The or are a group of three
Japanese-governed islands in
Micronesia
Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, ...
. They lie south of 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 read ...
and belong to the
municipality of Ogasawara, Tokyo,
Tokyo Metropolis, Japan.
The islands are all active
volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...
es lying atop an
island arc that stretches south to the
Marianas
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
. They have an area of , and a population of 380. The island of
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.
...
in the Volcano Islands lies about southeast of
Miyazaki.
Geography
The Volcano Islands are:
*, , (Sakaki-ga-mine)
*, , (Suribachi-yama)
* ,
Farther north but in the same volcanic arc is:
*, ,
There is a
Japan Self-Defense Forces
The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, th ...
air base on Iwo Jima with a staff of 380. It is located in the village of Minami. Other than that, the islands are uninhabited.
File:Kazan-retto.jpg, Satellite photo of the Volcano Islands (2004)
*
Fukutoku-Okanoba Generally submerged volcano eruptions sometimes bring it above the surface.
History
The first recorded sighting by Europeans was in October 1543 by 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 ...
on board of
carrack
A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade ...
''San Juan de Letrán'' when trying to return from
Sarangani
Sarangani, officially the Province of Sarangani ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sarangani; hil, Kapuoran sang Sarangani; Maguindanaon: ''Dairat nu Sarangani'', Jawi: دايرت نو سارڠني; fil, Lalawigan ng Sarangani), is a province in the Philip ...
to
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 A ...
.
Iwo Jima was charted as Sufre, the old Spanish term for
sulphur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
.
The islands were uninhabited in 1889 when the two northern islands were settled by Japanese settlers from 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 ...
. They were annexed by Japan in 1891.
However, archeological evidence has revealed that islands of the greater
Bonin archipelago were prehistorically inhabited by an unknown
Micronesian people.
[小笠原・火山(硫黄)列島の歴史](_blank)
/ref>
The population was about 1,100 in 1939, distributed among five settlements: Higashi, Minami, Nishi, Kita and Motoyama (meaning "East", "South", "West", "North" and "Mountain of Origin", or central mountain) on Iwo Jima; and two settlements on Kita Iwo Jima: Ishino-mura ("Ishino village"; Ishino is a surname) and Nishi-mura ("West village"). The municipal administration office was located in Higashi until 1940 when the municipality was integrated into the administration of Ogasawara, Tokyo.
Iwo Jima was the site of the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, and the island group came under the United States administration. The Volcano Islands were returned to Japanese rule in 1968.
Ecology
The Volcano Islands have a subtropical climate. They are part of the Ogasawara subtropical moist forests
The Ogasawara subtropical moist forests is a terrestrial ecoregion which encompasses the Ogasawara Archipelago of Japan. The Ogasawara Archipelago lies in the Pacific Ocean south of Honshu, Japan's largest island, and north of the Marianas Isla ...
ecoregion and are home to unique and diverse plants and animals, including many 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 else ...
species. They have been recognised as forming 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 Inte ...
(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 ...
because they support populations of red-tailed tropicbirds, Japanese wood pigeons and Matsudaira's storm petrels.[ ]
See also
* Nanpō Islands
* Geography of Japan
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Bonin Islands
Volcano_Islands
Archipelagoes of Japan
Islands of Tokyo
Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean
1889 establishments
1891 establishments in Japan
Seabird colonies
Important Bird Areas of the Nanpo Islands