Robert Franklin
Washington State University Department of History
Consolidated Information Center 2770 Crimson Way
Richland, WA 99354
USA
February 13, 2024
Dear Robert,
In 1965, Col. Franklin Matthias sat down for an interview about his time on the Manhattan Project. As I’m sure you know, Matthias had been the officer in charge of the Hanford Site, and, among the many interesting things he had to say, he recalled a particular incident where a Japanese “Fu-Go” balloon bomb successfully knocked out all power to the facility.1
This extraordinary series of events, which involved a small balloon being launched from the tip of Japan, travelling more than 6,000 miles across the ocean, and then blowing up the right power line in Washington State is certainly one of the more interesting anecdotes of World War II. And the idea that America’s Top Secret plutonium production could be “shut down cold” for about three days is humbling, to say the least.2 There’s just one problem. I can’t find any official record of it happening.
You see, aside from this one interview, I wasn’t able to find any document or other witnesses to vouch for this event. Even the U.S. Army’s G-2 Periodic Report on the emerging balloon threat didn’t seem to capture this particular incident.3 In fact, as far as I can tell, it seems like we’re taking Matthias’s word for it and that his word is what ultimately became history.
One of the reasons I’m writing you is that I thought you might have a unique appreciation for the point I’m trying to make. You are an Assistant Professor of History at Washington State, but you also happen to be an “Oral Historian” for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Collection. In an interview you delivered in 2018, you noted how important oral testimonies were to piece together the “rich and complicated story” of Hanford, the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. I guess I’m wondering if you have room for any of the oral testimonies that might be of interest to me?4
I happen to write a Substack Newsletter about a topic that is a third rail to most historians. I’ve found there tends to be outright hostility to any sober discussion of UFOs but three oral testimonies seem to suggest there might be some history happening in the skies above your nuclear site.
Testimonies during the Second World War include accounts of strange radar blips, a floating ball of fire (similar to the “Foo Fighter” phenomenon over Europe) and the sighting of a well-defined flying saucer. It would be intellectually dishonest of me to suggest that each of these three accounts are equally credible, but that’s precisely why I would love to see engagement from academics like you.
You see, this letter is meant to be much less of a “gotcha” than a sincere ask for your perspective. If we’re going to take the oral testimony of a figure like Vincent Whitehead (who claimed to personally bring down a Japanese balloon bomb with a brick),5 why would we not also consider the oral testimony of Lt. (j.g.) Clarence Clem? My view is that, even if you’re inclined toward extreme skepticism of UFO sightings, their interpretation often leads to very real and worthwhile history that we might want to discuss anyway.
For example, the three WWII-era sightings I mentioned above were crucial to forming what is now called the UFO-nuclear hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that humanity’s development of nuclear weapons may have attracted some exotic attention and that could explain the uptick in UFO sightings during and after WWII. Is this hypothesis correct? I don’t know. But I do know it’s currently being discussed in the halls of Congress, and I think that makes the oral testimony that sparked it very valuable.
If you’re comfortable engaging with the subject matter, I would love to hear your thoughts on the rules of engagement when it comes to testimonies like these ones. Is there a credibility threshold at which they should be included in websites, museum displays, or books like yours? And if they don’t meet that threshold, can their connection to current affairs override that? I think it would be fascinating to see where the head of an up-and-coming history professor might be on these issues.
For my part, I’ve done my best to make it easy for academics like yourself to engage. You can find a fully cited narrative summary and a detailed timeline that I hope provides you with some valuable context to work from. With your help, I think we could start an excellent conversation on when precisely UFO history might just qualify as the “regular” history that could end up in a lecture hall at WSU.
Best,
The Author
of The Other Topic
P.S. I have no prior relationship with Robert Franklin and I chose to write him this letter because of his unique qualifications and area of expertise. If you know another historian who might benefit from this conversation, then please:
Groueff, Stephane. “Colonel Franklin Matthias’s Interview (1965) – Part 2.” Voices of the Manhattan Project, September 12, 1965. https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/voices/oral-histories/colonel-franklin-matthiass-interview-1965-part-2/.
Groueff, “Colonel Franklin Matthias’s Interview (1965) – Part 2.”
Mikesh, Robert. “Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America.” Smithsonian Annals of Flight 9 (1973) https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5479/si.AnnalsFlight.9. Pg 69.
Unknown Interviewer. “Robert Franklin’s Interview.” Atomic Heritage Foundation, May 3, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEgSu0EM-A8. At 2min 54s.
Langer, S L. “Vincent and Clare Whitehead's Interview - Part 2.” Voices of the Manhattan Project, May 17, 1986. https://www.manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/vincent-and-clare-whiteheads-interview-part-2.