1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 The Bermuda Triangle, one of the deadliest places on Earth. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:13,000 A hot zone where ships and airplanes vanish without a trace. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:22,000 But halfway around the globe, at its polar opposite, there lies another triangle. 4 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000 This one more mysterious and more deadly. 5 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000 It is known as the Dragon's Triangle. 6 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:43,000 The Dragon's Triangle is an area where ships disappear, planes disappear, and other kind of phenomena occur. 7 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 There's really no way to predict what sorts of things you're going to see out here. 8 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:48,000 And we do see some pretty odd stuff. 9 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:56,000 We'll explore the mysteries, the evidence, and the science behind one of the most treacherous, dangerous, 10 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 and puzzling triangle regions on the planet. 11 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:06,000 If your ship was right on top of that gas bubble, you would sink because you wouldn't have enough buoyancy to keep your ship floating. 12 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:14,000 As events involving ships, planes, and submarines continue to terrify passengers and mystify experts, many wonder, 13 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:21,000 what is downing, and what could possibly be next in the Pacific's Bermuda Triangle? 14 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,000 The Dragon's Triangle 15 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,000 25 degrees north, 142 degrees east. 16 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:49,000 These are the coordinates of the center of one of the most mysterious triangle regions on Earth. 17 00:01:50,000 --> 00:02:00,000 For centuries, this area has hosted some of the most bizarre disappearances of ships, airplanes, and loss of life anywhere on the planet. 18 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,000 But this is not the Bermuda Triangle. 19 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:08,000 It is a 500,000 square mile area located in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean. 20 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000 It is known as the Dragon's Triangle. 21 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:21,000 The Devil's Sea, or the Dragon's Triangle, is an area off the southern coast of Japan where, supposedly, many unexplained shipwrecks have taken place 22 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:30,000 where planes have disappeared, very similar to the Bermuda Triangle in, of course, a very different part of the world. 23 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:37,000 The Dragon's Triangle is a large area of water off the east coast of Japan, bounded by Japan and Guam, 24 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:44,000 in the Philippine Sea in which navigators and ships have reported for thousands of years 25 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:51,000 loss of ships, loss of compass readings, and strange objects flying out of the water. 26 00:02:52,000 --> 00:03:02,000 Curiously, its counterpoint in the Atlantic, the infamous Bermuda Triangle, lies directly across the globe, along the 35-degree latitude line. 27 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:09,000 Both areas are believed to contain some of the world's deepest waters, much of which remains unexplored to this day. 28 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Both the Bermuda Triangle and the Dragon's Sea lie along the same latitude, and both have the same anomaly where geographic north and magnetic north seem to come together, 29 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,000 so compass readings are off by 20 degrees. 30 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:32,000 And that's why researchers believe there are so many lost planes and ships in these areas. 31 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:37,000 It's quite interesting to see that they are both at exactly the same location. 32 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:45,000 The boundaries of the Dragon's Triangle are generally believed to stretch from central Japan to Guam to the Mariana Islands. 33 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:53,000 While lesser known to the west than the Bermuda Triangle, unexplained disappearances and strange phenomena occur in this area 34 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,000 with a far greater and more alarming frequency. 35 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:05,000 Since World War II, it is believed that over 1,500 vessels and hundreds of military, commercial, and civilian aircraft have disappeared. 36 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:19,000 The Dragon's Triangle has had many more ships disappear than the Bermuda Triangle, and the ships that have disappeared in the Dragon's Triangle have been large ones, military ships, cargo ships. 37 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:27,000 What's so odd about the Dragon's Triangle compared to the Bermuda Triangle is that the Bermuda Triangle has so much more press. Why would that be? 38 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:35,000 The area first gained modern notoriety in 1989 with the publication of Charles Berlitz's The Dragon's Triangle. 39 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:45,000 Berlitz, coincidentally, was the author of the book The Bermuda Triangle, which reopened that mysterious case in 1974. 40 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:55,000 For years Berlitz studied the reports of ship and aircraft disappearances in this area, along with reports of UFO sightings and other anomalies. 41 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:01,000 According to his research, compasses often fail or give wildly inaccurate readings in the Triangle. 42 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,000 Boats and airplanes report being moved far off course in a matter of seconds. 43 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000 Sightings of ghost ships have been reported for over 100 years. 44 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:20,000 And finally, hundreds of ships, airplanes and even submarines have, without warning, fallen to the bottom of this extremely deep region. 45 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:30,000 One of Berlitz's most terrifying and puzzling unsolved cases involves what he considers unseen and unknown forces, 46 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:37,000 that pulled legendary pilot Amelia Earhart down to her death in the heart of the Triangle in 1937. 47 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:43,000 She goes more than two-thirds of the way around the world, over 22,000 miles. 48 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,000 I look eastward over the Pacific, she writes. 49 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,000 I shall be glad when we have the hazards of its navigation behind us. 50 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:59,000 This fleeting radio contact is the last verified report of Amelia Earhart. 51 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:12,000 Here's a story where Amelia Earhart was flying off Guam. Some say she was on a spy mission for the United States, and she lost her compass bearings. 52 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,000 July 2, 1937, 12.30pm. 53 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:24,000 Pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan left Le Nuginney on the last leg of around-the-world flight. 54 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:32,000 Their flight plan would have taken them 2,500 miles to Holland Island for a refueling stop, and over the Dragon's Triangle. 55 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:35,000 The two were never seen again. 56 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:43,000 Her compass and her instruments went down. Her plane was lost, she was never heard from again. 57 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:50,000 To this day, Earhart's disappearance remains one of aviation's greatest unsolved cases. 58 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:01,000 The Dragon's Triangle is also host to stories of ghost ships appearing out of the fog. 59 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:08,000 Burlitz associates the Dragon's Triangle with one of the sea's greatest mysteries as well, ghost ships. 60 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,000 Large ships floating at sea, completely devoid of people, cargo and equipment. 61 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:19,000 He claims the region has been fraught with unmanned floating hulks for centuries. 62 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,000 In Japanese tradition, these ghost ships are typically malevolent. 63 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,000 They want to destroy the living people that they run into. 64 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,000 Ghost ships exceeding 100,000 tons have been seen floating aimlessly in the Dragon's Triangle. 65 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:40,000 If true, how does an entire crew vanish without a trace? 66 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,000 Burlitz points out a pair of horrifying ghost ship cases in his book. 67 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000 June 11th, 1881, 4 a.m. 68 00:07:52,000 --> 00:08:01,000 According to reports, the HMS Bachante encountered the legendary glowing flying Dutchman ghost ship late at night in the deepest area of the Dragon's Triangle. 69 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:09,000 A naval ensign aboard the ship, a prince who would later become England's King George V, made the following entry in the ship's log. 70 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,000 The flying Dutchman crossed our boughs. 71 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,000 She emitted a strange phosphorescent light as of a phantom ship, all aglow. 72 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:22,000 She came up on the port bow where also the officer of the watch from the bridge saw her. 73 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:28,000 But on arrival there was no vestige or any sign whatever of any material ship to be seen, 74 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:31,000 either near or right away to the horizon. 75 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,000 The night became clear and the sea calm. 76 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:43,000 January 1989, Burlitz says that a Japanese whaling ship skippered by Captain Moro Sagakami 77 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:50,000 came within 50 feet of a small fishing boat that was bobbing erratically in their course one dark, clear night. 78 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:56,000 The captain and several crew members arrived to find a ship completely barren of all crew and cargo, 79 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,000 save for the corpse of the captain, still gripping the helm. 80 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:05,000 As far as go ships are concerned, what if the crews themselves were abductees? 81 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:13,000 So the reason the vessel is adrift, the reason there's no crew, no remains, is that the crews are simply gone taken by a USO. 82 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:19,000 According to Burlitz's research, dozens of vessels have gone even further off the radar. 83 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,000 They have disappeared from the triangle entirely. 84 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:31,000 On April 19, 1949, the Kuroshiomaru No. 1 disappears with a reported crew of 23. 85 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:39,000 On June 8, 1952, 29 crew members of the Chifuku Maru No. 5 vanish. 86 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:47,000 June 26, 1955, a US Air Force F-3B jet loses radio contact with its base. 87 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,000 Its two-man crew disappears. 88 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:59,000 March 12, 1957, eight crewmen aboard a United States Air Force KB-50 tanker transport are reported missing. 89 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:07,000 June 7, 1963, remains of the Donanmaru are found floating on the ocean surface off Shio-Nomizaki. 90 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:13,000 But an event forever etched into triangle lore and Japanese history 91 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:19,000 is the mysterious sinking of the Japanese research vessel Kaio-Maru No. 5. 92 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Kaio-Maru No. 5 was a Coast Guard ship researching about that area. 93 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:34,000 On September 24, 1952, the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency research vessel Kaio-Maru No. 5 is in the Dragon's Triangle. 94 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:41,000 She went out to the Dragon's Triangle specifically to find out the cause of all the losses of vessels in that area. 95 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:50,000 Suddenly, without any distress call, she disappears forever, taking with her a crew of 22 and nine scientists. 96 00:10:52,000 --> 00:11:00,000 In their official Kaio-Maru No. 5 accident investigation report from March 1953, the Marine Coast Guard states, 97 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:08,000 we have to investigate when, where, why it disappeared because there are no witnesses and no survivors for this accident. 98 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:17,000 While many conclude that the ship fell victim to an underwater volcano's eruption, others remain unconvinced. 99 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:23,000 Very ironic that here you have a ship that's going out looking for other ships and it disappears. 100 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,000 That oftentimes happens in these mysterious triangles. 101 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:36,000 Because of this event's importance to Japanese maritime history, today in Tokyo there is a shrine dedicated to the memory of those lost in this mysterious sinking. 102 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:50,000 Coming up, commercial and military pilots and captains report frightening shifts of the time-space continuum when navigating through the Dragon's Triangle. 103 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:55,000 You had experienced missing time during the period he saw the UFO. 104 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:09,000 Like the Bermuda Triangle in the Atlantic, the Dragon's Triangle in the Pacific just off Japan is believed to play havoc with the so-called time-space continuum of planet Earth. 105 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:19,000 This unexplained phenomenon reportedly causes ships and airplanes to be forced off course by miles and miles and for clocks to suddenly change time. 106 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:21,000 All in an instant. 107 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:39,000 Some of the theories for the Dragon's Triangle include that it's anomaly, that there's some kind of magnetic anomaly, that there's some kind of black hole in the ocean, that there's something from outer space that zooms down and has some kind of interaction with, you know, craft there and they disappear. 108 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:45,000 But as far as we know, things happen there and we don't know why. 109 00:12:46,000 --> 00:13:01,000 In the late 1950s, American television and radio personality Arthur Godfrey, an accomplished pilot in his own right, reportedly experiences a frightening occurrence in the Dragon's Triangle, one that nearly cost him his life. 110 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:11,000 In the 1950s, the band leader in television personality from America, Arthur Godfrey, was piloting a twin-engine craft over the Dragon's Triangle. 111 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:32,000 He saw a USO. The instruments on his plane went dead. He was low on fuel. He had to navigate by the sun because his compass was out. When his instruments came back on and he was able to get over land again, he found out the same exact thing that he had experienced missing time during the period. 112 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:52,000 With only enough fuel for three hours, Godfrey piloted his craft on dead reckoning. After one hour, his instrumentation returned and he was able to return to course. However, Godfrey would later report that he inexplicably lost a half hour. His clocks literally rolled backwards. 113 00:13:53,000 --> 00:14:03,000 Fortunately for Godfrey and his crew, they safely arrived in Tokyo, avoiding the terrible fate of Amelia Earhart and countless others in the Dragon's Triangle. 114 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:18,000 Other similar time-space anomalies over the Triangle had been reported by military pilots in the 1950s and 60s, including Air Force pilot Frank Hopkins, an advisor to the 106th Air Transport Group. 115 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:29,000 In the summer of 1968, he wrote to Argosy Magazine with the story of a time-space continuum shift while flying his C-97 Stratofrader over the Dragon's Triangle. 116 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:42,000 In the spring of 1966, I was a basic navigator aboard an airguard C-97 flying from Quadjolaine Island to Guam. We looked forward to a pleasant night flight of about six to six and a half hours. 117 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:55,000 Hopkins says that, as per protocol, he plots his position hourly using star navigation. But during the third hour of the flight, something inexplicable occurs. 118 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:03,000 I shot a second celestial fix. Weather was excellent. Only problem was, and I almost fell out of the airplane when I put this on the chart. 119 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:19,000 This last fix was almost 340 nautical miles down in tended course. I rechecked and rechecked. A plugging old C-97 covered 340 nautical miles in one hour of time for no apparent reason. 120 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:30,000 Later, upon landing on Guam, Hopkins reports to his duty officer that his airplane jumped many hundreds of miles ahead of course, but no report is filed. 121 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:39,000 Hopkins says that he remains convinced, however, that this area is indeed home to peculiar forces that pose great danger to airplanes and ships. 122 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:48,000 Due to the confluence of these events, experts continue to feel other forces might possibly be at work deep below the triangle. 123 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:56,000 Of all the anomalies in the Dragon's Triangle, none are more mysterious than the vast number of sightings of UFOs. 124 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:11,000 According to Charles Berlitz's Dragon's Triangle, he believes the most notorious cause of deadly events in the area are the specter of UFOs and their underwater counterparts, USOs, unidentified submerged objects. 125 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:17,000 Quote, a number of ships that have disappeared in the Dragon's Triangle have been sunk by USOs. 126 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:24,000 These events were often attributed in ancient times to angry demons or dragons. 127 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:34,000 The Japanese were very influenced by the Chinese and the Chinese were great believers in dragons and that these dragons were somehow at sea and they could rise up. 128 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,000 And the dragon was both a propitious and a threatening symbol. 129 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:51,000 UFO experts in Japan and researchers like Berlitz all believe the apparitions in the Triangle, thought to be monsters and dragons by early witnesses, were in fact UFOs. 130 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,000 These reports continue to this day. 131 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:03,000 As we studied about this area, we found many interesting scientific reasons for these incidents which had been called mysterious. 132 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,000 There was a report in the Japan Sea by a fishing boat. 133 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:16,000 The fishermen reported seeing a huge UFO flying back and forth and lights in the ocean. 134 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:28,000 Japanese ufologist Junichiro Kato, head of our J, the organization of UFO research Japan, has been studying UFO phenomenon for almost 20 years. 135 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:37,000 He has seen UFOs on numerous occasions over the waters near Japan and has photographed many of his sightings. 136 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,000 I have so many photographs, there are maybe over 200 sightings. 137 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,000 At one point, I witnessed one or two a month. 138 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:55,000 The eastern tip of the dragon's Triangle is believed by experts to even include portions of the city of Tokyo. 139 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:02,000 On June 14th, 1997, Kato snapped a photograph of a fast-moving glowing disk. 140 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:08,000 Moving at it estimates over 500 miles per hour just above the waters off Tokyo Bay. 141 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:15,000 I took a picture of three UFOs flying in formation over the ocean near Tokyo Disneyland. 142 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:18,000 The three UFOs made a triangle shape. 143 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,000 This event was seen by 10 witnesses. 144 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,000 The event was phoned into local Tokyo news outlets by several witnesses. 145 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,000 But media reports were never filed. 146 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:41,000 Kato was not the only modern Japanese witness to inform the history channel of sightings of UFO-like objects over the Dragon's Triangle. 147 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:53,000 Nobu Miyoshi, a Tokyo-based magazine, edited a witness to UFO over the Dragon's Triangle while on this quiet beach, about 30 miles south of Tokyo in 1990. 148 00:18:54,000 --> 00:19:01,000 In August of 1990, I saw an airplane going in one direction and a white light appeared very close to the jet. 149 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:03,000 And I wondered what it was. 150 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,000 It moved like it was riding a W in the sky. 151 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,000 It moved at one kilometer per second. It was quite quick. 152 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:22,000 Before that, I didn't believe in UFOs. But since then, I became a believer. 153 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,000 This unique experience leaves an indelible impression on Nobu. 154 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:34,000 I wasn't scared. I was very surprised. I'd love to see it again and watch it much closer. 155 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:43,000 Throughout the 20th century, eye-witness reports of UFO sightings in the Dragon's Triangle began to swell. 156 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:48,000 From verbal reports from fishermen to official reports from military men and women. 157 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:55,000 After World War II, the Soviet Navy had one of the largest active fleets in the Northern Pacific. 158 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:04,000 Over the years, sailors and officers aboard these vessels have been responsible for some of the best UFO reports in the Dragon's Triangle. 159 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:15,000 In 1977, the Reconnaissance Division of the Soviet Navy organized a scientific research project to examine the issue of UFOs in the water. 160 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:28,000 I was in charge of this group. At the end of 1977, we gave our large naval vessels instructions on how to observe UFOs. 161 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:44,000 August 18, 1980. According to reports from Moscow-based UFO experts Vladimir Ajazha, the Russian research vessel Vladimir Volbidov moved slowly south through the Dragon's Triangle around Japan heading toward Okinawa. 162 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:52,000 Just after midnight, suddenly and without warning, a cylindrical metallic UFO-like object is seen to rise slowly from the sea. 163 00:20:53,000 --> 00:21:02,000 Hover then dart away into the sky. The object's ability to hover has caused experts like Ajazha to believe that the craft was not man-made. 164 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,000 To this day, the event remains a mystery. 165 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:15,000 Eight months after this Russian event, another significant incident occurs in almost the exact same location. 166 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:27,000 One of the more recent cases and a fascinating case is the Takiki-kyotomaru from 1981. They spotted a UFO, actually a USO, coming out of the water. 167 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,000 April 17, 1981. It is a clear day and the seas are calm. 168 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:41,000 The 165-foot Japanese freighter Takiki-kyotomaru is sailing 200 miles off Kanazawa with over 30 crew members. 169 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:48,000 Suddenly, the crew is rocked as shock waves roll through their ship. The seaman immediately assume they've been hit. 170 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:57,000 April 17, 1981. A Japanese ship sailing off the coast of Japan in an area that is noted as the Dragon's Triangle. 171 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:04,000 Encountered a UFO that came out of the sea violently and, of course, huge waves to buffet the ship. 172 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:15,000 Captain Usuda is at the helm when a bright, saucer-shaped object rises out of the water. The USO is over 50 feet in diameter and hovers silently over the ship. 173 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:24,000 The ship's instruments, the compass, the various dials, the engines all began to blur as the USO circled around the ship. 174 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:31,000 The captain estimated that the USO circled the ship for about 15 minutes, then plunged back into the water. 175 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:40,000 The waves were so violent, Usuda reports, the ship nearly capsized. Even more fierce turbulence occurs when the USO returns to the water. 176 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:55,000 Here's the intriguing thing. When the instruments came back on, the captain compared the time on the radio to the time on the watches and found out the ship had lost 15 minutes in time. 177 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:11,000 Reports of UFOs observing and hovering close to large ships is not new to the Dragon's Triangle. According to Japanese ufologist Junichiro Narasawa, 178 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:27,000 a Japanese government research vessel Kaio Maru is a ship with an impressive UFO-related history. Launched in 1967, she became the largest ship in the Ministry of Agriculture's fleet, weighing in at over 2,500 tons. 179 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:42,000 The Kaio Maru was also considered to be one of the most advanced nautical research ships of her time. On two known occasions, in 1984 and 1986, the premier research ship was reportedly tracked by EUFO. 180 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:53,000 These chilling events were witnessed by at least nine research scientists aboard the ship, including researcher Mikio Nogunobu. 181 00:23:54,000 --> 00:24:07,000 In December 1984, Mr. Nogunobu was in the Falkland Islands at the southern end of South America. One night, he saw two dozen UFOs. They were like lights floating in the sky. 182 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,000 Then, they suddenly went in three different directions. 183 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:28,000 The second reported sighting by the Kaio Maru occurs two years later, in 1986, but this time in the Dragon's Triangle. A huge, cigar-shaped UFO over 100 feet long is reported to approach the ship at high speed before diving into the water. 184 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:48,000 According to Mr. Nogunobu, he witnessed another event in 1986 in the Japan Sea. A huge, cigar-shaped UFO approached the ship. The only thing they saw was a small red light that kept disappearing, but this time the UFO was seen on radar. 185 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:57,000 These two extraordinary events were reported in detail in the Japanese edition of Scientific American Magazine in September 1988. 186 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:13,000 Scientific American Magazine reported about these incidents. In the article, the editor actually described that this event is very important because it's an official report of the government research ship of the Ministry of Agriculture. 187 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:30,000 Reports of UFOs in the Dragon's Triangle are not limited to the sea. From the Amelia Earhart incident onward, pilots have found the skies above the triangle to be as treacherous as the oceans below. 188 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:41,000 A significant air-to-air UFO event occurred over the western end of the triangle, a near-miss collision between an unidentified aircraft and a Toa Airlines Conver 2-3. 189 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:52,000 One famous incident happened in Ikeda when a pilot witnessed a UFO and the control tower announced to all the aircraft that there was a UFO approaching. 190 00:25:53,000 --> 00:26:11,000 March 18, 1965, 7.06 pm. In a harried report to the air traffic control tower in Tomokatsu, 43-year-old Captain Yoshihara Onaba reports an unidentified oblong craft is approaching his jetliner as it cruises over the triangle, fast. 191 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:18,000 Onaba then makes a 60-degree turn at over 500 miles per hour to avoid collision. 192 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:31,000 The object stops abruptly and follows alongside the airliner. Captain Onaba reports he's being shadowed by a UFO. He reports the object is 50 feet in length and radiates a greenish light. 193 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,000 Several witnesses observe the situation from the ground. 194 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:41,000 Meanwhile, a Piper Upachi registered to Tokyo Airlines hears Captain Onaba's frantic transmissions. 195 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:50,000 At 10.07 universal time, he sees the same UFO at 7,200 feet heading east to Osaka and toward the Dragon's Triangle. 196 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:57,000 Air traffic control Akira Taguchi was at his post when Captain Onaba radios his report. 197 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:03,000 He later confirms the object was seen over the mountains near Hiroshima and near the island of Shikoku. 198 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:12,000 The same day at roughly the same time, engineers who worked in the mountains near Hiroshima said they had seen something which had been a flying saucer. 199 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,000 These are the facts nobody knows what this object really was. 200 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:32,000 The Dragon's Triangle has been known for thousands of years and one of the stories that's connected with it is that there's a dragon that lives under the ocean and comes out of the ocean and snatches craft and vessels down into the depths. 201 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:44,000 One of the world's earliest UFO stories, in fact, originates from the waters off Japan, along with what many believe to be the first modern drawings of UFOs. 202 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:55,000 The legend of the Yuzuru Bune, a mysterious alien woman who arrives from the bottom of the Pacific in a round craft-like vessel, goes back centuries. 203 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:05,000 A closer look at the drawings reveals a flying saucer-shaped object, similar to those seen by countless witnesses in the 20th century. 204 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:10,000 These drawings are thought to be the earliest known UFO-themed prints. 205 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:17,000 In the writings, they found a description of a bowl-like metal ship that arrived on a beach called Hiratono-O-Hama. 206 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:23,000 The witnesses approached and looked inside. There was a woman with smooth, light clothes. 207 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:31,000 On the ship, there were letters that had never been seen before. They described what could have been a UFO in ancient Japan. 208 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,000 There were no round ships in Japan at that time, so they believed it was a UFO. 209 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:49,000 The most interesting part of the shapes of the Yuzuru Bune, it is very similar to the modern UFOs. 210 00:28:50,000 --> 00:29:00,000 My first interest is why the people can imagine these kind of shapes 200 years ago. 211 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:07,000 Kazuo Tanaka, a professor at Gifu University in Tokyo, reopened the Yuzuru Bune legend in 1997. 212 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:18,000 His investigation led him to ask if the mysterious woman who came out of the waters of the Pacific so long ago was really part of, quote, a close encounter of the third kind. 213 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:32,000 I investigated the old ship in the end period, 200 years, intensively, but I could not find any ship that is similar to these spherical shapes. 214 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:40,000 This is similar to the Yuzuru Bune. So it is very, very, I think, a strange shape. 215 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:49,000 Beginning in the early 1800s, Japan suddenly sees a bounty of Yuzuru Bune drawings, all by different artists in different parts of the country, 216 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:57,000 each one telling the exact same story of a mysterious woman emerging from an eerily similar saucer-shaped craft. 217 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:06,000 The Yuzuru Bune forklift is very famous in Japan, and had it done in many places in Japan. I could find five pictures. 218 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:18,000 It is a little bit strange. So why people made so many drawings concerning the Yuzuru Bune? It is a mystery. 219 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:31,000 These strange coincidences cause experts like Tanaka to wonder if Japan, which was completely closed to outsiders and outside news until 1857, experienced a mass UFO sighting at around this time. 220 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:39,000 The Utsurabun Forkura in Japan has a key to solve the mystery of the modern UFOs, I think. 221 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,000 The mysteries of the sea pervade Japanese culture and history. 222 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:56,000 Stories and legends surrounding UFO activity in the Dragon's Triangle have been around for centuries. 223 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:09,000 On September 24th, 1235, strange celestial lights are seen to move and hover above General Yuritsumi's army encampment in Kyoto, which terrified the troops. 224 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:15,000 The objects were thought to be dragons from the sea, on their way to attack them. 225 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:27,000 40 years later, two large-scale catastrophic events in the Dragon's Triangle would make world history and give its deep waters a deadly reputation. 226 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:44,000 The Devil's Triangle, which has accumulated a certain amount of lore in modern times, and this clearly, to some extent at least, reflects old Japanese traditions having to do with the sea, with dangers in the sea, with supernatural or even the sea. 227 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:56,000 There are even divine beings who live in the sea, who can both protect and also attack those who earn their livelihood from the sea, fishermen and so on. 228 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:09,000 In 1274, the Mongol Empire, under Kublai Khan, assembled a massive force of over 900 ships to conquer the one territory he coveted, Japan. 229 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:17,000 Victory was more than assured until a single catastrophic event in the Triangle stopped this massive armada, cold. 230 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:25,000 Mongolia was governing maybe half of Europe and all over Asia, and they tried to invade Japan as well. 231 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:31,000 A typhoon came and all of the ships were sunk, and they couldn't reach Japan. 232 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:45,000 And they brought about 40,000 troops in 1274 to Japan. More than half of that fleet was sunk in this storm, and so the Mongols' first invasion ended up as a major disaster. 233 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:50,000 Some 20,000 Mongols were killed in that instance or lost their lives. 234 00:32:51,000 --> 00:33:01,000 Khan made another, more massive attack on Japan in 1281. This time he brought 140,000 men and 3,000 ships. 235 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:11,000 The second invasion had similar disastrous results. An estimated 70,000 Mongol troops were destroyed, along with a majority of the ships. 236 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:27,000 The second great effort to invade Japan was, once again, defeated by the arrival of a propitious wind, as the Japanese like to call it. This created the notion of the divine wind. 237 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:35,000 At the time of the Mongolian invasion, it is believed that the wind saved Japan. 238 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:49,000 Experts and historians alike still question if events in this anomalous zone are the work of divine winds of benevolent gods, strange meteorological occurrences, or possibly something else. 239 00:33:50,000 --> 00:34:04,000 The fact that nature intervened on two separate occasions, I don't know, it did put a little bit of folklore into Japanese history as far as the world. 240 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,000 It was a heavenly intervention protecting Japan. 241 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:19,000 As Japan was all but closed to outsiders over much of its history, experts fear that a great reserve of UFO research into the Triangle is forever lost. 242 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,000 It was not until the late 19th century that reports became more frequent. 243 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:36,000 The American official whose work helped open Japan's door to the west was personally involved in a mystery involving possible UFOs in the Dragon's Triangle. 244 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,000 July 8th, 1853, 4 a.m. 245 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,000 Commodore Matthew C. Perry is off the coast of Ulaga in Tokyo Bay. 246 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,000 Suddenly, an unusual object emerges from the sky. 247 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,000 Perry recorded this encounter in his log. 248 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:03,000 During the watch, from midnight to 4 a.m., a very remarkable meteor was seen. 249 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:08,000 It made its appearance in the south and west and illuminated the whole atmosphere. 250 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:20,000 The spars, sails and hulls of the ships in company, as well as our own, reflected its glare as distinctly as though a blue light were burning from each at the same time. 251 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:33,000 From the south and west, about 15 degrees above the horizon, it pursued a northeasterly course in a direct line for a long distance when it fell gradually toward the sea and disappeared. 252 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:41,000 What follows is a vivid description of something which does not resemble a meteor, something far more ominous. 253 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:55,000 Its shape was that of a large blue sphere with a red wedge-shaped tail, which, it could be easily observed, was formed of ignited particles and resembled the sparks of a rocket as they appear upon explosion. 254 00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:07,000 UFO researchers in Japan are convinced that Commodore Perry, during one of the most important voyages west by an American, witnessed a UFO in the heart of the Dragon's Triangle. 255 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:14,000 There was a report of sightings of a UFO when the American leadership approached the Japanese government to open commerce. 256 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:23,000 While his ship was floating at the Uraga, Perry wrote the report in his navigation diary. Others witnessed this sighting as well. 257 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:33,000 Perry continued to search for clues and answers, but died five years later in 1858, without further insight into the events of that night. 258 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:46,000 This is where two big dragons are hiding themselves from 3,000 years ago. 259 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:51,000 This area is called the Devil's Sea and many ships have disappeared without good reason. 260 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:57,000 Let's find out the biggest and strongest mystery of the 20th century, the Dragon's Triangle. 261 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:12,000 What we have seen is that in Japan and in the Ring of Fire, that before and after increased seismic activity or increased volcanic activity, there will be a lot of sightings of these UFOs. 262 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:25,000 Deep beneath the Dragon's Triangle lies one of the most seismically active regions on the planet. Here gigantic, undersea tectonic plates shift constantly and sub-oceanic volcano eruptions are quite frequent. 263 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:32,000 All of which might be responsible for significant shipping losses and dramatic loss of life. 264 00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:39,000 Back in the States, we receive a message traffic on a regular basis that tells us volcano warning alerts. 265 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:53,000 So not only do we know where they are, we have a plot on our charts. If I go down and check my email right now, I have about eight or ten messages from these guys telling us there's a volcano here that has shown some sort of seismic activity and your best bet is to steer clear. 266 00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:05,000 When you get an underwater eruption, depending on how deep it is, if it's pretty deep, you'll just get lava flows coming out, but if it's closer to the surface, you'll get actual gas in the magma that forms bubbles and it's an explosive eruption. 267 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:12,000 Dr. Joanne Stock is professor of geology and geophysics at Caltech University in Pasadena, California. 268 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:21,000 One of the Mariana Islands, which was erupting in 2003, it had these eruptions that were on the island itself and people could see that there's pulses of gas coming out. 269 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:40,000 It actually has more than 80 little vents that are offshore that are also active. If one of those was erupting, you know, you might see the peak of the volcano on the island, it doesn't look like anything's happening, but something could be erupting underwater where your ship is sailing near it and could be affected or could sink because too much gas is in the water. 270 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:48,000 The gases created by underwater volcanoes can wreak havoc with ships, even huge container and cargo ships. 271 00:38:48,000 --> 00:39:00,000 If you happen to get a gas bubble, you know, a big gas bubble that came out of a vent that was underwater, if your ship was right on top of the gas bubble, you would sink because you wouldn't have enough buoyancy to keep your ship floating. 272 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:08,000 The ring of fire that lies within the Dragon's Triangle is filled with dangerous volcanoes at very depths. 273 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:14,000 The shallowest ones are these islands above sea level and then they go on down, you know, 10,000 feet. 274 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:19,000 Why is there so much volcanic activity surrounding Japan and this area? 275 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:27,000 It may come as a surprise to some people to realize that the majority of the volcanism on the planet Earth is happening on the seafloor. 276 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:39,000 Most of the Pacific Ocean outflore is moving from east to west and as the seafloor is dragged down into the interior of the Earth, this water reacts with hot rock and makes volcanoes. 277 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:54,000 Volcanoes along the Marianus put your erupting as a result of this plate collision can toss aerosols in particulate matter all the way up to the stratosphere and obviously if a plane flew into that it might clog the engines. 278 00:39:55,000 --> 00:40:01,000 Another dangerous phenomenon in the Dragon's Triangle is the so-called Triangle waves. 279 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:09,000 These bizarre oceanic enigma are swift and deadly and impossible to predict. 280 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:16,000 There are big waves, 7, 8, 9 feet high crashing in from different directions. 281 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:24,000 This creates huge waves up to 65 feet high. This is the most dangerous thing that I have ever seen. 282 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:32,000 Japan is located where there are seasonal big winds and the wintertime there tends to be a lot of bad weather and turbulence. 283 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:37,000 Winds from different directions create the Triangle waves. 284 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:46,000 The term Triangular wave, Sankakunami in Japanese, is a name used by Japanese people from the past. 285 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:51,000 What it represents from a scientific point of view is not known. 286 00:40:52,000 --> 00:41:01,000 Dr. Hiroshi Tomita, special researcher at Japan's National Maritime Research Institute and Dr. Takuji Waseda, professor at the University of Tokyo, 287 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:06,000 performed a unique experiment for the history channel in the world's largest wave tank. 288 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:12,000 It demonstrates the destructive capabilities of the kinds of Triangle waves and currents that affect this area. 289 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:24,000 A U.S. commercial ship reported that they actually saw a wave over 100 feet high, but it was measured by sight so they don't have any scientific proof. 290 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,000 What my team is trying to do is measure in a more scientific way. 291 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:39,000 There are 32 plungers at the end of the tank which we control the amplitude of the face from a computer. 292 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:45,000 These tank tests are scalable. The same thing can happen in the real ocean. 293 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:49,000 Dr. Waseda illustrates the nature of a Triangle wave. 294 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:57,000 As two waves process each other, the wave pattern will form a triangular shape. 295 00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:05,000 When a ship encounters these kind of triangular-shaped waves, the ship can move in quite a different way. 296 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,000 Sometimes it can move this way, but sometimes it can roll. 297 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,000 Roll, for example, for a ship is extremely dangerous. 298 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:19,000 The energy piles up. It is said that the amplitude can be quite high because of the crossing sea. 299 00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:27,000 Not being able to predict the direction of the forces is a threat for a ship. 300 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:38,000 The phenomenon of Triangle waves is reportedly responsible for the destruction of many ships and great losses of life in the Dragon's Triangle. 301 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:43,000 I think the scientific knowledge is very similar to the Jigsaw puzzle. 302 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:48,000 We have no peace that much to the U.S. force. 303 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:54,000 There are many reports of accidents, so I consider that it is a dangerous area. 304 00:42:55,000 --> 00:43:02,000 But we cannot define those accidents either from a volcano, natural causes, or some mysterious UFO. 305 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:11,000 For hundreds of years in the Dragon's Triangle, there have been countless reports of disappearances and eerie encounters with UFOs, 306 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:18,000 drawing a perfect correlation to its mysterious counterpart in Bermuda, leaving many researchers to call this Hatsun. 307 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,000 The Pacific's Bermuda Triangle. 308 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:28,000 I've seen all the reports. I believe there are many people who see it and don't talk about it. 309 00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:36,000 There are some people who say, I cannot believe until I see with my own eyes, but of course the eyes are not always reliable. 310 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:40,000 We have to research from many different points of view. 311 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:46,000 Maybe there are some doors that open frequently to the different dimensions on this planet. 312 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:52,000 So in theory, maybe it's possible there are doors like that in the ocean. 313 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:59,000 Modern researchers, both for the Dragon's Sea of Japan and the Bermuda Triangle of the Florida coast, 314 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:06,000 have hypothesized that there is an undersea UFO base or a U.S.O. base in those waters. 315 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:15,000 They're very deep. There's a lot of volcanic activity and sometimes the magnetic readings will throw off attempts to find objects on the bottom of the ocean. 316 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,000 So there may well be a U.S.O. base in the Dragon Sea of Japan.