Okinotorishima
Village | Ogasawara | |
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Demographics | ||
Population | 0 |
Okinotorishima (沖ノ鳥島, Okinotori-shima), or Parece Vela, is a coral reef, geologically an atoll, with two rocks enlarged with tetrapod-cement structures. It is administered by Japan with a total shoal area of 8,482 m2 (2.10 acres) and land area 9.44 m2 (101.6 sq ft).[1] Its dry land area is mostly made up by three concrete encasings and there is a 100 by 50 m (330 by 160 ft) stilt platform in the lagoon housing a research station. There is a third completely artificial tetrapod-cement islet.
Okinotorishima is located on the
Japan argues that Okinotorishima is significant enough for it to claim a 200 nmi (370 km) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around it, but China, South Korea, and Taiwan dispute the Japanese EEZ, saying that the atoll does not meet the definition of an island under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
History
The atoll may have been sighted first by Spanish sailor Bernardo de la Torre in 1543,[2] although the first undisputed sighting was by Miguel López de Legazpi in 1565. Its first recorded name was Parece Vela[2] (Spanish for "looks like a sail", alluding to the original appearance of the reef). This name has been retained in English as well, especially to designate the geological formations of the islets.
In 1789, Captain William Douglas arrived with the British ship Iphigenia and, in 1790, the place was named Douglas Reef (also spelled Douglass Reef).[3] This name continues to appear in modern sources. In 1796, what was likely the reef was then re-discovered by the brig Nautilus, under the command of Captain Charles Bishop, and the name Nautilus Rocks has appeared in some sources.[4]
The existence of the atoll might not have been known by the Japanese until 1888. In 1922 and 1925, the Japanese navy ship Manshu investigated the area.
During 1939 and 1941, a foundation was completed for a lighthouse and a meteorological observation site, but construction was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.[3] After Japan's defeat, the United States assumed sovereignty over the Ogasawara islands, and returned authority over the islands to Japan in 1968.[3]
Japan will concur in any proposal of the United States to the United Nations to place under its trusteeship system, with the United States as the sole administering authority, Nansei Shoto south of 29° north latitude (including the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands), Nanpo Shoto south of Sofu Gan (including the Bonin Islands, Rosario Island and the Volcano Islands) and Parece Vela and Marcus Island.
— Treaty of San Francisco (1951)
1. With respect to Nanpo Shoto and other islands, as defined in paragraph 2 below, the United States of America relinquishes in favor of Japan all rights and interests under Article 3 of the Treaty of Peace with Japan signed at the city of San Francisco on September 8, 1951, effective as of the date of entry into force of this Agreement. Japan, as of such date, assumes full responsibility and authority for the exercise of all and any powers of administration, legislation and jurisdiction over the territory and inhabitants of the said islands.
2. For the purpose of this Agreement, the term "Nanpo Shoto and other islands" means Nanpo Shoto south of Sofu Gan (including the Bonin islands, Rasairo Island, and the Volcano Islands) and Parece Vela and Marcus Island, including their territorial waters.
— Agreement between Japan and the United States of America Concerning Nanpo Shoto and Other Islands (1968)[5]
Between 1987 and 1993 the government of Tokyo and later the central government built steel breakwaters and concrete walls to stop the
On March 16, 2007, a
Geology
Geologically, the islets are a coral
The waters around the reefs are potentially rich in
The area has three tiny individual islets:
- Higashi-Kojima (東小島, "Eastern Islet")
- Kita-Kojima (北小島, "Northern Islet"), nevertheless rather in the "West"
- Minami-Kojima (南小島, "Southern Islet")
Minami-Kojima is a completely artificial islet created in shallow water. But also the two original islets appear completely artificial today, with little if any trace of the two natural rocks that still appear on photographs of 1987. In 1925, there were still five above-water rocks, which have eroded since. A report from 1947 mentions five above-water rocks. Three smaller ones were on the west side, nearly impossible to see from seaward because of the breaking waves. The larger rocks on the southwest side and on the northeast side, possibly Kita-Kojima and Higashi-Kojima, were reported to be 0.6 and 0.4 m (24 and 16 in) high, respectively. The original rocks appeared barren, without any
After
The rocks are in the western part of a lagoon surrounded by a submerged coral reef, over which the waves break, and that extends 4.5 km (2.8 mi) east-west and 1.7 km (1.1 mi) north-south, with an area of roughly 5 km2 within the rim of the reef. The lagoon is 3 to 4.6 meters deep, but there are numerous coral heads of lesser depths throughout the area. The fringing reef of the atoll is pear-shaped in an east–west direction with its greatest width at the eastern end. There is a small boat channel into the lagoon in the southwest, about 15 m (49 ft) wide and 6 m (20 ft) deep, 250 m (820 ft) southeast of the artificial islet.
Administration
Administratively, the island is considered part of Ogasawara village, Tokyo.[11] In 1939, the construction of a naval base was started by Japan, but suspended in 1941, at the start of the Pacific War.
Typhoons are constant threats to Okinotori's existence. In the 1970s there were about five or six visible protrusions, but by 1989, only two were visible.[12]
In order to prevent the island from
Furthermore, the Nippon Foundation has drawn plans to build a lighthouse and increase the size of the reef by breeding microorganisms known as foraminifera. Creating land using the microorganisms could take decades to a century before the island is large enough to be useful.[14]
Currently, Japan carries out maritime research and observation of the area, as well as repair work on the embankment.
In 2005, the government installed a
Former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has talked of building a power station, despite protests by environmentalists. His government has helped fund expeditions to Okinotori by Japanese fishermen and scientists. Governor Ishihara himself toured the islands on May 20, 2005 to inspect the conservation and management efforts, went snorkeling to see firsthand the condition of the surrounding waters, and released Japanese horse mackerel fry to show support for the local fishing industry.[12] The islands are an intermittent rallying point for Japanese nationalists, and, as such, a hot-button political issue in Japan.[3]
EEZ dispute
In 1988, Jon van Dyke, a law professor at the University of Hawaii, challenged whether Okinotorishima met the requirements for establishing an exclusive economic zone (EEZ): "Article 121(3) of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, which Japan has signed, states that Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf. Okinotorishima - which consists of two eroding protrusions no larger than king-size beds - certainly meets the description of an uninhabitable rock that cannot sustain economic life of its own. It is not, therefore, entitled to generate a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. The Law of the Sea Convention is also quite clear - in Article 60 (8) -that artificially built islands do not generate 200-mile resource zones. The more than $200 million the Japanese are spending to construct what is in essence an artificial island cannot, therefore, be the basis for a claim to the exclusive control over the resources in the waters around such a construction."[15]
On 22 April 2004,
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is "a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide". It states that "rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone." Japan signed the Convention in 1983; the Convention came into force in 1994–1996 for Japan.[3]
Japan claims an EEZ over 400,000 square km (154,500 square miles) around Okinotorishima. China and South Korea dispute this claim in their addenda to the CLCS, saying the area only consists of
The construction of a port, lighthouse, and power station may be used as a counterargument for China's claim regarding "sustain[ing] human habitation or economic life", but the UNCLOS definition for an island per Art. 121(3) also requires one to have its own natural source of freshwater as a prerequisite to sustaining human habitation or economic life, which is absent on Okinotorishima.The territory lies at a militarily strategic point, midway between
In 2016, Japan's arrest of a Taiwanese fishing ship's crew led Taiwan to protest against Japan's claim of island status for Okinotori and by extension the EEZ.[21]
See also
- Scarborough Shoal, another larger shoal with two skerries
- Hateruma
- Geography of Japan
- Japanese Archipelago
- List of extreme points of Japan
- Territorial disputes of Japan
- Desert island
- List of islands
- Farallon de Pajaros
References
- ^ 世界一小さな島 沖ノ鳥島. www.theeleventhhouronline.com. Archived from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
- ^ a b Viajeros Celtíberos ignorados, archived from the original on 17 September 2010, retrieved 11 May 2012
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Yukie Yoshikawa. 2005. "Okinotorishima: Just the Tip of the Iceberg". Harvard Asian Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 4.
- ^ Alexander George Findlay. Reef, or Parece Vela; Nautilus Rocks, or Vela." Archived 2022-10-03 at the Wayback Machine A Directory for the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean, Part II. London, 1851. p. 1157.
- ^ United States Department of State. 1969. "United States Treaties and Other International Agreements VOLUME 19 IN SIX PARTS Part 4 1968" P.4895- Archived 2016-06-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Asahi Shimbun, archived from the originalon 2 February 2016, retrieved 1 February 2016
- ^ a b Oceanic core complexes along the Parece Vela Rift (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2012, retrieved May 4, 2012
- ^ "Anomalous Topography in the Parece Vela Basin.", Report of Hydrographic Researches, 37: 9–18, 2001, archived from the original on 17 February 2012, retrieved 4 May 2012
- ^ Salisbury, Matthew H., Gigamullion Drilling in the Philippine Sea (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2012, retrieved 6 May 2012
- S2CID 128854327
- ^ Onishi, Norimitsu. "Japan and China Dispute a Pacific Islet" Archived 2013-02-03 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times. July 10, 2005.
- ^ a b c d Martin Fackler. 2005, February 16. "A Reef or a Rock? Question Puts Japan in a Hard Place To Claim Disputed Waters, Charity Tries to Find Use For Okinotori Shima" The Wall Street Journal. p. A1.
- from the original on 2017-04-28. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
- ^ Martin Fackler. 2005, February 20. "Japan's ultranationalists: Stuck between a rock and a hard sell Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine"
- ^ "Opinion | Speck in the Ocean Meets Law of the Sea". The New York Times. 21 January 1988. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
- ^ "Japan hopes to build lighthouse on atoll disputed with China". Xinhua. August 25, 2005.
- ^ "Beijing is getting a bad rap in South China Sea disputes". The Japan Times. 2015-06-17. Archived from the original on 2016-03-30. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
- ^ Campion, Gilles, "Remote rocks at center of dispute", The Japan Times, AFP-JiJi, March 13, 2010, p. 3.
- ^ "第145回国会 建設委員会 第8号(平成11年4月16日(金曜日))". www.shugiin.go.jp. Archived from the original on 2007-03-17.
- ^ Yukie YOSHIKAWA. 2007, October 11. "The US-Japan-China Mistrust Spiral and Okinotorishima Archived 2013-04-24 at the Wayback Machine". Japan Focus
- ^ "An islet the size of your bedroom has Japan and Taiwan fighting". Los Angeles Times. 29 April 2016. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
External links
- Page with overhead photograph of the entire atoll
- report about appearance in 1947 (under the name Parece Vela/Douglas Reef)
- close-up photo of Higashikojima (東小島, "Eastern Islet")
- page with photograph of platform
- Italian page with history in English and oblique aerial photograph of Okinotori from southwest
- detailed satellite images
- Japanese map
- Tokyo governor stirs reef dispute
- Related treaties