2. Devil's Sea
The Devil‘s Sea also known as the Dragon's Triangle.
Devil’s Sea (or Dragon’s Triangle, take your pick of which sounds more ominous) is an area
of the Pacific Ocean as riddled with strange happenings as its Atlantic counterpart near
Bermuda. Located off the coast of Japan, it’s been the site of countless claims of
unexplained phenomena including magnetic anomalies, inexplicable lights and objects,
and of course, mysterious disappearances. The area is even considered a danger by
Japanese fishing authorities.
One story has it that in 1952 the Japanese government sent out a research vessel, the Kaio
Maru No. 5, to investigate the mysteries of the Devil’s Sea. Naturally, of course, the Kaio
Maru No. 5 and its crew of 31 people were never seen again. Another story tells of Kublai
Khan’s disastrous attempts to invade Japan by crossing the Devil’s Sea, losing at least 40
000 men in the process.
The usual theories abound for what’s really going on: from aliens, to gates to parallel
universes, even to Atlantis (because why not). Some suggest that high volcanic activity in
the region is responsible for some of the disappearances (the Kaio Maru No. 5 may have
been caught in an eruption). Our advice? Just stay out of the ocean, period.
3. DROGON’S TRIANGLE
LOCATION
Its location varies a bit depending on which author you
read, but the triangle usually runs from Taiwan up to
the volcanic island of Miyake-jima just south of Tokyo,
to about Iwo-jima or thereabouts. Miyake-jima and
Iwo-jima lie along the Izu-Bonin volcanic arc, a line of
underwater volcanoes and islands that's part of a
system stretching 2500 kilometers from Japan to
Guam. Some, like Charles Berlitz, say that the Devil's
Sea is every bit as dangerous and mysterious as the
Bermuda Triangle.
In his 1989 book The Dragon's Triangle, Berlitz said
that Japan lost five military vessels in the area between
1952 and 1954 alone, with a loss of some 700 sailors. In
Dan Cohen's 1974 book Curses, Hexes, & Spells it's
reported that legends of the danger of the Devil's Sea
go back for centuries in Japan. Its most famous
casualty was the No. 5 Kaiyo-Maru, a scientific
research vessel, which disappeared with the loss of all
hands on September 24, 1953 (a date often wrongly
reported as 1952 or 1958).
4. HISTORY
With such a dramatic history, you'd expect there to be all sorts of books on the subject,
especially in Japan. But it turns out that the eager researcher is disappointed. A search for
books, newspaper, or magazine articles on the Devil's Sea comes up completely empty,
until a full 20 years after the loss of the Kaiyo-Maru. Apparently, the story — even the
very existence of this legendary named region — was not invented until very recently.
Enter cryptozoologist and paranormal enthusiast Ivan T. Sanderson, well known for his
Bigfoot searches, but perhaps not as well known for his Society for the Investigation of
the Unexplained. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, New Agers and other paranormalists
would hang out at Sanderson's estate, nicknamed The Farm, and read, write, and
research. In his group's newsletter Pursuit in April of 1971, Sanderson wrote of something
he called "vile vortices", twelve spots around the globe that he believed could be portals
to another dimension. In 1972, the article was reprinted in Sagamagazine under the title
"The Twelve Devil's Graveyards Around the World". In addition to the north pole and the
south pole, Sanderson proposed ten triangles circling the globe, all the same size, shape,
and orientation as the Bermuda Triangle. Five, including the Bermuda Triangle, are
supposedly spaced equidistantly around the Tropic of Cancer (about 23.5° N) and the
other five staggered between them along the Tropic of Capricorn (about 23.5° S). The
Devil's Sea is another of the five northern triangles, with another enclosing the volcanoes
of Hawaii
5. The anomalies throughout history have inspired fascinating theories
and lines of research. In 1950, Japanese authorities declared the area a
“shipping danger zone.” In 1952, the government launched a research
project to discover the true source the mysteries, but the research ship
for this project, the Kaio Maru No. 5 disappeared to the same
unexplained fate. The ship held 22 crewmen and nine scientists.
Many view natural environmental changes as the cause of the
controversial anomalies. One of these explanations is the vast field
of methane hydrates present on the bottom of the ocean in this area.
Methane clathrates (methane hydrate ice) will “flash” into a gas when it
rises above 64.4°F (18°C). The gas eruptions can interrupt buoyancy
and can easily sink a ship, leaving no trace of debris. The gas will also
explode if it comes within contact of an open flame. Other natural
explanations involve agonic lines, volcanic activity and tectonic plate
movement
6.
The name “Dragon's Triangle” comes from a centuriesold Chinese legend of dragons living in palaces
beneath the sea. The actual area encompasses a
triangular line from western Japan north of Tokyo, to
Guam to Taiwan. It, like the Bermuda Triangle,
exhibits some magnetic anomalies, and vessels that
pass through it have reported navigation and
communication malfunctions. Reports of bright
lights, volatile and sudden weather changes,
unexplained sudden ocean swells, whirlpools, thick
fogs, and storms coincide with disappearances of
maritime vessels, aircraft, and tales of drifting,
crewless ghost ships.
The Dragon's and Bermuda Triangles align point to
point through the center of the Earth, with the same
latitude and longitude. Both are located at the eastern
end of large continental masses, where the sea's
currents are colliding with warm and cold water, over
volcanic areas. Deep trenches are another
commonality, with the triangle in the Pacific Ocean
featuring the Mariana Trench, the deepest known
point in all the seas. The Dragon's Triangle in
particular, reports an ever-changing seascape with
professionally charted landmasses and islands literally
forming and disappearing overnight.
7. ATTEMPTS
Kublai Khan made two unsuccessful attempts to take over Japan
in the 13th century, but both attempts failed on the trip through
these waters and over 40,000 crewmen were lost in the first
attempt alone. The Japanese people believed that Nature
intervened to protect them and attributed the victories to the
“Divine Wind”.
Modern linguist and author Charles Berlitz made his own mark
on the topic in his 1989 book,The Dragon's Triangle. Of the
many missing ships recorded — ranging from small fishing
boats, large 200,000-ton (181,439-metric ton) tankers, American
and Japanese warships and airplanes, and Soviet nuclear missile
submarines — few revealed signs of wreckage, oil slicks or
flotsam. Berlitz traces UFO and USO (unidentified submerged
objects) activity in this area back to the 12th century.