Anatahan is an island in the

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and has one of the most active

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es of the archipelago. Although formerly inhabited, the island is currently uninhabited due to the constant danger of

volcanic eruptions Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...

. Anatahan is located northwest of

Farallon de Medinilla Farallon de Medinilla (also known as No'os) is an uninhabited small island in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is located north of Saipan, and is the smallest island in the archipelago (not counting the Zealandia Bank). Poli ...

and north of

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

History

The island was first charted by Europeans in late October 1543 by Spanish explorer

Bernardo de la Torre Bernardo de la Torre was a Spanish sailor, primarily noted for having explored parts of the Western Pacific Ocean south of Japan in the 16th century. Bernardo de la Torre sailed under the instructions of Ruy López de Villalobos, who sent him in Au ...

on board of the

carrack A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade fr ...

''San Juan de Letrán'' when trying to return from Sarangani to

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

. At the time, the island was settled by the

Chamorros The Chamorro people (; also CHamoru) are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, politically divided between the United States territory of Guam and the encompassing Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. Today, signifi ...

. In 1695, the natives were forcibly removed to Saipan and, three years later, to Guam. Under Spanish rule, coconut plantations were developed for the production of

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from copr ...

. In 1884, an estimated 125 tons were exported. Following the sale of the Northern Marianas by Spain to the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

in 1899, Anatahan was administered as part of

German New Guinea German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups and was the first part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , ...

. However, by May 1901 the island was reported as uninhabited. In 1902, the island was leased to a private firm, the

Pagan Society Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

, owned by a German and a Japanese partner, to further develop the coconut plantations. Severe typhoons in September 1905 and September 1907 destroyed the plantations and bankrupted the company, although copra production continued on a smaller scale afterwards. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Anatahan came under the control of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

and was subsequently administered as part of the

South Seas Mandate The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator, was a League of Nations mandate in the "South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following Wo ...

. In June 1944, 30 survivors of at least three Japanese shipwrecks reached Anatahan. After the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

in World War II, the Americans evacuated two Japanese and 45 natives from the island, but the Japanese castaways refused to believe that the war had ended, and fled into the interior of the island as

Japanese holdouts Japanese holdouts ( ja, 残留日本兵, translit=Zanryū nipponhei, lit=remaining Japanese soldiers) were soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the Pacific Theatre of World War II who continued fighting World Wa ...

. By 1950, the holdouts were led by Kazuko Higa, who was the only woman left on the island. Higa lived with a harem of five men, but after eleven of the holdouts died under uncertain circumstances, the remainder surrendered in June 1951. The story of the holdouts was sensationalized as a lurid tale of sex and violent death by the mass media, and was portrayed in 1953 by

Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major ...

in his film ''The Saga of Anatahan''. In 1954, one of the survivors, Michiro Maruyama, published a book, ''Anatahan Island of the Unfortunates'', which attempted to refute the more lurid accusations. The story was revived in 1998 by Japanese author

Kaoru Ohno Kaoru Ohno (大野芳 ''Ōno Kaoru'', born 10 August 1941) is a Japanese non-fiction writer. Biography Ohno was born in Aichi Prefecture and graduated from the Meiji University Meiji University#Law school, School of Law. He worked for a pub ...

as the novel ''

Cage on the Sea is a 1998 novel, written by Japanese author Kaoru Ohno about a group of Japanese holdouts on the island of Anatahan in the Pacific Ocean. The Anatahan holdouts had also inspired a 1953 film, ''Anatahan''. Plot During the Pacific War, after ...

'', and in 2008 by

Natsuo Kirino (born October 7, 1951, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture) is the pen name of Mariko Hashioka, a Japanese novelist and a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese detective fiction. Biography Kirino is the middle child of th ...

as the short story "Tokyo-jima", which became a film in 2010. Following World War II, the island came under the control of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and was administered as part of the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. History Spain initially claimed the islands that later composed the territory of the Trus ...

. Since 1978, the island has been part of the

Northern Islands Municipality Northern Islands Municipality is one of the four main political divisions of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. It consists of a long string of the northernmost islands of the Northern Marianas, including (from north to south) Fara ...

of the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonwea ...

Geography

Anatahan is roughly elliptical in shape, with a length of and a width of and an area of . The island is the summit of

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

which reaches an altitude of above sea level at its highest peak. The volcano is topped by a caldera, wide, which is divided into an eastern and western portion, with the eastern portion around lower than the western. Sparseness of vegetation in the most recent

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

s on Anatahan indicated that they were of

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

age. In April 1990, the inhabitants of the western coast of the island were evacuated after

earthquake swarm In seismology, an earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in a local area within a relatively short period. The time span used to define a swarm varies, but may be days, months, or years. Such an energy release is different f ...

s and active

fumaroles A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

indicated that an eruption might be imminent, but no eruption occurred at that time. A further earthquake swarm occurred in May 1992. The first historical eruption of Anatahan occurred in May 2003, when a large explosive eruption with a VEI of 4 took place forming a new crater inside the eastern

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

and causing an ash plume high which impaired air traffic to Saipan and Guam.''Local earthquakes and strong thermal activity; youngest surge deposits appear no more than a few hundred years old.''
Monatsbericht 04/1990 im ''Global Volcanism Program''. The most recent eruption was in 2007, and lasted until 2008.

Demographics

As of 1980 the population of Alamagan was one family. The people resided on Anatahan when school was not in session.''Northern Mariana Islands Coastal Resources Management: Environmental Impact Statement''.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

, 1980. p
37

Notes

References

* Russell E. Brainard et al.: ''Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report of the Mariana Archipelago: 2003–2007.'' (=''PIFSC Special Publication'', SP-12-01)

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

Fisheries, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center 2012
Kapitel Alamagan
(englisch, PDF, 12,2 MB)). * Richard B. Moore, Frank A. Trusdell: ''Geologic map of Alamagan Volcano, northern Mariana Islands.''

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

1993
Download
.

External links

Anatahan: Blocks 1060 and 1993, Block Group 1, Census Tract 9501, Northern Islands Municipality, United States Census Bureau
*

and ttps://web.archive.org/web/20140427193501/http://gaebler.info/sonstiges/marianen.htm#anatahan Anatahan* *
Saipan Oral Histories of the Pacific War
page 78, 119-120. {{Authority control Former German colonies Islands of the Northern Mariana Islands Active volcanoes Volcanoes of the Northern Mariana Islands Stratovolcanoes of the United States Uninhabited islands of the Northern Mariana Islands Holocene stratovolcanoes