The Devil's Sea
Japan's 'Dragon's Triangle' is said to swallow ships, a Bermuda Triangle of the Pacific.
What was reported
The Devil's Sea, or Dragon's Triangle, is an area of the Pacific south of Tokyo, around the Izu Islands. Writers from the 1950s onwards claimed that unusually many ships and planes had vanished there.
In 1952 the Japanese research ship Kaiyō Maru No. 5 was lost with everyone on board while studying an undersea volcanic eruption in the area. The American writer Charles Berlitz later spread the legend in his book The Dragon's Triangle.
Explanations offered
The Kaiyō Maru was destroyed by the eruption of Myōjin-shō, the undersea volcano it had gone to observe. The area is volcanically active, with heavy shipping and frequent storms, which explains losses there. Researchers who checked the claims found the number of disappearances had been exaggerated.
- When
- Reported from the 1950s
- Where
- Pacific Ocean, south of Tokyo, Japan
- Witnesses
- Sailors, Japanese authorities and writers
- Status
- Mostly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.