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Where is Tinian Island? -

Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States set in the northern Pacific Ocean. 

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Colonial Tinian -

The Mariana Islands were first settled around 1500 to 1400 BCE. Tinian was colonized by the Spanish and later the Germans over a 200-year-plus period, from 1645 to 1899. Significantly, in 1914 during the First World War, the island was captured by the Japanese.  

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Japanese occupation of Tinian -

Under Japanese rule, extensive infrastructure development took place, including the construction of port facilities, waterworks, power stations, roads, and housing. It was only during the latter stages of the Second World War that Japan realized Tinian's strategic importance as a possible base for American long-range bombers. The island was quickly garrisoned.  

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Battle of Tinian -

Tinian's strategic location was not lost on the US military either. In 1943, plans were drawn up to seize Tinian along with the neighboring islands of Saipan and Guam. The following year, on July 16, 1944, the Battle of Tinian commenced with a US naval bombardment targeting key Japanese positions. 

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Battle of Tinian -

The ground offensive followed on July 24 when the 4th Marine Division waded ashore.

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Battle of Tinian -

The infantry was supported by continued naval bombardment and artillery fire. In the skies, the US Navy Grumman TBF-1C Avengers (pictured) were among the American bombers providing air support.

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Battle of Tinian -

Within a week, Japanese forces had been overwhelmed, although the garrison on Aguiguan Island off the southwest cape of Tinian held out until the end of the war, only surrendering on 4 September 4, 1945. 

Image: US Marine Corps, 1944

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Battle of Tinian -

The short but bloody Battle of Tinian claimed the lives of 368 Marines and 5,745 Japanese combatants. Pictured are captured Japanese soldiers emerging from their hideout.  

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Aftermath -

Tinian's transport infrastructure had been reduced to rubble, its roads destroyed and its towns and villages resembling matchwood. 

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Rebuilding Tinian -

But even as the Americans were mopping up, plans were being drawn up to turn the island into an important base for further US operations in the Pacific campaign. 

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The Seabees -

The Seabees—United States Naval Construction Battalions—were put to work rebuilding Tinian. Camps were built for 50,000 troops, and 15,000 Seabees turned the island into the busiest airfield of the war, creating eight 7,900-ft (2,400 m) runways to accommodate B-29 Superfortress bombers. 

Image: US Navy

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North Field -

Two runway complexes, North Field (pictured) and West Field, were constructed. North Field's runways occupied nearly the entire northern end of the island and at the time stood as the largest airfield in the world. 

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North Field -

North Field's four enormous parallel runways were oriented nearly east-west. They were complemented by hardstands built for 265 B-29 bombers—exactly what the Japanese had predicted. 

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509th Composite Group -

This rare color image of North Field clearly shows B-29 bombers parked over the hardstands. Among the aircraft seen here are those belonging to the 509th Composite Group, a unit tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. 

Image: Harold Agnew/US Government

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West Field -

West Field and its four runways was home to the 58th Bombardment Wing. This unit was responsible for the deadly attacks on Tokyo and other Japanese cities, plus Japanese targets based as far away as Burma, Thailand, and China. 

Image: USAF Historical Research Agency, 1945 

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West Field -

Pictured here is West Field's vast containment area comprising accommodation, warehouse, and mess hall facilities.  

Image: USAF Historical Research Agency, 1945 

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The 'Enola Gay' lands on Tinian -

Back on North Field in early August 1945, the B-29 Superfortress 'Enola Gay' maneuvered over a bomb pit to collect a new and terrible weapon. 

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"Little Boy" is loaded -

Once in position a secret bomb code-named "Little Boy" was slowly deposited into the aircraft's belly.  

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Historic mission -

On the morning of August 6, 'Enola Gay,' commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets (pictured), took off from Tinian. Its destination was the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 

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The first nuclear weapon used in warfare -

Several hours later Hiroshima lay in ruins, flattened by the first nuclear weapon used in warfare dropped by the first aircraft to do so. 

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Deadly bombing run -

A photographer at North Field captured 'Enola Gay' landing back on Tinian after its historic bombing run. Three days later on August 9, a second atomic bomb known as "Fat Man" was collected by another B-29, this one named Bockscar. It was detonated over Nagasaki.  

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Tinian is abandoned -

With the surrender of Japan, the United States abandoned Tinian Island, although it remained under Washington's influence, becoming part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands controlled by the United States. Pictured in 1971 is the ruined and overgrown headquarters of the Japanese Navy's 1st Air Fleet. 

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Wartime ruins -

This recent image shows the rusting and eroded interior of the Japanese command center. 

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Relics of conflict -

These are the ruins of an abandoned fuel bomb storage by the roadside on Tinian. Relics of the Second World War lie scattered across much of the island.

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Frozen in time -

Here, the ruined shell of a Japanese tank, its barrel long lost, still keeps guard over a former gun emplacement. 

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Loading pit No. 2 -

The most poignant of Tinian's wartime reminders is the very bomb pit into which "Little Boy" was placed before its fateful delivery to Hiroshima. It's the island's most popular visitor attraction. 

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Runways repurposed -

Meanwhile, North Field's near-80-year-old runways, the subject of those recent news reports, remain weather-worn and pocked with weeds. But for how much longer? 

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Reclaiming North Field from the jungle -

Much of Tinian is jungle. The runways built all those years ago have been mostly reclaimed by Mother Nature.  

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An "extensive" facility -

But according to a CNN report published December 21, 2023, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, told Nikkei Asia in an interview published recently that North Airfield will become an "extensive" facility once work has been completed to reclaim it from the jungle. 

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A new defensive front? -

And earlier in fact, in October 2020, battalions of Seabees, the same units responsible for building the original wartime runways, were seen deployed operating heavy equipment and constructing new infrastructure on the Pacific island. 

Image: US Navy 

Sources: (CNN) (Nikkei Asia) (The New York Times) 

See also: The art of the Second World War propaganda poster

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