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 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.
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.
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.
