Zvezda TV channel filmed documentary"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 they have been collecting 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 a mothballed military base
Matua Island is included in the middle group of the Great Kuril Ridge and belongs to Sakhalin region... However, this was not always the case. The Ainu are considered the original population of Matua - oldest people Japanese islands... In his language, the island is called "hell's mouth".
For a long time Matua existed on its own, and only in the 17th century the first expeditions went to the Kuriles. It was visited by the Japanese, the Russians and the Dutch, who even declared the land the property of their East India Company.
By 1736, the Ainu converted to Orthodoxy and became Russian subjects, paying the residents 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 island's population has always been small: in 1831, only 15 inhabitants were counted on Matua, although then the census took into account only adult men. In 1855 Russian empire officially received the right to the island, but 20 years later Matua came under Japanese rule - that was the price for Sakhalin.
Shortly before World War II, the island became the main stronghold of the Kuril ridge. 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 Matua with fuel. The island became one of Japan's key naval bases. In August 1945, a garrison of 7.5 thousand people surrendered without a single shot. Matua passed to the Soviet Union.
Until 1991, there was a military unit on the island. During this time, not only historians, but also politicians were interested in Matua. US President Harry Truman, immediately after the end of World War II, suggested that Joseph Stalin cede the island to a US naval base. Then the leader of the USSR, either jokingly or seriously, agreed to exchange Matua for one of the Aleutian Islands. The question was closed.
The Russian border outpost was located at Matua until 2000. Then the entire naval infrastructure of the island was mothballed, and its inhabitants left. Matua is now uninhabited. The small island, 11 kilometers long and just over six kilometers wide, still holds many secrets. Members of the Russian Geographical Society and employees went to uncover them. Russian ministry defense.
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 the Minister of Defense 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 have been found on the island. Some of them definitely belonged to the fort, but the purpose of the rest has not yet been clarified.
Initially, it was assumed that these were storage facilities, but everything was taken out of them. And if these were storage facilities, then any material traces would remain. Moreover, it was discovered 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 overvoltage for storage facilities. But it is obvious that some work was carried out in these structures.
Sergey 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, from the helicopter, the members of the expedition noticed the entrances to the underground structures. What exactly is in the thickness of the volcano is still unknown. The experts were also interested in another question: why the garrison surrendered without a fight in August 1945. This behavior is not typical for Japanese soldiers, which speaks of a well-thought-out plan. “We concluded that the garrison fulfilled its main task - removed all traces and all the 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 members of the expedition decided to study the collected materials, and a few months later return to Matua to reveal 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.
Matua is a small island located in the very center of the Kuril ridge. 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 Defense Ministry is taking unprecedented measures to develop military infrastructure in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. An expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) has begun engineering work on the study of 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 posterns (underground corridors for communication between fortifications, fortress forts or strongholds of fortified areas) and warehouses from debris has begun,” Gordeev said. -Five groups of search engines "carry out earthworks using a bulldozer, excavator and other special equipment."
According to the participants of the military-historical expedition, conducting scientific research will help to find answers to many questions and “dispel the aura of the mystery of Matua Island”. Before starting work, air samples are taken in each fortification, which are carefully analyzed in the laboratory for the presence of toxic substances.
Until the end of World War II, Japan was actively exploring these islands, including the mysterious island of Matua, located in the center of the Kuril ridge. 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 we ourselves do not use its dungeons for some reason.
During World War II, allied aircraft, which bombed everything that belonged to Japan in the Pacific Ocean, 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 Kuril Islands occupied by Soviet troops. With what small island ok Matua is so attracted to the President of America?
Matua is a small island located in the very center of the Kuril ridge. 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 dug up and down with ditches, trenches and artificial caves. Numerous pillboxes and hangars were built conscientiously. The entire coast of Matua along the perimeter was surrounded by a dense ring of pillboxes, laid out 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, argue that even 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 underground passages also carved into the rock.
The island's airfield was constructed even more carefully. It is located so well and is made so technically competent that aircraft could take off and land in winds of any strength and direction. Japanese engineers have provided for an "anti-snow" design. Pipes were laid under the concrete pavement, into which hot water from thermal springs. So icing runway the Japanese pilots were not threatened, and the planes could take off and land both in winter and in summer.
In one of the coastal cliffs, the hardworking Japanese cut down a huge cave where a submarine could easily hide. Nearby was the underground headquarters of the garrison command, disguised in one of the surrounding hills. Its walls were neatly lined with stone, there is a swimming pool and an underground bath nearby.
One of the secrets of the island is the disappearance of all military equipment without a trace. Despite careful searches that have been going on 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, the deputy head of the border post, who was in charge of this search, died as a result of an accident. And when they tried to restore the destroyed communications, the volcano in the center of the island suddenly woke up. The eruption took place with such force that huge blocks flying out of the vent knocked down the birds that soared hundreds of meters from the crater!
Here is an opinion about unsolved mysteries the island of Matua, researcher and enthusiast Yevgeny Vereshchagi: “There is an extraordinary hill on Matua with a height of more than 120 meters and 500 meters in diameter.
Nature does not like such correct forms. This involuntarily suggests that this whole hulk was made by human hands. This is an artificial hill that served as a disguised hangar for aircraft. A very wide man-made depression overgrown with trees and bushes stands out on its slope. Probably, the gates to the hangar were 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 marking on them reads "Fuel of the Wehrmacht, 200 liters." And the dates - 1939, 1943 - up to the victorious 1945.
So, going around Earth, Hitler's allied submarines moored at Matua and delivered cargo !?
By the way, about the volcano. Questions where has disappeared military equipment, which, judging by the underground structures, was literally stuffed with the island-fortress, there were many. One of the members of the 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 science fiction. But a road was laid up the cone of the volcano, where, even after decades, traces of tracked vehicles can be discerned. We can only guess what the Japanese drove along it. "
But all these striking grandiose structures are only the outer, 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 refused to answer the requests of first Soviet and then Russian researchers of Matua Island. 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 island's military explorers, the untimely awakened volcano, and the American president's interest in Matua, and the Japanese refusal to provide materials are not an accidental chain of events? Perhaps, in the secret, not yet found dungeons of the island-fortress, there is no rusted military equipment that is not needed by anyone 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's declaration of 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. A giant mushroom cloud appeared after him. According to the American expert Charles Stone, the first and last atomic bomb in Japan was detonated here, and the power of the explosion 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 World War II Japan was working to create atomic bomb and achieved success, was greeted 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, the first and last atomic bomb of Japan was detonated in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Korea. This is evidenced by the huge secret military Hinnam complex, located on the territory of the modern DPRK. It was powerful enough and equipped with everything needed to produce an atomic bomb.
The credibility of Charles Stone's unexpected hypothesis is confirmed by the investigations of the former American intelligence officer Theodore McNally. At the end of World War II, he served in the analytical intelligence of the headquarters of the Allied commander in Pacific General MacArthur.
In his article, McNally writes that American intelligence had reliable information about a large Japanese nuclear center in the Korean city of Heungnam, but kept information about this object a secret from the USSR. Moreover, on the morning of August 14, 1945, American aircraft brought air samples taken over the Sea of Japan near east coast Korean Peninsula. The processing of the received samples gave stunning results. She testified that in the aforementioned area Sea of Japan on the night of August 12-13, an unknown nuclear device exploded!
Assuming that in underground city On the island-fortress, the development of the most terrible weapon of the 20th century - nuclear, was really going on, this gives an answer to many questions that baffle the organizers of amateur research expeditions.
Why did President Truman, referring to Stalin, ask to transfer the island of Matua to the United States?
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 was found in the British archives with the inscription "Unthinkable Operation". Indeed, no one could have thought 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 document described in the most detailed way a plan ... for a massive strike on Soviet troops!
The main bargaining chip in a military confrontation could be nuclear weapons, available only to the United States. Soviet tank divisions that passed the Second world war, were located in the center of Europe. If Stalin had received, to his superiority in the ground forces, nuclear weapons created by Japanese scientists, then in the event of a military clash the outcome of the war would have been a foregone conclusion and Europe would have become completely socialist.
Why do the Japanese, referring to the secrecy of information, stubbornly refuse to answer the inquiries of first Soviet and then Russian researchers of Matua Island?
But what should they do?
If an underground secret center was discovered on the island of Matua, in which nuclear weapons were developed, and not only were they developed, but also the technology for their manufacture was brought to practical implementation, then this would lead to a reassessment of the events of World War II. The atomic bombing of Japanese cities would have been justified: American pilots were simply ahead of the future atomic raids of the Japanese. Demands for the return of the South Kuriles could be seen as a desire to continue work on the creation of secret weapons, which came to a halt 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 support flights aircraft”. The drainage system has been cleared and preparations for landing helicopters of any type have been completed.
The personnel of the military-historical expedition continues to be active in Dvoinaya Bay in order to “prepare the coastal section of the island for the approach of a large landing ship to the shore in a“ point-blank ”manner 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 under the leadership of the Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Andrei Ryabukhin, left Vladivostok on May 7 and arrived on Matua Island on six ships and vessels.
The second expedition of the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the Russian Geographical Society to the island Matua Kurilskaya the ridges landed today in the bays of Aina and Dvoinaya. A detachment of ships from the Pacific Fleet delivered more than 100 military and civilian specialists and 30 pieces of equipment here.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defense announced plans to create a basing point for the Pacific Fleet ships on Matua and restore the airfield. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu noted: "We intend 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 military sailors plan to carry out mapping of the area, explore the Sarychev Peak volcano, hydrography and topography of the coastal bottom, and compile an atlas of marine life of the adjacent water area. Hydrogeologists, volcanologists, hydrobiologists, soil scientists, divers, prospectors and archaeologists will work on Matua. Experts will analyze chemical composition natural waters and potential soil fertility. This is an area of increased 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 hazard of the territory for 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 that arouses such keen interest.
Strategic importance
The navy is studying the possibility of creating a base for ships in the Kuril Islands. Long-range aviation is also of interest. Two expeditions to Matua are actually full cycle design and survey work that must be performed 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. Experts 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 gulfs.
Matua is an island in 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 the Second World War, it was one of the largest Japanese naval bases. The indigenous 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 facilities 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 reliably protected by impregnable rocks and high banks,. Not bad Japanese pillboxes, paved roads, three runways of a military airfield, as well as spacious underground structures of unknown purpose.
In the southwestern part of Matua there is a convenient and relatively safe strait for basing ships, sheltered from the winds by a small island Toporkovy. It was here that the Japanese roads and piers were located. Since the 1930s, the island served as a springboard for the Japanese for further expansion in the direction of Kamchatka.
In August 1945, Soviet paratroopers found practically unarmed Japanese on Matua: 3800 surrendered soldiers and officers had only 2000 rifles, and the pilots, sailors and artillerymen simply disappeared (the garrison consisted of 7.5 thousand servicemen). For comparison: on the island of Shumshu, Soviet troops captured more than 60 Japanese tanks. From 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 headquarters in Hokkaido. 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 military-political "containment" of Russia. And Japan claims four Russian islands- Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai. And it looks 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 the Bering Strait, cover the fleet deployment routes and increase the combat stability of naval strategic nuclear forces. The Steel Kuril Ridge is a forced measure, but very effective.
On the Kuril Islands, today the Sea of Okhotsk is almost completely covered by DBKs (it is logical to assume the presence of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems on the Kuril line). New capabilities of missile weapons allow the creation of specially protected areas of the sea (anti-access / area-denial), the most favorable for combat patrolling of SSBNs - four thousand miles from San Francisco and the positions of the American strategic ground-based forces in the states of Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota ...
The Kuriles and Kamchatka must turn into an indestructible sea fortress of Russia. And for the realization of this goal, the small island of Matui is of great importance.
The second joint expedition of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society to the island of Matua has ended. Its participants - historians, archaeologists, ecologists and hydrographers - told at a regular meeting of the Russian Geographical Society about their amazing finds discovered on this small, but very mysterious island of the Kuril ridge. IA SakhalinMedia.
Participants of the second joint expedition of military and scientists to the Kuril island of Matua summed up the results of their work. At a regular meeting of the Sakhalin Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, they made reports in which they told what new secrets the island had revealed for them and what findings gave rise to new questions.
Opened the meeting Chairman of the RGS department Sergey Ponomarev... He noted that cooperation with the Pacific Fleet has provided new opportunities for exploring the Kuril Islands.
“In the expedition, the most expensive thing is transport delivery to the Kuril Islands. But the fact that Sergei Shoigu headed the Russian Geographical Society, allowed to organize such joint projects with the Ministry of Defense. The military is also sent to Matua for their research purposes. And they take our scientists with them. We use this cooperation to our advantage. Our research concerns history, archeology, ecology. This versatility helps integrated research islands - both on land and in the sea ”, - said Ponomarev.
Meeting with members of the expedition to Matua. Photo: IA SakhalinMedia
Meeting with members of the expedition to Matua. Photo: IA SakhalinMedia
Meeting with members of the expedition to Matua. Photo: IA SakhalinMedia
Meeting with members of the expedition to Matua. Photo: IA SakhalinMedia
Meeting with members of the expedition to Matua. Photo: IA SakhalinMedia
He recalled that Matua is a very interesting island from the point of view of local historians. It is located in the middle of the Kuril ridge and was previously used by the Japanese as a staging post on the route from north to south, as well as a powerful naval base and the airfield.
Local historian Igor Samarin during this expedition he continued his last year's work. Its main task was to restore the scheme of the Japanese permanent firing structures on the island. Last year, such a map was drawn up, but, as it turned out, the island is fraught with many more discoveries.
“This year, quite by accident, our military colleagues discovered the emergence of a ceramic pipe from the ground. They lowered an impromptu video camera into it - a smartphone with a flashlight, and found a room there. At a depth of three meters, there was a concrete structure adjacent to an artillery rangefinder post. It turned out that there was a fire control command post under the ground. From there, with the help of electronics, commands were transmitted to the guns, ”said Igor Samarin.
Also, one of the tasks of this year was the study of the Japanese command post on one of the heights of the island. Samarin's group dug up this concrete structure and got inside.
But scientists made the most interesting discoveries by studying small, not always obvious details. So, next to one of the soldiers' barracks, we found a lamp shade. Igor Samarin explains: according to the testimony of the Japanese military themselves of those years, naval sailors lived better than the infantry and they were the only ones who had electricity. So the found lampshade reinforced the belief that it was the sailors who lived in the barracks on the island.
“Many ordinary things were revelation. They found a beer bottle, the most common one, but on the bottom - the date of manufacture "18 S 8". For a knowledgeable person, this is simple - August 16, according to European chronology - 1941. There were 25 such bottles found on the island. From them it was possible to determine the time when the bottles were delivered to the island. It turned out that the first supplies of provisions began in 1938 and ended in 1943. And in 1944, the blockade of Matua Island by American submarines began, ”Samarin continued his report.
Scientists also paid attention to the Japanese kitchen heaps near each dugout. Bird bones were found among the waste. As it turned out, the Japanese actively used local hatchets for food. They also ate mice - voles. Even a natural exchange was established - one mouse cost two cigarettes. The skins of rodents were transported to the metropolis to make gloves from them.
In total, historians brought 86 items of the Japanese and Soviet period from the island - from children's booties and utensils to fuel barrels and handicraft stoves.
Also, scientists managed to uncover another mystery that has been kept by the Matua Islands since the Second World War. For more than 70 years, the fate of the American submarine Herring, which sank two Japanese ships off Matua, was unknown and conflicting information remained about it. Hydrographers, led by the captain of a large hydrographic boat, Igor Tikhonov, combed the entire water area of Dvoynaya Bay using a multi-beam echo sounder. And an object very similar to a submarine was discovered in the area of Cape Yurlov at a depth of 110 meters. What to do next with this discovery will be determined by the military.
As part of the expedition, the researchers also studied the more ancient period of the island's history. So, the group archaeologist Olga Shubina discovered on the island more than a hundred pits from the ancient dwellings of the first inhabitants of the island. Most likely they belonged to the ancient Ainu who lived here 2.5-3 thousand years ago. Scientists have carried out excavations at the sites of finds and marked the boundaries of archaeological sites.
At the end of the meeting, the chairman of the Sakhalin RGS Sergei Ponomarev said that scientists had created a working group dealing with the unification of geographical names on the island of Matua.
“Many objects of Matua still bear Japanese names or“ folk ”Soviet ones. The group is preparing a proposal for the official naming of about three dozen bays, capes and heights, so that when drawing up maps and diagrams we can use the same designations and understand each other, ”said Ponomarev.
