Ningen: Subantarctic Human? Part I

 What if I tell you, there is something living in the ocean of Antarctica, north of Japan?

"Yeah, seals, sharks, and what not?" 

What, no. A human-like creature told to be roaming the ocean there. It has hands or some say legs, making them the ability to walk in the snow land of Antarctica. Something sounds 'fishy' here (pun intended). Prepare yourself, this is quite a long story. Let's delve into the story.

This is...

Ningen.

This creature or so be called U-M-A (Unidentified Mysterious Animal) was rumored to be observed as they occur in the region that is remote from the Japan island and maritime territories, far from regions where aquatic animals patterns have been well established as it generates the expressions of the myth by the locals. The exploration of whaling in the late 1940s with the encouragement of the occupying US in the country after World War II made it more clear that Japanese people traveled far to hunt whales. Well say whales, but what do they find? Another mythical creature to add to their fascinating histories of mythical creatures. 

 Where is the starting point of this creature?  Flashback to 2002, an online textboard site, 2channel; which translates the text: 

    I heard that the research whaling surrounding the Antarctic Sea, conducted by the Japanese government, is not only conduction research on the whales they catch but also researching and recording whales they do not catch. In the last few years of research, it is said that "some objects" that cannot be officially announced have been witnessed. This information is gained directly from a person involved. These are what is called, among people related to research whaling, hitogata buttai (human-shaped objects). There are several types of them, such as one that looks like a human (with four limbs and a head), and one that looks as if two humans' upper bodies are joined. They emerge from the water just like whales. The whole body is white and the size is a few tens of meters long. I heard that nobody had seen such a thing when they were conducting whaling years ago. They are "really baffled" at it because an official announcement of the object could overturn the credibility of current research whaling. They are just recording them, but that does not mean they are vigorously conducting research on them. (As they have to submit their research schedule to the international committee, they cannot change their schedule flexibly.) The person who told me this story said, "You can tell this story, but please keep me anonymous, though I am pretty sure that other people are telling this story too. That's all I heard.

The posting became a classic mouth-to-mouth conversation and people tried to find the person that involves in the whaling process. From the text, we knew Ningen is a whale-like and human-type beings with tens of meters in size, and yeah white in color. It has four limbs and a head, or two humans combined. Tell me anything, but this is surely classified as creepy. The post became famous in no time, some relate it to the Kraken or the Umi Bozu or even called it the Antarctic Gojira. The poster, whoever shared some more story that he got from the anonymous man. It translates:

    2-3 years ago, an unofficial document went around stating "... it is decided that henceforth it will be called "human-shaped object"... So we called it jinkei buttai or mistakenly ningyou buttai, but it is actually supposed to be read as hitogata buttai. We just call it "ningen".

The poster and the anonymous man dismissed any relations to it to any other type of media. The thread went silent. But the legend continues.

PART II IS UP: https://msra07.blogspot.com/2021/04/ningen-subantartic-human-part-ii.html