Ancient Aliens (2009–…): Season 12, Episode 14 - A Spaceship Made of Stone - full transcript

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Wow.

It's gigantic.

The rock itself is said
to weigh about 500 tons.

Wow.

You want to just
look down below here.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
That's amazing.

It's hovering above the water.

NIKKI TSUKAMOTO:
This monolith is said to be

related to one of the first gods

that descended
from the heavens to Japan,



and he traveled over the country
on a sky ship

made out of a giant rock.

TSOUKALOS: So what you're
telling me is that there is

a deity flying around in the sky

with a gigantic vehicle
made of stone?

(speaks Japanese)

Absolutely.

NARRATOR: Tokyo, Japan.

May 2017.

The University of Tokyo reveals
designs for electric vehicles

that are able to charge while
driving on powered roadways,

enabling the Japanese to travel
freely with unlimited mileage

throughout the country.

This same month,
the Japanese government,



in cooperation
with private companies,

unveils plans to unleash
a countrywide drone

delivery system by 2020,

with self-driving trucks
to follow in 2022.

And Inami Hiyama Laboratory
brings to market

a new prosthetic device
called MetaLimbs,

a pair of wearable robotic arms
controlled by the legs and feet,

giving the user two additional
hands to work with.

These are just a few
of the scientific innovations

introduced by the Japanese
in a single month.

And they,
along with numerous others,

have helped accelerate mankind's
technological advancement

at a breathtaking pace.

Yet, in the midst of this
cutting-edge technology

are antiquated teahouses,
palaces

and shrines dating back
thousands of years

that create a stark contrast

between the old and the new.

Japan can be a puzzle
to a Westerner.

On one hand,
you have this modern culture

with trains that are going
250 miles hour.

Robots can serve you
in the home,

can help people
with handicaps walk.

They can be a robotic pet.

They have parking garages
in which the cars,

uh, park themselves.

So, Japan is always
on the cutting edge

of technological development
and innovation.

Yet, at the same time,
it cherishes and looks back

at its age-old traditions,

some of them going back
several millennia, in fact.

NARRATOR:
While Japan is a nation

where old world traditions

and new world technology
collide,

ancient astronaut theorists
suggest the two

are not as disconnected
as they may seem

and that the secrets
of ancient Japan

help explain why they are at the
forefront of technology today,

secrets that are connected
to extraterrestrial visitation.

December 18, 2007.

Ryuji Yamane of the
Democratic Party of Japan,

under increasing pressure
from his constituents,

publicly demands a response

from the prime minister
and his cabinet

to address the surge
of UFO activity over Japan,

totaling more than 300
reported sightings per month.

The cabinet's official statement

is that it "has not confirmed
the existence"

of unidentified flying objects
from outer space."

But within a few hours,
everything changes.

Just hours after this meeting,

the Chief Cabinet Secretary
Nobutaka Machimura

announced on live television

that regarding the question
of extraterrestrials,

he definitely thinks they exist.

Then, a week later, the Japanese
Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba

revealed that he had been
carefully considering

different response scenarios
for an alien invasion.

And what he said is incredible.

He said, and I quote,

"There are no grounds
for us to deny

"that there are
unidentified flying objects

and some life forms
that controls them."

Two years later,
the wife of the prime minister

came out with an extraordinary
series of statements,

in which she claimed that she
had been abducted by aliens,

that she had traveled on a UFO.

For the wife of the
prime minister to come out

and make a statement like that
was absolutely unprecedented.

I think the only reason
this isn't on the front page

of every newspaper
in the world is that,

certainly in the United States,
we do tend to be

rather heavily focused on
English-speaking countries,

and, indeed, very U.S.-centric
in our outlook.

If the statements
being made in Japan

were being made in America,

it would be on every major
news network 24-7.

NARRATOR:
Could these profound statements

coming from top Japanese
government officials reveal

that they have knowledge
of alien visitation?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

evidence of alien contact
on these islands

dates back thousands of years,

and can be found within
the teachings of Shintoism.

Shintoism is
the primary religion of Japan,

with over 107 million followers,

and is designed
around a set of ritual practices

that connect present-day Japan

to its ancient mystical past.

At its center
are celestial beings

that, according
to the Japanese people,

still roam their islands
to this day.

The term "Shinto" translates
as "the way of the kami,"

or, uh, "the way of the gods."

It's a tradition

that has a millennia-long
history in Japan.

There are
over eight million kamis,

according
to the Shinto tradition,

and each one of them has

its own particular
personality traits, if you will.

So, in that sense,
they are quite different

from the notion
of monotheistic God that we have

in traditions that are
most widespread in the West.

The kami are
these celestial beings

that are able
to inhabit basically anything,

from a human being

to an animal,
and even inanimate objects.

So on the one hand, they're
these multi-dimensional beings,

but then,
they also describe them

as having come down from their
celestial palace in the sky,

which is called Takamagahara.

The celestial kami will come
into the terrestrial world,

our world, and they need a home,

so they have these major shrines
for these kami

when they come into the world,

so that they can feel at home
in the terrestrial world.

The Japanese archipelago is
dotted with over 81,000 shrines

that are devoted
to the kami gods,

and it's believed
that these are houses or places

where these extraterrestrial
beings come to live

when they're on Earth.

The Japanese people will visit
the shrines of the kami

with the belief
that they are actually praying

to an extraterrestrial being
who can fulfill their blessings.

NARRATOR: If what Shinto
followers call "the kami"

really are otherworldly beings

that have been visiting Japan
since ancient times,

are they still being encountered
today in the form of UFOs?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining ancient
Japanese structures

that defy explanation.

WILLIAM HENRY: There are
thousands of these statuettes.

Near the modern-day city
of Osaka,

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS meets

with fellow ancient astronaut
theorist Takeharu Mikami

to investigate one
of the oldest and holiest sites

in the country...
The Ishi-no-Hoden megalith,

a Shinto shrine said
to be inhabited

by an otherworldly being.

(speaking Japanese)

TSOUKALOS: Wow.

It's gigantic.

This is...

I had no idea.

I mean, it is massive.

(speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: The rock itself
is said to weigh about 500 tons.

- 500 tons?
- Yes.

Wow!

(Mikami speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: This is said
to have the soul of a god,

or kami, inside it.

Okay, so to this day,

this is the belief,
that some type of spirit

lives in this,

or that the rock itself
has spirit.

(Mikami speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO:
The spirit of a god is inside,

and the stone carries
a special spiritual meaning now.

TSOUKALOS: Okay. That's amazing.

I want to...
I need to walk around.

I mean, I had no idea
how massive this is.

(Mikami speaks Japanese)

(TSOUKALOS speaks Japanese)

So, do you want
to just look down below here?

(Mikami speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: It looks like
it's floating over the water.

TSOUKALOS: It really does.

- Oh.
- (Mikami speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: The name
for this rock is Ame-no-kishi,

or the Floating Rock
from the Heavens.

(speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: So this monolith
is said to be related

to one of the first gods

that descended
from the heavens to Japan,

and he is said to have traveled
over the country

on a sky ship
made out of a giant rock,

which was called Ama no Iwafune,

which is the Heavenly Rock Ship.

So what you're telling me
is that there is

an ancient Japanese legend
that speaks of a deity

flying around in the sky

with a gigantic vehicle
made of stone?

- (speaks Japanese)
- Absolutely.

(chuckles) So, do you think

that is the reason
why it was called

a vehicle made of stone, because
it was so powerful and strong

and virtually indestructible
that the story became

it's a vehicle made of stone?

(speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO:
You're absolutely right,

because the gods were...

flying over the land
on a giant ship.

It wasn't a plane,
because it didn't have wings.

It looked like a ship

made out of very hard material

that was like a very hard stone,

and they would descend from the
heavens and down onto the land,

and thus, they would travel
around the country.

TSOUKALOS:
Another name for Ishi-no-Hoden

is Floating Stone.

So what did they mean by that?

The way that this
is constructed here,

it seems as if it's hovering.

So did they perhaps try

to recreate one of those
hovering or flying sky ships

that they themselves witnessed?

And what's so interesting to me
about this massive monolith

is that there are
no apparent toolmarks

to be found at any place
across the stone.

How did ancient people possibly
quarry and form this rock

to such exacting precision
without sophisticated tools?

NARRATOR:
According to the Japanese,

otherworldly beings
had been visiting their islands

for over 12,000 years.

The earliest culture
that we can identify in Japan

is the Jomon,

which is originally
a Stone Age culture

running roughly
from 10,000 BCE to 300 BCE.

It is a culture that we
don't know an awful lot about,

because they had
no writing system.

All we have is artifacts.

DOMINIC STEAVU: The little that
we do know about the Jomon

comes from
archaeological evidence.

And... one of the most
representative, uh,

artifacts that is tied
to the Jomon

is the Dogu statue.

NARRATOR: Approximately
15,000 Dogu figurines

resembling strange,
humanoid beings

have been found
throughout the Japanese islands.

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest these figurines

represent the very kami
the Japanese believe descended

to this world
in the ancient past.

HENRY: There are thousands
of these statuettes

that have been recovered,
and these figures have

goggle-type eyes, and they
have rivets all over their body,

indicating that they're wearing
some kind of a space suit

or technological armor.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
So you have to ask yourself,

were these statues sky beings

who came and directed
the Japanese

to have their civilization and
culture, and that ultimately,

these sky gods
are their ancestors?

NARRATOR: Do the Dogu figures
represent extraterrestrials

that visited Japan
thousands of years ago?

And could they
have descended in a craft

that resembled the monolith
called Ishi-no-Hoden,

as ancient astronaut theorists
suggest?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

in Japan's official
historical texts,

which describe the islands

as inhabited
by otherworldly beings.

Ise, Japan.

In the center
of this remote coastal city

is a massive complex
of 125 individual shrines

erected 2,000 years ago,

dedicated to the supreme goddess
of Shintoism...

Amaterasu.

THOMAS KASULIS:
When Amaterasu is residing

in the terrestrial plane,
instead of the celestial plane,

her home is
the Grand Shrine at Ise,

which is built
without any nails,

any metal fastenings whatsoever.

It's also architecturally unlike
any other shrine in Japan.

TSOUKALOS: Modern architects
still have difficulty

comprehending
how this palace was built.

It is the most important shrine
in Shintoism,

and has been visited by hundreds
of millions of pilgrims

over thousands of years.

Now, allegedly,

the shrine contains something
called the Sacred Mirror,

one of Japan's
three most sacred artifacts,

which are collectively known

as the Imperial Regalia
of Japan.

They were given by Amaterasu
to Emperor Jimmu,

the first emperor of Japan.

And they have only been seen

by the emperors
and high priests of Japan.

But what were they?

And why is the public
not allowed to see them?

If these are items
that are brought to Earth

by celestial beings,
then by definition,

that would make them
of extraterrestrial origin.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Ishi-no-Hoden megalith

and the Ise Grand Shrine
are physical evidence

of extraterrestrial visitations
in Japan's ancient past?

And might the prime minister
of Japan and his cabinet

still have connections

to these same
otherworldly beings?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by more closely examining
Emperor Jimmu,

and the stories
that he was guided

by an intelligence
that spoke to him...

from the sky.

TSOUKALOS:
Why would they label a boat.

In the middle
of this modern metropolis

lies the Daisen Kofun,

a tomb for one of Japan's
long line of divine emperors.

Covering over 400,000
square meters, the Daisen Kofun

is considered the largest tomb
by area in the world.

There are more
than 160,000 kofun

dotting
the Japanese archipelago,

all of which contain the remains

of emperors
or their royal families.

STEAVU: There are burial mounds
throughout the world.

However, there's one specific
shape that exists only in Japan,

and this is the Keyhole Kofun.

JASON MARTELL: Most of these
can only be seen from the sky.

This raises the question as
to why emperors would be buried

in such a way that they
are actually being memorialized

and being seen from the sky.

CHILDRESS: The Japanese
believed that the royal family

was descended from gods
that came from the sky.

So we have to wonder,

is this a way
for the extraterrestrials

to identify the tombs
of their ancestors?

NARRATOR:
Could the thousands of kofun

dotting the Japanese islands

contain the bodies
of extraterrestrial beings?

Curiously, in 2016,

researchers studying
high-resolution photos

of the surface of Mars

spotted an eerily similar
keyhole-shaped mound.

JASON MARTELL: Is this possibly
a kofun found on Mars,

burying some lost
extraterrestrial god?

If so, we can see that there's

definitely a connection between
what we're seeing on Mars,

as some type
of kofun burial site,

and over 160,000
of these found all over Japan.

NARRATOR:
Could the kofuns in Japan,

and the alleged structure
on Mars,

contain definitive proof
of a link

to beings
from outside our world?

To investigate
this theory further,

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS
and Takeharu Mikami

were granted special access to
one of Japan's oldest tombs...

the Ishibutai Kofun.

TSOUKALOS:
Oh, man, it's gigantic.

TSUKAMOTO: It's a megalith
from sixth century AD.

Okay.

(speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO:
The largest rock on this tumulus

weighs about 77 tons.

Have they calculated the weight
of all the rocks combined?

(speaking Japanese)

All together, this would weigh
about 2,300 tons.

TSOUKALOS: Wow!

That's incredible.

Can we go inside?

- Yes.
- All right.

Wow.

So I presume one
of these rocks up there

is the one that's 77 tons.

We would have great difficulty
achieving that today.

And I'm not saying
we can't do it.

Of course we can do it.

But we would use sophisticated,

high-tech, heavy machinery.

TSUKAMOTO: Excavation visitors
have found wooden sleds

that are said
to have been the tools

they used to drag and carry

these large rocks
across the fields.

However, we don't know
exactly how and from where

these rocks were carried from.

Yeah, I completely and utterly
disagree with that notion.

You put 77 tons on wood,

it crushes into dust.

So that's wonderful
that these sleds were found,

but I highly doubt

that 77 tons were
on wooden sleds.

Because I've once seen
a five-ton block being placed

on wooden rollers,

and it got crushed
into oblivion.

This area here,

it's very hilly,
uh, mountainous.

So in those ancient texts,

does it say how these stones
were moved into position?

(speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: Traditionally,
there were a group

of very skilled artisans
or architects

who held a lot of, uh,
secret skills and technology

that was only kept to them.

But, unfortunately,

we don't know what exactly those
skills and technologies were.

TSOUKALOS: I agree that
there was engineering knowledge

that has been lost.

And to build something
like this,

does he presume
that this knowledge

may have come from some of
those kamis or celestial beings

that are
in Japanese mythologies?

(Mikami speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: So the further back
in history we go,

- the greater these monuments become.
- TSOUKALOS: Yes.

So the technology was there
from the very beginning.

And if we go back in time

to follow these roots
of these beings, we will go back

to prehistoric times
of the-the era, the age

of the kamis or the deities.

Ancient Japanese Shintos believe

that once you die,
you would be put into a coffin

that was shaped like a boat

and then travel
to the land of the gods.

You know, that's so fascinating,
because...

there are stories
of flying boats

all around the world.

In ancient Egypt,

you have the sun barges
descending from the sky.

In Native American cultures,

you have the flying canoes.

Why would they label a boat
a flying boat?

Well, could it be perhaps
because they didn't have

the vocabulary to say
"airplane"?

I don't think our ancestors
pulled this

out of their own imagination.

I think
they actually saw flying boats,

and thus the legends were born.

NARRATOR: Might the Ishibutai
Kofun have been built

with the help
of extraterrestrial beings,

beings that were also present
on Mars in the distant past?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest further clues
can be found

by examining another mysterious
megalithic structure,

one that some believe represents
the so-called flying boats

that, according
to the ancient Japanese stories,

were used to travel
to the land of the gods.

TSOUKALOS: So this could be
some type of representation.

NARRATOR:
Hitachi Province, Japan.

1803.

Local fishermen
on the Harayadori shore

spot an unusual craft drifting
in the distance.

When the vessel washes ashore,

they are astonished
by what they witness.

NICK POPE: This craft was
likened to the shape

of a Japanese incense burner.

It is almost literally
a flying disk,

a flying saucer.

On the outside of this craft

were multiple
small metal plates,

uh, not too dissimilar
to heat-resistant tiles

that you'd find, say,
on a space shuttle.

NICK REDFERN: A hatch opened,

and a young woman came out
of the craft

dressed in clothes
that had never been seen before

and speaking a language
that nobody understood

in the slightest.

CHILDRESS: When they looked
inside the craft,

they could see hieroglyphs

and strange writing
all inside of the craft.

POPE: The story
of the strange Utsuro Bune craft

appears in
three different Japanese texts.

Even today, modern historians,
uh, struggle to understand

what this means.

Nobody can really decipher this.

CHILDRESS: Japanese today are
very familiar with this story.

And to them,
this is a curious story

of one of the gods
of their ancestry

who had somehow arrived there
on the island

in this mysterious craft

and then departed.

NARRATOR:
Could the Utsuro Bune incident

have marked the return
of extraterrestrial beings

that were present in Japan
in the distant past?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and claim further evidence
can be found

by examining
a strange monolithic stone

that many believe was carved
to resemble the very craft

that have been visiting Japan
for thousands of years.

Asuka Park, Japan.

April 2017.

Does that say "rock ship"?

- "Masuda Rock Ship, this way."
- Oh, all right.

NARRATOR: GIORGIO TSOUKALOS

and ancient astronaut theorist
Takeharu Mikami

set out to examine
Masuda-no-Iwafune,

an 800-ton rock structure

that was carved from a single
piece of granite and resembles

no other architecture in Japan.

Hey, check out this-this
square grid on the sides.

I mean, this is something that
I've seen before in India,

in Mahabalipuram,

and they had something
very similar on the side

of some of their rocks as well.

- Mm-hmm.
- I can't wait to see the top.

Amazing.

Oh, man.

- TSUKAMOTO: Whoa.
- (chuckles)

- Wow. That is...
- (Tsukamoto speaks Japanese)

(chuckles) I mean,

I've never seen anything
like it.

NARRATOR:
While some researchers believe

the Masuda-no-Iwafune megalith
is a tomb,

others claim it is meant
to depict the sky boats

that are described
in ancient Japanese stories.

TSOUKALOS: So, the idea is
that this was the entrance

to a Buddhist temple.
What do they mean by that?

Inside... I mean, where?

TSUKAMOTO: It would actually
predate Buddhism in Japan,

so it wouldn't have anything
to do with Buddhist temples.

Right. So,

what is the actual translation
of "Masuda-no-Iwafune"?

(speaking Japanese)

"Masuda" is the name
of the region,

and "iwafune" literally means

"stone ship" or "rock ship."

Okay.

(Mikami speaking Japanese)

TSUKAMOTO: Yes, it's...
naturally, the iwafune

or the rock ship

would have come down
from the heavens

as a vehicle for the gods

to descend upon Earth.

TSOUKALOS: So, I guess with the
combination of the mythologies

of celestial beings,
this could be

some type of representation
of one

of those flying vehicles
that our ancestors

perhaps witnessed.

NARRATOR:
Could the Masuda-no-Iwafune

have been carved to resemble
the so-called flying boats

that were referred to
in ancient Japanese texts?

And was a similar alien craft
witnessed

by Japanese fishermen in 1803?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining
much more recent UFO sightings

and the long-held belief
that Japan's imperial family

has a connection
to otherworldly beings.

Coming up...

NARRATOR: Kyushu, Japan.

The seventh century BC.

According to Japan's earliest
known historical texts,

Kojiki and Nihon Shoki,
it is from this point

that the country's first ruler,

Emperor Jimmu,
set out to conquer

and unify the Japanese islands.

KASULIS: He seems
to have come out of Kyushu,

the southern island,

and moved across Japan
to find a better place

to center the government
and center his realm,

conquering people along the way,

and eventually he settles
in the Yamato region.

And that becomes the center
of Japan's government,

all the way until it moves
to Tokyo in 1868.

STEAVU: As he was working
his way northwards,

he was actually assisted

by a divine crow.

A three-legged crow,
known as Yatagarasu.

"Yatagarasu" loosely translates

to "eight span crow."

So, we can imagine

that this crow would have been
extremely large.

(crow screeches)

In some instances,
Yatagarasu is also depicted

within a fiery orb in the sky.

TSOUKALOS: This so-called "crow"

guided him on his journey

and advised him in military
matters to ensure his success.

And, when you look at ancient
depictions of this crow,

it is often depicted inside
some kind of an orb,

this circular disc.

So if you look at that,
you have to ask,

what exactly were the ancient
Japanese talking about here?

Because this, to me, sounds more

like he was being guided
by some kind of a flying craft

than an actual crow.

NARRATOR: Could Japan's
first Emperor, Jimmu,

and the imperial family today,

be direct descendants
of extraterrestrials?

And might the three-legged crow,
Yatagarasu,

really have been an alien craft?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and suggest further evidence
can be found

by examining a military coup
designed to cover up

this extraterrestrial heritage.

Kyoto, Japan. 1183.

Military general
Minamoto no Yoritomo

besieges the capital city
of Japan,

forcing the current
Emperor Antoku

and his bodyguard to flee.

For nearly 700 years after,

military dictatorships
known as shogunates

maintained strict control
over Japan.

Isolationist policies
allowed few to enter

or exit the islands, with death
as the ultimate penalty.

Only in 1867 did shogun
Tokugawa Yoshinobu,

facing a revolt
from the Japanese people,

relinquish control of the
government back to the emperor.

STEAVU: The Meiji Emperor was
the first of the emperors

after the restoration.

Made a point
of tracing his lineage

all the way back
to Emperor Jimmu...

and to Amaterasu, as well.

So, this notion
of a divine emperor,

of a living kami at the head
of Japan, was resuscitated.

They wanted to return to
the original Japanese empire,

the one founded by Jimmu,

and his connection with
the extraterrestrial beings.

What happened after this
is extraordinary.

Suddenly Japan takes off.

It starts accelerating
in its technological ability.

It suddenly becomes
a world-conquering nation.

By the early twentieth century,
Japan was a superpower

and it had amassed
a vast colonial empire,

rivaling that of the greatest
Western colonial empires.

And what Japan accomplished
in modernization

in the span of 20 years,

it took most European nations

about 200 or even 300 years
to accomplish.

CHILDRESS: So you have to wonder

with the reinstating
of the royal family,

was this also a reconnection

to the technical and
extraterrestrial past

that had begun centuries ago
in Japan,

and is now continuing today,

possibly with the guidance
of extraterrestrials?

NARRATOR: Could Japan's
meteoric rise to power

be a direct result of
reinstating the "divine,"

perhaps extraterrestrial,
dynasty

originally established
by Emperor Jimmu?

And is this why some of Japan's
top government officials

have recently made statements
supporting the notion

that alien visitation is real?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and suggest further evidence of
an alien presence in Japan today

can be found by examining
a recent mass UFO sighting.

In July 2015, multiple witnesses
in and around the city of Osaka

sighted a fleet of UFOs

moving in a quite
extraordinary fashion

in broad daylight
right over the city.

And various people caught them
from different angles on camera.

Now, the government was quick
to dismiss them as candles

or lanterns in the sky.

But the erratic movements
and patterns suggested

that they were technological
in nature.

NARRATOR: Similar white orbs

were reported
four years earlier,

during one of the worst
environmental disasters

in mankind's history.

On March 26, 2011,

two weeks after the meltdown
of the Fukushima Daiichi

nuclear power plant
in Okuma, Japan,

a fleet of white orbs

was recorded
hovering over the site.

If we go back and look at the
history of the UFO subject,

we find a great deal
of interest with,

for example,
our atomic energy plants,

our nuclear missile silos.

And it suggests to me that maybe

we're seeing alien entities
who are deeply concerned

by our usage of atomic power.

NARRATOR: Could the white orbs
witnessed above Osaka

and Fukushima
be alien craft belonging

to the same celestial beings
the Japanese trace back

to their very origins?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining recent attempts
by Japanese astronomers

to make contact with
extraterrestrial beings.

July 1983.

At the University of Tokyo
Astronomical Observatory,

astronomers Hisashi Hirabayashi
and Masaki Morimoto

target a telescope
towards the star Altair.

Using radio waves, they transmit
a short, binary-encoded message

in an attempt to contact
extraterrestrial life.

This was a groundbreaking
piece of history

in terms of the search
for extraterrestrial life.

This message basically
told information

regarding human life,
human history, DNA,

and also the location
of the Earth itself.

So, any potential
extraterrestrials

living in the vicinity of Altair

would potentially know
where we're coming from.

CHILDRESS: The star of Altair is
16 light-years away from Earth,

and so it was expected

that the binary message
would reach that star

by around 1999.

And now, from 2015 on,

the Japanese are expecting some
kind of reply from their signal.

REDFERN: Now, what's
particularly intriguing

is that Altair
actually represents

one of the ancient
Japanese gods.

This makes me wonder
if the scientific community

had come to a conclusion
that perhaps

their ancient god,
represented by Altair,

may not have been a god
after all.

CHILDRESS:
So you have to wonder here,

are these Japanese astronomers

trying to contact
the extraterrestrial gods

that they believe

came to Earth and started
the Japanese civilization?

It would seem so.

NARRATOR: In 2010, JAXA,
Japan's national space program,

announced plans to establish
a base on the moon

by the year 2020.

And recently, the Shimizu
Corporation unveiled designs

for their LUNAR RING project,

a massive band of solar panels
surrounding the moon

that would beam limitless
clean power back to Earth.

When you look at
all this together,

you can't help but wonder
what's going on here?

Is it about reaching out
to extraterrestrials,

or is it perhaps about using

extraterrestrial knowledge
and technology

that the Japanese already have?

HENRY: This suggests that the
Japanese people are serious

about colonizing space

and may be working with
extraterrestrials

on developing this enormously
advanced technology.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that there is a link

between Japan's
technological advancements

and the country's connection
to extraterrestrial beings?

And are these beings the same
otherworldly entities

that have been influencing the
development of Japanese culture

for thousands of years?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say, yes,

and believe the proof lies
not only at various locations

found throughout
the Japanese landscape,

but also on Earth's
neighboring planets...

and one in particular...

soon to be explored.

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