Okinotorishima

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Okinotorishima

Satellite Image

Okinotorishima (沖ノ鳥島, Okinotorishima^?) (Traditional Chinese: 沖鳥礁, Simplified Chinese: 冲鸟礁) is an atoll, which in English has multiple designations (Okinotori coral reefs, Okinotori Islands). It was formerly called Parece Vela, Spanish for "it looks like a sail" (alluding to the original appearance of rocks). It is located at 20°25′N 136°05′E, 534 km SE of Oki Daito and 567 km WSE of Minami Iwo Jima of the Ogasawara Islands or 1740 km south of Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese meaning of the name is "remote bird islands" and they are sometimes referred to as "the southernmost islands of Japan".

1 Geography
2 Dispute
3 History
4 Administration
5 Notes
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Geography

The waters around the reefs are potentially rich in oil and other resources and lies in an area of key military significance. The Japanese assertion is that the Okinotori coral reefs are islands would allow for exclusive economic zone (EEZ) control over an ocean area of 154,500 square miles (400,000 km²). The People's Republic of China (PRC), Republic of China (Taiwan) and Philippines have disputed this claim, however, saying the area only consists of rocks and not islands [1]. The United States, which administrated the islands from 1945 (at the end of World War II) until 1968, supports the claim that Okinotori are islands, not rocks.

The area has three tiny individual islets:

Higashikojima (東小島, "Eastern Islet")
Kitakojima (北小島, "Northern Islet"), nevertheless rather in the West
Minamikojima (南小島, "Southern Islet")

Minamikojima is a completely artificial islet created in shallow water. But also the two original islets appear completely artificial today, with no trace of the two natural rocks that still appear on photographs of 1987. In 1925, there were still five above-water rocks, which have eroded since. A report from 1947 mentions five above-water rocks. Three smaller ones were on the west side, nearly impossible to see from seaward because of the breaking waves. The larger rocks on the southwest side and on the northeast side, possibly Kitakojima and Higashikojima, were reported to be 0.6 m and 0.4 m high, respectively. The original rocks appeared barren, obviously without any terrestrial vegetation. The current artificial dry land areas with their concrete surfaces appear unfit to support terrestrial vegetation either.

After concrete encasing, each of the islets appears as a circle with a diameter of 60 meters on detailed satellite images, which would correspond to a land area - albeit mostly artificial - of 2827 m² per islet, or 8482 m² in total. In addition, there is a platform on stilts in the shallow part of the lagoon 140 meters ENE of the southern islet, built by the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in 1988, which appears as a rectangle of 100 m by 50 m. The platform has a helicopter landing pad and a large three-story building with marine investigation facility and a meteorological station.

The rocks are in the western part of a lagoon surrounded by a submerged coral reef, over which the waves break, and that extends 4.5 km east-west and 1.7 km north-south, with an area of roughly 5 km² within the rim of the reef. The lagoon is 3 to 4.6 meters deep, but there are numerous coral heads of lesser depths throughout the area. The fringing reef of the atoll is pear-shaped in an east-west direction with its greatest width at the eastern end. There is a small boat channel into the lagoon in the southwest, about 15 meters wide and 6 meters deep, 250 meters southeast of the artificial islet.

[edit] Dispute

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is "a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide". It states that "rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone," though it does not specify when such economic or habitation occur.

The status as an island (instead of an uninhabitable rock)is debated by the PRC (which calls it 冲鸟礁, where 礁 means rock or reef), since it would give Japan a huge Exclusive Economic Zone around it, with an area of more than 430 000 km². The PRC has also accused Japan of territorial expansionism and criticizes any moves to legitimize Okinitori as islands with EEZ rights.

At high tide, one area of the reefs is roughly the size of a twin bed and pokes 7.4 centimeters (2.9 inches) out of the ocean. The other is the size of a small bedroom and rises about twice as high. The entire reef consists of approximately 7.8 square kilometers (3 square miles), most of which is submerged even at low tide.

The territory lies at a militarily strategic point, midway between Taiwan and Guam, where U.S. forces are based. Vessels of the PRC are believed to have been mapping the ocean's bottom over which U.S. warships might pass on their way to Taiwan. The PRC conducted four maritime surveys near the Okinotori coral reefs in 2001, two in 2002, and one in 2003. However, the number of such incidents rose to four in 2004. These incidents have drawn protests from Japan.

Jon Van Dyke, a law professor, has suggested that the situation is similar to the failed British attempt to claim an EEZ around Rockall, an uninhabited granite outcropping in the Atlantic Ocean. The UK eventually dropped its claim in the 1990s when other countries objected. Dr. Dyke has further asserted that it is impossible to make, "A plausible claim that Okinotori should be able to generate a 200 [nautical]-mile zone".^[1] Tadao Kuribayashi, another law professor, disagrees, arguing in part that rocks and reefs differ in composition and structure, and that the intent of the provision was geared toward the former.

[edit] History

It was possibly first sighted by the Spanish sailor Bernardo de la Torre in 1543, certainly by Miguel López de Legazpi in 1565, and named Parece Vela in Spanish.

In 1789, William Douglas arrived with British ship Iphigenia and, in the following year, the place was named Douglas Reef (also spelt Douglass Reef). The atoll does not appear in Japanese records until 1888. In 1922 and 1925, the Japanese navy ship Manshu investigated the area. And, in 1931, confirming that no other countries had claimed the reefs, Japan declared it Japanese territory. Classified as islets, they were subsequently placed under the jurisdiction of Tokyo as a part of the Ogasawara Islands and named "Okinotorishima" or, less commonly, "Okinotori-shima".

After Japan's defeat in World War II, the United States assumed sovereignty over the Ogasawara islands. In 1968, the U.S. returned authority over the islands to Japan. The issue of Okinotori, however, was not addressed and did not attract much attention until April 2004.

[edit] Administration

Administratively, the island is considered part of Ogasawara village, Tokyo. In 1939, the construction of a Naval Base was started by Japan, but suspended in 1941, at the start of the World War II hostilities in the Pacific.

Typhoons and global warming are constant threats to Okinotori's existence. A few decades ago, there were about five or six visible protrusions, but by 1989, only two were visible.

In order to prevent the island from submersion caused by erosion and maintain the claim to the EEZ, the Japanese government launched an embankment building project in 1987, and Higashikojima and Kitakojima were surrounded by concrete. Japan has encased the reefs with $280 million worth of concrete and covered the smaller one with a $50 million titanium net to shield it from debris thrown up by the ocean's waves. In fact, the Japanese government has spent over $600 million dollars fortifying the reefs to prevent them from being completely washed away.

Furthermore, the Nippon Foundation has drawn plans to build a lighthouse and increase the size of the reef by breeding microorganisms known as foraminifera.

Currently, Japan carries out research and observation of the area, as well as repair work on the embankment.

In 2005, the government installed a RADAR system, repaired a heliport, and placed an official address plaque saying, "1 Okinotori Island, Ogasawara Village, Tokyo" in Japanese. Fishing expeditions are used to further lend support to the claim of economic activity.

"Right-wing" Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has talked of building a power station, despite protests by environmentalists. His government has helped fund expeditions to Okinotori by Japanese fishermen and scientists. Governor Ishihara himself toured the islands in May 20, 2005 to inspect the conservation and management efforts, went snorkeling to see firsthand the condition of the surrounding waters, and released Japanese horse mackeral fry to show support for the local fishing industry.

[edit] Notes

^ "A Reef or a Rock? Question Puts Japan In a Hard Place To Claim Disputed Waters, Charity Tries to Find Use For Okinotori Shima" By Martin Fackler, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2005; Page A1