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Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before

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Speaker 1: we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to

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Speaker 1: be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November,

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Speaker 1: joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the

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Speaker 1: world of true crime and the paranormal four Nights in

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Speaker 1: the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left,

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Speaker 1: Scared to Death and many more live shows Meet and greets,

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Speaker 1: Creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too,

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Speaker 1: but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to

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Speaker 1: Crimewave Atsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your

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Speaker 1: fan coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to

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Speaker 1: see you on board. Mid Ceo. CEO had nothing in

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Speaker 1: particular on his mind as he walked home from school

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Speaker 1: in Kerr, on the outskirts of Cossi City on Japan's

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Speaker 1: southern island of sik Outside of its main cities, Sikoku

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Speaker 1: is largely rural, with farm land, mountains and a picturesque

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Speaker 1: coast line. It's known as a place people go to

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Speaker 1: to get away from the bustle of city life, and

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Speaker 1: it was a very quiet afternoon on August twenty fifth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, as the thirteen year old Misio walked

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Speaker 1: home down the street, surrounded by rice paddies, the stalks

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Speaker 1: of the rice wavering languidly in the breeze, as dragonflies

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Speaker 1: flitted about. Small clusters of houses and trees were dotted

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Speaker 1: all around. Sitting under the watchful eye of the mountains

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Speaker 1: to the north, just visible behind a dense summer haze,

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Speaker 1: it seemed just like any other day in the teenager's

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Speaker 1: daily routine. Just then, the boy, as he would later

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Speaker 1: describe it, glimpse something strange out of the corner of

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Speaker 1: his eye. It hovered low over the ground, then began

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Speaker 1: rapidly zigzagging back and forth across the field. It reminded

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Speaker 1: Midzio of a bat, with sudden, sharp, darting changes of direction,

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Speaker 1: except that the movements seemed unnatural, al most robotic, and

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Speaker 1: the object was most definitely not a bat or a bird.

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Speaker 1: It was a small, dull, silver metallic object with a

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Speaker 1: bell shaped dome, a flat base, and a narrow rim.

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Speaker 1: It looked a little like a miniature metal brimmed hat. Mesmerized,

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Speaker 1: Midzio stood frozen in place, not sure whether to feel

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Speaker 1: excited or scared. With his curiosity getting the better of him,

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Speaker 1: he began making his way into the rice paddy, cautiously

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Speaker 1: walking towards the object, picking his way around the muddy

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Speaker 1: patches and small puddles of standing water. But just as

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Speaker 1: he began to approach it, the object stopped, suddenly hovered

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Speaker 1: in mid air, then lit up with a faint blue glow.

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Speaker 1: A beam of bright light shot out in Mitzio's direction. Terrified,

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Speaker 1: the boy turned on his heels and ran frantically all

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Speaker 1: the way home, without stopping for breath or once turning

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Speaker 1: to look back. It was the beginning of one of

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Speaker 1: the most unusual supposed UFO encounters of all time, because

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Speaker 1: not only would the object be seen again and again

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Speaker 1: by the schoolboy and his friends. According to them, they

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Speaker 1: also captured it. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard

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Speaker 1: McLean Smith, as the story goes. By the time Mitzio

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Speaker 1: got home, all he wanted to do was tell someone

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Speaker 1: else else about his extraordinary experience, but not his parents.

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Speaker 1: He knew they wouldn't believe him, so he quickly called

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Speaker 1: on his four closest friends, Hirosi, Maury, Katsuoko, Kojima, Yasuo, Fujimoto,

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Speaker 1: and Yuji, and invited them all back to his house.

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Speaker 1: In an excited huddle in Mitzio's bedroom, the boys leaned

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Speaker 1: in expectantly, waiting for Mitzio to tell them his secret.

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Speaker 1: From his glowing eyes and slightly disheveled appearance, they could

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Speaker 1: tell that what he had to say was going to

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Speaker 1: be something worth hearing and maybe a little bit frightening.

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Speaker 1: But when Mitzio was done sharing his story, he was

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Speaker 1: met only with confused and blank stairs. Was this some

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Speaker 1: kind of a joke, his friends asked, No, said Mitzio,

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Speaker 1: insisting it was all exactly as he described it, But

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Speaker 1: the friends weren't convinced. Nonetheless, they were in read enough

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Speaker 1: to take up Mitzio's offer to try and find the

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Speaker 1: thing again. The five teens jumped onto their bikes and

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Speaker 1: set off for the rice paddy in search of the

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Speaker 1: supposed strange object. They arrived sometime around seven pm, during

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Speaker 1: the magic hour, when all about was bathed in the warm,

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Speaker 1: golden haze of dusk. Together they stood in the quiet

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Speaker 1: of the countryside, staring out over the paddy fields as

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Speaker 1: insects chirped and chirruped. The boys would later recount how

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Speaker 1: they sat down to wait, patiently, passing the time with

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Speaker 1: idle chitchat. Then, after almost an hour, they heard a

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Speaker 1: faint clicking sound. Looking toward where it was coming from,

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Speaker 1: the boys watched, open mouthed as one after another court

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Speaker 1: sight of the weird object hovering over the rice field

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Speaker 1: twenty yards away. They discos arribed it later as being

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Speaker 1: like a little tin hat or a bell shaped dome

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Speaker 1: that was flitting about to and fro, just like Mitsio

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Speaker 1: had apparently seen earlier. As darkness began to fall, the

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Speaker 1: boys continued to watch as the object began emitting a pulsating,

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Speaker 1: multi colored array of lights. Wanting to get a closer look,

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Speaker 1: the boys ventured out into the rice paddy together, but,

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Speaker 1: just like it had apparently done with Mitsio, as they

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Speaker 1: edged closer, the object suddenly let out a series of

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Speaker 1: loud clicks and then a tremendous bang. Frightened out of

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Speaker 1: their wits, the boys turned and ran for their lives. Later,

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Speaker 1: when the boys had finally made it back home, like

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Speaker 1: a new gang with a big secret, they all agreed

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Speaker 1: to a pact of silence more than a bit nervous

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Speaker 1: about what the object was or what it might do

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Speaker 1: to them. The boys avoided the rice paddy for days,

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Speaker 1: but they couldn't stop talking about it. What was it,

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Speaker 1: where had it come from? Was it being controlled remotely?

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Speaker 1: Or was there something inside it that was flying it?

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Speaker 1: One thing was clear. If the boys could just get

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Speaker 1: a photo of the weird device, then perhaps they could

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Speaker 1: tell their parents what they'd seen, and then they'd be

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Speaker 1: believed and so. Having built up their courage. A few

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Speaker 1: days after their first encounter, the boys headed back into

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Speaker 1: the paddy fields, this time with a camera. Around nine

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Speaker 1: thirty pm on September fourth, they spotted the strange object again.

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Speaker 1: This time, it was flying lower than before, about three

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Speaker 1: feet above the ground. As soon as the boys saw it, unnervingly,

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Speaker 1: the object began heading straight for them, glowing brightly. Once again,

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Speaker 1: the teenagers got scared and ran off. The following evening

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Speaker 1: of September fifth, the boys claimed they returned to the

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Speaker 1: fields but saw nothing. Then on September sixth, everything changed.

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Speaker 1: That night. The boys emerged from their homes shortly before

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Speaker 1: sunset again. As they approached the usual spot, the boys

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Speaker 1: were excited to find the object had returned. Hovering extremely

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Speaker 1: low to the ground. One of the boys took hold

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Speaker 1: of his camera and hurriedly snapped a picture. In a

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Speaker 1: seeming response to the flash, the strange object instantly burst

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Speaker 1: into motion, spinning rapidly as it ascended straight up several

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Speaker 1: feet into the air. Then it flashed brightly too, before

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Speaker 1: sinking back onto the ground, where it spun around it place,

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Speaker 1: and then it stopped. The boys looked nervously to each other.

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Speaker 1: After a few tense minutes, as the others hung back

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Speaker 1: to watch, a fourteen year old Hirossi Maury plucked up

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Speaker 1: his courage to approach the motionless object. He reached out

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Speaker 1: and picked it up. Hirossi would later claim that he

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Speaker 1: could feel or see something moving inside it, although he

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Speaker 1: could never describe exactly what that was. One of the

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Speaker 1: other boys snapped an iconic photograph of Hirosi holding the

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Speaker 1: object out at harm's length. Another took some shaky, sinny

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Speaker 1: footage of the scene. The boys were ecstatic they had

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Speaker 1: captured the object, with the bizarre device seemingly still. The

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Speaker 1: boys first wrapped it in a plastic bag before putting

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Speaker 1: it in a backpack. Then together they took it to

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Speaker 1: one of the boys's homes. Safely inside one of the

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Speaker 1: boy's bedrooms, the five teams huddled around the backpack, nervous

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Speaker 1: and excited at what they'd found. Cautiously, they removed it

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Speaker 1: from the bag. Measuring around eight inches wide and four

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Speaker 1: inches high, it weighed just over a kilo. Turning it

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Speaker 1: over on the base, they found a series of concentric

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Speaker 1: circular ridges and grooves, almost like a vinyl record. In

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Speaker 1: the center was a square plate punctured with thirty one

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Speaker 1: small circular holes in a grid pattern. In between this

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Speaker 1: grid and the ridges were three engraved designs which appeared

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Speaker 1: to represent waves, clouds, and two birds or flying craft

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Speaker 1: of some kind, one of which was crossed by an

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Speaker 1: elongated design the boys took to be a flower in bloom.

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Speaker 1: They later said they could hear a faint buzzing sound,

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Speaker 1: as if something was running inside, though they couldn't get

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Speaker 1: inside it. They could see what looked like electronics behind

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Speaker 1: the holes. Then the device went silent. When they shook it,

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Speaker 1: something inside rattled. They studied it closely, turning it over

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Speaker 1: and over, but it was as if their capturing it

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Speaker 1: had somehow deactivated the object. One of the boys is

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Speaker 1: said to have tried to scratch the metal to no avail,

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Speaker 1: while another, emboldened by the object's apparent deactivation, used a

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Speaker 1: hammer to hit it repeatedly, but no matter how hard

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Speaker 1: he struck it, the object remained weirdly undamaged. Next, they

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Speaker 1: are said to have filled a jug of water and

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Speaker 1: poured it through the holes, But after pouring in farm

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Speaker 1: more than the device could hold, it never seemed to overflow.

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Speaker 1: With no way to open it and no obvious engine

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Speaker 1: or propulsion system, they decided it was time to speak

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Speaker 1: to someone with real scientific knowledge who could inspect it.

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Speaker 1: What about Yasayu Fushimoto, one of the boys suggested. Yasayu's

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Speaker 1: father was the director of the Center for Scientific Education

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Speaker 1: in Koshi. The boys stood about eagerly as mister Fushimoto

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Speaker 1: unwrapped their find and gave it the once over. He

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Speaker 1: couldn't be sure what it was made of exactly, saying

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Speaker 1: only that it looked like cast iron, but was far

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Speaker 1: too light to be made from that. Peering through at

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Speaker 1: the electrical looking components inside, he said it looked a

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Speaker 1: lot like what you might expect to find in any

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Speaker 1: everyday radio. All in all, he was decidedly nonplussed about it,

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Speaker 1: telling the boys it was probably nothing stranger than a

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Speaker 1: fancy ashtray. Deflated, the boys put the object back into

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Speaker 1: Hiroshi's backpack and dejectedly returned home. The following day, the

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Speaker 1: young Hiroshi looked into his backpack to inspect the object again,

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Speaker 1: only to find it had completely vanished. The boys couldn't

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Speaker 1: locate the device anywhere. Devastated to have lost it, the

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Speaker 1: boys arranged to meet again in the fields that evening,

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Speaker 1: hoping it might have somehow found its way back there.

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Speaker 1: When it didn't appear, they returned the following day and

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Speaker 1: then the next. After two weeks of hopeful observing, it

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Speaker 1: appeared again. As they apparently continued to observe it over

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Speaker 1: the next few nights, the boys began to notice a

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Speaker 1: curious pattern. They never saw the object on a rainy day.

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Speaker 1: It gave them an idea how to catch it for

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Speaker 1: a second time. On September nineteenth, they arrived at the

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Speaker 1: fields carrying buckets of water and some damp rags. When

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Speaker 1: the object appeared again, the boys watched patiently as it

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Speaker 1: zipped about until finally it came to a stop on

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Speaker 1: the ground. Breaking cover, they rushed forward and quickly threw

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Speaker 1: their wet rags at it, then poured water over it.

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Speaker 1: Grabbing the thing, they turned it over and poured water

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Speaker 1: into the holes on the underside for good measure. Almost instantly,

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Speaker 1: the object began to glow. It emitted an ear splitting

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Speaker 1: buzz like an amped up cicada. Suddenly nervous again, the

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Speaker 1: boys backed away and threw rocks at the object until

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Speaker 1: finally it went silent. They returned with the recaptured object

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Speaker 1: to Kat's Awoker's home. This time they apparently managed to

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Speaker 1: prize the top and bottom apart ever so slightly to

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Speaker 1: see what looked like several levers and other items of

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Speaker 1: miniaturized mechanical equipment, as well as what they described as

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Speaker 1: a strange, mushy substance in what they took to be

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Speaker 1: the cockpit area. Again, they hit the object several times

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Speaker 1: with a large hammer, but failed to leave as much

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Speaker 1: as a scuff. That night, the boys wrapped up the

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Speaker 1: strange device in wet rags in the hope that that

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Speaker 1: would keep it from disappearing again. They all agreed to

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Speaker 1: take it to their school the following morning. Two of

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Speaker 1: the boys stayed together to watch over it while the

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Speaker 1: others headed to their respective homes for the night. The

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Speaker 1: boys would later say that by this day they had

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Speaker 1: decided that the object was some kind of surveillance device,

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Speaker 1: probably remote controlled, but with no idea where it came from,

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Speaker 1: who had made it, and who controlled it. The following morning,

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Speaker 1: despite being under the watchful eye of two of the boys,

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Speaker 1: the object mysteriously disappeared again. Thankfully, this time, it had

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Speaker 1: apparently only made it as far as the neighbour's garden

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Speaker 1: before the boys found it again. A few days later,

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Speaker 1: the boys decided to cycle it over to mister Fushimoto's

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Speaker 1: house again to update him on everything that had happened

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Speaker 1: since he last inspected it. This time, they sealed it

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Speaker 1: meticulously inside a plastic bag full of water and tied

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Speaker 1: a rope from the corner of the bag to the

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Speaker 1: wrist of the boy who was carrying it. They then

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Speaker 1: put the plastic bag into a canvas bag, which was

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Speaker 1: passed from boy to boy as they cycled to share

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Speaker 1: the load. As they approached the rice paddy where the

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Speaker 1: object had repeatedly appeared, the boy who was carrying it

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Speaker 1: at the time said that he felt the rope pulling

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Speaker 1: on him with great force, He pulled up the bike

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Speaker 1: and hurriedly looked inside the back. The bizarre object was gone.

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Speaker 1: Over the next few months, the boys claimed to see

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Speaker 1: the device several or more times. They said they made

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Speaker 1: further attempts to capture it, but all failed miserably. Then

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Speaker 1: the bizarre hat like object supposedly vanished altogether, and the

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Speaker 1: boys never saw it again. Four years later, in the

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Speaker 1: village of Agawa, not far from where the boys lived,

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Speaker 1: a nine year old girl named Sassiki Oyama was out

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Speaker 1: on the street looking for her cat. Looking up into

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Speaker 1: the sky, she suddenly noticed what she said was a small, yellow,

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Speaker 1: luminous object floating in an easterly direction. She walked into

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Speaker 1: the middle of the road to get a better view

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Speaker 1: and watched as the object hovered over a nearby wood.

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Speaker 1: Overcome by curiosity, she followed it. Satsiko claims that when

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Speaker 1: she reached the woods, she saw the object hit a

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Speaker 1: tree and then fall to the ground. She described how

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Speaker 1: it landed silently near her feet, then emitted a hissing sound.

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Speaker 1: When questioned years later, Sasiko described the small object as

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Speaker 1: resembling a silver dome or hat that was roughly seven

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Speaker 1: inches in diameter, remarkably similar to the flying object the

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Speaker 1: boys in Terror had apparently encountered. Sashiko or Yama said

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Speaker 1: that she touched the object with her finger. She described

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Speaker 1: it as being constructed of solid material, but covered in

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Speaker 1: a slimy, viscous substance. Suddenly gripped by fear, the girl

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Speaker 1: turned and ran, and when she looked back over her shoulder,

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Speaker 1: the device had started to glow yellow again. Stopping in

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Speaker 1: her tracks, she watched incredulously as the objects spun counterclockwise

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Speaker 1: three times, then climbed into the air and shot skyward

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Speaker 1: out of sight. Thirty years later, when questioned about the incident,

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Speaker 1: Sasseko still maintained all the details of her story were correct.

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Speaker 1: Both the events in Kra and the sighting in Agawa

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Speaker 1: made surprisingly little news in Japan at the time, and

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Speaker 1: the whole episode sank into obscurity three decades later. In

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Speaker 1: two thousand and four, a Japanese magazine called UFO Comics

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Speaker 1: published and ill illustrated account of the events from back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two, igniting the interest of a whole

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Speaker 1: new generation of UFO enthusiasts, so much so that in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, the director of the Japan Phenomena Society,

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Speaker 1: Shinikira and Amaki, opened an investigation into the case. He

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Speaker 1: sent the head of the organizations Osaka chapter, Katsu Hayashi,

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Speaker 1: to speak with the Kera witnesses. Even after all that time,

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Speaker 1: or five confirmed the details given in their original accounts.

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Speaker 1: Other reporters have been more skeptical, pointing out that the

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Speaker 1: object does look remarkably similar to a type of cast

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Speaker 1: iron ashtray that was common in Japan in the nineteen seventies. Today,

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Speaker 1: we might recognize the description of a small autonomous object

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Speaker 1: flying in sometimes erratic darting movements as a drone, and

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Speaker 1: drones have around longer than you might think. In eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety eight, genius engineer and inventor Nicola Tesla, perhaps best

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Speaker 1: known for developing the alternating current electricity supply system, presented

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Speaker 1: a new invention at the Electrical Exposition in New York's

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Speaker 1: Madison Square Gardens. Known as the Tell Automaton, it was

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Speaker 1: a boat about three feet long, propelled by a small

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Speaker 1: motor and rudder. What made it groundbreaking was that it

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Speaker 1: was controlled by radio waves, demonstrating for the first time

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Speaker 1: the possibility of controlling machines remotely. In many ways, The

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Speaker 1: tell automaton was well ahead of its time, and it

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Speaker 1: sparked the idea of using remote controlled machines for various purposes,

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Speaker 1: including military applications. Because of it, many consider Tesla to

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Speaker 1: be the father of the drone. These papers of the time,

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Speaker 1: Errold did the dawn of a new age with the

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Speaker 1: invention of the device which could be controlled from a

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Speaker 1: physical distance, as if by magic. The very first flying

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Speaker 1: drone is thought to be the Dhavland DH eight two

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Speaker 1: B queen Bee. Launched in nineteen thirty five. It was

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Speaker 1: used by the British Royal Air Force for aerial target practice.

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Speaker 1: The United States began its own drone development program in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six, but these early flying drones looked like

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Speaker 1: model planes, nothing like the hat shaped object the Keraboys photographed.

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Speaker 1: The Japanese military is known to have begun developing drone

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Speaker 1: technology in the mid nineteen nineties, when their Technical Research

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Speaker 1: and Development Institute is known to have developed an unmanned

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Speaker 1: aerial vehicle for Japan's Air Self Defense Force. Is it

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Speaker 1: possible that the Japanese government had been experimenting with drone

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Speaker 1: technology largely in secret as far back as the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. In recent years, the phenomenon of unidentified aerial

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Speaker 1: phenomena or UAPs has apparently begun to be taken more

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Speaker 1: seriously by governments in the United States. In twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 1: officials at the Pentagon created the All Domain Anomaly Resolution

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Speaker 1: Office or ARRO to track and identify UAP sightings with

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Speaker 1: a focus on their potential threat to national security and

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Speaker 1: air safety, and in November twenty twenty four, they released

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Speaker 1: a report revealing the scale of the phenomenon, with seven

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Speaker 1: hundred fifty seven cases of UAP sightings in a recent

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Speaker 1: twelve month period. On subsequent investment litigation, many of these

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Speaker 1: reports have found the objects to be variously misidentified balloons, birds,

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Speaker 1: or satellites, but there are still UAPs which continue to

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Speaker 1: defy easy explanation, including an incidence of a near miss

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Speaker 1: between a commercial airliner and a strange cylindrical object over

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Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of New York

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Speaker 1: sometime between May twenty twenty three and June twenty four.

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Speaker 1: The specific date of the incident has not been released,

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Speaker 1: and to date ro's official position is that there's no

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Speaker 1: indication that any of the cases they have investigated have

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Speaker 1: an unearthly origin. Their official position is that there is

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Speaker 1: no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology. With its

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Speaker 1: small size, consistent eyewitness reports, and photographic ag evidence that

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Speaker 1: it was captured and handled, the Kera incident is in

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Speaker 1: a class all of its own. Was the object a

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Speaker 1: UFO in the classic sense of an interstellar vehicle, or

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Speaker 1: rather some sort of early prototype drone developed as part

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Speaker 1: of a secret program by the Japanese government, its military,

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Speaker 1: or an electronics corporation two decades before drone research in

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Speaker 1: the country is thought to have started. Or is the

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Speaker 1: whole affair simply the fevered imaginings of a group of teenagers,

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Speaker 1: a product of youthful imaginations and wish fulfillment, embellished with

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Speaker 1: hoaxed photos and primitive, sinny camera footage. But if that

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Speaker 1: were the case, why was the incident corroborated by science

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Speaker 1: educator mister Fushimoto? And how did a girl in a

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Speaker 1: different part of the region, who'd seemingly never met the

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Speaker 1: boys from Terror or heard their accounts, apparently describe an

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Speaker 1: almost most identical object four years after the nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: two sightings. Several journalists who have interviewed the five Carer

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Speaker 1: participants have been impressed by the consistency of the details

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Speaker 1: in the story they tell decades after the events. There's

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Speaker 1: even been speculation that the incident didn't become more well

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Speaker 1: known at the time because local government officials instructed the

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Speaker 1: boys to keep quiet about it. The most fanciful speculations

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Speaker 1: proposed that the device was an alien drone, either sent

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Speaker 1: to Earth on a reconnaissance mission, or one that had

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Speaker 1: lost its way temporarily. Some believe it slipped through a

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Speaker 1: rift in space time from another dimension, which is how

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Speaker 1: the object seemed to vanish on three separate occasions. Either way,

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Speaker 1: it seems strange that, despite the five boys from Kerr

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Speaker 1: having supposedly captured and examined this alleged UFO, from those

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Speaker 1: extraordinary reports are the eyewitness accounts, a few grainy photographs,

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Speaker 1: some shaky, sinny footage, and a lot of unanswered questions,

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Speaker 1: and so to this day, the kr UFO incident remains unexplained.

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Speaker 1: This episode was written by Diane Hope and produced by

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Speaker 1: Richard McLain Smith. Diane is an audio producer and sound

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Speaker 1: recorded in her own right. You can find out more

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00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: about her work at Dianehope dot com and on Instagram

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00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: at in the sound Field. Thank you as ever for

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00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,120
Speaker 1: listening Unexplained as an Avy Club production. The podcast created

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00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast,

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Speaker 1: including the music, are also produced by me Richard mclin smith. Unexplained.

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Speaker 1: The book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide.

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Speaker 1: You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and

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00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in

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Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've

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Speaker 1: heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or

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00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,679
Speaker 1: a story of your own you'd like to share. You

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00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 1: can find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and

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Speaker 1: reaches online through x and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod

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