When I was a child I read about an ancient
underwater city, only uncovered in the late 1980’s
near a remote island far from anywhere.
It was a discovery so historically significant
that it would undoubtedly prove to be
one of the most important archaeological 
finds of my lifetime.
If not ever.
The oldest civilization on earth by thousands
of years found off the coast of an island
so small it could only ever barely manage
a population of a few hundred.
It was the confirmation of a myth.
The realization of fiction.
What they’d found there was 
nothing less than Asia’s Atlantis.
The lost continent of Mu.
It’s something that I’ve wanted 
to see my entire life.
For twenty five, thirty years straight, 
I’ve been fascinated by it.
Not because I believe it’s real.
I don’t.
It isn’t.
But what I find fascinating is 
how many layers it has.
The interesting part isn’t what 
they’re claiming to have found,
but the fact that they’re claiming 
to have found it at all.
This is more than just a hoax.
It’s a conspiracy.
There have been a cabal of people 
working to create their own reality,
with a certain degree of success, 
for decades.
People who benefit from that 
reality being believed.
But unlike most conspiracies, 
if you come here, you can see it.
Nobody’s trying to stop you.
In fact, they’re actively encouraging it.
So that’s exactly what I did.
And this is what I found.
So back in 1986 the director of tourism for
this area that virtually nobody had ever heard of
made a discovery that would no doubt 
put his little corner of the world on the map.
While he was diving off the island’s southern
shore he came across this large, flat platform
laying on the ocean bed.
It had some suspiciously well-defined edges,
and the angles were so sheer
that they looked like almost hand-carved.
And the more he dove around it, 
the more he convinced himself that
this was a prehistoric, 
human built megalith.
At some point he might have even stopped to think 
that if that were true and this were real
it would make his career.
Tourism would finally arrive to little Yonaguni.
Business here was going to be booming.
So he rang up a professor from the local university
and he asked him to come out and check his findings.
He told him what he’d seen, as well as showing
him I believe some pottery that people had found
while diving in the area as well.
And the professor couldn’t believe his eyes.
It was like the perfect gift, 
delivered to him on a platter.
Rock carvings that he imagined to be 
ten thousand plus years old.
A civilization that outpaced anything 
the ancient world had ever seen.
At some point he might have even stopped
to think that if that were true and if this were real,
it would make his career.
He’d be among the most famous 
archaeologists in the history of the world.
So the professor confirmed it immediately.
He went back to his office and 
began to write out the dive report
that would announce his findings to the world.
The dive report that would be near 
universally ignored by his peers.
They didn’t call him a fraud.
They didn’t call him crazy.
They just presumed publicly he was wrong.
His findings didn’t exactly make a lot of sense, 
and it wasn’t like they were published
in a respected journal.
So the more he dug in his heels, 
the more the disinterested authorities
sort of casually countered his narrative.
In perhaps their most direct move ever, the Japanese 
government renamed the rocks in a way
that made it clear that they were 
natural, and not man-made.
That’s it.
But for those who were already 
apt to believe, all that did was just
serve to drive the point home 
further that this was a cover-up.
That this was something worth hiding.
Before long, the first true believer 
arrives on the scene.
Or at least the first one willing to throw
a lot of money towards the cause.
In the late 90's, a Tokyo businessman who’d
made his fortune selling medical products
undertook an expedition, bringing with him some 
of the world’s leading voices in pseudoscience.
Whether he was truly cognizant of this being 
an attempt to obscure the truth,
or merely just a true genuine lover of the fantastical
bringing along his favourite authors, I can’t tell you.
I can’t see into his mind.
But for the sake of argument, 
I’d like to believe that he is genuine.
And if so, I wonder if at some point he stopped
to think that if that was true, if this was real,
he was going to be at the forefront
of one of his most favourite adventures.
Finding secrets with the very men who 
he felt knew the truth behind the curtain.
But whether it was willful or not, Watanabe Yasuo 
reached out to a group of media figures
who were less than likely 
to scrutinize the facts.
Graham Hancock and Preston Peet.
Robert Schoch and John Anthony West.
The sort of folks who believe that 
the Sphinx was built by Atlanteans.
Alternative scientists as I believe is the
nicest euphemism I can come up with.
Purveyors of historical fantasy.
Those who would rarely say no to inventing a truth if 
it could come in the form of a book that costs 12.99.
Yet even among them there was dissent.
Even with all that incentive, even with the
pure pressure of the others backing them,
some of them just couldn’t 
see past the rocks.
But there were those who were willing to believe
and they started to spread the story.
For just the price of a week’s worth of coffee, 
you too could learn that Yonaguni was once Atlantis.
Or as the Japanese called it, Mu.
Which I presume had more cows.
And soon, it spread to the media.
For the media, the truth was just as irrelevant.
They were, as they put it, objective.
Just as with those who were aboard the boat, they knew 
that the money was just in asking the question,
it wasn’t in answering it.
Those wanting to believe would 
tune in to believe.
And those wanting to deny would 
tune in to deny.
They always asked the question because 
they knew that anyone, if they took the time,
could just go and answer it.
So they didn’t have to.
They knew it was wrong, but why
present it as wrong?
Why not let the viewers go 
and find out for themselves.
It’s far more enticing.
And I know it’s more enticing 
because I did that.
I did exactly what that first tourism director
hoped I would do all those years ago.
I came here, I saw it, 
I learned the truth, I denied.
Because there is nothing man-made here.
I know that comes as no surprise, but it isn’t
even really all that hard to see.
Just above what they’re considering man-made ruins 
is a cliff face containing virtually identical stones.
Nearly the same size, certainly the same cut,
and what’s most important to me, obviously natural.
Below them, sticking out of the water in all
directions are other slabs that are identical.
No different than the one below.
It could not be more clear where 
that these are just rocks.
But if you only ever looked at the tourism maps 
and saw the scuba company's drawings,
if you only ever read the news articles 
and the Graham Hancock book,
you might actually start to imagine 
that this truly was an ancient wonder.
It has the look about it.
And the community is all supportive of it.
Even if the people here don’t actually believe
the story, they’re more than happy to tell it.
After all, it’s what the tourists 
are coming to see.
It’s where the money comes from now.
And it isn’t as if 
the tourists believe it.
On our ship I only met a single person 
who even imagined it might be real.
And yet, they all knew about it.
And what I found was among many of them 
there was a quiet desire to disprove it.
In a sense that’s why they were here.
Yonaguni is a special place because 
it allows you the opportunity
to be definitive with a world-class
conspiracy theory.
To prove it wrong.
And intended or not, the brilliance 
of that tourism director’s discovery is
that no matter which direction you’re aiming at with 
your search here, you’re still doing the searching here.
I spent thousands of dollars 
to get to this island.
I stayed here a week.
I filmed four different episodes while I was
here, and none of those I knew before I arrived.
My wife and I loved it.
It was a great time.
We’ll probably even come back 
despite how remote it is.
But let’s be clear.
I came here for the rocks.
To disprove a conspiracy.
I came here because this is a rare place.
Even if it isn’t special.
This is Rare Earth.
This is Rare Earth.
