Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. Tinian is about 5 miles (8km) southwest of its sister island, Saipan. It has a land area of about 40 sq.mi. (100 km²). Lightly populated, but heavily garrisoned by Japanese forces in World War II, Tinian, with its sister islands, had passed through Spanish and German hands prior to becoming a Protectorate of Japan after World War I. Under Japanese administration, Tinian was largely a sugar plantation.

Tinian was captured by the United States in July 1944 in the battle of Tinian. The island was transformed into the busiest airbase of the war, with two B-29 airfields (West and North) having six 8,500 foot (2700 m) runways. An interesting feature of Tinian is its resemblance in shape to the island of Manhattan in New York City. The Japanese had constructed three small fighter strips on Tinian but none were suitable for bomber operations. When the United States turned the entire island, excepting its three highland areas, into a 40,000-personnel installation, construction engineers laid out the base in a pattern of city streets resembling Manhattan and named the streets accordingly. The area south of West Field which was developed from the main Japanaese installation at Sunharon was nicknamed "The Village" because its location corresponded to that of Greenwich Village, and a large square area between West and North Fields, used primarily only for the location of the base hospitals and otherwise left undeveloped was called Central Park.

It was from Tinian that the bombers carrying the atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man were launched against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The airfields now lie overgrown and abandoned. There is a memorial on the old airfield at the bombbay loading pits, which had been filled in for safety reasons but were both recently excavated in conjunction with the 60th Anniversary Commemoration of the Battles of Saipan and Tinian. Originally the pits had been dug to fit the large bombs into the planes which would be maneuvered over top of a pit with their cargo holds open in order to facilitate loading. Each bomb was too large to fit under the respective planes otherwise.

Today the island is still underdeveloped. It has only two gas stations and its main attraction is the Tinian Dynasty Casino. The airport is rather small and it takes a five-minute flight in a seven-seat plane with no air conditioning to get from Tinian to Saipan and vice versa. It is serviced by two airlines, Freedom Air, which operated daily scheduled flights, and Taga Air, which operates by charter. There is one ferry that leaves in the morning and one ferry that leaves in the evening to and from Tinian to Saipan. As of March 2006, the island has plans to put in four new casinos. The 2000 census showed a population of 3,540 ^* for the island.

External links

• entry at www.pacificwrecks.com

Northern Mariana Islands | Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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