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, formerly known as Peel Island, is the largest island in the Ogasawara archipelago.

Contents

Topography

History

Nineteenth century

World War II

US nuclear arms base

Sea Turtle Project

Topography

Chichijima is located at 27° 4' 0N 142° 12' 30E. There are currently around 2000 people living on the island, and the island's area is around 24 km².

History

Nineteenth century

Various scientific expeditions visited the island in the Nineteenth century, including:^[1]

★ The Beechey Pacific expedition in 1827,

★ Naturalist Heinrich von Kittlitz in 1828 with the Russian ''Senjawin'' expedition, led by Captain Fyodor Petrovich Litke;

★ Commodore Matthew Perry's U.S. expedition to Japan in 1853;

★ Naturalist William Stimpson of the Rodgers-Ringgold North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition came in 1854.
Two shipwrecked sailors who were picked up by Beechey in 1827 suggested that the island would make a good stopover station for whalers, and settlement was begun in 1830. The settlement was lead in May of 1830 by thirty-six year old Nathaniel Savory along with twenty-two other adventurous men and woman via a three-thousand mile long trip from Pearl Harbor to the beautiful island of Chichi Jima to found his whaling supply enterprise.
In 1854, the Rodgers-Ringgold expedition encountered rats and feral goats, sheep, dogs and cats (feral pigs were already found by Kittlitz and may have been left by Beechey to provision possible future castaways).
Possibly as a result of the introduction of alien animals, at least three species of birds became extinct: the Bonin Nankeen Night Heron, Bonin Grosbeak a finch, and Bonin Thrush. The island was the only known home of the thrush and probably the finch, although the heron was found on Nakōdo-jima (also "Nakoudo-" or, erroneously, "Nakondo-") as well. The existence of the birds was documented by von Kittlitz in 1828, and five stuffed thrushes are in European museums.
The Bonin Wood-pigeon died out in the late Nineteenth century, apparently as the result of deforestation or the introduction of alien mammals or from both causes. The species is known to have existed only on Chichi-jima and another island, Nakōdo-jima.

World War II

The island was the site of a radio station during World War II, and a frequent target of US attacks. The young George H. W. Bush was once shot down while on one of these raids. Japanese troops and resources from Chichi Jima were used in reinforcing the strategic point of Iwo Jima before the battle of Iwo Jima. The island also served as a major point for Japanese radio communication and surveillance operations in the Pacific, with two radio stations atop its two mountains being the primary goal of multiple bombing attempts by the US Navy.
Chichi Jima was also the subject of a book by James Bradley entitled '', a factual account of the lives of a group of World War II fighter pilots including George H. W. Bush. In the book, it tells the story of United States Navy pilots who bombed the island's two radio stations. The book details the stories of the pilots that were captured, tortured, killed, and in some cases, partially eaten.
The island was never captured and surrendered with the Japanese Empire. After the surrender some of the senior officers were court-martialled and punished according to the class "B" war crimes standard.
Nobuaki "Warren" Iwatake is known for his service in the Japanese Imperial Army at Chichi Jima.
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan maintains a VERA 20m radio telescope on the island.

US nuclear arms base

Chichi-jima appears to be one of a number of Japanese islands which has been used by the United States to host nuclear arms, according to Robert S. Norris, William M. Arkin, and William Burr writing for the ''Bulletin of Atomic Scientists'' in early 2000. [1] [2] This is despite the Japanese Constitution being explicitely not just anti- nuclear-weapons, but anti-war. [3] Whether the site is currently used for this purpose is unknown, as great secrecy surrounds the United States' siting of nuclear arms bases.
"There were nuclear weapons on Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima, an enormous and varied nuclear arsenal on Okinawa, nuclear bombs (sans their fissile cores) stored on the mainland at Misawa and Itazuki airbases (and possibly at Atsugi, Iwakuni, Johnson, and Komaki airbases as well), and nuclear-armed U.S. Navy ships stationed in Sasebo and Yokosuka."
"It is true that Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were under U.S. occupation, that the bombs stored on the mainland lacked their plutonium and/ or uranium cores, and that the nuclear-armed ships were a legal inch away from Japanese soil. All in all, this elaborate strategem maintained the technicality that the United States had no nuclear weapons in Japan.'"

Sea Turtle Project

Chichi Jima houses a facility on the edge of Futami Harbor dedicated to the restoration of sea turtle populations that have been decimated due to human activity. Infant turtles are raised at the facility until they have reached a certain bodymass, at which point they are released into the wild; newly-hatched turtles face enormous risks of predation, and the facility believes their efforts increase the turtles' chances of survival. Additionally, the facility maintains half a dozen adult sea turtles on site.