, also spelled as Kita Daitō, Kita-Daitō-shima, and Kitadaitō, is the northernmost island in the

Daitō Islands The are an archipelago consisting of three isolated coral islands, administered by Japan, in the Philippine Sea southeast of Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa. The islands have a total area of and a population of 2,107. Administratively, the whole gr ...

group, located in the

Philippine Sea The Philippine Sea is a List of seas#Marginal seas by ocean, marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, Western Pacific Ocean east of the list of islands of the Philippines, Philippine Archipelago (hence the name) and the List of seas#Largest seas ...

southeast of

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is administered as part of the village of Kitadaitō, Shimajiri District,

. The island is entirely cultivated for agriculture. The island has no beaches but has a fishing harbor, three ferry docks and an airport (

Kitadaito Airport is located on the island of Kitadaitōjima in the village of Kitadaitō, Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The prefecture operates the airport, which is classified as a third class airport. Only a flight from Naha to Kitadait� ...

) (airport code "KTD") for local flights.

Geography

Kitadaitōjima is a relatively isolated coralline island, located approximately north of Minamidaitōjima, the largest island of the archipelago, and from

Naha, Okinawa is the Cities of Japan, 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 people per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). ...

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

coral atoll Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oce ...

with a steep coastal cliff of limestone (the former fringing

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

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. The interior of the island contains a few small freshwater ponds. The 660 (as of June 1, 2013) inhabitants live in a village in the center of the island.

Gallery

File:Kitadaitou.jpg, A village in the interior of the island. File:Kitadaitou kitakaigan.jpg, A natural area

Climate

Kitadaitōjima has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Af'') with very warm summers and mild winters. The average annual temperature in Kitadaitōjima is . Precipitation is significant throughout the year; the wettest month is May and the driest month is February. The island is subject to frequent

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

s. The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . Its record high is , reached on 7 September 2017, and its record low is , reached on 15 February 2015.

History

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

Bernardo de la Torre Bernardo de la Torre or della Torres (died 1545) was a Spanish explorer during the Age of Discovery. He participated in Ruy López de Villalobos's failed expedition to establish a greater Spanish presence in the East Indies. Stuck for months on th ...

in 1543, in between 25 September and 2 October, during his abortive attempt to reach New Spain from the Philippines with the ''San Juan de Letran''. It was then charted, together with Minamidaitōjima, 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 Probecho'' (Useless Islands). 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 The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

in 1885. In 1900, a team of pioneers from Hachijōjima, an island located south of Tokyo led by Tamaoki Han'emon (1838 – 1910), who had pioneered settlement on Minamidaitōjima, became the first human inhabitants of the islands, and started the cultivation of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

from 1903. During this period until

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Kitadaitōjima was owned in its entirety by Dai Nippon Sugar (now Dai Nippon Meiji Sugar), which also operated mines for the extraction of

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

for use in fertilizer. Many of the inhabitants were seasonal workers from Okinawa and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. After World War II, the island was occupied by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The use of increased mechanization increased

phosphate Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus. In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...

yields marginally until the deposits were exhausted by the mid-1950s. The island was returned to Japan in 1972.

References

External links

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