UFO. Japan

The 9th Bomb Group located on Tinian Island. “During our night missions in June and July a UFO phenomenon was reported. Our air crews started sighting balls of fire, i.e., glowing objects about the size of a full moon which flew around in the vicinity of our flying patterns over Japan. One of our crews reported that one of the objects followed their airplane half way to Iwo Jima. I saw them on two missions. I don’t remember any reports of any hostile action by these objects and the reports of sightings stopped after a couple of months. The object of these reports was dismissed by some experts as the planet Venus. And, after these reports started coming in, some crews did mistake the rising full moon as one of these balls of fire. Some reports speculated that these balls of fire were exhausts from a Japanese development called a Baka Bomb, but exhaust flames can only be seen from the rear; and these objects appeared to have the same size and intensity in whatever direction they were traveling. I have never heard of any official assessment as to what these objects were. I had an occasion to ask General LeMay about them several years after the war and he had no explanation. I am sure that what I saw was neither Venus nor the moon nor a Baka Bomb; hence, for me, they were UFOs.