The Man from Taured (sometimes referred to as the Taured Mystery or the Man without a Country ) is a story about a man who arrives at a Japanese airport from a country called Taured. Many people have claimed this story to be true, so the crux of the problem pertains to Taured. One would notice that there is no country by the name of Taured, either today or during the purported period of time when the incident took place, i.e. the 1950s. The story ends with the man disappearing (forever) a day after arriving in Japan. Moreover, all of his personal documents, such as his passport and driver’s license also (conveniently) disappeared, thus making this strange story unsolvable.

The Man’s Arrival

The story of the ‘Man from Taured’ begins quite specifically in many sources with a hot day in July 1954. On that particular day, a man was said to have arrived at Haneda Airport, known also as Tokyo International Airport. This man has been described as Caucasian looking with a beard. Whilst his primary language is said to have been French, it has been purported that he spoke Japanese and many other languages as well. So far, there is nothing extraordinary to note...

Customs service at Haneda Airport in 1950s. ( Public Domain )

The sequence of events then differs according to which version of the story one encounters. In one version, this man hands over his passport to be stamped, and the Japanese immigration officer notices something strange. Whilst the passport looked authentic, the country where it was issued, ‘Taured’, was recognized as non-existent, either by the officer or one of his / her colleagues, indicating that the man should be taken away for interrogation. In another version, the man mentioned that he was from Taured, and when the immigration officer did not believe him, he showed him / her his passport.

Location of Taured

The next part of the story details the man trying to convince the immigration officers that Taured does indeed exist. According to the traveler, Taured was located between France and Spain, and had by then been in existence for 1000 years.

When shown a map, the man pointed to the area occupied by the Principality of Andorra, and was puzzled as to why his country was called Andorra on the map. Both sides refused to give in – the Japanese officers insisted that Taured did not exist, and the traveler argued otherwise.

Location of Andorra (center of green circle) in Europe (dark grey). ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Vanished!

Eventually, the man was held by the officers, as they were suspicious that he might be some kind of criminal. They brought him to a nearby hotel for the night, whilst they conducted their investigation. To ensure that the man did not escape during the night, two guards were placed outside his room. The next morning, when the officers went to the man’s room, they realized that he had simply vanished, as there were no signs of his escape. Additionally, all of his personal documents, which may serve as evidence for the story’s validity, had apparently disappeared as well.

Travel Through Time or Space? Or Just an Exaggeration?

One of the most notable explanations for this incident is that the man from Taured had somehow passed through a parallel dimension by accident, and ended up at Haneda Airport. It has been suggested that, based on this explanation, there is a parallel earth which is similar to ours with the exception that the locations called Andorra here is known as Taured over there. Another suggestion is that the man was a time traveler from the future, thou this interpretation is arguably more problematic than the one supposing inter-dimensional travel.

Going to a different dimension. ( UFOvnis/Youtube Screenshot )

It has also been suggested that an incident like that did indeed happen, though perhaps much less sensational. This more mundane story could have been embellished each time it was told, so much so that it eventually evolved into the great mystery that it is known as today.

Finally, it is also entirely possible that this story is merely an urban legend. The story of the ‘Man from Taured’ might not have even occurred in the first place, and may have just been the creation of someone’s imagination.

Featured image: The man from Taured. Photo source: lechemindeleveil

By Wu Mingren