, or ) is an uninhabited

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 ...

ese island 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 ...

. The

volcanic island Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

is part of the

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ō ...

Geography

Tori-shima is located in the

Philippine Sea The Philippine Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippine archipelago (hence the name), the largest in the world, occupying an estimated surface area of . The Philippine Sea Plate forms the floor of the sea. Its ...

approximately south of

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 ...

and north of Lot's Wife. The roughly circular-shaped island is listed as a Class A

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano which is either erupting or is likely to erupt in the future. An active volcano which is not currently erupting is known as a dormant volcano. Overview Tlocene Epoch. Most volcanoes are situated on the Pacific Ri ...

by the

Japan Meteorological Agency The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...

. The island is the above-water portion of a

submarine volcano Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges ...

, whose submerged caldera portion to the north of the island continues to erupt underwater. Volcanic activity on the island itself was last recorded in 2002, accompanied by earthquake swarms. The main peak on the island, has a height of , and the island has a circumference of . The total area of the island is .

History

Tori-shima was known to Japanese fishermen and mariners since at least the early

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, but was uninhabited aside from occasional shipwreck survivors. In 1841, 14-year-old

Nakahama Manjirō , also known as John Manjirō (or John Mung), was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Opening of Japan.* Voyage to America During his early life, he lived as a simple fisherman in ...

and four friends were shipwrecked on Tori-shima until rescued by the American whaleship ''John Howland'' commanded by William H. Whitfield. Japanese writer

Akira Yoshimura was an award-winning Japanese writer. Internationally he is best known for his novels ''Shipwrecks'' and ''On Parole''. Life and work Yoshimura was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a PEN member. He published over 20 novels, o ...

researched and wrote about 15 similar instances. The island was settled in

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, with the primary economic activity being the gathering of

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

from the abundant short-tailed albatross, who use the island as their nesting grounds. A major

volcanic eruption 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 ...

was recorded in 1871. The island was administratively grouped with the

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 ...

in August 1898, but was transferred to the administration of Hachijojima in April 1901. The population of 150 inhabitants was killed by a major volcanic eruption in 1902. Torishima was never repopulated. Since the 1930s, the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology has taken a very active role in researching and attempting to preserve the local

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

species, especially the short-tailed albatross, which had been reduced to an estimated 50 birds by 1933. The Japan Meteorological Agency established a weather station and volcanic research station on the island in 1947, but this was abandoned in 1965 due to volcanic activity and earthquakes. On November 1, 1954 Tori-shima was proclaimed a protected bird sanctuary. This designation was increased to that of a protected national Natural monument on May 10, 1965. It can only be visited by research scientists with special permission, and landing on the island is very difficult due to heavy seas and lack of suitable landing beaches or facilities. Tour boats which take people around the island to view the birds are popular, but these tours are not permitted to land on the island. Researchers normally travel to the island by chartered government

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. Tori-shima, along with the other

, is officially part of Tokyo Metropolis, and also falls within the borders of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.

Flora and fauna

Repeated volcanic eruptions in 1939 and 2002 have set the flora on Tori-shima back to initial stages in the

ecological succession Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less. Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as ca ...

. Plants such as ''

Vitex rotundifolia ''Vitex rotundifolia'', the roundleaf chastetree or beach vitex, is a species of flowering plant in the sage family Lamiaceae. It is native to seashores throughout the Pacific. Its range includes continents and islands stretching from India east ...

'' and hydrangea are found near the shoreline, and '' Chrysanthemum pacificum'' and Japanese black pine in sheltered areas inland, but most of the central portion of the island remains as volcanic ash and rock. The island is home to several tens of thousands of breeding pairs of

Tristram's storm petrel Tristram's storm petrel or ''akihikeehiale'' (''Hydrobates tristrami'') is a species of seabird in the storm petrel family Hydrobatidae. The species' common and scientific name is derived from the English clergyman Henry Baker Tristram; the specie ...

and other birds such as

Japanese murrelet The Japanese murrelet or crested murrelet (''Synthliboramphus wumizusume'') is a small seabird in the auk family that occurs along the remote rocky coasts and in the offshore waters of Japan, and may also be found after the breeding season as far ...

, black-footed albatross, common kestrel, and

blue rock thrush The blue rock thrush (''Monticola solitarius'') is a species of chat. This thrush-like Old World flycatcher was formerly placed in the family Turdidae. It breeds in southern Europe, northwest Africa, and from Central Asia to northern China and M ...

, but the short-tailed albatross population has been very slow to recover, with recovery hampered by the presence of large numbers of

black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

s, the only remaining mammal on the island.

Humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...

s and

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

s often appear around the island during migration and breeding seasons. Tori-shima is the primary and one of only two remaining breeding sites for the short-tailed albatross. 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 ...

Notes

References

* ''Teikoku's Complete Atlas of Japan'', Teikoku-Shoin Co., Ltd. Tokyo 1990,

External links