Case file · Anomaly hotspot
The Dragon's Triangle (Devil's Sea)
A Pacific region off Japan with a reputation like the Bermuda Triangle.
1950 CE · 29.00, 140.00 · status: folklore
The sceptical view
Losses are attributable to seismic activity and severe weather; the 'zone' is largely a media construct.
The researched reading
A Pacific copy of the Bermuda legend. Its signature case was a ship destroyed by the very volcano it was studying, which is the best summary of the zone.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 58% | The sea south of Japan is volcanic and typhoon-swept: the research ship Kaiyō Maru No. 5, the case always cited, was destroyed with 31 aboard on 24 September 1952 by the eruption of the submarine volcano Myōjin-shō it was sent to study. The Kuroshio current, heavy seas and fishing-boat losses account for the rest. |
| Undetermined | 17% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| Something known, misidentified | 9% | Scattered losses over a huge, busy ocean were grouped into a shape after the Bermuda model. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 6% | Selective counting of losses inside an arbitrary boundary. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | Charles Berlitz’s The Dragon’s Triangle (1989) built the zone, turning fishing boats into “military vessels” and inflating crew numbers; Kusche showed many claims were unsupported. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 3% | Undersea gas release and sudden volcanic islands are real hazards here and not always predictable. |
| Secret human technology | 1% | No evidence of secret military activity behind any loss. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 1% | Nothing in the record calls for it. |
Official position: No Japanese authority recognises a special danger zone; claims of a government declaration are unverified.
Connections in the atlas
- The loss of the Kaiyō Maru No. 5
- ? Is the Bermuda Triangle really dangerous?
- MV Derbyshire lost in the 'Devil's Sea'
- Berlitz's 'The Dragon's Triangle'
- Sanderson's 'Invisible Residents'