Hunting and fishing parties of the Ainu have long visited Matua, but the island had no permanent habitation[citation needed] at the time of European contact. It appears on an official map showing the territories of the Matsumae Domain, a feudal domain of Edo periodJapan dated 1644, and the Tokugawa shogunate officially confirmed these holdings in 1715. Some early European documents refer to the island as Raukoke.[1]
During World War II the Imperial Japanese Army had a roughly east–west-oriented airfield, which hosted the IJNAS's 553rdKōkūtai, equipped with Aichi D3AVal dive bombers, located on this island, with the active runway potentially of some 1.33 km (4,360 ft) length, located on its southernmost areas. This airfield was of an advanced design, having three separate airstrips including a tertiary airstrip connected to the other two at a 120° angle. This allowed simultaneous takeoff and recovery of air units, as well as improved takeoff potential in adverse wind conditions. In addition, at least two of the primary airstrips were designed with hot water channels embedded within. In icy or snowy weather, hot water generated by the island's geothermal activity would be pumped through these channels, keeping these airstrips free of ice year-round.[2]
The island was garrisoned by 7000-8000 men of the 41st Independent Mixed Regiment, 6th Independent Tank Company, and supporting units. During 1944 the US Army Air Forces intermittently bombed the Japanese facilities on the island and ships of the United States Navy shelled it. The Americans sank several Japanese cargo vessels near the island or while at harbor. On June 1, 1944, a Japanese shore-battery on Point Tagan sank the American submarine USS Herring. During the Soviet Battle of the Kuril Islands in the last weeks of World War II, the Japanese garrison surrendered to the Red Army without resistance (August 1945).
After World War II the island came under the control of the Soviet Union, and Soviet Border Troops manned the former Japanese military facilities. Its most important role was radar surveillance of the Kuril Islands. A VHF P-14 radar, "Tall King", was put into service during the 1950s or 1960s,[3] and a P-35 radar and possibly a PRV-10 “Rock Cake” radar were also in service at some point.
With the withdrawal of Soviet military forces following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the island became uninhabited. The Russian Federation administers it as part of the Sakhalin Oblast. In 2016 some two hundred Russian officials and technical experts made an expedition to the island, part of a plan to rehabilitate the derelict 1.2 km Soviet airfield and establish a new naval and logistical forward military base.[4] A new 1400 meter runway was built between 2016 and 2019, along with new hard stands, both of which are visible on Google Earth and other satellite images. The island now hosts a battery of Bastion anti-ship cruise missiles.[5]
Matua and Rasshua Islands as seen entering the Golovnin Strait. Matua is in the foreground and Rasshua in the background.
Geology
Eruption of Sarychev volcano in 2009, as seen from the International Space StationExpedition of the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the Russian Geographical Society to the island of Matua. 2016 year
Matua is roughly oval, with a length of 11 km (6.8 mi) with a width of 6.5 km (4.0 mi), and an area of 52 km2 (20 sq mi).[6] The island is a complex stratovolcano with two main peaks.
Sarychev Peak (Russian: влк.Сарычева, Japanese: 芙蓉山; Fuyōzan, also known as Matsuwa-Fuji) in the northwest of the island is one of the most active volcanoes of the Kuril Islands. The central cone has a 250-meter (820 ft) wide, very steep-walled crater with a jagged rim, rising to a height of 1,496 m (4,908 ft). Lava flows descending on all sides of the peak forms capes along the coast. Eruptions have been recorded since the 1760s, including 1878–1879, 1923, 1930, 1946, 1960, 1976, 1981, 1987, 1989 and 2009, with the largest in 1946 which produced pyroclastic flows that reached the sea. The 2009 eruption was large enough to affect air traffic between Asia and North America.
The much smaller peak to the south, Japanese: 天蓋山; Tengaizan has a height of 127 m (417 ft).
Matua Island Sarychev Peak venting as seen from the Golovnin Strait
Climate
Although it is located at the same latitude as Paris or Seattle, the Oyashio current on the western flank of the Aleutian Low gives Matua a subarctic climate (KöppenDfc) that is close to a polar climate (ET). Unlike the quintessential subarctic climate of Siberia or Mongolia, however, Matua has very heavy precipitation as rain, snow and fog. It also has much milder winters than corresponding latitudes in Manchuria: the mean temperature of the coldest month in Matua is −6.1 °C (21.0 °F) as against −17.8 °C (0.0 °F) in Qiqihar in Heilongjiang. Seasonal lag, like in all the Kuril Islands, is a major feature of the climate, with August being the mildest month and February the coldest. The island experiences very strong winds in the winter months as a result of its exposed location in the middle Kuril islands, subject to the influence of the Aleutian Low.
^von Krusenstern, Adam Johann (1814). "Officieller Bericht des Hrn. Capit. Ritters v. Krusenstern über des Capitäen's Golownin Reise zur Untersuchung der Kurilischen Inseln." [Official report by Captain Ritter von Kruzenstern on Captain Golovnin's voyage of investigation of the Kuril islands]. In Bertuch, Friedrich Justin (ed.). Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden (in German). Vol. 43. Weimar: Verlag des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs. p. 147. Retrieved 2016-06-28. [...] die Insel Raukoke, auf welcher der Pik Sarytscheff ist, [...] hatte ich [...] auf meiner Charte auch unter den Namen Raukoke aufgenommen. Ihr eigentlicher Name is aber, wie Capitän Golownin berichtet, Matua.
Gorshkov, G. S. Volcanism and the Upper Mantle Investigations in the Kurile Island Arc. Monographs in geoscience. New York: Plenum Press, 1970. ISBN0-306-30407-4
Krasheninnikov, Stepan Petrovich, and James Greive. The History of Kamtschatka and the Kurilski Islands, with the Countries Adjacent. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1963.
Rees, David. The Soviet Seizure of the Kuriles. New York: Praeger, 1985. ISBN0-03-002552-4
Takahashi, Hideki, and Masahiro Ōhara. Biodiversity and Biogeography of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. Bulletin of the Hokkaido University Museum, no. 2-. Sapporo, Japan: Hokkaido University Museum, 2004.
External links
Media related to Matua Island at Wikimedia Commons
