Dragon's Triangle (Devil's Sea)

The Dragon's Triangle is one of 12 Vile Vortices, originally plotted by Ivan T. Sanderson.1

Off the coast of Japan, almost exactly opposite the Bermuda Triangle, the Dragon's Triangle is noted for similar paranormal disturbances. Also like the Bermuda Triangle, the Dragon's Triangle doesn't appear on any official global maps.2

The Dragon's Triangle | Devil's Sea | Ma-no Umi

The Japanese call it the Ma-no Umi: the Sea of the Devil. Often compared to the Bermuda Triangle, the Dragon's Triangle is an area where sea-going vessels and aircraft allegedly mysteriously disappear. Besides disappearing planes and ships, phenomena that are linked to the Dragon's Triangle include ghost ships, USOs, lapses in time, and electronic equipment malfunctions. Some writers, including Charles Berlitz3, even link the Dragon's Triangle to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

Investigations into the Devil's Sea

Probably the most extensive investigation into the Dragon's Triangle was performed by author Charles Berlitz. In his book, "The Dragon's Triangle" (1989), Berlitz reports that in the years from 1952 to 1954, five Japanese military vessels were lost in the triangle with personnel totaling over 700 people. He also writes that the Japanese government labeled the area a danger zone and then funded a team of 100 scientists to study the Devil's Sea. According to Berlitz, when their vessel, the Kaiyo Maru No 5 disappeared, Japan aborted the study.

However, in 1995, Larry Kusche published "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved" and reported that his research found that Berlitz's military vessels were mostly fishing vessels, some lost outside the Dragon's Triangle. Kusche also wrote that the Japanese research vessel carried not 100 personnel, but 31 and that an undersea volcano destroyed it on September 24, 1952. The Japanese government later recovered some of the ship's wreckage.

Kusche's research points to indications that volcanoes, seismic events and other natural occurrences cause most of the "paranormal" activity within the Dragon's Triangle.The Dragon's Triangle is a very volcanically active area; small islands in the area frequently disappear and new islands appear due to both volcanoes and seismic activity.

Legends of the Dragon's Triangle

Contrary to some pop culture belief3, 5, neither the Dragon's Triangle nor the Bermuda Triangle is located on the agonic line, where the magnetic north equals the geographic north. The position of the agonic line varies with time and at present the North American section of the line is drifting westward4. Moreover, because neither location is plotted on any official world map, the sizes and the perimeters of both the Dragon's Triangle and the Bermuda Triangle vary from author to author.

Ancient legends, some dating back to 1000 B.C.E. tell of dragons that lived off the coast of Japan5 and presumably, that is how the area became known as the Dragon's Triangle. The fire-breathing monsters of legend may well have been volcanic eruptions.