that fit the timeline are:
- Feb 1944: Battles of Kwajalein and Eniwetok
- Summer 1944: Marianas Islands – Guam, Saipan, Tinian
- Feb-Mar 1945: Iwo Jima
- Apr-Jun 1945: Okinawa
The timeline and size seems to rule out Okinawa, the volcanic Iwo Jima seems a highly unlikely location, and Kwajalein and Eniwetok seem to have been too small and too early. So it seems that we are being pointed towards the Marianas Islands: and because Guam had been taken from America by the Japanese in 1941, that too seems unlikely, while the third major Marianas island (Rota) remained under Japanese control.
All of which seems to leave us two specific islands to look at: Saipan and Tinian – you may recognise Tinian as being the island whose airstrip the B-29 Enola Gay famously took off from in August 1945. And so I’ve also ordered myself a copy of Gordon Rottman’s “Saipan & Tinian 1944: Piercing the Japanese Empire”, which should be an interesting read.
Pinning the Tail on the Axis Donkey?
I think it’s important to say that if there were unethical high-altitude balloon experiments going on in 1947, the issue of whether they involved “Japanese doctors and Nazi doctors” is entirely secondary. Unlike Unit 731’s shocking experiments on non-volunteered Chinese subjects carried out on the Chinese mainland, or Unit 100’s experiments on cattle on the Chinese mainland, or Noboru Kuba’s experiments on cattle in Korea, these would have been American tests on American soil, commissioned and carried out by the US military, making it impossible to ‘export’ any ethical failings of those tests. Furthermore, you don’t have to look much further forward along the military timeline to see the 1960s controversy over the US testing of Agent Orange in Okinawa, where all these themes would recur.
In short, if there was any unethical science going on in Tularosa in 1947, it would first and foremost have been American unethical science. So all in all, doesn’t it sound somewhat as if someone somewhere is trying to unpin the blame from themselves, and instead pin it on questionable Axis scientists (who may or may not exist)? Or if not on them, then on extra-terrestrials, hmmm?
Nick,
Very interesting indeed. I would like to see and hear hard evidence about this if there is any. That being said, it seems from this post this has gone from a “Cipher Mystery” to a diatribe about the evil American military. If that’s what you want why don’t you go for something more grand, like say, odd mental health treatment protected under the guise of religion, and (its advocates) strangely given the green light for this weirdness from *much* higher ups. It seems like a more pressing ethical concern to me.
I will however follow this balloon business for it seems a little while longer.
Matt
Matt: I’m just trying to get to a kind of factual bedrock beneath all the speculation, whether that’s US military balloons 1945-1950 or whatever. That I’m still digging is merely a sign that other people don’t seem to have done a terrifically good job at grounding their arguments. :-/
Yes. Yes. John.
A flying saucer bomb from Japan. The Japanese army loaded the modified ZERO with poison. From FUGU fish. (Pseudomonas bacteria). Then she loaded 3 deformed Kamikaze into the plane. (Zero was not made of sheet metal, but was covered with light canvas). Then she fastened the plane under a large balloon. Which was released when the wind was good. And three mentally handicapped Japanese flew across the Pacific after long hours. And then their balloon burst, somewhere over New Mexico. In roswell. A couple of people saw it and so it was searchable. And take a look too. What would be so convenient in their household before it was stolen by someone else, such as the Air Force. Today when you arrive in Roswell. So they will give you good food in the restaurant. Fugu fish on a plate. It’s just about business. The main thing is. That nothing happened to anyone, with a few exceptions. What went wrong.
Nick,
Well if you can find anything, more power to ya. I think our little mysteries have gotten some attention, though nothing to the extent of Roswell. If you are thinking maybe, mislabled redirected evidence, like the Ark at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, lost in some huge warehouse, well perhaps. Roswell is part of the lexicon though. It is an interesting story you have. Don’t jump the gun though.
Matt: right now, it feels like I’m about half of the way through this whole Roswell Incident thing. My strong suspicion now is that almost all of the historical pieces of this puzzle are visible, but that nobody has so far been able to join them together into a complete functional narrative.
Well, you know, as XKCD put it, learning from the Nazis is not enough ( https://xkcd.com/984/ ). That is the reason why Operation Paperclip is so well known: they had to put the Nazis in charge, therefore they could not hide it.
With the Japanese it could have been different. They were not put in charge, so there is plenty of allegations, but not much conclusive evidence.
Japanese war criminals were granted a free pass after the war. Shigeo Ban allegedly worked at the Yokosuka naval base after the war and then, from 1955 to 1959, in the United States. Ishii allegedly collaborated with the Americans and went to South Korea in late 1951 and then three times in early 1952. A Japanese delegation visited the super-secret Rocky Mountain Arsenal in 1962.
There are a lot of suggestions too. Americans did not restrain much from human experimentation (e.g. the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, the radiation study on the Navajo uranium miners, Edgewood Arsenal etc.). Americans studied biological weapons similar to the Japanese ones, that is entomological warfare (operation Big Buzz etc.) and balloons (e.g. operation Sea-Spray, which probably caused at least one civilian death). There was definitely something fishy about their biological and chemical warfare research as the number of people (Frank Olson and friends) who jumped out of windows testify.
In the end there is too much stuff to know, many mysteries, but no ciphers.
Joseph Z. Prof: I was about to spin a fantastic yarn about the Mitsbishi Rei-San Zeke proto type which was in all probability the AGM2-N (Namajira) variant zero with it’s thin tough skin of plasticised duralimin or nikko-titto, (not canvas by any stretch Prof.), last seen being loaded onto a barge in Hai Phong Harbour port en-route to the Calmian Islands in July ’44. Of course it didn’t arrive having been part of a large flotilla destroyed by US navy aircraft off Coron Is. during attempted beach landings in Sepember ’44….Anyhow just forget that BS it’s based on pure speculative fancy and so sorry for the deception but you did have it coming…PS In your last entertaining post, you may have unwittingly provided us with an entirely new initiative in the Somerton beach death mystery. Most welcome news to the follower(s) of two dreary Aussie SM blogs, namely BS/TS and its aweome ‘ask the Leyland brothers’ themed clone. I’ll be commenting on the Fugu inspired breakthrough right here on Ciphermysteries (best of British) and dedicating it to my old ‘Czechmate’. Josef Zlatodej Prof.
Stefano Guidoni: there’s no shortage of suggestions and mysteries, it’s true. But in the case of the Roswell Incident, it seems there is a cipher mystery of sorts, tightly wrapped inside the founding myth.
It’s still far from clear to me what happened overall, but understanding exactly what went on in the Naval hospital on Truk in 1944 might well yield a step in the right direction. It’s not like I could be more historically specific about what I want to know, right?
And so my next task is to find the transcripts of the two associated 1947 war crime tribunals in Guam.
Nick Pelling: Puts me in mind of the not so well documented Palawan massacre in which General Tom Yamashita ‘allegedly’ ordered that a no longer required 139 American POWs in the eastern command be dispensed with and their former presence be totally oblterated. Such measure being at the discretion of local Military and Naval commanders depending on the tactical situation and in order to destroy all evidence of their deployment that might later be deemed incriminating. This was based on ligitimate fears of imminent invasion based on heavy US naval operations in Leyte but moreso as a consequence of the September sinking of scores of supply craft off nearby Coron & Culion Islands. As things transpired the delayed US landings did not occur until February ’45 resulting in total defeat of the Japanese garrison and by which time all traces of the POW’s murdered in their barracks at Puerto Princesa on 14th December were gone. What strikes me as being in need of answers is that, a claim by a few locals, also few lucky survivors, that said massacre was opperationally a total success, the prisoners having being burnt alive with benzine spirit in their bunks and any remains scattered. By late 1944 fuel supplies on Palawan would have been virtually non existant or reserved for special needs. I’m suspicious that purhaps the fuel used for the job may well have been derived from another flamable substance altogether. Was it perhaps a highly flamable chemical substance kept in storage to be used for another purpose should the need arise. Makes sence to me that supply line dictates would prefer any highly secretive manufacturing or storage plants be located closer to safe havens like Vietnam and Hainan as opposed to small islands on the logical invasion routes on the western Philippines centred around Leyte gulf which proved to be the case.
Nick Pelling: Forgive my impertinance but, you seem to be overlooking Redfern’s ‘Black Widow’ notes regarding the time line which specifically mentions after a battle (NP possibly late ’44) on small island early in 1945. That being the case none of your islands of interest seem meet those credentials or even run close ie. Truk, Saipan or some others bipassed in the Marrianas campaign of early to mid ’44. On the other hand operations in the Calamanian group in the Sulu sea started later in that year and carried through to late February of 1945, closer to the desired timeline. With regard to the battle on a small island then perhaps we might consider either Culion or Coron off Palawan which involved a platoon of GIs and a determined dug in squad? of Japs who were killed to a man after a short sharp ‘battle’. My apologies for not getting into todays follow-up thread in which you seem to have been stifled and in need of fuller historic accounts.
John Sanders: the passage in Body Snatchers says: “[…] the government had first acquired some of these ‘people and bodies’ in early 1945 after a battle between American and Japanese troops on a small island in the Pacific”.
So you can read it both ways. As normal. 🙁
I did think of that Nick but if you contend that the Sulu sea may not be part of the Pacific, then let me put you in the picture based on WW2 alied thinking.The Pacific theatre, according to US Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Command included all ocean waters from the Aleutions in the Bering sea to Ceylon in the southern Indian Ocean and even beyond, basically anywhere that the Japanese might be encountered was the Pacific. Anyhow I’m almost certain that such bodies of water eg. Sulu Sea, Sth China Sea, Timor Sea, Bismark Sea, Sea of Japan &C., &C., were deemed as being within the Pacific Ocean’s extended boundries in general terms.