Bonin Islands

Bonin Islands Latest News

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake recently struck the Bonin Islands region of Japan.

About Bonin Islands

• The Bonin Islands, also known as the Ogasawara Islands, are some 30 volcanic islands and islets in the central Pacific Ocean, about 800 km southeast of Japan.  
• The islands command a strategic position astride the Pacific approaches to East Asia.  
• History:
  • The islands were claimed by Japan from the British in 1875 and placed under the Tokyo prefecture in 1880. 
  • In World War II the islands formed a major Japanese military stronghold until they were occupied by the U.S. Navy in 1945. 
  • The islands were administered by the U.S. military until 1968, when they were returned to Japan. 
• Only a fraction of their total land area—73 sq.km.—is arable, the remainder being hilly and forested.  
• The largest and principal island is Chichi (formerly Peel Island), the site of Omura, the capital of the group, and Futami-ko (Port Lloyd), the chief harbor.  
• They have never been connected to a continental land mass: the island chain emerged from the sea floor as submarine volcanoes and has always been oceanic.
• This origin makes the archipelago a laboratory for evolutionary divergence in isolation: 
  • The 195 endemic plant species (15% of all plant species known from the islands) and 100+ endemic land snail species represent separate evolutionary lineages from any continental ancestor. 
  • The 440 species of fish recorded in the surrounding reefs include species first described from Ogasawara that are not found anywhere else in the world. 
  • Bonin flying fox: A threatened fruit bat and the only endemic mammal of the Ogasawara Islands. 
• They have been dubbed the “Galapagos of the Orient” due to the presence of many flora and fauna species that have evolved there independently. 
• The Ogasawara Islands were added to UNESCO’s list of World Natural Heritage sites in July 2011.

News: TOI

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