Banana (also called Banana Wells) is a small village located on the northern side of the Kiritimati Atoll (also known as Christmas Atoll),

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

. It is located close to Cassidy International Airport and the James Cook Hotel. It is the third-largest village on the island, with a population of 1,208 people in 2015. Banana is located near the settlements of Tabwakea,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, with Paris being abandoned.

History

Exploration and settlement

Banana and the rest of Kiritimati is believed to have been inhabited first by the Polynesians, beginning around 1250–1450 AD. The islands were rediscovered during the Spanish expedition in 1537, and again by

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

in the eighteenth century.

20th century

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the island was captured by the United States to serve as a stop along the flight route from Hawaii to Australia and New Zealand. The United States also used Kiritimati as a staging ground to attack the Japanese-occupied Gilbert Islands. Between 1957 and 1962, the island was used for several nuclear tests by the United States and United Kingdom, without the locals being evacuated.

Demographics

Banana is home to around 1,209 ethnic I-Kiribati people, making up most, if not all of the population.{{cn, date=October 2022 Banana is the third-most populous village in Kiritimati. Populated places in Kiribati Kiritimati