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Map of the Chichi-jima Rettō
Map of the Chichi-jima Rettō
Futami Harbor, the port at Chichi Jima
Futami Harbor, the port at Chichi Jima

Chichi-jima (父島? Father Island), formerly known as Peel Island, is the largest island in the Ogasawara archipelago. An island (ˈaɪlənd or isle (/ˈaɪl/ is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water in two dimensions above high tide and isolated from other significant Chichi Jima is about 150 miles from Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima ( 硫黄[[wikt 島|島]] officially Iōtō,also frequently Iōjima: “ Sulfur island” is an island of the Japanese

Contents

Topography

Chichijima is located at 27° 4' 0N 142° 12' 30E. There are currently around 2000 people living on the island, and the island's area is around 24 km².

History

Nineteenth century

Various scientific expeditions visited the island in the Nineteenth century, including:[1]

Two shipwrecked sailors who were picked up by Beechey in 1827 suggested that the island would make a good stopover station for whalers, and settlement was begun in 1830. For other uses see Whalers. A whaler is a specialized kind of ship designed for Whaling, the catching and/or processing of For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display The settlement was lead in May of 1830 by thirty-six year old Nathaniel Savory along with twenty-two other adventurous men and woman via a three-thousand mile long trip from Pearl Harbor to the beautiful island of Chichi Jima to found his whaling supply enterprise. In 1854, the Rodgers-Ringgold expedition encountered rats and feral goats, sheep, dogs and cats (feral pigs were already found by Kittlitz and may have been left by Beechey to provision possible future castaways).

Possibly as a result of the introduction of alien animals, at least three species of birds became extinct: the Bonin Nankeen Night Heron, Bonin Grosbeak a finch, and Bonin Thrush. The Bonin Night Heron ( Nycticorax caledonicus crassirostris) is an extinct subspecies of the Nankeen Night Heron. The Bonin Grosbeak or Bonin Islands Grosbeak ( Chaunoproctus ferreorostris) is an Extinct Finch, the only species of the Genus The Bonin Thrush, Bonin Islands Thrush or Kittlitz's Thrush ( Zoothera terrestris) is sometimes separated as the only species of the genus Cichlopasser The island was the only known home of the thrush and probably the finch, although the heron was found on Nakōdo-jima (also "Nakoudo-" or, erroneously, "Nakondo-") as well. The existence of the birds was documented by von Kittlitz in 1828, and five stuffed thrushes are in European museums.

The Bonin Wood-pigeon died out in the late Nineteenth century, apparently as the result of deforestation or the introduction of alien mammals or from both causes. The Bonin Wood-pigeon ( Columba versicolor) was a Pigeon endemic to Nakodo-jima ("Nakondo" is a frequent spelling error and The species is known to have existed only on Chichi-jima and another island, Nakōdo-jima.

World War II

The island was the site of a radio station during World War II, and a frequent target of US attacks. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The young George H. W. Bush was once shot down while on one of these raids. George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12 1924 served as the forty-first President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 Japanese troops and resources from Chichi Jima were used in reinforcing the strategic point of Iwo Jima before the battle of Iwo Jima. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Iwo Jima ( 硫黄[[wikt 島|島]] officially Iōtō,also frequently Iōjima: “ Sulfur island” is an island of the Japanese The Battle of Iwo Jima ( February 19, 1945 &ndash March 26, 1945) was the United States capture of the island of Iwo Jima The island also served as a major point for Japanese radio communication and surveillance operations in the Pacific, with two radio stations atop its two mountains being the primary goal of multiple bombing attempts by the US Navy.

Chichi Jima was also the subject of a book by James Bradley entitled Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, a factual account of the lives of a group of World War II fighter pilots including George H. James Bradley ( c February 1954- is an American Author, specializing in historical Nonfiction chronicling the Pacific theatre of Flyboys A True Story of Courage is a non-fiction book by writer James Bradley, and a national Bestseller in the U W. Bush. In the book, it tells the story of United States Navy pilots who bombed the island's two radio stations. The book details the stories of the pilots that were captured, tortured, killed, and in some cases, partially eaten.

The island was never captured and surrendered with the Japanese Empire. The Empire of Japan ( {{unicode|Kyūjitai}}: ja 大日本帝國 Shinjitai: ja 大日本帝国 pronounced Dai Nippon Teikoku After the surrender some of the senior officers were court-martialled and punished according to the class "B" war crimes standard.

Nobuaki "Warren" Iwatake, a Japanese American from Hawaii who was drafted into the Japanese army while living with his family back in Hiroshima, is known for his service in the Japanese Imperial Army at Chichi Jima. The Japanese city of ( is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest of Japan 's

Island development

Astrometry and telemetry stations

The Japanese National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) is the umbrella agency maintaining a radio astrometry facility on Chichi-jima. [2] Since 2004, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has been a division of NINS. (NAOJ is an astronomical research organisation comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii. (NAOJ is an astronomical research organisation comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii. [3] The NINS/NAQJ research is on-going using a VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) 20m radio telescope. The dual-beam VERA array consists of four coordinated radio telescope stations located at Mizusawa, Iriki, Ishigakijima and Ogasawara. Mizusawa (水沢市 -shi was a city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. is a city located in Kagoshima, Japan. It was established on October 12, 2004 with the merger of the city of Sendai Kagoshima the towns [4] The combined signals of the four-part array produce a correlated image which is used for deep space study. [5]

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also maintains a facility on Chichi-jima. The, or JAXA, is Japan's national Aerospace agency JAXA was formed on October 1 2003 as an Independent Administrative Institution through the The, or JAXA, is Japan's national Aerospace agency JAXA was formed on October 1 2003 as an Independent Administrative Institution through the [6] The Ogasawara Downrange Station at Kuwanokiyama, was established in 1975 as a National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) facility. The, or JAXA, is Japan's national Aerospace agency JAXA was formed on October 1 2003 as an Independent Administrative Institution through the The, or JAXA, is Japan's national Aerospace agency JAXA was formed on October 1 2003 as an Independent Administrative Institution through the The Station is equipped with radar (rocket telemeter antenna and precision radar antenna) to check the flight trajectories, status, and safety of rockets launched from the Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC). Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships The (TNSC is one of Japan's space development facilities It is located on Tanegashima Island, 115 km south of Kyūshū. The (TNSC is one of Japan's space development facilities It is located on Tanegashima Island, 115 km south of Kyūshū. [7]

US nuclear arms base

Chichi-jima appears to be one of a number of Japanese islands which has been used by the United States to host nuclear arms, according to Robert S. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Norris, William M. Arkin, and William Burr writing for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in early 2000. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical magazine that covers global security and public policy issues especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear [1] [2] This is despite the Japanese Constitution being explicitely anti-war. [3] Japan hold Three Non-Nuclear Principles. Japan 's are a parliamentary resolution (never adopted into law that have guided Japanese nuclear policy since their inception in the late 1960s and reflect general The island has been under Japanese control since 1968 and the site is currently used for nothing more than storage by the local village government. [8]

Sea Turtle Project

A baby sea turtle at the restoration facility
A baby sea turtle at the restoration facility

Chichi Jima houses a facility on the edge of Futami Harbor dedicated to the restoration of sea turtle populations that have been decimated due to human activity. Sea turtles ( Superfamily Chelonioidea) are Turtles found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean. Infant turtles are raised at the facility until they have reached a certain bodymass, at which point they are released into the wild; newly-hatched turtles face enormous risks of predation, and the facility believes their efforts increase the turtles' chances of survival. Additionally, the facility maintains half a dozen adult sea turtles on site.

Education

Ogasawara Village operates the island's public elementary and junior high schools.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education operates Ogasawara High School [4] on Chichi-jima. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education (東京都教育委員会 Tōkyō-to Kyōiku Iinkai) is the board of education in Tokyo, Japan.

References

  1. ^ Information in this section was taken from the Wikipedia articles on Bonin Grosbeak and Bonin Thrush which have reference sections citing sources for those articles
  2. ^ Ogasawa, VERA astrometry station.
  3. ^ NAOJ folded into NINS (2004).
  4. ^ VERA stations and the array
  5. ^ VERA system, radio astrometry
  6. ^ JAXA, about the agency
  7. ^ JAXA, Kuwanokiyama facility. The Bonin Grosbeak or Bonin Islands Grosbeak ( Chaunoproctus ferreorostris) is an Extinct Finch, the only species of the Genus The Bonin Thrush, Bonin Islands Thrush or Kittlitz's Thrush ( Zoothera terrestris) is sometimes separated as the only species of the genus Cichlopasser
  8. ^ "Allegations of Clandestine US Nuclear Weapons in Japan" (December 1999). Disarmament Diplomacy (42). The Acronym Institute.  
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