which island in the japanese archipelago does the us have multiple military bases on
Zamami, Okinawa


be invaded by America during World War II. It was taken on March 26, 1945 along with other islands in the Kerama archipelago. Before and during the invasion, citizens of Zamami were ordered by the Japanese military to commit suicide using hand grenades. Controversy surrounding this issue continues to this day. The American military used the Kerama islands as a base to launch their invasion of the main Okinawan island on April 1, 1945. In stark contrast to its calamitous history at the end of World War II, Zamami is now
7455342
Geography of Japan


The population is clustered in urban areas on the coast, plains and valleys. Japan is located in the northwestern Ring of Fire on multiple tectonic plates. East of the Japanese archipelago are three oceanic trenches. The Japan Trench is created as the oceanic Pacific Plate subducts beneath the continental Okhotsk Plate. The continuous subduction process causes frequent earthquakes, tsunami and stratovolcanoes. The islands are also affected by typhoons. The subduction plates have pulled the Japanese archipelago eastward, created the Sea of Japan and separated it from the Asian continent by back
15572819
Chagos Archipelago


While a number of islanders had petitioned for the return of their former homes, their efforts have not been accepted by the US and UK legal systems. Outside of the US, the main island of Diego Garcia is the world's largest military base. Diego Garcia is currently the only inhabited island in the Chagos, all of which comprise the British Indian Ocean Territory, usually abbreviated as "BIOT". It is an Overseas territory of the United Kingdom, and the Government of the BIOT consists of Commissioner appointed by the Queen
20034688
Nuclear-free zone


manufacture or otherwise obtain nuclear arms, and no nuclear weapons are known to have been introduced into the Japanese Home Islands since the end of World War II. While the United States does not maintain nuclear bases within its military installations on the Home Islands, it is believed to have once stored weapons at Okinawa, which remained under US administrative jurisdiction until 1972. Italy is a nuclear free zone since the Italian nuclear power referendum of November 1987. Following center-right parties' victory in the 2008 election, Italy's industry minister
9213687
South Pacific Mandate


Militarily and economically, Saipan, in the Marianas archipelago, was the most important island in the South Pacific Mandate and became the center of subsequent Japanese settlement. The towns of Garapan (on Saipan), Koror (on Palau) and Colony (on Ponape) were developed to resemble small towns in Japan, with cinemas, restaurants, beauty parlours and geisha houses. Another important island was Truk in the Carolines archipelago, which was fortified into a major navy base by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Between 1914 and 1920 the islands
17069461
History of Basilan


and 102nd Division and the U.S. Army's 41st Division invaded the Sulu Archipelago, a long stretch of islands reaching from the Zamboanga Peninsula to North Borneo. Rapidly taken in succession were Basilan, Malamawi, Tawi-Tawi, Sanga Sanga and Bongao. It is during this phase of the operations when American bombing raids completely destroyed Fort Isabela Segunda, which was used by the Japanese as military headquarters, prison and munitions dump, and razed the "Spanish" Naval Hospital. Minimal resistance from entrenched Japanese positions in Isabela and Malamawi Island
18906441
Military history of Australia during World War II


to accept the sending of the AIF to aid Britain, stunned the country. While Australia's contribution to the pre-war plans to defend South East Asia from Japanese aggression was focused on the defence of Malaya and Singapore, small Australian forces were also deployed to defend several islands to the north of Australia. The role of these forces was to defend strategic airfields which could be used to launch attacks on the Australian mainland. Detachments of coastwatchers were also stationed in the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands to report on any Japanese operations
20418600
Chagos Archipelago


the United Kingdom evicted them between 1967 and 1973 to allow the United States to build a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands. Since 1971, only the atoll of Diego Garcia is inhabited, and only by military and civilian contracted personnel. Since being expelled, Chagossian natives have been prevented from returning to the islands. The sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago is disputed between the United Kingdom and Mauritius. In 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence, the United Kingdom excised the archipelago from Mauritius and
20034654
145th Armored Regiment


the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. Although the allies enjoyed an improved strategic position after the success of Operation Watchtower on Guadalcanal, a strategically important Japanese base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago blocked any offensives toward the Philippines and Japan. In order to ultimately assault or neutralize Rabaul, the allies would first have to capture the remainder of the Solomon Islands and portions of northeast New Guinea. While an assault on Rabaul would be postponed by decision of the 1943 Pacific Military Conference, U.S. Army General Douglas A.
6229818
Terra nullius


use the military to protect such interests, and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States. A disputed archipelago in the East China Sea, the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, are claimed by Japan to have become part of its territory as "terra nullius" in January 1895, following the First Sino-Japanese War. However, this interpretation is not accepted by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan), both of whom claim sovereignty over the islands. A narrow strip of land
13091088
Chagos Archipelago


of their culture have been left, although their language is still spoken by some of their descendants in Mauritius. The inhabitants of Chagos were speaking Chagossian Creole, also known as Ilois creole, a French Creole which has not been properly researched from the linguistic point of view. The island names are a mixture of Dutch, French, English and Ilois Creole. The tribes that inhabited the islands were forcibly removed by the US and British governments during the late 1960s and early 1970s—effectively turning the islands into a military base.
20034687
Jōmon period


thus generally unusable for hunter-gatherers. However, this does not seem to have been the case with the first Jōmon people, who perhaps numbered 20,000 over the whole archipelago. It seems that food sources were so abundant in the natural environment of the Japanese islands that it could support fairly large, semi-sedentary populations. The Jōmon people used chipped stone tools, ground stone tools, traps, and bows, and were evidently skillful coastal and deep-water fishermen. The degree to which horticulture or small-scale agriculture
21074705
Nanpō Islands


The is a collective term for the groups of islands that are located to the south of the main islands of the Japanese archipelago. They extend from the Izu Peninsula west of Tokyo Bay southward for about , to within of the Mariana Islands. The Nanpō Islands are all administered by Tokyo Metropolis. The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard defines the Nanpō Shotō as follows: The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, a government agency that is responsible for standardization of place names, does not use the term Nanpō Shotō,
7787024
Government of Mauritius


Democracy". Mauritius is also taking on the US and UK governments for the Chagos Archipelago islands which include Diego Garcia now a US naval base. Mauritius want these powers to hand back these islands which the government of Mauritius always considered as part of its territories to complete its decolonisation process. This is a matter of importance to the western world considering the critical location of the military base. The National Assembly is the legislative branch of the government of Mauritius. The Assembly is made up of 70 Members elected in 21 constituencies,
11369552
Raids on Deboyne (1942)


A series of raids on Deboyne were conducted by Allied forces against the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane base in the Deboyne Islands of the Louisiade Archipelago between 9–11 May 1942. The seaplane base had been set up prior to the Battle of Coral Sea and became untenable and was abandoned by the Japanese, due to proximity to Allied airfields at Port Moresby and the failure of "Mo Sakusen" (Operation "Mo"). Deboyne is the name for both an island and the atoll of which it is a part. Deboyne Island is
5677471
Politics of Svalbard


a consulate in Barentsburg, led by Consule General Alexander Antipov. Article 9 of the Svalbard Treaty specifies that no fortifications and naval bases may be built on Svalbard, nor can the archipelago be used for "warlike purposes". The preparatory work of the treaty and later state practice has been to enforce that no military activity is carried out on the archipelago; however, the treaty as such does not ban, for instance, the construction of air stations or military installations not regarded as defense works. There is scholarly consensus that
21198776
Military history of Japan


were banished from the peninsula. To defend the Japanese archipelago, a military base was constructed in Dazaifu, Fukuoka, on Kyushu. This period is divided into the Kofun and Asuka period. Ancient Japan had close ties with the Gaya confederacy and Baekje on the Korean Peninsula. Gaya, where there was an abundance of naturally occurring iron, exported abundant quantities of iron armor and weapons to Wa, and there may have even been a Japanese military post there with Gaya and Baekje cooperation.. According to the Gwanggaeto Stele, Silla and
4921964
Hanish Islands


Ethiopia (which had annexed Eritrea) and Yemen claimed the islands. Ethiopian interest stemmed from the fact that Eritrean independence groups used the Hanish Islands and the nearby Zuqar Island as a base to attack Ethiopian military interests. In 1991, Eritrea gained independence and, in 1996, attempted to exercise sovereignty over the archipelago, starting the Hanish Islands conflict, which was eventually ended after a brief conflict between Eritrea and Yemen over the islands. In all, 3–12 Eritreans and 4–15 Yemenis were killed in the fighting. During the 2015 Yemeni
6004518
Franz Josef Land


islands because of their strategic military significance. The islands were regarded as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier". The site of the former German weather station was selected as the location of a Soviet aerodrome and military base, Nagurskoye. With the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Soviet Union changed its military strategy in 1956, abolishing the strategic need for an airbase on the archipelago. The International Geophysical Year of 1957 and 1958 gave a new rise to the scientific interest in the archipelago and an airstrip was built on Heiss Island in
1582405
4th Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)


Seas Force. With the start of hostilities against the United States, the 4th Fleet was based out of Truk, with a secondary base at Kwajalein. After initial Japanese successes, additional bases were established in the southern Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Gilbert Islands, eastern New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands. After the Battle of the Coral Sea, the area covered by the 4th Fleet was reduced to an “inner core” of Japanese possessions, while the new IJN 8th Fleet was assigned to confront the
11180929
Ssese Islands


The Ssese Islands are an archipelago of eighty-four islands in the northwestern part of Lake Victoria in Uganda. The islands are coterminous with the Kalangala District in southern Central Uganda, which does not have any territory on mainland Uganda. The islands occupy the northwestern corner of Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world. The largest island in the archipelago is called Bugala Island. Its largest town, called Kalangala serves as the headquarters of the district that carries the same name (Kalangala District). Kalangala is
18491701
Geology of the British Indian Ocean Territory


Archipelago has unusual conglomerate platforms. The islands lack Eemian age carbonates, which are present in the Seychelles for reasons that are not clear—hypothesized to include local storm erosion. The offshore waters around the archipelago contain deep-sea ferromanganese nodules, with globular, dendritic and laminated microstructures formed from iron-manganese oxide. Due to the US military presence on the island the US Geological Survey has conducted water resource analysis since 1984. The islands of the Chagos Archipelago are mainly low and flat, mainly not reaching two meters above sea
12333836
Gulf Islands


comes from "Gulf of Georgia," the original term used by George Vancouver in his mapping of the southern part of the archipelago and which before the San Juan Island dispute also was taken to include what have since been called the San Juan Islands. Strictly speaking, the Strait of Georgia is only the wide, open waters of the main strait between the mainland and Vancouver Island, and does not officially refer to the adjoining waters between the islands and Vancouver Island but has become a common misnomer for the entire Gulf, which
20995318
Taiwan Dog


do not need to provide a lot of foods for them, they have the habit of finding their own foods. These were the reason Formosan was called the "barbarian dog," by Japanese. Using sanitation as an excuse, Japanese military launched a large-scale massacre of Formosan to reduce the local dog population." During the time when the Japanese military was building the Central and Southern Cross-Island Highway, they were constantly encountered by the aborigines. The aborigines launched numerous assaults to the Japanese military bases. During
16043484
Aftermath of World War II


to the Indonesian war for independence. At the Yalta Conference, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt had secretly traded the Japanese Kurils and south Sakhalin to the Soviet Union in return for Soviet entry in the war with Japan. The Soviet Union annexed the Kuril Islands, provoking the Kuril Islands dispute, which is ongoing, as Russia continues to occupy the islands. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese were forced to relocate to the Japanese main islands. Okinawa became a main US staging point. The US covered large areas of it with military bases
12603894
Kalix


outpost of the archipelago and has as such had maritime pilots placed there from the 1830s all the way up to 1967. The island has a church, a small village with houses mostly used as summer cabins today, but also interesting remains of a time past, like one or two graves, a labyrinth and a wreck. The archipelago is important to the people of Kalix - if one does not have a cabin there then at least a good boat to get from island to island in. And one of the summer highlights
16148036
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal


U.S.) forces landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and the Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands, a pre-war colonial possession of Great Britain. The landings were meant to prevent the Japanese using the islands as bases from which to threaten the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and to secure them as starting points for a campaign to neutralize the major Imperial Japanese military base at Rabaul and support of the Allied New Guinea campaign. The Japanese had occupied Tulagi in May 1942 and began constructing an airfield on Guadalcanal in June
17114194
Daitō Islands


, Black-winged stilt, tuna, skipjack tuna, Japanese Spanish mackerel, marlin, manta rays, Japanese spiny lobster, sea turtles, dolphins and Humpback whales. Among Ryukyu Islands, green pheasant is only present on Daitō Islands followed by corals and coral fish that are rare in the rest of the archipelago most notably Chaetodon auripes which is occasionally regarded as endemic to the islands and "Hemitaurichthys thompsoni" was only previously recorded in Bonin Islands. Black Jacks and knifejaws that have become rarer in Japanese waters still occur as well
1416300
Nuyts Archipelago


within the group are within the Nuyts Archipelago Wilderness Protection Area which was proclaimed on 25 August 2011 and was excised from all of the Isles of St Francis Conservation Park and from the Nuyts Archipelago Conservation with exception to Eyre Island and St Peter Island. Evans Island which was previously unalienated Crown land has only partially included in the wilderness protection area as part of the island is held by AMSA for use as a site for a lighthouse. The waters around the archipelago and adjoining the mainland have been within the 4000 km Nuyts Archipelago Marine
12392286
Solomon Islands campaign


New Hebrides through the Solomon Islands to the Bismarck Archipelago. Following the victory at Midway, General Douglas MacArthur, who had taken command of the South West Pacific Area, proposed a lightning offense to retake Rabaul, which the Japanese were fortifying and using as a base of operations. The United States Navy advocated a more gradual approach from New Guinea and up the Solomon Island chain. These competing proposals were resolved by Admiral King and U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, who adopted a three-task plan. Task
2286799
History of Manila


military stations in Ermita, Manila. On December 24, 1941, they are closed down following the arrival and occupation of the capital city by the Japanese Imperial forces, who took control of the main general headquarters of the Commonwealth Army on January 3, 1942. Following the Japanese Occupation, the general headquarters and military camps and bases of the Philippine Commonwealth Army are used around the provinces of the Philippine Archipelago from Luzon, Visayas and aMindanao from January 3, 1942 to June 30, 1946 has openly the service and began the
14283364
African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty


of State Hillary Clinton announced that the Obama Administration would submit these protocols to the U.S. Senate for advice and consent to ratification. The status of the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, controlled by the United Kingdom and used as a military base by the United States, with regard to the Treaty is unclear. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Archipelago claimed by Mauritius. The other islands of the Chagos Archipelago are considered in Africa and are under the treaty, but neither the United States nor the United Kingdom recognizes Diego Garcia
21651394
Säkkiluoto


Säkkiluoto (Swedish: Säckilot) is an island located in Southwest Finland, Finland. The island contains nine piers and a helipad. The island is part of an archipelago administered from Parainen. The island is reportedly owned by a 54 year old Russian businessman from St. Petersburg named Pavel Melnikov. On September 22, 2018, more than 400 Finnish police and military officials raided the island. There is speculation that Melnikov secretly works for the Russian military owing to the "helipads, multiple docks, barrack-like structures and location near
12334141
Mishima, Kagoshima


, of which seven were inhabited. After World War II, from 2 February 1946 all of the Japanese islands south of 30th Latitude, including the Tokara Islands, were placed under United States military administration as part of the Provisional Government of Northern Ryukyu Islands. However, the three northern inhabited islands in the archipelago, known as the : Iōjima, Kuroshima and Takeshima, remained under the control of Japan, and were placed under the administration of the village of Mishima. The remaining Tokara Islands reverted to Japan on 10 February 1952
9200172
Falkland Islands


settlement), the UK military base at RAF Mount Pleasant, and the archipelago's highest point: Mount Usborne, at . Outside of these significant settlements is the area colloquially known as "Camp", which is derived from the Spanish term for countryside ("Campo"). The climate of the islands is cold, windy and humid maritime. Variability of daily weather is typical throughout the archipelago. Rainfall is common over half of the year, averaging in Stanley, and sporadic light snowfall occurs nearly all year. The
5467167
Ogasawara National Park


The archipelago is also known as the Bonin Islands, a corruption of , meaning 'uninhabited'. The islands were returned to Japanese administration in 1968 after US Occupation. The Chichijima, Hahajima, and Mukojima clusters are included within the park, but of the three Volcano Islands, Iwo Jima and Minami Iwo Jima are not. According to the IUCN evaluation for UNESCO, 441 taxa of native plants have been recorded, of which 161 of vascular plants and 88 of woody plants are endemic; the only native mammal is the critically
21884893
Chagos Islands national football team


The Chagos Islands national football team is a football team ostensibly representing the territory of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. However, this area, which falls under the administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory, is uninhabited save for the presence of a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia, after the United Kingdom evicted the local population between 1967 and 1973. As a consequence, the team in fact represents the Chagossian diaspora around the world. In 2004, following the granting of Chagossians living in the UK the
13566279
Chiloé Archipelago


Antonio de Quintanilla negotiate a surrender to a new military expedition led by Ramon Freire, and the island was fully incorporated into the independent Republic of Chile, although Spain did not recognize Chile until 1844. The last Spanish military governors were: Charles Darwin arrived in Chiloé on 28 June 1834 and was based there for six months, writing about his impressions of southern Chile in his diaries. The archipelago had been an old royalist stronghold, and its inhabitants were known during the 19th century for complaining about not having a king. Darwin
13805308
Payne Islands


The uninhabited Payne Islands are an archipelago, members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Ungava Bay Archipelago, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. They are located in Payne Bay, a waterway in western Ungava Bay, just east of the Arnaud River (formerly the Payne River) and the community of Kangirsuk on Quebec's Ungava Peninsula. "Note:" The Atlas of Canada does not recognise this appellation; presumably the Payne Islands are the islets of Nanuk, Agvik, and Akunok. The islands have a hard
19514539
Kuril Islands


that have traditionally been inhabited by the Ainu people, such as "Kuyi" or "Kuye" for Sakhalin and "Kai" for Hokkaidō. In Japanese, the Kuril Islands are known as the Chishima Islands (Kanji: , literally, "Thousand Islands Archipelago"), also known as the Kuriru Islands (Katakana: , literally, "Kuril Archipelago"). Once the Russians reached the islands in the 18th century they found a pseudo-etymology from Russian "kurit' " (курить – "to smoke"
19679588
Edwin O. Reischauer


not have to "give Japan any real say in the use of our bases." He said that "if Japan would accept nuclear weapons on Japanese soil, including Okinawa, and if it would provide us with assurances guaranteeing our military commanders effective control of the islands in time of military crisis, then we would be able to keep our bases on the islands, even though 'full sovereignty' reverted to Japan." These "became key elements [of] the 1969 U.S.-Japan Okinawa Reversion Agreement," effectively making "
17883426
History of Franz Josef Land


was carried out in 1955, with landings on the ice caps of many islands. With the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Soviet Union changed its military strategy in 1956, abolishing the strategic need for an airbase on the archipelago. This decision also allowed for the international publication of the Soviet research garnered during the preceding decade. The International Geophysical Year of 1957 and 1958 gave a new rise to the scientific interest in the archipelago. An airstrip was built on Heiss Island in 1956, which could serve as a base for
341362
Seewoosagur Ramgoolam


free education & free heatlhcare. He is criticized for accepting the unlawful excision of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritian territories by the British government. However official colonial documents which has been declassified in the UK revealed that Ramgoolam acted under duress. The British eventually evicted all the natives of the archipelago to mainland Mauritius and Seychelles to allow American to build a military base on the biggest island of the Archipelago, Diego Garcia. He is also criticized for the poor performance of his last government (1976–1982) which lacked extreme economic growth and led
16718085
Amelia Earhart


in every scrap of available space. Another theory is that Earhart and Noonan were captured by Japanese forces, perhaps after somehow navigating to somewhere within the Japanese South Pacific Mandate. In 1966, CBS Correspondent Fred Goerner published a book claiming that Earhart and Noonan were captured and executed when their aircraft crashed on the island of Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands archipelago. Saipan is more than 2,700 miles away from Howland Island, however. Later proponents of the Japanese capture hypothesis have generally suggested the Marshall Islands instead, which while
5088650
Commonwealth of the Philippines


3, 1942 to June 30, 1946, during and after the Second World War, the general headquarters and military camps and bases of the PCA military stations in the main provinces of the Philippine Archipelago from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were openly under control of the PCA service and began local military conflicts and to engage operations against the Japanese Occupation in this country. Meanwhile, the Japanese military organized a new government in the Philippines known as the Second Philippine Republic, headed by president José P. Laurel. This pro-Japanese government
1453452
Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands


another 35. American casualties were 45 dead and over 200 wounded. USAAF fighters and anti-aircraft guns shot down about 37 Japanese aircraft during these raids. After the Marianas began to come under attack, the United States military stepped up its raids on the Japanese-held islands which could be used to launch raids on the B-29 bases. Particular attention was given to Iwo Jima, as it was correctly assumed that the Japanese aircraft which attacked the Marianas were flying from Japan and staging through the island en route to their targets
19222403
Malay Archipelago


, which was based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The 19th-century naturalist Alfred Wallace used the term "Malay Archipelago" as the title of his influential book documenting his studies in the region. Wallace also referred to the area as the "Indian Archipelago" and the "Indo-Australian" Archipelago. He included within the region the Solomon Islands and the Malay Peninsula due to physiographic similarities. As Wallace noted, there are arguments for excluding Papua New Guinea for cultural and geographical reasons: Papua New Guinea is
19722031
Severnaya Zemlya


an hour or two from viewing the archipelago's coastline. In the spring of 1931 Georgy Ushakov, accompanied by the geologist Nikolay Urvantsev, the veteran surveyor Sergei Zhuravlev, and the radio operator Vasily Khodov thoroughly surveyed Severnaya Zemlya during a two-year expedition to the archipelago. Ushakov and his team established a small base at Golomyanny – the western end of Sredniy Island, off October Revolution Island's western coast. From there they made multiple surveying trips into the interior and the coastlines of the larger islands. The first detailed map
2679228
British Indian Ocean Territory


. The United States is required to ask permission of the United Kingdom to use the base for offensive military action. The territory is an archipelago of 55 islands, the largest being Diego Garcia, accounting for almost half of the total land area of the territory, which is 60 km². The terrain is flat and low, with most areas not exceeding 2 metres above sea level. The climate is tropical marine; hot, humid, and moderated by trade winds. In 2010 of ocean around the islands was declared a marine
21745411
Japanese expatriates in the Solomon Islands


A small, resident expatriate community of Japanese nationals was present in Solomon Islands from the 1970s onwards. Japanese nationals in Solomon Islands are usually employees of fishing corporations that had established branch companies in the country. The majority of them are fishermen from the Miyako Islands in the Ryukyu Islands, as well as a few Japanese mainlanders. The Japanese Fisheries Corporation ("Taiyo Gyogyo") expressed interests in fishery activities in the South Pacific nations from the late 1960s onwards, which included the Solomon Islands archipelago which was still under British rule
2672893
Japanese temperate rainforest


The Japanese temperate rainforest is located in the Japanese archipelago, in small patches over a wide range of islands, from Kyushu in the South to Hokkaido in the North. Due to its geographic features and climate, the Japanese temperate rainforest is very different from other temperate rainforests in the world. The islands in the Japanese archipelago comprise about 1/400 of the world’s land. The islands are located on a latitude that is normally dry; desert can be found elsewhere in the world at this latitude. However, the oceans surrounding Japan
11317152
Manus Province


. Unlike most provinces in Papua New Guinea, general elections are usually peaceful and carried out efficiently on the Island. Traditional "Lapans" - village leaders, are also respected figures in the communities. The archipelago became a German protectorate in 1880 and an Australian mandate in 1920. During World War II the archipelago was occupied by the Japanese who established a small base in April 1942 near the village of Rossun on Manus Island. They also built the first landing strip entirely by manpower at the eastern Point of Los Negros Island in
6128807
Archipelago Sea


from the Åland crisis which resulted in Finland securing possession of the islands while becoming obliged to protect the islands' neutrality), and its residents are exempt from military service, although they can volunteer to serve in the army. The archipelago is divided into 30 municipalities, grouped in the autonomous region of Åland and in the historical provinces of Varsinais-Suomi and Uusimaa. The municipalities in Åland tend to be quite small, with the municipality of Sottunga having only approximately 100 residents. Island municipalities in Varsinais-Suomi: Coastal municipalities
16428932
Bonin English


Bonin English, or the Bonin Islands language, is an English-based creole of the Ogasawara Islands (informally called Bonin Islands) south of Japan with strong Japanese influence, to the extent that it has been called a mixture of English and Japanese (Long 2007). The Colony of Peel Island was the first permanent settlement in the archipelago. Peel Island was settled in the early nineteenth century by speakers of eighteen European and Austronesian languages, including American English and Hawaiian. This resulted in a pidgin English that became a symbol
13023349
Battle of the Paracel Islands


In 1938 Japan took the islands from France, garrisoned them, and built a submarine base at Itu Aba (now Taiping / 太平) Island. In 1941, the Japanese Empire made the Paracel and Spratly Islands part of Taiwan, then under its rule. In 1945, in accordance with the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations and with American help, the armed forces of the Republic of China government at Nanjing accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in Taiwan, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Nanjing then declared both archipelagoes to be
8796136
Sakishima Islands


The (or 先島群島, "Sakishima-guntō") (Okinawan: "Sachishima", Miyako: "Saksїzїma", Yaeyama: "Sakїzїma", Yonaguni: "Satichima") are an archipelago located at the southernmost end of the Japanese Archipelago. They are part of the Ryukyu Islands and include the Miyako Islands and the Yaeyama Islands. The islands are administered as part of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Sakishima Islands The Sakishima Islands were first documented in the "Shoku Nihongi" (797), which says that in
10517110
Coelacanth


the view that coelacanth morphologic conservatism is a belief not based on data. The following cladogram is based on multiple sources. The current coelacanth range is primarily along the eastern African coast, although "Latimeria menadoensis" was discovered off Indonesia. Coelacanths have been found in the waters of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, Comoros and Indonesia. Most "Latimeria chalumnae" specimens that have been caught have been captured around the islands of Grande Comore and Anjouan in the Comoros Archipelago (Indian Ocean). Though there
1713970
Okinawa Island


American military occupation of Japan (1945–52), which followed the Imperial Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, the United States controlled Okinawa Island and the rest of the Ryukyu Islands. The Amami Islands were returned to Japanese control in 1953, but the rest remained in American possession until June 17, 1972, with numerous Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force bases there. As of September, 2009, the Japanese government estimates the population at 1,384,762, which includes American military personnel and their families.
17504499
Operation Hailstone


loss of experienced pilots. Also, about forty ships — two light cruisers, four destroyers, nine auxiliary ships, and about two dozen cargo vessels — were sunk. Considerable damage was inflicted on the various island bases, including dockyards, communications centers, supply dumps, and its submarine base. Truk remained effectively isolated for the remainder of the war, cut off and surrounded by the American island hopping campaign in the Central Pacific, which also bypassed important Japanese garrisons and airfields in the Bismarck Archipelago, the Caroline Islands, the
343506
List of American guerrillas in the Philippines


After the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese in 1941, several Americans, civilian and military, evaded capture or escaped imprisonment. This occurred on several islands in the archipelago. With the aid of the local Philippine population, these Americans survived. However, not content with just surviving and avoiding capture, these Americans formed resistance groups, which were soon recognized by the American military, and eventually supplied. Initially relegated to an intelligence gathering role, these groups eventually took a more active and aggressive role, such that they were
18197537
Geography of the British Indian Ocean Territory


were established on the island to produce copra for which slave labourers were brought in from Africa. A small population lived in the archipelago, descendents of Mauritian laborers working the copra industry. After an agreement was signed in 1966 between Britain and the United States, the US built a military base and forcibly evacuated all indigenous people; 1,200 from Diego Garcia, Ile du Coin, and Île Boddam were relocated to Mauritius, while others went to the Seychelles. In 2000, the Chagos islanders won an appeal which restored their authority to
6352151
Nyai Ahmad Dahlan


islands in the archipelago. Nyai Ahmad Dahlan continued to lead Aisyiyah until 1934. During the Japanese occupation, with Aisyiyah banned from working with women by the Order of the Japanese Military in Java and Madura of 10 September 1943, she worked at schools and struggled to keep the students from being forced to worship the sun and sing Japanese songs. During the Indonesian National Revolution, she ran soup kitchens out of her home for soldiers and promoted military service amongst her former students. She also participated in discussions about the war with General
18926093
Japanese wolf


The ("Canis lupus hodophilax") is an extinct subspecies of the gray wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū in the Japanese archipelago. It is also known as the Honshū wolf. Its binomial name derives from the Greek "Hodos" (path) and "phylax" (guardian), in reference to Japanese folklore, which portrayed wolves as the protectors of travellers. It was one of two subspecies that were once found in the Japanese archipelago, the other being the Hokkaido
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Ryukyuan languages


The are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language, they make up the Japonic language family. The languages are not mutually intelligible with each other. It is not known how many speakers of these languages remain, but language shift towards the use of Standard Japanese and dialects like Okinawan Japanese has resulted in these languages becoming endangered; UNESCO labels four of the languages "definitely endangered" and two others "severely endangered". Phonologically, the Ryukyuan languages have
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Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park


unanimously passed a resolution then sent to the Spanish Parliament "for the creation of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park," which was later enacted into law on April 29, 1991. The park, in addition to the law, is governed by the "Master Plan for Use and Management of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park" approved by means of Order 58/2006 on July 1, 2006 by the Government of the Balearic Islands for a six-year period. Limited military use of the area continues all
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Taiping Island


France, garrisoned them, and built a submarine base at Itu Aba (now Taiping / 太平) Island. In 1941, the Japanese Empire made the Paracel and Spratly islands part of Taiwan, then under its rule. In 1945, in accordance with the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations and with American help, the armed forces of the Republic of China government at Nanjing accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in Taiwan, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Nanjing then declared both archipelagoes to be part of Guangdong Province. It was
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Kalix archipelago


The Kalix archipelago () is a group of 792 Swedish islands in the north part of the Bay of Bothnia. The largest island in the Kalix archipelago is Rånön. A few of the islands have small permanent populations, but most are used only for recreation in the summer months. They are icebound during the winter. The north of the bay of Bothnia contains a large archipelago area. The islands in the Swedish sector make up the Norrbotten archipelago. It is divided into the archipelagos of Piteå (550 islands), Luleå
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HMS Warspite (03)


was still in Sydney and ordered an attack. During May and June "Warspite" continued to act as Somerville's flagship, carrying out exercises with other elements of the fleet and shore-based aircraft in Ceylon. In early June she was deployed to hunt down the Japanese auxiliary cruisers and "Hōkoku Maru" near the Chagos Archipelago, but failed to find them. In August she was involved in "Operation Stab", a simulated attack on the Andaman Islands to distract the Japanese from US preparations to attack Guadalcanal. She
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Mariana Islands


and captured Tinian. Once captured, the islands of Saipan and Tinian were used extensively by the United States military as they finally put mainland Japan within round-trip range of American B-29 bombers. In response, Japanese forces attacked the bases on Saipan and Tinian from November 1944 to January 1945. At the same time and afterwards, the United States Army Air Forces based out of these islands conducted an intense strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese cities of military and industrial importance, including Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and others
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Zadetkyi


Zadetkyi Island or Zadetkyi Kyun, also known as Saint Matthew's Island, is an island at the southern end of the Mergui Archipelago, Burma. Its northern side forms the southern shore of Hastings Harbor, where there is a base of the Myanmar Navy. Having a length of about and an area of , Zadetkyi is the largest island of the southern group of the archipelago. It has two prominent peaks, the highest of which is 864 m and is located near the middle of the island, at its southern end rises
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Indian Ocean raid (1944)


. The three Japanese heavy cruisers departed from the Combined Fleet's anchorage in the Lingga Islands on 27 February. The light cruisers and and three destroyers escorted the force through the Sunda Strait on 1 March. The raiders were supported by 10 medium bombers and three or four seaplanes based in Sumatra and west Java which conducted patrols in the direction of Ceylon. Three or four submarines from the 8th Flotilla also monitored Allied shipping movements near Ceylon, the Maldive Islands and Chagos Archipelago. The Allies did not detect the Japanese force's departure
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Kiska Army Airfield


Kiska Army Airfield is an abandoned military airfield, first Japanese and then US, on Kiska island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. The airfield on Kiska island, and a seaplane base, were built by the occupying Japanese forces during the Second World War in 1942 after the Battle of Dutch Harbor. Thousands of US and some Canadian troops landed on 15 August. The Japanese garrison of 5,183 troops and civilians were evacuated from the island on July 23 under the cover of fog. After the island was secured, the airfield
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Norrbotten archipelago


The Norrbotten archipelago () is a group of Swedish islands in the north part of the Bay of Bothnia. A few of the islands have small permanent populations, but most are used only for recreation in the summer months. They are icebound during the winter. The north of the bay of Bothnia contains a large archipelago area. The islands in the Swedish sector make up the Norrbotten archipelago. It is divided into the archipelagos of Piteå (550 islands), Luleå (1,312 islands), Kalix (792 islands) and
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Piteå archipelago


The Piteå archipelago () is a group of Swedish islands in the north part of the Bay of Bothnia. A few of the islands have small permanent populations, but most are used only for recreation in the summer months. They are icebound during the winter. The north of the bay of Bothnia contains a large archipelago area. The islands in the Swedish sector make up the Norrbotten archipelago. It is divided into the archipelagos of Piteå (550 islands), Luleå (1,312 islands), Kalix (792 islands) and
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Gran Canaria Airport


Germany). The "Canary Islands Air Command" ("Mando Aéreo de Canarias" – "MACAN") is based in the city of Las Palmas. Canary Islands Air Command is the only territorial general Air Command Air Force in Spain; its mission is the maintenance, preparation and command of air units located in the Canary archipelago. Any Spanish military airplane that lands in the Canary Islands is immediately put at the disposal of the Canary Islands Air Command, who can retain it and use it as long as necessary for
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Japan


the primary source of Japanese imports, and is committed to defending the country, having military bases in Japan for partially that purpose. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the Japanese-ruled Northern Mariana Islands came under control of the United States. Japan contests Russia's control of the Southern Kuril Islands (including Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group) which were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945. South Korea's control of Liancourt Rocks (Japanese: "Takeshima", Korean: "Dokdo
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Andaman and Nicobar Command


be extended, while more airstrips are proposed in the archipelago and more operational turn-around bases. The number of naval vessels based in the island chain will increase to 32 before 2022. In addition, Japanese war bunkers, constructed during Japanese occupation of the Andaman and Nicobar islands during the World War II, will be revived to bolster security. The Andaman and Nicobar Command manages Indian engagement with regional navies of Southeast Asia. It conducts bi-annual coordinated patrols (CORPATs) with the navies of Thailand and Indonesia, the
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Toshima, Kagoshima


included , , , , , , , , and . After World War II, from 2 February 1946 all of the Japanese islands south of 30th latitude, including the Tokara Islands, were placed under United States military administration as part of the Provisional Government of Northern Ryukyu Islands. However, the three northern inhabited islands in the archipelago, known as the : Iōjima, Kuroshima and Takeshima, remained under the control of Japan, and were placed under the administration of the village of Mishima. The remaining Tokara Islands reverted to Japan
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2010 Senkaku boat collision incident


and nearby waters are covered by the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, which obligates the United States to defend Japanese territory from attacks by third-party countries, and maintained that USA does not have a position regarding the sovereignty of the islands. At a press conference held on the same day, United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that in the event of military conflict over the Senkaku islands, "Washington would honor its military commitment to intervene". A reporter posed the same question
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Karlskrona


. The islet of Stumholmen was formerly property of the Navy and today it houses the National Naval Museum (Marinmuseum). Outside the city lies the archipelago of Karlskrona, the most southern of the Swedish archipelagos. Several islands are connected to the city by ferries. The city was founded on 10 August 1680 when the Royal Swedish Navy was relocated from the Stockholm area to the Trossö island which had up until then been used chiefly for farming and grazing. At the time Sweden was the dominant military power in the Baltic sea region
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Montebello Islands


the British military in the 1950s. The islands of the archipelago have a collective land area of about 22 km. The largest islands, Hermite (or Hermit) and Trimouille have areas of 1022 ha and 522 ha respectively. They consist of limestone rock and sand. The rocky parts are dominated by "Triodia" hummock grassland with scattered shrubs, while the sandy areas support grasses, sedges and shrubs, mainly "Acacia". Patches of mangroves grow in sheltered bays and channels of the archipelago, especially at Hermite Island.
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Chagos Archipelago sovereignty dispute


denying that the islands were inhabited, British officials forcibly expelled approximately 2,000 Chagossians to mainland Mauritius to allow the United States to establish a military base on Diego Garcia. Since 1971, the atoll of Diego Garcia is inhabited only by some 3,000 UK and US military and civilian contracted personnel. A marine protected area (MPA) around the Chagos Islands known as the "Chagos Marine Protected Area" was created by the British Government on 1 April 2010 and enforced on 1 November 2010. It is the world's largest fully protected reserve
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Battle of Leyte Gulf


of Leyte. The campaigns of August 1942 to early 1944 had driven Japanese forces from many of their island bases in the south and the central Pacific Ocean, while isolating many of their other bases (most notably in the Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Admiralty Islands, New Guinea, Marshall Islands, and Wake Island), and in June 1944, a series of American amphibious landings supported by the Fifth Fleet's Fast Carrier Task Force captured most of the Mariana Islands (bypassing Rota). This offensive breached Japan's strategic
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Invasion of Palawan


Walter Krueger moved into the city of Manila to retake it from the well dug-in Japanese forces, General Douglas MacArthur issued orders for the start of preplanned operations to recapture the entire southern Philippine archipelago from the Japanese, all code-named VICTOR, regardless by which the assigned forces were to proceed. With Mindoro island already in Allied hands since 16 December 1944 and the campaign for the recapture of Luzon already in full swing, the Americans wanted to establish another base of operations that would diminish the threat of Japanese troop incursions
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Raids on Deboyne (1942)


also known as Panniet Island. It is in the Louisiade Archipelago east of Papua New Guinea. During World War II, the Japanese built a temporary seaplane base in the lagoon at Deboyne Atoll as part of MO Sakusen, the attempt to capture Port Moresby, Papua. The base was created by units that came from Rabaul, New Britain and Shortland Island in the Solomon Islands, including the seaplane tender "Kamikawa Maru". The base existed for approximately five-and-a-half days in May 1942, including the
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Sandskär


Sandskär is an island in the northeast of the Swedish sector of the Bay of Bothnia. Once used as a base for fishing and sealing, it is now part of a national park. Sandskär is the largest island in the Haparanda Archipelago National Park (), in the Haparanda archipelago, to the west of the Finnish Perämeri National Park. It may be reached from the mainland harbor of Haparanda in a one-hour boat-trip. The island was once used as a base for fishing Baltic herring and hunting seals.
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John Pilger


British governments expelled the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago, settling them in Mauritius, with only enough money to live in the slums. It gave access to Diego Garcia, the principal island of this Crown Colony, to the United States (US) for its construction of a major military base for the region. In the 21st century, the US used the base for planes bombing targets in Iraq and Afghanistan in its response to the 9/11 attacks. In a 2000 ruling on the events, the International Court of Justice described
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Iwo Jima


, known in English as Iwo Jima (, ), 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. Although south of the metropolis of Tokyo on the mainland, this island of 21 km (8 square miles) is administered as part of the Ogasawara Subprefecture of Tokyo and since July 1944, when the civilian population was forcibly evacuated, has been only populated by military forces
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Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands


three airstrips on Iwo Jima. Several of the minor islands in the Mariana chain also remained in Japanese hands, and there were airfields on Rota and Pagan. The Japanese were unable to use most of these bases, however, as they had been isolated and heavily damaged by United States air attacks, and the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had relatively few aircraft and pilots available. Despite the limited threat of attack, the United States military took steps to protect the B-29 bases
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Masamasa


Masamasa is an island of the Shortland Islands Archipelago, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is some 97 meters. To the east lies Fauro Island, to the south lies Piedu Island (Piru), and to the east lies the northern tip of Choiseul Island. The island was occupied by the Japanese during early 1942 until the middle of September 1945. During late September and October 1945 Masamasa was used as an internment area for Japanese prisoners of war
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Mauritius


United Kingdom on 8 November 1965. On 23 June 1976, Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches were returned to Seychelles as a result of its attaining independence. The BIOT now comprises the Chagos Archipelago only. The UK leased the main island of the archipelago Diego Garcia to the United States under a 50-year lease to establish a military base. In 2016, Britain unilaterally extended the lease to the US till 2036. Mauritius has repeatedly asserted that the separation of its territories is a violation of United Nations resolutions banning the dismemberment of colonial territories
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Operation King Kong


). U.S. Seventh Fleet helped to protect the retreat of soldiers, people and military resources in Dachen archipelago, Pishan Island, Yushan Island. (2). U.S. Navy and Nationalist army cooperated for minesweeper. (3). U.S. Navy and Nationalist army cooperated for air monitor and garrison. (4). Divided operation into 3 plans (plan A, B and C) base on different islands, Plan A and C combine, implemented on February 8 in Dachen archipelago. Plan B implemented on February 9 in Pishan
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Japan (1992 manga)


and the ghosts of the Carthaginians bring the group (the two yakuza, the TV reporter and some university students) to the future, when the sea level has increased and all the islands which compose the Japanese archipelago have been submerged; the Japanese people have thus emigrated in the other countries, and they're now scattered around the world, and in particular in Europe, where after the cataclysm a dictatorship has been established, they've become slaves and bandits. Japan is long gone, and Japanese people are lost and oppressed
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Japanese archipelago


The is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk northeast to the Philippine Sea south along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia continent. It consists of islands from the Sakhalin Island Arc, the Northeastern Japan Arc to the Ryukyu Islands and the Nanpō Islands. The term "Home Islands" was used at the end of World War II to define the area of Japan to which its sovereignty and the constitutional rule of the Emperor would be restricted. The term is also
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Military history of Japan


final phase of the Sengoku period. It's named for the increasingly important castle-cities, is marked by the introduction of firearms, after contact with the Portuguese, and a further push towards all-out battle, away from individual combats and concepts of personal honor and bravery. The arquebus was introduced to Japan in 1543, by Portuguese on board a Chinese ship that crashed upon the tiny island of Tanegashima in the southernmost parts of the Japanese archipelago. Though the weapon's introduction was not seen to have particularly dramatic effects
4921995
Empire


—in the global system. Chalmers Johnson argues that the US globe-girding network of hundreds of military bases already represents a global empire in its initial form: Simon Dalby associates the network of bases with the Roman imperial system: Kenneth Pomeranz and Harvard Historian Niall Ferguson share the above-cited views: "With American military bases in over 120 countries, we have hardly seen the end of empire.” This “vast archipelago of US military bases … far exceeds 19th-century British ambitions. Britain’s imperium consisted of
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North Maluku


kingdoms in Maluku were annexed into the Dutch East Indies. For the next three century, the archipelago would remain under Dutch control. The Empire of Japan invaded Maluku early in 1942 as part of its Dutch East Indies Campaign of World War II, ousting the Dutch from the region. Halmahera became the site of a Japanese naval base at Kao Bay. 2 years later, US forces and their allies launched the Battle of Morotai in 1944; bombing the island in August and invading it in September. Imperial Japanese forces on Morotai
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Oki Islands


numerous smaller islands and rocks in a ring formation surrounding a central lagoon. The archipelago is approximately north of Honshu coast at its closest point. For administrative purposes, the Japanese government officially considers the disputed islet of Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo or Takeshima) to be a part of the town of Okinoshima on Dōgo. The Oki Islands have been inhabited since the Japanese Paleolithic era, and numerous artifacts from the Jōmon, Yayoi and Kofun periods have been found by archaeologists, indicating continuous human occupation and activity. The island were organized as
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Bahrain


larger than Hamburg or the Isle of Man. Often described as an archipelago of 33 islands, extensive land reclamation projects have changed this; by August 2008 the number of islands and island groups had increased to 84. Bahrain does not share a land boundary with another country but does have a coastline. The country also claims a further of territorial sea and a contiguous zone. Bahrain's largest islands are Bahrain Island, the Hawar Islands, Muharraq Island, Umm an Nasan, and Sitra. Bahrain has mild winters and very hot
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Japan


are south of the main islands of Japan. Together they are often known as the Japanese archipelago. , Japan's territory is . It is the largest island country in East Asia. Japan has the sixth longest coastline in the world (). It doesn't have land borders. Due to its many far-flung outlying islands, Japan has the eighth largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world covering . About 73 percent of Japan is forested, mountainous and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial or residential use. As a result,
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