Woleai

Geography

The islands constitute a double atoll forming the number eight, with a total length of 11.5 km and up to 7 km wide; however, most of reef on the southern rim is submerged or poorly developed. The northern and eastern rims have several relatively large islets. The western lagoon is deeper and larger than its eastern counterpart. Both components are part of the same seamount. The total land area for both components combined is only 4.5 km2.

History

The Austronesian ancestors of the Micronesians who make up the indigenous population of the Caroline Islands arrived in the islands . Woleai subsequently became culturally unique among the Caroline Islands because of a script in use among some speakers of the Woleaian language prior to 1913. Woleai was among islands to the southeast of Yap that became tributaries of the Yapese Empire from about 1500 CE.

Woleai came under the control of the Spanish Empire in 1686, governed along with the rest of the Caroline Islands as part of the Spanish East Indies. During this time in the early 1800s a Woleaian Chief and Navigator named Kadu gave information to a Captain named Otto von Kotzebue concerning the Caroline Islands. Spain sold the islands to the German Empire in 1899. In 1914, in the early weeks of World War I, the Empire of Japan seized German possessions in the Pacific, including Woleai. Assigned a League of Nations mandate to administer the islands after the war in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, Japan subsequently administered Woleai under the South Seas Mandate.

In 1944, as Allied forces closed in on the Mariana Islands during World War II, a contingent of 6,426 troops from the Imperial Japanese Army's 50th Independent Mixed Brigade and the Imperial Japanese Navy's 44th Base Guard Unit and 216th Base Construction Unit heavily fortified Woleai. They completely leveled Wolfe Islet and made it into an airfield with a single 3,290 ft runway and 2,050 ft taxiway. They also constructed a seaplane anchorage off the southwest corner of Woleai Islet and established a weather station on Mariaon island to the west. Allied aircraft bombed the atoll and its military facilities on numerous occasions until the middle of 1945, driving its defenders underground and isolating them from supplies or reinforcements. By the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, only 1,650 survivors remained of the initial 6,426-strong Japanese garrison, the rest having perished largely because of starvation and disease rather than directly in Allied air raids. The United States Navy destroyer escort picked up the surviving Japanese on September 17, 1945.

Following World War II, the atoll came under the control of the United States. The United States administered Woleai as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations trust territory, from 1947 until 1979, when Woleai became part of the independent Federated States of Micronesia.

Education

Public school:

• Woleai High School

Transportation

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Woleai Civil Airfield, administered by the Federated States of Micronesia Division of Civil Aviation is located at an altitude of 2 m on Falalap at , 681 km southeast of Yap International Airport and 0.44 km northeast of the main settlements on the island. The 1200 ft runway has not been maintained since 1992, and the airfield has closed due to severe deterioration of the runway and the government's decision not to perform repairs. Before the airfield closed, Caroline Islands Air provided chartered flights to it. The runway was built by the Empire of Japan during World War II. After the war it was shortly US Naval Base Woleai, Fleet Post Office #3246.

Religion

Roman Catholicism is the main religion practiced. However there is still possibly belief in the traditional religion of the area. Christianity became the main practice in the area in the 1950s.

References

• Columbia Gazetteer of the World. Vol. 1, p. 900
• Skog, Captain Peter (2019). A Unique Live at Sea. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse UK. .

References

1. (31 March 2019). "Woleaian-English Dictionary". Humanities Open Books program, a joint initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
2. (2001). "Report of the German South Pacific Expedition 1908-1910".
3. [http://www.pacificweb.org/DOCS/fsm/Yap2000Census/2000%20Yap%20Census%20Report_Final.pdf Yap State Census Report, 2000] (PDF)
4. "Oceandots".
5. (2011-09-30). "Summoning the Powers Beyond: Traditional Religions in Micronesia". University of Hawaii Press.
6. (September 2019). "EPONYMY, ENCOUNTERS, AND LOCAL KNOWLEDGE IN RUSSIAN PLACE NAMING IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS, 1804–1830". The Historical Journal.
7. Chappell, David A.. (1997). "Double Ghosts: Oceanian Voyagers on Euroamerican Ships". M.E. Sharpe.
8. Kukelhan, Walter. "Japanese Surrender Woleai Atoll Uss Sloat DE 245".
9. "[http://www.fsmembassydc.org/schools.html Higher Education in the Federated States of Micronesia] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-10-14 ." Embassy of the Federated States of Micronesia Washington DC. Retrieved on February 23, 2018.)
10. "WOLEAI CIVIL AIRFIELD".
11. (May 22, 2018). "2.2.2.9 Micronesia Woleai National Airfield (Closed)".
12. The runway is now covered with vegetation.[https://tci.gov.fm/civilaviation/woleai.html Woleai Civil Airfield]''tci.gov.fm''
13. JP airline-fleets international, Edition 1999/2000
14. [https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/fed_states/woleai/index.html Woleai] {{Webarchive. link. (2022-11-23 ''pacificwrecks.com'')
15. Essner, Elisa & Walker, Rob. "Woleai" University of Missouri DICE. https://dice.missouri.edu/assets/docs/austronesia/woleai.pdfAccessed 6 June 2025.
16. "eHRAF World Cultures".