Минамиторисима: Остров, ресурсы и история в Тихом океане.

Japanese coral atoll in the northwest Pacific Ocean, administered by Tokyo Metropolis
The sea is clear in the shallow area around Minamitorishima. At night, no light pollution occurs, so rarely noticed stars are clearly visible in the sky. In January 2013, a deep sea research vessel of the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology obtained seven deep sea mud core samples from the seafloor at 5,600 to 5,800 m depth, about south of the island. The research team found a mud layer beneath the seabed that is extremely concentrated in REO. Analytical results showed that the maximum REO content in the mud was up to 0.66%. In 2018 a scientific study of the seabed mud resulted in an estimate of 16 million tons of REO mineralised sediments within the studied area. The calculated rare earth element and yttrium content for the research area was more than 16 million tons (average = 964 ppm).

A species in the gecko family Gekkonidae, Perochirus ateles, inhabits the island. In Japan, these are only found in Minamitorishima and South Iwo Jima. They are thought to have arrived from Micronesia on driftwood. Also, a large number of land snails, Achatina fulica, have parasites that are harmful to humans. Various forms of marine life inhabit the ocean around the island, including sea snakes, tuna, sharks, and some rare fish. Small fish are in the shallow area around the island.

No local residents live on Minamitorishima. Civilians are not allowed to reside there, and the personnel of the Japan Meteorological Agency, JSDF, and the Japan Coast Guard, only serve on the island for a limited time, and in limited numbers. The island was sighted again on 16 December 1864 by Captain Charles Gelett of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association's missionary ship Morning Star, and was called "Weeks Island" by him. Its position was recorded by a United States survey ship in 1874 and first sighted by a Japanese national, Kiozaemon Saito, in 1879.

On 30 June 1886, Japanese explorer Shinroku Mizutani [ja] (水谷新六, 1850 1921) led a group of 46 colonists from Haha jima in the Bonin Islands to settle on Marcus Island. The settlement was named "Mizutani" after the leader of the expedition. The Empire of Japan officially annexed the island 24 July 1898, the previous United States claim from 1889 according to the Guano Islands Act not being officially acknowledged. The island was officially named "Minamitorishima" and placed administratively under the Ogasawara Subprefecture of Tokyo (Tōkyō fu). Sovereignty over the island before World War I was apparently disputed, as various sources from the time move the island from the American to Japanese domain without specific explanation. In 1902, the United States dispatched a warship from Hawaii to enforce its claims, but withdrew on finding the island still inhabited by Japanese, with a Japanese warship patrolling nearby. In 1914, William D. Boyce included Marcus Island as an obviously American island in his book, The Colonies and Dependencies of the United States. In 1933, by orders of the Japanese government, the civilian inhabitants of Minamitorishima were evacuated. In 1935, the Imperial Japanese Navy established a meteorological station on the island and built an airstrip.

After the start of World War II, the Japanese garrison stationed on the island consisted of the 742 man Minamitorishima Guard Unit, under the command of Rear Admiral Masata Matsubara, and the 2,005 man 12th Independent Mixed Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army, under the command of Colonel Yoshiichi Sakata. The United States Navy bombed it repeatedly in 1942 and in 1943, but never attempted to capture it (the island was featured in the U. S. film The Fighting Lady). Japan was able to resupply the garrison by submarine, using a channel, still visible today, cut through the reef on the northwest side of the island. The island was subject to repeated U. S. air attacks during World War II, and finally surrendered when the destroyer Bagley arrived on 31 August 1945.

The Treaty of San Francisco transferred the island to American control in 1952. The island was returned to Japanese control in 1968, but the Americans retained control of the airstrip and LORAN C station. In 1964, after some delays caused by storms that ravaged the island during construction, the U. S. Coast Guard opened a LORAN C navigation station on Minamitorishima, whose mast was until 1985 one of the tallest structures in the Pacific area at 1,350 feet (411 m). Before replacing Loran A for general marine navigation, Loran C was used by submarine launched Polaris missile systems and the existence and location of Loran C stations was classified. LORANSTA Marcus Island was billeted for 23 U. S. Coast Guard personnel. The commissioning commanding officer was U. S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Louis. C. Snell. A detachment of SeaBees remained on the island for several months making repairs to the island's airstrip. The island is extremely isolated. Coast guardsmen stationed on the island served one year tours that were later modified to allow an R&R visit to mainland Japan at the six month point. At the end of this isolated tour of duty, crew members received an additional 30 days of compensatory leave. While under U. S. administration, a C 130 Hercules from the 345th Tactical Airlift Squadron, Yokota Air Base, Japan, resupplied the island on missions every Thursday. Coast guardsmen often amused themselves by judging aircraft landings, raising placards painted with large numbers. An unusually long four hour ground time was scheduled to allow technicians who flew in to perform maintenance on the transmitter and to offload extra fuel from the C 130 to power the island's generator. It also allowed the coast guardsmen to read and answer letters while aircrews snorkeled and collected green glass fishing buoys that had washed up on the shore. During the Vietnam war era, the weekly log flight was a DC 6 flight conducted by the CIA operated "Air America."

The Marcus Island station was transferred from the U. S. Coast Guard to the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) on 30 September 1993 and was closed on 1 December 2009. The island is currently used for weather observation and has a radio station, but little else. The JMSDF garrison was supplied by C 130s from Iruma Air Base, or by C 130s from Haneda or Atsugi Air Base with flights via Iwo Jima on a weekly basis. The runway of Minami Torishima Airport is only long and cannot handle large aircraft.

Minamitorishima has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification Aw), with warm to hot temperatures throughout the year. The wettest months are July and August, while the driest months are February and March. It has the highest average temperature in Japan of Temperature extremes range from on February 10, 1976 to on July 17, 1951.