Native name: 南鳥島 | |
|---|---|
 Aerial photo of Minamitorishima from 1987 | |
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| Geography | |
| Location | Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 24°17′12″N153°58′50″E / 24.28667°N 153.98056°E /24.28667; 153.98056 |
| Total islands | 1 |
| Area | 1.51[1] km2 (0.58 sq mi) |
| Coastline | 6,000 m (20000 ft) |
| Highest elevation | 9 m (30 ft) |
| Administration | |
 Japan | |
| Prefecture | Tokyo |
| Subprefecture | Ogasawara |
| Village | Ogasawara |
| Demographics | |
| Population | no permanent residents |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone | |
Minamitorishima (南鳥島; lit. "Southern Bird Island") sometimesMinami-Tori-shima orMinami-Torishima, also known asMarcus Island, is an isolatedJapanesecoral atoll in the northwesternPacific Ocean, located some 1,848 km (998 nmi; 1,148 mi) southeast ofTokyo and 1,267 km (684 nmi; 787 mi) east of the closest Japanese island,South Iwo Jima of theVolcano Islands, and nearly on a straight line between mainland Tokyo andWake Island, 1,415 km (764 nmi; 879 mi) further to the east-southeast. The closest island to Minamitorishima isEast Island in theMariana Islands, which is 1,015 km (548 nmi; 631 mi) to the west-southwest.
It is the easternmostterritory belonging toJapan, and the only Japanese territory on thePacific Plate, past theJapan Trench. Although small (151 ha or 370 acres),[1] it is of strategic importance, as it enables Japan to claim a 428,875-square-kilometre (125,040-square-nautical-mile)exclusive economic zone in the surrounding waters. It is also the easternmost territory of Tokyo, being administratively part ofOgasawara Subprefecture. Nocivilians live there, except personnel of theJapan Meteorological Agency,Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), andJapan Coast Guard serving temporary tours of duty on the island.[2]
The island is off limits to civilians except for Japan Meteorological Agency staff, although reporters, documentary makers, and scientific researchers can sometimes get an entry permit. No commercial boat tours or flights visit the island, and civilians are currently not allowed access to Minamitorishima for tours or sightseeing, due to its use by the JSDF as an observation station.[2]
Minamitorishima is very remote. There is no other land for over 1,000 km (540 nmi; 621 mi) in any direction.
The island is triangular in shape, and has a saucer-like profile, with a raised outer rim of between 5 and 9 m (16 and 30 ft) above sea level. The central area of the island is 1 m (3 ft) below sea level. Minamitorishima is surrounded by fringingreefs, which range from 50 to 300 m (164 to 984 ft) in width, enclosing a shallow lagoon, which is connected with the open ocean by narrow passages on the southern and northeastern sides.
Outside the reef, the ocean depths quickly plunge to over 1,000 m (3,300 ft). The island has a total land area of 1.51 km2 (1 sq mi).[1] It takes about 45 minutes to walk around the island.
The sea is clear in the shallow area around Minamitorishima. At night, nolight pollution occurs, so rarely noticed stars are clearly visible in the sky.[2]
The island does not have soil adequate to produce substantial crops, so food is brought in by supply ships and planes. The only food grown on the island ispapaya,mustard greens, andcoconuts, andsaltwater fish are caught offshore.[2]
After China restricted exports of strategicrare-earth oxides (REOs) in 2009, Japan started to explore its seabeds for deposits.[3]
In January 2013, a deep-sea research vessel of theJapan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology obtained seven deep-sea mud core samples from the seafloor at 5,600 to 5,800 m depth, about 250 km (130 nmi; 160 mi) south of the island.[4] The research team found a mud layer 2 to 4 metres (6.6 to 13.1 ft) beneath the seabed that is extremely concentrated in REO. Analytical results showed that the maximum REO content in the mud was up to 0.66%.[5][6]
In 2018 a scientific study of the seabed mud resulted in an estimate of 16 million tons of REO mineralised sediments within the studied area. The calculated rare-earth element andyttrium content for the research area was more than 16 million tons (average = 964 ppm).[7][8]
A species in thegecko familyGekkonidae,Perochirus ateles, inhabits the island. In Japan, these are found only in Minamitorishima andSouth Iwo Jima. They are thought to have arrived fromMicronesia ondriftwood.[citation needed]
Also, a large number of land snails,Achatina fulica, have parasites that are harmful to humans. Various forms ofmarine life inhabit the ocean around the island, includingsea snakes,tuna,sharks, and some rare fish. Small fish are in the shallow area around the island.[2]
No local residents live on Minamitorishima. Civilians are not allowed to reside there, and the personnel of the Japan Meteorological Agency, JSDF, and the Japan Coast Guard, only serve on the island for a limited time, and in limited numbers.[2]
The first discovery and mention of an island in this area was made by a SpanishManila galleon captain, Andrés de Arriola, in 1694.[9] It was charted in Spanish maps asSebastián López, after Spanish Admiral Sebastián López, victorious in thebattles of La Naval de Manila in 1646 against the Dutch. Its exact location was left unrecorded until further sightings in the 19th century.
CaptainBourn Russell (1794–1880) in theLady Rowena departedSydney, NSW, 2 November 1830 on a Pacific whaling voyage. On his return on 27 June 1832, he reported an island, not on his charts, which he named "William the Fourth's Island". TheSydney Herald reported Russell's description of the size, shape, and orientation of the island and its reef, but misspelled his name and gave the island a Southern Hemisphere latitude.[10]
The island was sighted again on 16 December 1864 by Captain Charles Gelett of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association's missionary shipMorning Star, and was called "Weeks Island" by him. Its position was recorded by a United States survey ship in 1874 and first sighted by a Japanese national, Kiozaemon Saito, in 1879.[11][12][13]
On 30 June 1886, Japanese explorerShinroku Mizutani [ja] (水谷新六, 1850–1921) led a group of 46 colonists fromHaha-jima in theBonin Islands to settle on Marcus Island. The settlement was named "Mizutani" after the leader of the expedition. TheEmpire of Japan officially annexed the island 24 July 1898,[14] the previous United States claim from 1889 according to theGuano Islands Act not being officially acknowledged. The island was officially named "Minamitorishima" and placed administratively under theOgasawara Subprefecture of Tokyo (Tōkyō-fu).[citation needed]
Sovereignty over the island beforeWorld War I was apparently disputed, as various sources from the time move the island from the American to Japanese domain without specific explanation. In 1902, the United States dispatched a warship from Hawaii to enforce its claims, but withdrew on finding the island still inhabited by Japanese, with a Japanese warship patrolling nearby. In 1914,William D. Boyce included Marcus Island as an obviously American island in his book,The Colonies and Dependencies of the United States. In 1933, by orders of the Japanese government, the civilian inhabitants of Minamitorishima were evacuated. In 1935, theImperial Japanese Navy established a meteorological station on the island and built an airstrip.[citation needed]
After the start ofWorld War II, the Japanesegarrison stationed on the island consisted of the 742-man Minamitorishima Guard Unit, under the command ofRear AdmiralMasata Matsubara, and the 2,005-man12th Independent Mixed Regiment of theImperial Japanese Army, under the command ofColonelYoshiichi Sakata.[15] TheUnited States Navy bombed it repeatedly in 1942[16] and in 1943,[17] but never attempted to capture it (the island was featured in the U.S. filmThe Fighting Lady). Japan was able to resupply the garrison bysubmarine, using a channel, still visible today, cut through the reef on the northwest side of the island. The island was subject to repeated U.S. air attacks during World War II, and finally surrendered when thedestroyerUSS Bagley arrived on 31 August 1945.[18]
TheTreaty of San Francisco transferred the island to American control in 1952.[a] The island was returned to Japanese control in 1968, but the Americans retained control of the airstrip andLORAN-C station.[citation needed]
In 1964, after some delays caused by storms that ravaged the island during construction, theU.S. Coast Guard opened aLORAN-C navigation station on Minamitorishima, whose mast was until 1985 one of the tallest structures in the Pacific area at 411 metres (1,350 ft). Before replacing Loran A for general marine navigation, Loran C was used by submarine-launched Polaris missile systems and the existence and location of Loran C stations was classified. LORANSTA Marcus Island was billeted for 23 US Coast Guard personnel. The commissioning commanding officer was U.S. Coast GuardLieutenant Commander Louis. C. Snell. A detachment ofSeaBees remained on the island for several months making repairs to the island's airstrip.[citation needed]
The island is extremely isolated. Coast guardsmen stationed on the island served one-year tours that were later modified to allow an R&R visit to mainland Japan at the six-month point. At the end of this isolated tour of duty, crew members received an additional 30 days of compensatory leave.[citation needed]
While under U.S. administration, the island was resupplied by air. During theVietnam War era, the weekly logistic flight was aDC-6 flight conducted by theCIA-operated "Air America."[citation needed]Later, aC-130 Hercules from the345th Tactical Airlift Squadron,Yokota Air Base, Japan, resupplied the island on missions every Thursday. Coast guardsmen often amused themselves by judging aircraft landings, raising placards painted with large numbers. An unusually long four-hour ground time was scheduled to allow technicians who flew in to perform maintenance on the transmitter and to offload extra fuel from the C-130 to power the island's generator. It also allowed the coast guardsmen to read and answer letters while aircrewssnorkeled and collected green glass fishing buoys that had washed up on the shore.
The Marcus Island station was transferred from the U.S. Coast Guard to theJapan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) on 30 September 1993 and was closed on 1 December 2009.[citation needed]
The island is currently used for weather observation and has a radio station, but little else. The JMSDF garrison was supplied by C-130s fromIruma Air Base, or by C-130s fromHaneda orAtsugi Air Base with flights viaIwo Jima on a weekly basis. The runway ofMinami Torishima Airport is only 1,300 m (4,300 ft) long and cannot handle large aircraft.[citation needed]
Minamitorishima has atropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classificationAw), with warm to hot temperatures throughout the year. The wettest months are July and August, while the driest months are February and March. It has the highest average temperature in Japan of 25 °C (77 °F).[19] Temperature extremes range from 13.8 °C (56.8 °F) on February 10, 1976 to 35.6 °C (96.1 °F) on July 17, 1951.
| Climate data for Minami-Torishima (1991−2020 normals, extremes 1951−present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 29.7 (85.5) | 29.0 (84.2) | 30.2 (86.4) | 31.9 (89.4) | 34.0 (93.2) | 35.0 (95.0) | 35.6 (96.1) | 34.7 (94.5) | 35.3 (95.5) | 33.5 (92.3) | 34.2 (93.6) | 31.6 (88.9) | 35.6 (96.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 24.6 (76.3) | 24.3 (75.7) | 25.3 (77.5) | 27.1 (80.8) | 29.0 (84.2) | 31.0 (87.8) | 31.3 (88.3) | 31.0 (87.8) | 30.9 (87.6) | 30.2 (86.4) | 28.7 (83.7) | 26.7 (80.1) | 28.3 (82.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 22.4 (72.3) | 21.8 (71.2) | 22.5 (72.5) | 24.3 (75.7) | 26.1 (79.0) | 28.0 (82.4) | 28.5 (83.3) | 28.4 (83.1) | 28.5 (83.3) | 27.9 (82.2) | 26.5 (79.7) | 24.5 (76.1) | 25.8 (78.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 20.3 (68.5) | 19.6 (67.3) | 20.4 (68.7) | 22.3 (72.1) | 24.1 (75.4) | 25.8 (78.4) | 26.1 (79.0) | 26.1 (79.0) | 26.4 (79.5) | 25.9 (78.6) | 24.7 (76.5) | 22.6 (72.7) | 23.7 (74.7) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 13.9 (57.0) | 13.8 (56.8) | 14.2 (57.6) | 16.4 (61.5) | 19.1 (66.4) | 20.0 (68.0) | 21.6 (70.9) | 21.8 (71.2) | 21.7 (71.1) | 20.8 (69.4) | 19.2 (66.6) | 16.7 (62.1) | 13.8 (56.8) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 69.7 (2.74) | 43.4 (1.71) | 56.0 (2.20) | 59.6 (2.35) | 100.6 (3.96) | 44.3 (1.74) | 139.8 (5.50) | 177.1 (6.97) | 94.8 (3.73) | 89.6 (3.53) | 83.0 (3.27) | 90.8 (3.57) | 1,052.8 (41.45) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.5 mm) | 10.9 | 8.5 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 9.3 | 7.2 | 14.8 | 16.7 | 14.1 | 12.7 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 132.7 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 70 | 70 | 74 | 79 | 79 | 77 | 77 | 79 | 79 | 78 | 76 | 74 | 76 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 170.8 | 179.4 | 222.3 | 240.2 | 275.1 | 311.2 | 276.3 | 248.1 | 254.6 | 250.8 | 211.0 | 182.3 | 2,821.7 |
| Source: Japan Meteorological Agency[20] | |||||||||||||
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