JAPAN: Mystery of the Blips

One day last week a U.S. B-29 took off from a base near Tokyo for what the Air Force called a “routine” practice flight over Hokkaido, northernmost of the Japanese islands. Aboard the big bomber were eight men—a full crew minus gunners. Over eastern Hokkaido, as it neared the sea at 15,000 ft., the B-29 was being tracked by Air Force radar.

In addition to the bomber’s “blip” on the screen, the radar monitors saw another blip coming from the direction of the Soviet-held Kurils, which are separated from Hokkaido by only six miles of water. The two blips came closer together, merged into one, then disappeared. The word “Mayday” (international distress call) was heard over the radio, then a shout, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”—then silence. When the B-29 failed to return, armed Thunderjets and surface craft were sent out on search, found nothing. Four days later, the eight American crewmen were given up for lost.

Japanese eyewitnesses had seen a burning, crippled plane plunge into the sea, agreed that it seemed to fall in Soviet-controlled waters. It looked as though another Russian aerial murder had been committed. At week’s end Moscow as much as admitted so by protesting that a U.S. plane had invaded Soviet territory and fired on Soviet fighters. The Reds returned the fire, they said, and left the rest unspoken.