16 Facts About Kwajalein

Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands .

Kwajalein is the 14th largest coral atoll as measured by area of enclosed water.

Kwajalein Island is the southernmost and largest of the islands in the atoll.

Kwajalein Atoll is an important cultural site to the Marshallese people of the Ralik chain.

In Marshallese cosmology, Kwajalein island is the site of an abundant flowering zebra wood tree, thought to have spiritual powers.

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In Kwajalein, forced laborers from across the empire and Marshallese volunteers known as teishintai built military facilities throughout the atoll.

Kwajalein was the site of a prisoner of war camp, whose detainees were not registered with the Red Cross.

Since no distinction was made between dead Japanese soldiers and Korean forced laborers in mass graves on Kwajalein, both are enshrined as war hero guardian spirits for the Japanese nation in Yasukuni Shrine.

Kwajalein was one of the few locations in the Pacific War where indigenous islanders were recorded to have been killed while fighting for the Japanese.

The conditions in the makeshift labor camp on Kwajalein islet were such that the U S Navy administering the atoll decided to relocate these Islanders to nearby Ebeye, an islet only three islands to the north of Kwajalein and accessible by a short boat ride or walk over the reef at low tide.

Kwajalein Atoll has been leased by the United States for missile testing and other operations from well before independence for the Marshall Islands.

Since 2000, Kwajalein has become one of five preferred locations from which Pegasus rockets can be launched into equatorial orbit.

Kwajalein has one of five ground stations used in controlling the RTS range, which assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System navigation system.

The memorial on Kwajalein was constructed by the Japan Marshall Islands War-Bereaved Families Association in the 1960s, and the memorial on Roi-Namur was constructed by American personnel.

The Kwajalein designation includes only the historical 1944 shape of the island, which has been enlarged since then by dredging and fill.

Effectively, this rendered the land negotiations for use of Kwajalein Atoll a "domestic issue" between the national Marshallese government in Majuro and local "landowners, " even though Kwajalein, where the local Marshallese population deals on a daily basis with American military activity, is a considerable distance from Majuro.