Mystery Timeline｜1946–1988
The UFO boom, the tsuchinoko and lake monster crazes, the Slit-Mouthed Woman, and other mysteries that captivated Japan from the postwar years to the end of the Showa era.
The 1947 incident in which the American businessman Kenneth Arnold saw nine high-speed flying objects near Mount Rainier from his private plane. It gave rise to the term "flying saucer" and is the starting point of modern UFO history.
A 1947 incident in New Mexico in which the US military announced it had recovered a "flying disc" from debris found on a ranch. It became synonymous with UFO crash theories.
The incident on January 7, 1948, in which Air Force fighter pilot Captain Thomas Mantell crashed and died while chasing a UFO over Kentucky. It was rumored that he was "shot down by a UFO," but he is thought to have blacked out from lack of oxygen after climbing too high.
A small, bipedal hominid-type cryptid about 1 m tall said to live in the forests of Sumatra, Indonesia. The name means "short person." It drew renewed attention when fossils of a small early human were found in 2003.
A hominid-type cryptid said to live in the forests and grasslands of Ohio. Considered a relative of Bigfoot, it is said to leave nest-like structures made of grass.
The original "contactee," who claimed to have met a Venusian and set off a worldwide UFO boom. He is known for photos of a bell-shaped "Adamski-type saucer," but many have pointed to fabrication.
A hominid-type cryptid said to live in the swamps of Florida. It is named for the powerful skunk-like stench it gives off. An unidentified photo sent in 2000 caused a stir.
The best-known Japanese school ghost story: knock on the third stall of a school toilet and call her name, and a voice answers "Yes." She became famous nationwide during the school ghost story boom of the 1990s.
A giant crocodile cryptid up to 15 m long, said to live in the swamps and rivers of the Congo in central Africa. Told of among local people, it is said to swallow people boat and all. One theory holds that it is a surviving prehistoric giant crocodile.
A dinosaur-like cryptid said to live in the lakes and rivers of the jungles of the Republic of the Congo. Rumored to be a surviving sauropod, it was investigated on site in 1988 by a team from Waseda University in Japan.
What remains of a wizard or king who used powerful magic to make himself undying. Because its soul is hidden in another vessel, it is said to be impossible to destroy. It has become a standard undead in modern fantasy fiction and games.
A flying cryptid that looks like a pterosaur, sighted on the islands of Papua New Guinea. It has a long tail and is said to glow at night. It drew attention as a possible surviving pterosaur.
A giant turtle cryptid with a shell several meters across, said to live in the lakes and swamps of the Congo in central Africa. It is told of in the same region as Mokele-mbembe.
A type of alien said to be tall, blond and blue-eyed, resembling the people of Northern Europe. Spread by 1950s "contactees" who claimed to have met aliens, they were portrayed as peace-preaching "space brothers," in sharp contrast to the small Greys.
A monster about 3 meters tall seen in 1952 in the town of Flatwoods, West Virginia. It is said to have appeared just after a glowing object fell from the sky, and is known in Japan as "the 3-meter alien."
The July 1952 incident in which unidentified lights repeatedly appeared over Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, and showed up on airport radar. Fighters were scrambled, and the Air Force held a major press conference explaining it as a weather phenomenon.
A bipedal creature with a frog-like face sighted in Loveland, Ohio. It became famous in 1972 when police officers reported seeing it on a road.
The idea of using science and technology to enhance the abilities of the human body and brain and to overcome aging, disease and even death. The word spread in 1957, and while it draws attention with advances in AI and medicine, it is also told in conspiracy theories that "some people are trying to remake humanity."
A hairy, ape-like cryptid two to three meters tall said to live in the forests of North America. The name spread with news of giant footprints in 1958, and it became world-famous with film footage in 1967.
Large cats like leopards or pumas sighted in regions where they should not live. Especially common in Britain, with the "Beast of Bodmin Moor" in Cornwall the most famous.
An alien about one meter tall with gray skin, a large head and black almond-shaped eyes. The most typical image of an alien, it spread through abduction accounts such as the Hill case of the 1960s.
The theory that aliens visited the ancient Earth and influenced human civilization. It became a worldwide boom with Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods? in 1968. The pyramids and the Nazca Lines were offered as evidence, but archaeology rejects it.
Accounts of being taken aboard a UFO by aliens and examined. They spread from the 1961 Hill case. "Missing time," a gap in memory, is said to be a feature, but psychology explains such accounts through sleep paralysis and memories created under hypnosis.
An object found in the Coso Mountains of California in 1961, with metal and ceramic parts embedded in stone. It caused a stir as "a spark plug from a 500,000-year-old rock," but it was later found to be a 1920s car spark plug.
The 1961 incident in which an American couple, the Hills, said they were taken aboard a UFO during a night drive and examined by aliens. Their memories were said to have resurfaced under regression hypnosis, and it became the prototype of "alien abduction."
A triangular area of ocean connecting the Florida Peninsula, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. It became famous as a "sea of mystery" where ships and planes vanish, but accidents there are not considered especially frequent.
A school ghost story in which, when you find there is no toilet paper, a voice asks, "Do you want red paper or blue paper?" Answer "red" and you are covered in blood; answer "blue" and your blood is drained until you die pale blue.
A school ghost story in which a voice in the school toilet asks, "Shall I put a red vest on you?" If you answer "yes," your throat is cut and blood runs down your back, making it look as if you are wearing a red vest.
A yokai in the form of a strip of white cotton cloth about one tan long, which flutters through the evening sky and wraps itself around people's necks and faces. It comes from the folklore of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, and became famous nationwide through the manga GeGeGe no Kitaro.
A wild cat found only on Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture. Long known to the islanders, it was scientifically confirmed only in 1965. We explain the story of this 20th-century discovery in Japan.
An urban legend of a spirit that appears at night to anyone who has heard its story and tries to take their limbs or body. Unless you give the right answer or chant, your body will be taken; chants such as "ka for kamen (mask)" are told.
A gigantic skeleton yokai said to wander fields at night and attack and eat people. It is said to be formed from the bones of people who died without being given proper funerals. Its image comes from an ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
A school ghost story in which the anatomical model in the science room comes to life at night and runs around the halls. It is a staple of the "seven wonders of the school," told alongside the skeleton and the music room portraits.
A giant-fish cryptid said to live in Lake Otori in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture. There are sightings of fish over 2 meters long, and surveys have been carried out many times. The leading theory is that it is an unusually large char or similar fish.
An urban legend of the ghost of a woman who lost the lower half of her body, who chases people at terrifying speed on her elbows, making a "teke teke" sound. The story of a railway crossing accident in Hokkaido is famous, and the legend spread throughout Japan.
A giant-fish cryptid said to live in Takanami Pond in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture. It is said to be 2 to 4 meters long and is seen as a carp-like fish. One theory is that it is a carp that has lived long and grown huge.
A yokai that appears as an invisible wall on a night road, blocking the way forward. It comes from a Fukuoka legend introduced by Yanagita Kunio, and it is said to vanish if you sweep the bottom of the wall with a stick.
School ghost stories in which piano music is heard from the empty music room after school, or the eyes of the composers' portraits on the wall move. They have been told all over Japan as a staple of the "seven wonders of the school."
An urban legend that if you still remember the words "purple mirror" when you turn 20, you will die or suffer misfortune. It spread among children from the Showa to the Heisei era, along with words said to cancel the curse.
An urban legend in which a discarded doll named Merry calls on the phone, saying "I'm at ... now" as she comes closer and closer. It ends with "I'm right behind you," a classic school ghost story.
An urban legend about the children's song "Ichinensei ni Nattara," which expresses excitement about starting elementary school. Because counting up the song's friends leaves one person missing, dark interpretations are told, such as "one was left out by bullies" or "someone vanished."
More than 10,000 engraved stones collected by the doctor Javier Cabrera in Ica, Peru. They show dinosaurs and humans together and surgery like heart transplants, and were hailed as "evidence of a super-ancient civilization." The farmer who sold the stones confessed that he carved them himself.
An urban legend that artificial structures like pyramids and towers exist on the surface of the Moon. Pointed shadows in photos from a 1960s lunar probe were presented as evidence, but they are thought to be the long shadows of rocks lit by a low sun.
An affair in 1960s Spain in which huge numbers of letters arrived from supposed aliens from the planet "Ummo," along with reports of UFO landings and photos. Photos of a UFO bearing the same symbol as the letters caused a sensation, but in 1993 a Spanish man confessed it was a hoax.
A phenomenon in which livestock such as cattle are found with parts such as the eyes, tongue or organs cut away and apparently drained of blood. It was frequent in 1970s America and attributed to aliens, but investigations explain it as animals and insects feeding after death.
An urban legend about "Green Green," a song sung in elementary school music classes in Japan. Because the later verses describe the boy's parting from his father, many dark interpretations are told: the father died in a war or accident, or it is a song about nuclear war.
A humanoid cryptid with glowing red eyes and large wings, sighted in West Virginia in 1966. It is said by some to have foretold a bridge collapse the following year. One explanation is a large bird.
A fossil found in Utah in 1968 that looks like a sandal footprint stepping on a trilobite. Because it came from Cambrian rock about 500 million years old, it was hailed as evidence overturning human history, but it is thought to be a mark left by a natural break in the rock.
A hominid-type cryptid with reddish-brown hair said to live in mountainous areas such as Shennongjia in Hubei Province, China. The name means "wild man" in Chinese. In the 1970s, Chinese research institutions carried out large-scale investigations.
Short for "out-of-place artifacts": objects said to be impossible to make with the technology of the time and place where they were found. The Antikythera mechanism and the crystal skulls are famous, but most have since been explained by research.
The idea that Earth's living things and its air, oceans and rocks interact so that the whole Earth regulates its environment as if it were a single living organism. It was proposed by the British scientist Lovelock in the 1970s. It is also told as a mystical theory that "the Earth is alive."
A lake cryptid said to live in Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido. Sightings followed one after another in the 1970s, and it was named after Nessie. Theories say it is driftwood, swimming deer or waterfowl mistaken for a creature.
The theory that long ago, an advanced civilization fought a war with nuclear weapons. Descriptions in Indian epics and the ruins of Mohenjo-daro are offered as evidence, but there is no evidence such as radioactivity, and archaeology rejects it.
The conspiracy theory that humanity's first moon landing by Apollo 11 in 1969 was really faked by the United States in a studio. A waving flag and the lack of stars in the sky are offered as evidence, but all have been explained scientifically.
A Japanese cryptid described as a snake with a short, fat body that moves by jumping. It goes by many local names and became the subject of a nationwide boom in the 1970s.
An ape-like cryptid repeatedly sighted around the Hiba mountains of Hiroshima Prefecture in 1970. The uproar was so great that the local town office set up a desk to deal with it.
A plesiosaur-like cryptid said to live in Lake Dakataua on New Britain island, Papua New Guinea. A Japanese TV program filmed footage in 1994, but analysis suggests it showed saltwater crocodiles.
The 1972 incident in which junior high school students in the Kera district of Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, said they captured a small UFO. The silver, hat-shaped object reportedly vanished and reappeared each time they took it home. It is counted among Japan's three great UFO incidents.
A hominid-type cryptid sighted repeatedly around the town of Louisiana, Missouri, in 1972, nicknamed "Momo." It was described as a hairy creature with a large head that gave off a powerful stench.
The incident in April 1974 in Nikoro, Kitami, Hokkaido, in which a farmer said he encountered a small alien and an orange glowing disc and was taken inside the disc. He testified that he was taken again and again afterward, and it is sometimes counted among Japan's three great UFO incidents.
An incident in 1975 in which two elementary school boys in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, said an alien emerged from a UFO that landed in a vineyard and tapped one of them on the shoulder. It is known as Japan's best-known close encounter with aliens.
A group of gods in the Sumerian mythology of ancient Mesopotamia. In the 1970s the writer Zecharia Sitchin claimed they were "aliens from the planet Nibiru who created humanity," and the idea spread in the world of UFOs and conspiracy theories, but historians reject it.
An owl-like monster as big as a human, sighted near the church in the village of Mawnan in Cornwall, England, in 1976. It was said to have glowing red eyes and sharp claws.
A rocky mesa that looked like a human face in a photo taken in 1976 by NASA's Mars probe Viking 1. A theory spread that it was an artifact made by an ancient Martian civilization, but later high-resolution photos confirmed it was an ordinary hill.
A phenomenon in which crops such as wheat are flattened into circles or complex geometric patterns. Many were found in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s and were said to be UFO landing marks, but in 1991 two men came forward saying they had made them with planks and rope.
A doomsday theory about an unknown planet orbiting at the edge of the solar system over a long period, which will one day approach Earth and cause a catastrophe. It spread from the theories of the writer Zecharia Sitchin in the 1970s, and "collision dates" have been predicted many times, but astronomers say no such planet exists.
A small humanoid creature with a large head and glowing eyes seen by young people in Dover, Massachusetts, in 1977. It was sighted for only two days, and its identity remains a mystery.
The carcass of a huge long-necked creature hauled up by a Japanese fishing boat off New Zealand in 1977. It caused a sensation as a possible surviving plesiosaur, but the leading theory is that it was the rotting carcass of a basking shark.
A strong radio signal from space received by an American radio telescope in 1977. It was so striking that "Wow!" was written on the printout. It drew attention as a possible signal from extraterrestrial intelligence, but it has never been received again.
A giant aquatic cryptid said to live in Lake Ikeda, Kagoshima Prefecture. It became famous after a group sighting in 1978. The leading theory is that it is a giant mottled eel. We explain the sightings and the theories about its identity.
An urban legend about a woman in a surgical mask who asks "Am I pretty?" and then reveals a mouth slit from ear to ear. It spread among children all over Japan around 1979.
An encyclopedia of an imaginary world drawn by the Italian artist Luigi Serafini, published in 1981. Filled with an unreadable script and illustrations of creatures, machines and customs that could not exist, it is called "the modern Voynich Manuscript."
A card game about secret societies released by an American game company. Its card illustrations are rumored online to have "predicted" terrorist attacks, disasters and pandemics. Most of these are said to be after-the-fact interpretations.
A giant underwater rock formation resembling steps and terraces off Yonaguni Island, Okinawa. Discovered by a diver in 1986, it is a popular dive site where debate continues over whether it is a man-made ruin or a natural formation.
Insect-like aliens said to have a triangular, mantis-like head with large eyes and a long, thin body. They began to appear in alien abduction accounts around the 1990s, often described as beings that supervise the Greys.
A stone shaped just like a human fingertip, said to have been found in Texas in the 1980s. Claimed to come from Cretaceous rock about 100 million years old, it was presented as evidence that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. It has been pointed out that its joints do not match a human finger, and the prevailing view is that it is a stone with a chance resemblance.
UFOs shaped like long, slender cigars, often told of as "motherships" carrying small disc-shaped UFOs. In 2017, the cigar-shaped interstellar object Oumuamua was discovered, causing a stir.
