In August 1945, a Japanese fighter pilot's final radio transmission crackled out over the Pacific south of Tokyo: the sky is opening up. Then dead air, and the plane supposedly vanished without a trace. It is the ultimate locked-room mystery set against the largest ocean on Earth.

This episode takes a deep dive into the Devil's Sea, also called the Dragon's Triangle, examining the anatomy of a myth: how it was born, fed by a global media machine, and ultimately dissected by cold reality. We trace the fabrications and reveal the genuinely terrifying natural forces capable of swallowing a ship whole. It matters because it shows how easily a sensational narrative can overwrite boring, nuanced facts.

• The 1955 panic began when the ship Shin'yo Maru No. 10 lost radio contact, yet it was found safe 11 days later, after which a newspaper ...