Manus Island

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Admiralty Islands.

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the 5th largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km x 30 km. It is covered in rugged jungles, which can be broadly described as lowland tropical rain forest.

The highest point on Manus Island is Mt. Dremsel 718 metres (2,356 feet) above sea level at the center of the south coast. Manus is volcanic in origin and probably broke through the ocean's surface in the late Miocene, 8-10 million years ago. The substrate of the island is either directly volcanic or from uplifted coral limestone.

Manus Island has a population of approximately 33,000. The capital of Manus Province, Lorengau is located here.

Momote Airport, the terminal for Manus, is located on nearby Los Negros Island. A bridge connects Los Negros to Manus and the main town of Lorengau.

[edit] History

In 1942, Japan established a military base on Manus. This was attacked by United States forces in the Admiralty Islands campaign of February-March 1944. An Allied naval base was established on the island and it later supported the British Pacific Fleet.

After the end of World War II, General Takuma Nishimura was tried by a British military court in relation to the Sook Ching massacre in Singapore and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was taken to Manus Island from Hong Kong (he was intercepted by Australia Military Police personnel while on a stopover in Hong Kong). Nishimura faced an Australian military court on Manus Island. Evidence was presented stating that Nishimura had ordered the shootings of wounded Australian and Indian soldiers at Parit Sulong and the disposal of bodies so that there was no trace of evidence. In this trial he was found guilty and was hanged on 11 June 1951.

American anthropologist Margaret Mead lived on Manus before and after the war of which she gives a detailed the account in the book Growing up in New Guinea.

A detention centre was built on Manus Island in 2001 as part of Australia's Pacific Solution. The last inmate was Aladdin Sisalem, who was kept in solitary confinement from July 2003, until he was finally granted asylum in Australia in June 2004.