Mejit ( Marshallese: , , or , ) is an island in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

. Unlike most of the other islands of the Marshall Islands, Mejit is a stony island rather than a coral atoll, although it is surrounded by a 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 ...

enclosing a narrow lagoon. It is located east of the main line of the Ratak chain, approximately northeast from Wotje. The population was 230 at the 2021 census. The island is lush in

pandanus ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with about 578 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. Common names include pandan, screw palm and screw pine. The genus is classified ...

breadfruit Breadfruit (''Artocarpus altilis'') is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family ( Moraceae) believed to have been selectively bred in Polynesia from the breadnut ('' Artocarpus camansi''). Breadfruit was spread into ...

and

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

. To the residents, this island is known as 'Paradise". It has a freshwater lake (rare in the Marshall Islands) with indigenous ducks. Mejit is famous for its pandanus leaf mats. An airstrip, Mejit Airport, bisects the island. It is served by

Air Marshall Islands Air Marshall Islands is an airline based in Majuro, Marshall Islands, Majuro, Marshall Islands. It is the flag carrier of the Marshall Islands, operating inter-island services in the Central Pacific. Its main base is Marshall Islands Internati ...

History

First recorded sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of

Miguel López de Legazpi Miguel López de Legazpi (12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as ''Adelantado, El Adelantado'' and ''El Viejo'' (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who financed and led an expedition to conquer the Philippines, Philippine islan ...

on 9 January 1565. It was charted as ''Los Barbudos'' (The Bearded in Spanish) because of the long beards of its inhabitants. Its sighting was also recorded by the Spanish expedition of

Ruy López de Villalobos Ruy López de Villalobos (; – 23 April 1546) was a Spanish explorer who led a failed attempt to colonize the Philippines in 1544, attempting to assert Spanish control there under the terms of the treaties of Tordesillas and Zaragoza. U ...

on December 1542. The German navigator

Otto von Kotzebue Otto von Kotzebue (; 30 December 1787 – 15 February 1846) was a Baltic German naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. He commanded two naval expeditions into the Pacific for the purposes of exploration and scientific investigation. The fi ...

, sailing in Russian service, made landfall at Mejit Island on January 1, 1817, and named it New Year's Island. In 1885, Mejit was claimed by the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

along with the rest of the Marshall Islands. After World War I, the island came under the

South Seas Mandate The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator, was a League of Nations mandate in the " South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following W ...

of 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 ...

. The island was recovered from the Japanese by U.S. Forces on 2 April 1944. Following the end of World War II, it came under the control of the United States as part of the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. The Imperial Japanese South Seas Mandate had been seized by the U.S. during the Pacifi ...

until the independence of the Marshall Islands in 1986.

Education

Marshall Islands Public School System operates Mejit Elementary School. Northern Islands High School on Wotje serves the community.Annual Report 2011-2012
." Ministry of Education (Marshall Islands). Retrieved on February 22, 2018. p. 54 (PDF p. 55/118). "Northern Islands High School takes students from the Ratak Ean zone including schools in Aur, Maloelap, Wotje, Ailuk, Utrik, Likiep and Mejit."

Notes

External links

Marshall Islands site
* {{Authority control Ratak Chain Municipalities of the Marshall Islands