Interview : in English
1986, Japan.
Q : Could you describe the shape of the huge mother ship?

A : It was pitch-black darkness around, and the ship was at a position that was most imperceptible, just a little below the horizon line, and it followed us all the time in this position. So we thought, oh well, if it weren't going to do us any harm, it's okay.

Where we were flying, it happened to be the perfect weather, and the lights from Fairbanks city, and the lights from the Air Force Base seemed very bright. Suddenly, there was this huge thing that came out of the dark. You could tell just from the outline of it that it was something enormous. I thought at first that maybe they were small space ships swaying back and forth as they flew, but then I realized that I was wrong.
The lights (that I was seeing) were only the lights at the front and the back of it. The central part of it could have been the size of a disk with two aircraft carrier ships attached together with the deck in the middle. That's how big it was.



We decided something had to be done. We had to get away from there as soon as possible. We asked the station on the ground (Fairbanks Airport) to let us change directions to 45 degrees, and after that, 90 degrees, and so on. The officer at the control center suggested 360 degrees. I thought that was a good idea. If the big thing would only fly straight while we made the round circle, we could fly safely. So we started to take the 360 degrees round.

After we made the 360-degree turn and headed for Anchorage, we spotted the spacecraft right at the position where we thought we would no longer find. This, oh boy, meant something - like it had some intention towards us. We asked for a change of altitude.



We were flying between 10600 and 9400 meters, and started to descend from that altitude, of course, with the permission from the control center. Just as if it were a perfect formation flight, the object was still following us (descending with us).

I used to control a fighter plane myself, so I knew how formation flights worked. The movement of the object was exactly like that, descending with us. The distance here also, was 7 to 8 miles. It kept the same distance even when we shifted to flying horizontally again, and there was nothing we could do about it.

Q : At that point, did the control center offer to fly a reconnaissance plane?

A : That's right. They suggested a F14 to check on us. Fighter pilots specially take pride in what they do. To them, it is certainly not a joy to die fighting a war, but is at least an honor if that should happen. So, I feared that if something ever happened to the pilots, considering this was a super high-tech airplane, or a space ship we were facing, I should be very sorry. I refused promptly, and headed for Anchorage.

Q : I see. And do you feel certain, from this experience that UFOs really do exist?B

A : Well, I can only tell you that this was not some living thing with scientific technology we could imagine. They seemed like the sort of people whom we might perhaps catch up by living another thousands of years. My view is that, when technology makes more progress, there would be no longer be any war, or famine in the world, and I believe that much of other things would be gone, as well. There would be a very stable and high-leveled society, and human beings would progress towards even higher science.
Now, for the people who possess an extremely high technology, I think, that when they see a planet like the earth and human beings living on it, they are probably only supposed to look at us from very far, unseen, and never, are they supposed to come into contact with us. I have a feeling that these people, they were here from pretty long ago, say, thousands of years ago, and had been watching us, the human beings, all through our evolution, and the many wars. (Nirasawa's comment: From around here, it is possible to detect in captain Terauchi's tone, that his thoughts are receiving some sort of "influence" from the extra terrestrials.)

Q : Do you mean, that they are studying us for some sort of purpose?

A : Yes, studying us, although I don't think the earth could possibly supply them fuel, maybe, they could still rest at some points on the earth.
Considering everything I just told you, it seems natural to believe that they were from another planet, however, certainly there aren't any evidences, so what can I say? Maybe it is true there's no point in talking openly about it, like some say, but it really was an extraordinary sight. The scene that revealed before our eyes, it was just so amazing, and that's why I feel I have every reason to believe as I do now.

Q : Are you sure it wasn't some trick with your eyes, or some sort of light seen from a certain angle, or even some reflection?

A : No. I can't believe we all had the same hallucination for 50 minutes - and the sight of the object just fading away, out of course.

Q : You mean, the pilots in the cockpit saw the same thing at the same time, all three of you?

A : I, or other Japanese pilots - we are not used to seeing unusual flying objects, but aren't there many examples like this outside of Japan? I mean, in other countries?

Q : Yes, in the United States, it seems so. I believe if we negotiated, the Anchorage Airport can offer us some information, or, would this kind of issue be treated as some secret?

A : I don't think it would. I am pretty sure they can disclose the taped recording of the incident, but.....

Q : But they never saw anything, it was just the radar, right?

A : I can only tell you that we, the three people in the cockpit saw those lights. And these lights were not just some ordinary illumination, but seemed like engine holes.

Another thing was the power source they seemed to use. I imagined it to be like some nuclear material, the sort that is so well produced, that does not affect any living creature. It couldn't be something made on earth, but rather, somewhere out of our imaginations - it was such power that the object could perhaps travel, say, 40,000 kilometers a second, or even at the speed of light.

Q : You mentioned it made a halt in the air, so maybe it was something like a photon rocket?

A : Well, you'd have to ask a scientist for those kinds of things.....anyway, the jumbo jet was about this size.....it's funny how.....it seemed to me that these were some people who came from a planet far away from the earth, with such a high civilization, taking care not to threaten the human beings, and trying to arrive without being spotted at all.

Q : You mean it felt like that to you, or rather, you understood it?

A : Exactly. For example, take a look at these wavering lights on the top here (see: illustration insert of this page, describing the irregular movement of lights that look like silver straps at the top of the Mother Ship UFO). Doesn't this look like some warning signal of, say, a fire engine? Like (it is trying to warn us), in a rough current - they are trying to tell us that they are there, actually existing, you know. The jumbo jet rocks too, in a bad current, and you would know for sure, that the object is actually there.

So now, there's fear, but it seemed they were making efforts not to cause us fear. I mean, there must be some rules, some strict rules, concerning the preservation of nature, meaning, they are not supposed to interfere.

In spite of these rules, there must also be some people (extra terrestrials) with different personalities, each one of them. I say this because even for us human beings, sometime there are pilots who actually dare to fly their planes under bridges, which they are not really supposed to, but they just do, many of them, in fact, you know. So I guessed it was someone like this who wanted to show us that they were there.

Q : When the object appeared brightly in front of you, the way it appeared, was it an extremely fast movement?

A : Extremely. If it took, say, half a second or so, then it couldn't have been as surprising. This one, it was instantaneous, like time didn't even exist. Well, if someone tells me now, that I've gone out of my mind, I'd say I'll just have to stop being a pilot, then.

Q : You sure sound like you've actually seen it. Only, in the flight report of the enterprise.....

A : Well, I'd turn in a captain's report, but.....I mean, if the airline needs it, I will turn it in.....but I knew if I said something like that, then they'd think I'm nuts. So I just told them to speak with the airline first. Over there they seem to be gossiping about it, or, making fun about someone's seeing a UFO.
Anyway, I asked them to reply, but nothing has come back from them, and that's about all I can say.

(It was soon after this interview, it seems, that the captain had been ordered from Japan Airlines to refrain from describing the incident publicly: Nirasawa's comment)

- The Rest Abridged - End -