, also spelt as Minami Daitō or Minami-Daitō, is the largest island in the Daitō Islands group southeast of Okinawa,

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 ...

. It is administered as part of the village of

Minamidaitō, Okinawa is a village located entirely on Minamidaitōjima in Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Minamidaitōjima is located approximately east of Okinawa Island. Minamidaitō covers . As of June 2013, the city had a population of 1,418 and ...

. Shimajiri District, Okinawa and has a population of 2,107. The island is entirely cultivated for agriculture, although it lacks freshwater sources. The island has no beaches but has a fishing boat harbor and three cargo and ferry ports; as well as an airport Minami Daito Airport (airport code "MMD").

Geography

Minamidaitōjima is a relatively isolated coralline island, located approximately south of

Kitadaitōjima , also spelled as Kita Daitō, Kita-Daitō-shima, and Kitadaitō, is the northernmost island in the Daitō Islands group, located in the Philippine Sea southeast of Okinawa, Japan. It is administered as part of the village of Kitadaitō, Shimaj ...

, the second largest island of the archipelago, and from

Naha, Okinawa is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area is ...

. As with the other islands in the archipelago, Minamidaitōjima is an uplifted

coral atoll Corals are marine invertebrates within the class (biology), class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important C ...

with a steep coastal cliff of limestone (the former fringing coral reef of the island), and a depressed center (the former lagoon of the island). The island is roughly oval in shape, with a circumference of about , length of and an area of . The highest point is above sea level. File:Minamidaito-210.jpg, Minamidaitōjima File:Minamidaito-63.jpg, Minamidaitojima coast surrounded by cliffs File:Minamidaito-148.jpg, A lake on the island

Climate

Minamidaitōjima has a tropical rainforest climate ( Köppen climate classification ''Af'') with hot summers and warm winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year; the wettest month is June and the driest month is February. The island is subject to frequent typhoons.

History

It is uncertain when Minamidaitōjima was discovered. It is the most likely that their first sighting was by the Spanish navigator

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 ...

in 1543, in between 25 September and 2 October, during his abortive attempt to reach

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 ...

from the Philippines with the ''San Juan de Letran''. It was then charted, together with Kitadaitōjima, as ''Las Dos Hermanas'' (The Two Sisters). There is little doubt that Minamidaitōjima and Kitadaitōjima were again sighted by the Spanish on 28 July 1587, by Pedro de Unamuno who named them ''Islas sin Provecho'' (Useless Islands). In 1788 the British captain John Meares named an island in the vicinity “Grampus Island”, but the recorded coordinates are not correct and it is not certain which of the Daitō island he sighted . The French also reported sighting an island in 1807. However, on 2 July 1820 the Russian vessel Borodino surveyed the two Daitō islands, and named the south as "South Borodino Island". The island remained uninhabited until claimed by the Empire of Japan in 1885. In 1900, a team of pioneers from Hachijōjima, one 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 ...

located south of Tokyo led by

Tamaoki Han'emon Tamaoki (written: 玉置) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese judoka {{surname Japanese-language surnames ...

(1838 – 1910), became the first human inhabitants of the island, and started the cultivation of sugar cane. The population reached 4000 in 1919. During this period until World War II, Minamidaitōjima was owned in its entirety by Dai Nippon Sugar (now Dai Nippon Meiji Sugar), which provided community services and subsidized pricing for its employees, and of whom were seasonal workers from Okinawa and Taiwan. The island was garrisoned by the Japanese military in 1942. As the war situation worsened for Japan, many of the civilian inhabitants were evacuated to Okinawa, Kyushu or Hachijojima in 1944. The island was repeatedly bombed and shelled by the United States Navy from February to June 1945. After World War II, the island was occupied by the United States, at which time its civilian population was 1426. The island was returned to Japan in 1972.

References

*Kakzu, Hiroshi. ''Island Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for Okinawa''. Trafford Publishing (2012)

External links

official home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minamidaitojima Daitō Islands Islands of Okinawa Prefecture