The Orang Ikan is a fish-man at during World War II, a Japanese surveillance team stationed on the picturesque Kei Islands of Indonesia reported coming across strange merbeings described as being around 150cm tall, with webbed hands and feet, and carp-like mouths filled with spiny teeth. The heads were adorned with prominent spines and the faces were somewhat human-like in appearance.
Appearance[]
Baffled soldiers sometimes encountered these curious beasts frolicking and splashing about in the water as well as occasionally even coming up on beaches. The native population of the islands knew of these creatures and called them the Orang Ikan, or “man fish.”The sergeant of the team, Taro Horibe, was invited to come look at the dead body of one such creature at the village chief’s house. The perplexed sergeant described the dead creature as being around 160 cm long, with red-brown, shoulder length hair, and spines along the neck. The face was said to have a mix of human and ape-like features such as a low, broad nose and prominent brow. The lipless mouth was wide like that of a fish, and filled with tiny, needle-like teeth. The creature’s fingers and toes were long and webbed.Horibe was deeply affected by what he had seen, and actively sought zoologists from his home country to investigate upon his return. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful in finding anyone willing to do so, and as such it is unlikely we will ever know what the Orang Ikan truly was fish.