Bonin Islands

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A map of the Ogasawara Islands south of Japan
A map of the Ogasawara Islands south of Japan

The Ogasawara Islands (小笠原諸島) are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical islands some 1,000 km directly south of central Tokyo, Japan. Administratively they are a part of Tokyo. The islands are also known as the Bonin Islands, and the southernmost (uninhabited) group is known as the Volcano Islands. Still 700 km further south is Okino Torishima, and 1,900 km further east is Minami Torishima. These two remote islands are not geographically part of the Ogasawara but belong to it administratively. The total area of the islands is 84 km².

The only inhabited islands are Chichi-jima (父島) and Haha-jima (母島).

Contents

[edit] Island subgroups

The Ogasawara Islands consists of four subgroups, including the Volcano Islands, which are listed along with their main islands:

  • Mukojima Group (聟島列島 Mukojima Rettō) - formerly Parry Group
    • Mukojima (聟島, literally: Bridegroom Island)
    • Yomejima (嫁島, literally: Bride Island)
    • Nakoudo-jima or Nakadachijima (媒島, literally: Go-between Island)
    • Kitanojima (北ノ島, literally: Northern Island)
  • Chichijima Group (父島列島 Chichijima Rettō) - formerly Beechey Group
    • Chichijima (父島, literally: Father Island),
    • Anijima (兄島, literally: Elder Brother Island)
    • Otōtojima (弟島, literally: Younger Brother Island)
  • Hahajima Group (母島列島 Hahajima Rettō) - formerly Baily Group
    • Hahajima (母島, literally: Mother Island)
    • Anejima (姉島, literally: Elder Sister Island)
    • Imōtojima (妹島, literally: Younger Sister Island)
  • Volcano Group (火山列島 Kazan Rettō)
    • Kitaiōjima (北硫黄島 Kitaiōjima, literally: North Sulphur Island)
    • Iwojima (硫黄島 Iōjima, literally: Sulphur Island)
    • Minamiiōjima (南硫黄島 Minamiiōjima, literally: South Sulphur Island)
  • Single Isolated Island, west of Hahajima Group and North of Volcano Group:
    • Nishino shima (西之島, literally: Western Island, also: Rosario Island)
  • Isolated Remote Islands, not geographically but administratively part of Ogasawara Islands

[edit] Transportation

One can get from the main Japanese islands to Chichijima by way of the Ogasawara Maru liner, run by Ogasawara Marine Transportation. The boat leaves from Takeshiba port in Tokyo Bay, and the trip takes around 25.5 hours (in good weather). There are four or five crossings each month. The Ogasawara Maru is a 6700 ton vessel, 131m long, with a capacity of 1031 passengers.

The world's first TSL, the Super Liner Ogasawara (which was to be commissioned in 2006), with a maximum speed of 70 km/h, 14,500 tons gross tonnage, was expected to shorten the voyage to Ogasawara to about 17 hours carrying up to 740 passengers. However, Ogasawara Marine Transport, which receives subsidies from to help it cover estimated annual deficit of some ¥1 billion[citation needed], announced the cancellation of the TSL's development in August 2005.

There are no commercial passenger flights to the islands.

To get to Hahajima, one has to get to Chichijima, and then cross via the liner Hahajima Maru.

Because a trip from the main Japanese islands to the Ogasawaras is very difficult, when people get severely ill or otherwise have an emergency situation, word is conveyed to Iwo Jima Japan Maritime Self Defense Force post, and a helicopter is sent to the islands. Emergencies can also be handled from the main Japanese islands by airplanes of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, or the Maritime Self Defense Force base in Iwakuni can convey evacuees to the main islands by a seaplane, the ShinMaywa US-1. This seaplane is also used to transport the governor of Tokyo and other VIPs.

Even today, the emergency service takes several hours, and help does not necessarily arrive in time.

Ogasawara Village operates a bus service on Chichijima and elderly passengers may use a "silver pass". There is also a sightseeing taxi service, a rental car company, motorized scooter rental services and a bike rental service, as well as other amenities. Bringing one's own automobile onto the island is extremely difficult and costly.

[edit] Ogasawara Airport construction issue

The Ogasawara Islands have no airport and there is, as of January 2007, no prospect for one being constructed. However, there was talk for several decades of building one[citation needed]. Anjima and Chichijima was both once designated possible construction sites, but because there are numerous valuable, rare or endangered plant species forming a unique ecosystem in the vicinity of the proposed sites, issues of nature conservation were raised. Although construction of an airport was desired by some, a desire to keep the natural beauty of the islands untouched created a movement to block it. The airport issue was quite controversial on the islands[citation needed].

The island of Iwo Jima (硫黄島 Iōjima), is a part of the Volcano Islands. It is occupied by a Japanese military base and access requires special permission.

[edit] Geology

The Ogasawara islands are a part of an island arc known geologically as a fore arc. They lie above a subduction zone between the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Plate. The Pacific Plate is subducting under the Philippine Plate, which creates an oceanic trench to the east of the islands. The crust of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands was formed by volcanic activity when subduction began 45–50 million years ago, and is composed mostly of an andesitic volcanic rock called boninite, which is rich in magnesium oxide, chromium, and silicon dioxide. The Ogasawara Islands may represent the exposed parts of an ophiolite that has not yet been emplaced on oceanic crust. The rocks of the Volcano Islands are much younger; Iwo Jima is a dormant volcano characterized by rapid uplift and several hot springs.

Most of the islands have steep shorelines, often with sea cliffs ranging from 50 to 100 meters in height, but the islands are also fringed with coral reefs and have many beaches.

[edit] History

The first European discovery of the islands took place in 1543, by the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre.[1] The voyage of the Japanese samurai Ogasawara Sadayori in 1593, whence the name Ogasawara Islands, is an apocryphal one.

Outside of American and British shipyards set up for whaling in 1820-30, the first recorded settlement of the islands was by a number of Hawaiians in 1830, and the descendants of these settlers live on the island today. Ogasawara was claimed by Japan from the British in 1875 and became part of Tokyo prefecture in 1880. The name "Bonin Islands" arose around this time, deriving from their uninhabited status and the Japanese word mu-jin (無人: peopleless hence uninhabited).

In World War II, most of the inhabitants were evacuated to the mainland. There was a Japanese military base on Chichijima, whose officer in charge, Major Matoba, was known for performing sadistic acts (including cannibalism) on prisoners of war, and was executed for his crimes after the war. However, other officers on the island disagreed with his methods. Future President George H. W. Bush's plane crashed in the ocean near Chichijima, but he was rescued by Americans. The Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the fiercest battles of World War II, was fought here in 1945.

The islands were occupied by the U.S. Navy from 1945, at which point the inhabitants who were western in descent were allowed back on the island. The islands were returned to Japan in 1968, when the Japanese evacuees were finally allowed to return.

Now, nearly all of the inhabitants, including those of Western ancestry, are Japanese citizens and the Japanese language is used. During the nineteenth century, research points to the existence of an English-lexified pidgin/creole on the islands. During the twentieth century, islanders of Western descent increasingly mixed Japanese with island English, resulting in a "Mixed Language" which can still be heard among these islanders today. Younger speakers are monolingual in variety of Japanese closely resembling the Tokyo standard. A bilingual dictionary, Talking Dictionary of the Bonin Islands Language (with CD-ROM), edited by Daniel Long and Naoyuki Hashimoto, was published in 2005.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists [2] suggests that Iwo Jima and Chichijima may have been used as rearming ports for Regulus missile submarines. This weapon was a turbojet-powered nuclear cruise missile (bear in mind that the buzz bomb—the German V1 missile—was also a cruise missile) with a very short range (around 500 miles) and small payload in the beginning of the nuclear standoff between the US and the USSR. The strategy may have been to protect the Japanese Islands from attack by the Soviet Union. Most of the submarines involved were diesel-electric and so required refueling bases close to their patrol area.[citation needed]

[edit] Ogasawara subtropical moist forests

The Ogasawara Islands form a distinct subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion, with a high degree of biodiversity and endemism. The islands are home to about 500 plant species, of which 43% are endemic. The forests are of three main types:

  • Type I: Elaeocarpus-Ardisia mesic forest is found in the moist lowland areas with deep soils. The forests have a closed canopy with a height of about 15 meters, dominated by Ardisia sieboldii. Elaeocarpus photiniaefolius, Pisonia umbellifera, and Pouteria obovata are other important canopy species. These forests were almost completely destroyed by clearing for agriculture before 1945.
  • Type II: Distylium-Raphiolepis-Schima dry forest is found in drier lowland and upland sites with shallower soils. It is also a closed-canopy forest, with a 4 to 8 meter canopy comprised mostly of Distylium lepidotum, Rhaphiolepis integerrima, Schima mertensiana, Pouteria obovata, and Syzygium buxifolium. The Type II forests can be further subdivided into:
    • Type IIa: Distylium-Schima dry forest occurs in cloudy upland areas with fine-textured soils. These forests contain many rare and endemic species, with Pandanus boninensis and Syzygium buxifolium as the predominant trees.
    • Type IIb: Raphiolepsis-Livistona dry forest is found in upland areas with few clouds and rocky soils. Rhaphiolepis integerrima is the dominant tree species, along with the fan palm Livistona chinensis var. bonensis, Pandanus boninensis and Ochrosia nakaiana.
  • Type III: Distylium-Pouteria scrub forest is found on windy and dry mountain ridges and exposed sea cliffs. These forests have the highest species diversity on the islands. Distylium lepidotum and Pouteria obovata are the dominant species, growing from 0.5 to 1.5 meters tall. Other common shrubs are Myrsine okabeana, Symplocos kawakamii, and Pittosporum parvifolium.

Several bird species are endemic to the islands, including the Japanese Woodpigeon (Columba janthina) and the Vulnerable Bonin White-eye (Apalopteron familiare), formerly known as the Bonin honeyeater.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Factual

[edit] Fictional (i.e., quaint “cultural” references of no practical value)

  • Sevii Islands from Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green are based on Bonin Islands.
  • In Godzilla films Monster Island is sometimes located in the chain. In an english-dubbed version, it is refered to as "Ogasawara Island" as if it were a lone island of that name.
  • A fictional island in the chain, South Ataria Island (which would have laid at the southernmost position in the chain, surpassing Minami Iwo Jima), is the landing site of the SDF-1 Macross in the TV series Superdimension Fortress Macross.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Kublin, Hyman. “The Bonin Islands, 1543–1875,” PhD thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1947
  • Muroga, Nobuo. “Geographical exploration by the Japanese” in Friis, Herman R. (ed.) The Pacific Basin: A history of its geographical exploration. New York, 1967
  • Welsch, Bernhard. “Was Marcus Island Discovered by Bernardo de la Torre in 1543?” (pp. 109–122) in The Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 39, No. 1. Canberra, 2004.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Welsch, 2004, pp. 115–117
  2. ^ http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=jf00norris



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