, native_name_link = , image_caption = Map of the Hahajima Rettō (Imōtojima is mislabeled as Tori-shima) , image_size = , pushpin_map = Japan complete , pushpin_label = Hahajima , pushpin_label_position = , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_relief = , pushpin_map_caption = , map_custom = , nickname = , location =

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 ...

, coordinates = , archipelago =

Ogasawara Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

, total_islands = , major_islands = , area_km2 = 19.88 , length_km = , width_km = , coastline_km = , highest_mount = Chibusayama , elevation_m = 462 , country = Japan , country_admin_divisions_title =

Prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

, country_admin_divisions =

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, country_admin_divisions_title_1 =

Subprefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Counties of Albania, Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several Districts of Albania, district ...

, country_admin_divisions_1 =

Ogasawara Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The subprefecture covers the Ogasawara Archipelago and is coterminous with the village of Ogasawara. The prefectural government maintains a main office on Chichijima and a branch office on Hahaji ...

, country_admin_divisions_title_2 =

Village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

, country_admin_divisions_2 = Ogasawara , population = 440 , population_as_of = 2021 , density_km2 =22.1 , ethnic_groups =

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, additional_info = is the second-largest island within the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

(also known as the

) south of the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The steeply-sloped island, which is about in area, has a population of 440. It is part of Ogasawara Village in

, which is approximately south of

. The highest peaks Hahajima are ''Chibusayama'', (literally ''Breast Mountain''), approximately , and Sakaigatake, . It is part of an archipelago that includes

Chichijima , native_name_link = , image_caption = Map of Chichijima, Anijima and Otoutojima , image_size = , pushpin_map = Japan complete , pushpin_label = Chichijima , pushpin_label_position = , pushpin_map_alt = , ...

approximately to the north and the nearby smaller islands such as Anejima and Imōtojima and Mukōjima. The group forms the Hahajima Rettō (母島列島) (or in former times, the "Baily Group").

History

View from Hahajima-Island and the Minamizaki Tokyo,JAPAN

The island group, which Hahajima belongs to, lies between the

and the Philippines Sea. The first European discovery of the Ogasawara Islands is said to have taken place in 1543, by the 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 ...

. Captain James Coffin, of the

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

originally named the largest island in the group "Fisher Island", which became Hahajima, and the second largest "Kidd Island", after the owners of his vessel. The islands came to be known as the "Coffin Islands". (Hahajima was also called ''Hillsborough Island''.) Hahajima was settled by Europeans before becoming part of Japan. During the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

, the Japanese government removed the local civilian population and fortified the island. It was attacked several times by the US bombers. First on December 4, 1944 when Navy search planes of Fleet Air Wing One joined with

Seventh Air Force The Seventh Air Force (Air Forces Korea) (7 AF) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Osan Air Base, South Korea. The command's mission is to plan and direct air component operations in ...

bombers to attack installations on the island as well as

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

. Four days later there was another attack by Fleet Air Wing One. Then on December 10, B-25 Mitchells from the

2nd Marine Aircraft Wing The 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (2nd MAW) is the major east coast aviation unit of the United States Marine Corps and is headquartered in Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. The Wing provides the aviation combat element for the ...

struck at shipping moored at Hahajima. The remains of defensive fortifications are now one of the island's tourist attractions. The population, which was 1,546 in 1904 and 1,905 in 1940, is now only 450. A single road connects the abandoned village of Kitamura (北村) at the north end of the island to the village of Okimura (沖村) - formerly "Newport", at the southern end of the island, where the harbor is located. The island can be reached by ferry in about two hours from Chichijima. The economy of Hahajima is based on

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

, tourism as well as a state-run

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...

distillery.

Education

The Hahajima elementary and junior high school Hahajima Ogasawara Japan

Ogasawara Village operates the island's public elementary and junior high school, Ogasawara Village Municipal Haha-jima Elementary School and Junior High School (小笠原村立母島小中学校).学校教育
" Ogasawara, Tokyo. Retrieved on March 8, 2018.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education 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. The board directly manages all of the public high schools in all 23 special wards, the Wester ...

operates Ogasawara High School

on nearby

Ecology

Hahajima is of considerable interest to

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

s because of its

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

, including the eponymous ''

Lamprocystis hahajimana ''Lamprocystis hahajimana'' is a species of small air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Euconulidae, the hive snails. This species is endemic to Japan. The specific epithet is taken from the name of ...

''. Due to the widespread presence of

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

including

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s (which destroy

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

) and

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

flatworm The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegment ...

s and the

rosy wolfsnail ''Euglandina rosea'', the rosy wolfsnail or cannibal snail, is a species of medium-sized to large predatory air-breathing land snail, a carnivorous terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Spiraxidae.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). Moll ...

(which eat the native snails), it was feared that many of the endemics had become

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

.Chiba ''et al.'' (2007) But most if not all of the endemic land snail species seem to persist on the remote Higashizaki peninsula on the eastern coast. This is a quite pristine expanse of ground, scenic but very hard to reach (one has to climb Mt. Chibusa before descending to the peninsula). It consists of sheer seacliffs surrounding a plateau with

Chinese fan palm ''Livistona chinensis'', the Chinese fan palm or fountain palm, is a species of subtropical palm tree of east Asia. It is native to southern Japan, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands, southeastern China and Hainan. In Japan, two notable populations occ ...

(''

Livistona chinensis ''Livistona chinensis'', the Chinese fan palm or fountain palm, is a species of subtropical palm tree of east Asia. It is native to southern Japan, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands, southeastern China and Hainan. In Japan, two notable populations occ ...

''),

pandanus ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...

and broadleaf (e.g. ''Persea kobu'', a wild

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for i ...

) forest, and appears to be untouched by invasive species at present. It has been proposed that access to the area should be monitored, so that visitors will not inadvertently contribute to destroying this unique area.

Snails

All of these snails are endemic at least to the

. * '' Boninena callistoderma'' -

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

, now restricted to Hahajima and nearby Anejima * '' Gastrocopta boninensis'' - Vulnerable * '' Hirasea acutissima'' - Endangered (believed

, rediscovered 2003), endemic to Hahajima * ''

Lamellidea biplicata ''Lamellidea biplicata'' is a species of air-breathing tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Achatinellidae. This species is endemic to Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku' ...

'' - Vulnerable * ''

'' - Endangered * ''

Mandarina hahajimana ''Mandarina hahajimana'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Camaenidae. This species is endemic to Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an isla ...

'' -

Data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

, possibly a new

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

* '' Mandarina polita'' - Data deficient * ''

Ogasawarana yoshiwarana ''Ogasawarana yoshiwarana'' is a species of land snail with an Operculum (gastropod), operculum, a terrestrial animal, terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Helicinidae, the helicinids. Description ''Ogasawarana yoshiwarana'' was origin ...

'' - Critically endangered (believed

, rediscovered 2003), endemic to Hahajima * ''

Ogasawarana arata ''Ogasawarana arata'' is a species of land snail, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Helicinidae. This species is endemic to Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It ...

'' - Data deficient * '' Paludinella minima'' - Data deficient * ''

Vertigo dedecora ''Vertigo dedecora'' is a species of very small air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Vertiginidae.Nekola J. C., Chiba S., Coles B.F., Drost C.A., Proschwitz T.V., Horsák M. 2018. ...

'' - Vulnerable * ''Tornatellides tryoni''

Birds

Among birds, the

Bonin white-eye The Bonin white-eye (''Apalopteron familiare'') or is a small songbird endemic to the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara Islands) of Japan. It is the only species in the genus ''Apalopteron''. Its taxonomic affinities were a long-standing mystery and it ...

(''Apalopteron familiare''), a gaudy-colored

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

, seems to occur nowhere else anymore than on Hahajima. The extinct

Bonin grosbeak The Bonin grosbeak or Bonin Islands grosbeak (''Carpodacus ferreorostris'') is an extinct finch. It is one of the diverse bird taxa that are vernacularly called "grosbeaks", but it is not closely related to the grosbeaks ''sensu stricto''. Many ...

(''Chaunoproctus ferreorostris'') is sometimes said to have occurred in the Hahajima Group (though not on Haha-jima itself), but this seems not to be true. ''Columba janthina nitens'', the Ogasawara

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the Japanese wood-pigeon, used to occur on Haha-jima. While it is not precisely known when it vanished from this island, the

apparently became completely extinct during the 1980s, but was rediscovered in 1998. The island has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

Footnotes

References

* (2007): Endemic Land Snail Fauna (Mollusca) on a Remote Peninsula in the Ogasawara Archipelago, Northwestern Pacific. ''Pacific Science'' 61(2): 257–265. DOI: 10.2984/1534-6188(2007)61 57:ELSFMO.0.CO;2HTML abstract
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hahajima Bonin Islands Islands of Tokyo 1543 establishments in the Spanish Empire Important Bird Areas of the Nanpo Islands