Brilio.net/en - Over the last two months, something of a mystery was happening on the northwestern coast of Japan. At least 11wooden ships had beached at several locations in Fukui and Ishikawa Prefecture with 22 decomposed bodies inside in total.
The most recent case occured last November 22, when police discovered a ship containing six bodies on the shoreline of Fukui region. In total, 34 ships had stranded off the coast of Japan this year, either crewless or containing corpses.
The condition of the bodies are so horrible, it is estimated that they have died for weeks and this situation surely makes the autopsy and investigation process difficult.
ABC News reported on Tuesday (1/12), the Japanese Coast Guard pledged to investigate from where the ships came from and why the crews died awfully. From the preliminary findings, the crew of the ships were probably fishermen from North Korea. Some Hangeul lettering are found on the side of several ships, saying Korean Peoples Army, the official name of Noth Koreas military.
Judging from the type and size of the ship, this is not what fishermen in Japan usually use to sail, said a the Japanese Coast Official, Yuka Amao.
Stranded ship containing bodies in Japan. 2015 Merdeka.com
The first developing theory is that they are North Korean fishermen who got caught and killed in storms. In the last few years, fisherman from the Korean Peninsula have increasingly frequented Japanese waters to hunt for squid. Many times the Japanese Coast Guard have ordered them away because both countries have no fishing agreements.
Yet another theory said they are North Koreans who tried to escape from their country by defecting to the south, but something bad had happened to them mid-way through the journey.
In 2013, Japanese coast guard found 80 instances of empty ships or corpses washed ashore on their beach. A year later, a similar case occured 65 times.