teaching assistant (left) and constables (middle and right) of Japanese Truk Island, circa 1930. Truk became a possession of the Empire of Japan under a mandate from the League of Nations following Germany's defeat in World War I.
Prehistory It is not known when the islands of Chuuk were first settled, but archaeological evidence indicates that islands of Feefen and Wééné had human settlements in the first and second century BC. Later evidence indicates that widespread human settlements appeared in Chuuk during the 14th century AD.
Colonialism The first recorded sighting by Europeans was made by Spanish navigator
Álvaro de Saavedra on board the ship
Florida during August or September 1528. They were later visited by Spaniard
Alonso de Arellano on 15 January 1565 on board of galleon patache
San Lucas. As part of the
Caroline Islands, Truk was claimed by the
Spanish Empire, which made an effort to control the islands in the late 19th century. Chuuk Lagoon was inhabited by several tribes that engaged in intermittent warfare, as well as a small population of foreign traders and missionaries. Spanish control over the islands was nominal. The Spaniards stopped to raise a flag over Chuuk in 1886 and returned in 1895 as part of an attempt to assert control and negotiate peace between warring Chuukese tribes. No permanent Spanish settlement was established, and tribal violence continued until the German colonial era. The Caroline Islands were sold to the
German Empire in 1899, after Spain withdrew from the Pacific in the aftermath of the
Spanish–American War. During the
First World War, the
Japanese Navy was tasked with pursuing and destroying the German
East Asia Squadron and protection of the shipping lanes for
Allied commerce in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the course of this operation, the Japanese Navy seized the German possessions in the
Marianas, Carolines,
Marshall Islands and
Palau groups by October 1914. Chuuk then became a possession of the
Empire of Japan under the
South Seas Mandate following
Germany's defeat.
World War II and Musashi'' in anchorage off Truk Islands in 1943 on 17 February 1944
Naval Base Truk in the Truk Lagoon was the
Empire of Japan's main base in the
South Pacific theatre of World War II. There was a myth that Truk was heavily fortified, and it was given nicknames like "the
Gibraltar of the Pacific," or Japan's equivalent of the Americans'
Pearl Harbor. In fact, Nevertheless, Truk was the main base for Japanese operations against
Allied forces in
New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands, serving as the forward
anchorage for the
Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), and Truk Lagoon was considered the most formidable of all Japanese strongholds in the Pacific. On the various islands, the Japanese Civil Engineering Department and Naval Construction Department had built roads, trenches, bunkers and caves. Five airstrips, seaplane bases, a torpedo boat station, submarine repair shops, a communications center and a
radar station were constructed during the war. Protecting these various facilities were coastal defense guns and mortar emplacements. A significant portion of the Japanese fleet was based at Truk, with its administrative center on Tonoas (south of Weno). At anchor in the lagoon were
battleships,
aircraft carriers,
cruisers,
destroyers,
tankers,
cargo ships,
tugboats,
gunboats,
minesweepers,
landing craft, and
submarines. In particular,
Yamato and
Musashi were stationed at Truk for months around 1943, unable to participate in battle. The Japanese
garrison consisted of 27,856 IJN men, under the command of
Vice Admiral Masami Kobayashi, then
Vice Admiral Chuichi Hara, and 16,737
Imperial Japanese Army men, under the command of Major General Kanenobu Ishuin. At one point, dropping a nuclear weapon on Truk was discussed by the United States government. In 1944, Truk's capacity as a
naval base was destroyed through naval air attack in
Operation Hailstone. Forewarned by intelligence a week before the U.S. raid, the Japanese had withdrawn their larger warships (heavy cruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers) to
Palau. Once the American forces
captured the Marshall Islands, they used them as a base from which to launch an early morning attack on 17 February 1944 against Truk Lagoon. Operation Hailstone lasted for three days, as American carrier-based planes sank 12 smaller Japanese
warships (light cruisers, destroyers, and auxiliaries) and 32 merchant ships, while destroying 275 aircraft, mainly on the ground. The consequences of the attack made "Truk lagoon the biggest graveyard of ships in the world". The Truk Lagoon Underwater Fleet was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The attacks for the most part ended Truk as a major threat to Allied operations in the central Pacific. The Japanese garrison on
Eniwetok was denied any realistic hope of reinforcement and support during the invasion that began on 18 February, greatly assisting U.S. forces in their conquest of that island. Truk was isolated by Allied forces, as they continued their advance towards Japan by invading other Pacific islands, such as
Guam,
Saipan,
Palau, and
Iwo Jima. Truk was attacked again from 12 to 16 June 1945 by part of the
British Pacific Fleet during
Operation Inmate. Cut off, the Japanese forces on Truk and other central Pacific islands ran low on food and faced starvation before
Japan surrendered in August 1945.
Post-war On 28 September 2018, a
Boeing 737-800 operated as
Air Niugini Flight 73 landed short of the runway at
Chuuk International Airport before landing and sinking into the lagoon. Out of the 47 passengers and crew, only one passenger died in the crash. ==Economy and infrastructure==