The (Other) Manhattan Project
In terms of places that are hugely historically significant and almost entirely forgotten, the little island of Tinian in the Pacific Ocean has to top the list. One of the three primary islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Tinian is more than 3,500 miles west of Hawaii. Almost equidistant from Japan, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea, it has been a stopping point for explorers and a launch pad for invasions for nearly its entire history.
One of the first Oceania islands to be inhabited, Tinian is home to some of the oldest prehistoric sites in the United States. The House of Taga is an exceptionally well-preserved example of latte stone construction. Believed to have been built roughly 1,000 years ago, this spot was once home to a wooden hut built atop 15-foot-tall stone pillars. Though the hut is long gone, the pillars remain as a lasting legacy to the latte stones which still dot the Marianas archipelago.
Ferdinand Magellan is believed to have spotted Tinian during his circumnavigation of the globe, however, he actually made landfall 125 miles to the south on the island of Guam after spending over 110 days at sea. The first Europeans known to have stepped foot on Tinian were the crew of the Santa Margarita which was shipwrecked just south of Saipan in 1600. The survivors lived with the local Chamorros people for two years until being rescued. Seventy years later, Spain formally colonized the island and it became a regular resupply stop for Spanish, English, Dutch, and French vessels plying the lucrative Pacific trade routes.
Following the Spanish-American War, Tinian, along with the rest of the Northern Marianas Islands, was sold to Germany, but remained under the control of the local Spanish landowners. Japan captured the island in 1914 and was formally appointed to manage it as part of the South Seas Mandate by the League of Nations. A large influx of Japanese, Korean, and Okinawan immigrants arrived to develop a sugar-plantation economy and build up the island’s infrastructure.
In the opening days of World War II, Tinian remained relatively peaceful. It initially was not garrisoned by the Japanese military and played no role in its invasion of Guam. However, by 1944, Japanese leaders realized that Tokyo, only 1,500 miles to the north, would be in easy range of Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft based in Tinian. They rapidly began building fortifications to repel the predicted American invasion and added thousands of Japanese soldiers to the 15,700 civilians living on the island.
The United States 4th Marine Division landed on Tinian’s shores on July 24, 1944, following a naval bombardment that was joined by Marine artillery firing from nearby Saipan. By August 1, the island had been captured in what was considered to be the best-executed landing operation of World War II. In a tragic event that would be repeated across the Pacific, thousands of civilians, convinced by Japanese propaganda that American forces would commit atrocities against them, chose to jump to their deaths from the island’s high cliffs.
While the battle for Tinian was still being fought, Navy Seabees began building what would soon become one of the largest road networks and airfields in the world. Tinian was roughly the shape and size of the island of Manhattan, so geographical place names were borrowed and streets were laid out similar to New York’s grid system. The former Japanese village, near the southwestern end of the island, became “the Village” after Greenwich. The two major roads which ran the length of the island were named Broadway and 8th Avenue. A large open area that was left undeveloped in the center was called Central Park. Two massive runway complexes with a combined six 8,500-foot runways were quickly laid down. Living, dining, and service facilities for 150,000 troops were built, as well as port facilities, storage warehouses, utilities, and a 5,000-bed, 28-operating room Army hospital was constructed. All told, developing the island into a successful forward base within striking distance of Japan was the largest engineering project of the entire war.
From Tinian’s runways, the United States launched massive aerial raids against Japanese cities. Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya, Koriyama, Musashino, Kawasaki, and Yokohama would all be decimated by Tinian-based planes of the XXI Bomber Command. The greatest destruction, though, occurred on August 6, 1945, when the Enola Gay, taking off from Runway Able, dropped the first nuclear weapon used in combat on Hiroshima. Three days later, another B-29 bomber would do the same to Nagasaki, killing a combined 200,000 people and bringing an end to the most devastating war ever waged.
Today, Tinian is virtually abandoned and difficult to get to, a living legacy to the millennia of people who have gone before us and a haunting reminder of the human and environmental impact of war.
Nicholas Monck is a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School. He also received an Energy, Environmental, and Natural Resources Law and Policy Certificate and a Graduate Renewable Energy Certificate from the University of Colorado. He has previously written about urban planning in the University of Colorado Law Review. Opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the views of his employer.
