A detachment of the Pacific Fleet, including the Admiral Nevelskoy large landing ship, the KIL-168 lifeboat and the SB-522 rescue tug, delivered to the Kuril Island Matua members of the joint expedition of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society, as well as more than 30 units of various technology.
Matua Island is located in the middle Kuril ridge and is significantly removed from the populated areas of Sakhalin and Kamchatka. The size of the island is 11 kilometers long and 6 and a half wide. It is characterized by an abnormally cold climate with high rainfall. One of the most active active volcanoes in the region, the Sarychev volcano, is located on Matua. A powerful layer of historical and cultural heritage has been preserved here, which is divided into Ainu, Japanese and Russian. In addition, Matua is home to the northernmost distribution point of the Corded Ware, the Neolithic Jōmon archaeological culture.
This year the scientific composition of the expedition has expanded significantly. Hydrogeologists, volcanologists, hydrobiologists, landscape scientists, soil scientists, submariners, search engines and archaeologists from Vladivostok and Moscow, Kamchatka and Sakhalin will work on Matua Island. The Expeditionary Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society and the personnel of the Pacific Fleet take part in the project.
In the course of the work, materials will be collected for the preparation of an atlas-identifier of marine life in the waters of Matua Island and neighboring islands, as well as video filming of the bottom topography at dive sites for the analysis of hydrographic characteristics.
The activity of the Sarychev Peak volcano over the past 100 thousand years will be reconstructed, and the level of its modern activity will be determined. This is necessary to assess the volcanic hazard of the territory and form a long-term forecast.
In addition, work will continue on the search and study of objects of historical military equipment and fortifications of the period of the Second World War. Archaeological work will be developed to identify and study monuments of history and culture of various eras, including the Ainu.
Based on the results of the expedition in 2017, materials will be prepared on the prospects for further development of the island: maps of dangerous natural phenomena, an analysis of alternative energy sources, the chemical composition of natural waters, and potential soil fertility was carried out.
In 2016, the Russian Geographical Society, together with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, organized an expedition to Matua for the first time. Its goal was to study the artifacts of the Second World War and draw up a historical and geographical portrait of the island.
The second expedition of the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the Russian Geographical Society to the island Matua Kuril ridge landed today in the bays of Aina and Dvoynaya. A detachment of ships of the Pacific Fleet brought here more than 100 servicemen and civilian specialists and 30 pieces of equipment.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defense announced plans to create a base for the ships of the Pacific Fleet on Matua and restore the airfield. Head of the Russian military department Sergei Shoigu pointed out: "We propose to restore, and not only restore, but also actively exploit this island."
From June to September, the Expeditionary Center of the Ministry of Defense, the Russian Geographical Society and naval sailors plan to map the area, explore the Sarychev Peak volcano, hydrography and coastal bottom topography, and compile an atlas of marine life in the adjacent water area. Hydrogeologists, volcanologists, hydrobiologists, soil scientists, submariners, search engines and archaeologists will work on Matua. Specialists will analyze the chemical composition of natural waters and potential soil fertility. This is an area of high seismic activity, and volcanologists intend to reconstruct the activity of the Sarychev Peak volcano over the past 100 thousand years in order to assess the volcanic danger of the territory in the future.
© Photo: Russian Geographical Society/Andrey Gorban
© Photo: Russian Geographical Society/Andrey Gorban
Lost in the ocean, Matua with an area of only 52 square kilometers is not in vain of such keen interest.
strategic importance
The Navy is studying the possibility of creating a ship basing point in the Kuriles. Long-range aviation is also of interest. Two expeditions to Matua are actually a complete cycle of design and survey work that must be completed on the eve of the large-scale construction of a new naval base, more precisely, a logistics center for the Pacific Fleet.
The first expedition explored Matua in May-July 2016. Specialists conducted radiation and chemical reconnaissance, studied fortifications and other historical objects, performed more than a thousand laboratory studies, made hundreds of measurements of the external environment, including hydrography of bays and bays.
Matua is an island of the middle group of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands (in a straight line to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - 670 kilometers, to Japanese Hokkaido - 740 kilometers). Administratively. During World War II, it was one of the largest Japanese naval bases. The native inhabitants of the island were hunters - the Ainu, in 1875 they were replaced by Japanese soldiers. In 1945, Soviet border guards settled on the island, and later - air defense units. In 2000, military installations on Matua were mothballed, and the island became uninhabited for 15 years.
The island resembles a fortress in the middle of the ocean. Matua is securely protected by impregnable cliffs and high banks. Not bad are Japanese pillboxes, paved roads, three runways of a military airfield, as well as spacious underground structures of an incomprehensible purpose.
In the southwestern part of Matua, there is a strait that is convenient and relatively safe for basing ships, covered from the winds by the small island of Toporkovy. It was here that the Japanese raid and moorings were located. Since the 1930s, the island has served the Japanese as a springboard for further expansion towards Kamchatka.
In August 1945, Soviet paratroopers found practically unarmed Japanese on Matua: 3,800 surrendered soldiers and officers had only 2,000 rifles, and pilots, sailors and gunners simply disappeared (the garrison consisted of 7.5 thousand military personnel). For comparison: on the island of Shumshu, Soviet troops captured more than 60 Japanese tanks. From the interrogations of the commander of the northern group, General Tsumi Fusaki, it is known that the Matua garrison did not obey him and was controlled directly from the Hokkaido headquarters. The island had a special status and to this day keeps many secrets.
New fortress
Russia borders on the sea with 12 countries, and not all of them are friendly. Until recently, our Pacific neighbors - the United States - practiced the military-political "containment" of Russia. And Japan claims four Russian islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai. And it seems quite natural to strengthen the Far Eastern borders, where since 2015 a unified coastal defense system has been created, which is necessary to control the strait zones of the Kuril Islands and Bering Strait, covering the deployment routes of the fleet and increasing the combat stability of the naval strategic nuclear forces. The Steel Kuril Ridge is a forced but very effective measure.
The Sea of Okhotsk is being formed in the Kuriles Today, the Sea of Okhotsk is almost completely covered by the DBK (it is logical to assume the presence of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems on the Kuriles line). New capabilities of missile weapons make it possible to create specially protected areas of the sea (anti-access / area-denial), the most favorable for combat patrols of SSBNs - four thousand miles from San Francisco and the positions of American land-based strategic forces in the states of Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota .
The Kuriles and Kamchatka must become an invincible sea fortress of Russia. And for the realization of this goal, the small island of Matui is of great importance.
Matua is a small island located in the very center of the Kuril chain. During the Great Patriotic War, the Japanese turned it into an impregnable fortress, planning to use it as a springboard in case of war with the USSR.
The Russian Ministry of Defense is taking unprecedented measures to develop military infrastructure on Sakhalin and the Kuriles. The expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) has begun engineering work to study fortifications on the Kuril Island of Matua. This was announced by the head of the press service of the Eastern Military District, Colonel Alexander Gordeev.
“On the slopes of the hills and at the foot of the Sarychev volcano, the liberation of potterns (underground corridors for communication between fortifications, fortress forts or strongholds of fortified areas) and warehouses from rubble has begun,” Gordeev said. -Five groups of searchers "carry out earthworks using a bulldozer, excavator and other special equipment."
According to the participants of the military-historical expedition, scientific research will help to find answers to many questions and “dispel the halo of mystery of the island of Matua”. Before starting work in each fortification, air samples are taken, which are carefully analyzed in the laboratory for the presence of toxic substances.
Until the end of World War II, Japan actively explored these islands, including the mysterious island of Matua, located in the center of the Kuril chain. On this island, Japan mined some valuable minerals. After the end of World War II, Truman even turned to Stalin with a request to transfer the island of Matua to the United States. The island was not given away, but for some reason we don’t use its dungeons ourselves.
During the Second World War, allied aircraft, bombing everything that belonged to Japan in the Pacific, bypassed Magua. And when the war ended, President Truman turned to Stalin with an unexpected request to provide the United States with only one of the islands in the center of the Kuriles occupied by Soviet troops. Why did the small island of Matua attract the President of America so much?
Matua is a small island located in the very center of the Kuril chain. During the Great Patriotic War, the Japanese turned it into an impregnable fortress, planning to use it as a springboard in case of war with the USSR. The war really began, but in 1945, 3811 Japanese soldiers and officers "valiantly" surrendered to 40 Soviet border guards.
The island, which went to the USSR, was pitted up and down with ditches, trenches and artificial caves. Numerous pillboxes and hangars were built to last. The entire coast of Matua along the perimeter was cordoned off by a dense ring of pillboxes made of stone or hollowed out in the rock. They were made so soundly that members of amateur expeditions, who have been studying the island for many years, claim that today the pillboxes could be used for their intended purpose. Moreover, their device was not limited only to preparing a point for firing. Each such position had an extensive network of underground passages, also carved into the rock.
The island's airfield was built even more carefully. It is located so well and made so technically competently that the planes could take off and land in the wind of any strength and direction. Japanese engineers also provided for an "anti-snow" design. Pipes were laid under the concrete pavement, into which hot water flowed from thermal springs. So icing runway Japanese pilots were not threatened, and planes could take off and land both in winter and in summer.
In one of the coastal cliffs, the industrious Japanese cut down a huge cave, where a submarine could easily hide. Nearby was the underground residence of the garrison command, disguised in one of the surrounding hills. Its walls were carefully lined with stone, nearby there is a pool and an underground bathhouse.
One of the secrets of the island is the disappearance of all military equipment without a trace. Despite extensive searches since 1945, nothing has been found on the island. Moreover, there is an amazing, downright mystical pattern - people who tried to search, died in fires, which often happened on the island, fell into avalanches.
In the late 1990s, as a result of an accident, the deputy head of the frontier post, who led these searches, died. And when they tried to restore the destroyed communications, a volcano suddenly woke up, located in the center of the island. The eruption occurred with such force that huge blocks flying out of the vent knocked down birds that soared hundreds of meters from the crater!
Here is the opinion of the enthusiastic researcher Yevgeny Vereshchaga about the unsolved mysteries of the island of Matua: “There is an unusual hill on Matua, more than 120 meters high and 500 meters in diameter.
Nature does not like such regular forms. This involuntarily suggests that all this whopper is made by human hands. This is an artificial hill that served as a camouflaged aircraft hangar. A very wide man-made depression, overgrown with trees and shrubs, clearly stands out on its slope. Probably, the gate to the hangar was located here, which were first blown up and then covered with ash from an erupting volcano.
In addition, hundreds of rusty fuel barrels are scattered on the island - mostly German, and absolutely intact and with fuel from the times of the fascist Third Reich. In translation, the markings on them read "Fuel Wehrmacht, 200 liters." And the dates - 1939, 1943 - up to the victorious 1945.
So, by turning Earth, Hitler's allied submarines moored at Matua and delivered cargo !?
By the way, about the volcano. There were many questions about where the military equipment disappeared, which, judging by the underground structures, was literally stuffed with the island-fortress. One of the participants in amateur expeditions made a seemingly incredible assumption: “Perhaps the Japanese threw all their ammunition into the mouth of the volcano, and then blew it up, causing a powerful eruption. This version, at first glance, sounds like a fantasy. But a road has been laid up the cone of the volcano, where traces of caterpillar vehicles can be discerned even decades later. One can only guess what the Japanese carried along it.”
But all these conspicuous grandiose structures are only the external, visible part of the Japanese secret underground fortress. More than half a century has passed since the end of World War II, but no one has managed to unravel the secrets of the dungeons.
The Japanese, referring to the secrecy of this information, stubbornly did not respond to requests from first Soviet and then Russian researchers of the island of Matua. It was also not possible to understand the strange interest in the island of the American president.
What does the Kuril Island hide in its depths? But what if the death of the military researchers of the island, and the volcano that woke up at the wrong time, and the interest of the American president in Matua, and the refusal of the Japanese to provide materials are not a random chain of events? Perhaps, in the secret, not yet found dungeons of the island-fortress, there is not rusted and no one needs military equipment today, but secret laboratories that developed secret weapons that were never used during the war?
At dawn on August 12, 1945, three days before Japan announced its surrender, a deafening explosion sounded in the Sea of Japan, not far from the Korean Peninsula. A fireball with a diameter of about 1000 meters rose into the sky. It was followed by a giant mushroom cloud. According to the American expert Charles Stone, Japan's first and last atomic bomb was detonated here, and the explosion power was about the same as that of the American bombs detonated a few days earlier over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Ch. Stone's statement that during the Second World War, Japan was working to create atomic bomb and achieved success, was met with great doubt by many US scientists. The military historian John Dower was more cautious about this information.
According to this famous scientist, it is impossible to completely exclude the possibility that at dawn on August 12, 1945, Japan's first and last atomic bomb was detonated in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Korea. Evidence of this can serve as a huge secret military Khinnam complex, located on the territory of modern North Korea. It was powerful enough and equipped with everything necessary for the production of an atomic bomb.
The plausibility of Ch. Stone's unexpected hypothesis is confirmed by the research of the former American intelligence officer Theodore McNally. At the end of World War II, he served in the analytical intelligence headquarters of the commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, General MacArthur.
In his article, McNally writes that American intelligence had reliable data on a large Japanese nuclear center in the Korean city of Heungnam, but kept information about this facility secret from the USSR. Moreover, on the morning of August 14, 1945, American aircraft brought to their airfields air samples taken over the Sea of Japan near east coast Korean Peninsula. The processing of the obtained samples gave stunning results. She showed that in the aforementioned area of the Sea of Japan on the night of August 12-13, an unknown nuclear device exploded!
If we assume that the development of the most terrible weapon of the 20th century, nuclear, was really going on in the underground city on the island-fortress, then this gives an answer to many questions that baffle the organizers of amateur research expeditions.
Why did President Truman, addressing Stalin, ask to transfer the island of Matua to the USA?
Even before the end of World War II, the Americans began to prepare for an armed clash with the USSR. After the declassification of materials about the Second World War, a folder with the inscription "Unthinkable operation" was found in the British archives. Indeed, no one could think of such an operation! The date on the document is May 22, 1945. Consequently, the development of the operation was started even before the end of the war. The plan was described in the most detailed way ... a massive strike on Soviet troops!
The main trump card in a military clash could be nuclear weapons, available only to the United States. Soviet tank divisions that went through the Second World War were located in the center of Europe. If Stalin, in addition to his superiority in ground forces, also received nuclear weapons created by Japanese scientists, then in the event of a military clash, the outcome of the war would be a foregone conclusion and Europe would become completely socialist.
Why do the Japanese, referring to the secrecy of information, stubbornly refuse to respond to requests from first Soviet and then Russian researchers of the island of Matua?
And how should they act?
If an underground secret center were discovered on the island of Matua, in which nuclear weapons were developed, and not only developed, but also the technology for their manufacture was brought to practical implementation, this would lead to a reassessment of the events of World War II. The atomic bombing of Japanese cities would have been justified: the American pilots simply outstripped the future Japanese atomic raids. Demands for the return of the South Kuriles could be seen as a desire to continue work on the creation of secret weapons, which stopped as a result of the defeat of Japan.
And on this mysterious island, the Russian Pacific Fleet launched an unprecedented survey.
The representative of the Eastern Military District recalled that "mobile airfield complexes have already been deployed on the island to ensure the flights of aircraft." The drainage system has been cleared and preparations for the landing of helicopters of any type have been completed.
The personnel of the military-historical expedition continues active work in Dvoynaya Bay in order to “prepare the coastal section of the island for the approach of a large landing ship to the shore using the “on emphasis” method for loading equipment and materiel,” Gordeev said.
As previously reported, 200 members of the expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society, the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet, led by Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Andrei Ryabukhin, on six ships and vessels left Vladivostok on May 7 and arrived on May 14 on the island of Matua.
The Zvezda TV channel made a documentary film Matua Island about the research expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Experts went to the island back in 2016 and for many months collected materials about its natural, historical and cultural heritage. Why exactly Matua was interested in the Russian Geographical Society and what secrets the island keeps - in the material "360".
From no man's island to mothballed military base
Matua Island is part of the middle group of the Great Kuril Ridge and belongs to the Sakhalin Region. However, this was not always the case. The original population of Matua is considered to be the Ainu, the most ancient people of the Japanese islands. In his language, the island is called "hell mouth".
For a long time, Matua existed on its own, and only in the 17th century did the first expeditions set off for the Kuriles. The Japanese, Russians and Dutch visited there and even declared the land the property of their East India Company.
By 1736, the Ainu converted to Orthodoxy and became Russian subjects, paying the inhabitants of Kamchatka yasak - a tax in kind in the form of furs, livestock and other items. Russian Cossacks regularly visited the island, and the first scientific expedition arrived at Matua in 1813. The population of the island has always been small: in 1831, only 15 inhabitants were counted on Matua, although at that time the census took into account only adult men. In 1855, the Russian Empire officially received the right to the island, but 20 years later Matua was under the rule of Japan - that was the price for Sakhalin.
Shortly before World War II, the island became the main stronghold of the Kuril chain. A fort appeared on Matua with anti-tank ditches, underground tunnels and trenches. An underground residence was created for the officers in the hill. After the outbreak of the war, Nazi Germany supplied fuel to Matua. The island became one of Japan's key naval bases. In August 1945, a garrison of 7.5 thousand people capitulated without firing a shot. Matua passed to the Soviet Union.
Until 1991, there was a military unit on the island. During this time, Matua was interested not only in historians, but also in politicians. US President Harry Truman, immediately after the end of World War II, offered Joseph Stalin to cede the island for a US naval base. Then the leader of the USSR either jokingly or seriously agreed to exchange Matua for one of the Aleutian Islands. Question closed.
The Russian border outpost was on Matua until 2000. Then the entire naval infrastructure of the island was mothballed, and the inhabitants left it. Now Matua is uninhabited. A small island with a length of 11 kilometers and a width of just over six still holds many secrets. Members of the Russian Geographical Society and employees of the Russian Ministry of Defense went to open them.
Secrets of Matua
In September last year, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sergei Avakyants, told reporters about the results of the first expedition to Matua. It started in April and lasted almost six months. The expedition was attended by Defense Minister and President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Shoigu.
Research on Matua took place for the first time since 1813. According to Avakyants, many underground structures were discovered on the island. Some of them definitely belonged to the fort, but the purpose of the rest has not yet been clarified.
Initially, there was an assumption that these were warehouses, but everything was taken out of them. And if these were warehouses, then any material traces would remain. Moreover, it was found that a high-voltage cable was suitable for these premises, and the power supply system made it possible to supply up to 3 thousand volts there. Naturally, this is an excess voltage for storage facilities. But it is obvious that some work was carried out in these structures.
Sergei Avakyants.
Among the unusual finds is a high-voltage cable on the slope of the Sarychev volcano. Nearby are the remains of an old road that leads to the mouth of the volcano. At the same time, members of the expedition noticed the entrances to underground structures from a helicopter. What exactly is in the thickness of the volcano is still unknown. The experts were also occupied with another question: why the garrison surrendered without a fight in August 1945. This behavior is not typical for Japanese soldiers, which indicates a well-thought-out plan. “We concluded that the garrison had fulfilled its main task - to remove all traces and all facts that could lead to the disclosure of the true nature of activities on this island,” the admiral explained.
Photo: RIA Novosti / Roman Denisov
Last year, the expedition members decided to study the collected materials, and a few months later return to Matua to uncover other secrets of the island. What else will surprise the Russians with a small piece of land that has gone from no man's land to a secret Japanese fort, time will tell.
