Nuclear secrets of the island of matua. Secrets of Matua: what the bowels of the Kuril Island hide The defensive hypostasis of the "mysterious island" of Matua

The second expedition of the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the Russian Geographical Society to the island of Matua in the Kuril chain 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.

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 full 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 the Bering Strait, cover fleet deployment routes and increase the combat stability of 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 naval 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 from thermal springs flowed. So the icing of the runway did not threaten the Japanese pilots, and the 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, having circled the globe, 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 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 on the creation of an atomic bomb and achieved success was met with great doubts 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 back to their airfields air samples taken over the Sea of Japan near the east coast of the 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 the Second World War. 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 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 using the “point-blank” 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.

Uncover all the secrets of the Kuril island of Matua

One of the priority projects of the Russian Geographical Society today is an expedition to the island of Matua. Despite several months of painstaking work on its study, there are still many mysteries. Tunnels and underground structures have not been fully studied. It remains to be seen where the dishes of the Japanese imperial family and empty fuel barrels came from on Matua, and much more remains to be done.

The other day, TASS reported that several teams of scientists from Vladivostok, Moscow, Kamchatka, and Sakhalin Island will work as part of an expedition to Matua, which will take place from June to September.

At present, the Pacific Fleet Headquarters has completed the development of a detailed survey plan for the Kuril Islands, determined the personnel and the necessary equipment for survey work as part of the expedition to Matua Island in 2017. This year the composition of the expedition will expand significantly. Several teams of hydrogeologists, volcanologists, hydrobiologists, landscape scientists, soil scientists, submariners, search engines and archaeologists from Vladivostok, Moscow, Kamchatka and Sakhalin will work on the island of Matua at once, "said the head of the information support department of the press service of the Eastern Military District (VVO) for the Pacific Navy (Pacific Fleet) Captain 2nd Rank Vladimir Matveev.

According to him, Pacific Fleet psychologists are now completing the professional psychological selection of servicemen participating in the future expedition, who are undergoing special tests and programs to establish the degree of stress resistance and the level of performance in extreme conditions, the psychological compatibility of future expedition members and assess the moral and business qualities of servicemen.

Matua is an island of the middle group of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands. The length is about 11 km, the width is 6.4 km. During the Second World War, one of the largest naval bases in Japan was located on it. In 1945, the island was ceded to the USSR, and the Japanese base was turned into a Soviet one. The island has preserved many fortifications, mines, grottoes, two runways, which are heated by thermal springs, so they can be used all year round. In 2000, the base was mothballed and the island of Matua officially became uninhabited.

In 2016, the first joint research expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian Geographical Society to Matua took place, in which the military personnel of the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet took part. In total, more than 200 people were involved in the expedition. The Ministry of Defense was interested in the island as a possible base for the forces of the Pacific Fleet. Then, an extensive network of tunnels was discovered on Matua, as well as the sunken Japanese light fighter Mitsubishi Zero, released in 1942.

The second research expedition to Matua will take place from June to September 2017, it is planned to collect materials for the preparation of an atlas-identifier of marine life in the waters of Matua and neighboring islands. Also, the researchers will create a reconstruction of the activity of the Sarychev Peak volcano in the late Pleistocene, including historical eruptions, and map the island. In addition, it is planned to conduct a survey of marine hydrobiont species, compare the biota of adjacent water areas to assess the state of biodiversity, and identify possible ways of migration and interpenetration of elements of flora and fauna in the North Pacific Ocean.

In September last year, tvzvezda.ru correspondent Alexander Stepanov visited Matua. Here are excerpts from his report "The Mystery of Matua Island: When the Japanese Fortress Becomes a Russian Base".

From a bird's eye view, Matua Island seems like a small spot - 11 kilometers long and six and a half wide, two thirds of the island's area is occupied by the active VOLCANO - Sarychev Peak. The island is completely unsuitable for life. Severe climatic conditions: constant winds and rains in summer. Sunny days once or twice and miscalculated. Here, even in June, snow turns white on the slopes of the hills. The snow cap decorates Sarychev Peak all year round. This volcano is famous for being one of the most active active volcanoes in the region. Norov at Sarychev Peak is cool - you can’t call him sleeping. Eruptions, though short-lived, are frequent and strong.

Despite all the natural disasters, the Japanese during the Second World War turned the island into an impregnable fortress, where there were underground tunnels, an airfield, and even a railway. The garrison on the island exceeded three thousand people. In general, the Kuril Islands were used by the Japanese as a strategic barrier to exit from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Pacific Ocean. A whole network of various military defensive fortifications was erected here.

To get to the island by air, you need a fair amount of luck. The so-called windows - small gaps - open very rarely over the island, and people sometimes have to sit at the airfield for several days to get into this window that has opened for a short time. The nearest airfield from which you can get to Matua is on the island of Iturup. It's about 500 kilometers. And if suddenly the weather over Matua deteriorates after the "turntable" has almost flown up to the island, then you have to return to the base on the remaining fuel. As the helicopter pilots say, "with adventures."

When approaching the island, you can see that it is pitted with coastal fortifications. Trenches originating at the very edge of the water. Pillboxes and bunkers, hollowed out in the numerous hills of the island, look like empty loopholes towards the sea. It is noticeable that the island really resembles a fortress rising directly from the sea. In mid-June, Matua has about seven degrees of heat and a piercing wind. You have to warm up in winter: jackets, sweaters, boots with high berets. An expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society, the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet has been working here since May under the leadership of Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral Andrei Vladimirovich Ryabukhin.

Despite the fact that since September 1945 the island passed to the USSR, no real research was carried out on it. The current expedition is designed to unravel the mysteries of the most little-studied island of the Kuril chain. And there are a lot of secrets here. The researchers have three main tasks: to study the military-historical component of the island, to study the volcanic activity of Matua, and to understand how to develop a military infrastructure on the island.

The scientific group of the Russian Geographical Society is engaged in routine, but very necessary work on the island - it makes maps of the island: landscape, geological and soil. Soil and plant samples are taken. The second group is looking for artifacts left over from the Japanese. So, in June, search engines raised the wing of a Japanese aircraft manufactured in 1942 and brought it to the camp. Items that can tell about the life of Japanese soldiers were also found: ammunition, dishes, clothes, household items. Members of the expedition even climbed Sarychev Peak, where two flags were hoisted - the Russian Federation and the Andreevsky flag of the Navy.

Climbing the VOLCANO is not just about hoisting flags, the expedition members tried to understand which side the eruption with the plume is coming from. From a height you can clearly see where the island has changed its structure, geography, where new beaches have appeared. They found out how Japanese barriers, including anti-mudflow outflows, blocked the path of mud flowing towards the Japanese barracks. I am interested in one of the leaders of the expedition, a full member of the Russian Geographical Society Andrey Ivanov, whether Matua is really a mysterious island where the secrets of imperial Japan are kept, or is it idle speculation of journalists.

“Journalists love to ask questions about riddles,” the scientist smiles. - Of course, it is still difficult to thoroughly study what is left of the Japanese, to understand where the myths are and where the reality is. We managed to find out that the legends that there is an underground city on Matua, built by them at the end of the Second World War, have grounds. We have found quite a few entrances that lead underground, all of them are blown up or filled up. We dug up one such entrance and found behind it numerous underground passages, storage rooms, which were connected to the above-ground system of trenches and trenches by special passages. It's not a legend, it's real."

At the same time, the main goal of the expedition is not to guess Japanese puzzles, but to make a comprehensive assessment of the territory in order to understand how suitable it is for development, whether mudflows and tsunamis will wash away the new infrastructure of the island. The expedition is also interested in how the Japanese garrison solved life support issues, because, as it turned out, there are no water sources on the island.

The head of the expedition, Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet Andrei Ryabukhin, told Army Standard that the Japanese used exclusively melt water, which is formed due to melting snow on the volcano. Therefore, many old Japanese filters for water purification are found on Matua, which were invented by the head of the 731st detachment in Manchuria, Shiro Ishii (a Japanese doctor who conducted inhuman experiments on people and developed bacteriological weapons). They assumed two types of cleaning, coarse and fine. Rough with the help of brushes removed all the dirt and debris from the water. During the thin period, water was driven through ceramic filters under pressure, then it went through trenches into special containers.

Part of the system was carried out in the area of the mountain system, and the Japanese arranged part near the lakes that formed during the period of snow melting. Pumping stations were installed next to them. By the way, due to the fact that there were many rats on the island, which also used water, strong antibiotics were found here, with which underground hospitals were literally littered. Tablets prevented the defeat of personnel. At the same time, the members of the expedition assert that there was no actual production of bacteriological weapons on the island. After all, if something had gone wrong, then the Japanese garrisons in the Kuriles would have died themselves.

The island was needed primarily as a huge storage and security base for an extended communication line that ran from "big" Japan to the Paramushir and Shumshu islands, where large garrisons were stationed. Only American submarines and surface ships posed a threat to the safety of this route. Since Allied aircraft could not actively bomb the islands due to the flight range, the main emphasis was placed on defense against the fleet. Therefore, a large airfield with two lanes was built on the island, where fighter aircraft and bombers were based.

Also, up to ten thousand people could be on the island in order to strengthen the Japanese garrisons on the northern islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, if necessary. I ask Ryabukhin: did the expedition manage to understand how the defense of the island was built?

“We found out the system of communications and fortification of the Japanese, understood how the defense structure of Matua was built,” he says. - A feature of the structure of the island is a large number of ravines - long gorges in which they concentrated their warehouses. The road system was developed on the island. It was of a serpentine type and led to where separate garrisons were stationed. A warehouse and barracks were equipped next to the garrison, as well as positions for defense - trenches, pillboxes. So far, we can only guess how food and ammunition were transported to the positions. It is already clear that road transport and the railway were developed on Matua.”

Of course, the search engines have not yet found the railway itself, only traces of it are found. One can only guess where it passed - these are tunnels pierced underground and, like arteries, crossing the island. The fact that it worked is also evidenced by numerous finds: trolleys rusted from time to time, fragments of rails. In addition, brass or bronze pipelines were laid throughout the island to supply fuel.

The search engines find characteristic fittings and pumping parts, but the tanks where the fuel was stored have not yet been found either. In addition, the expedition found out how the Japanese built their barracks. They were collapsible and consisted of a metal frame and wood. All pillboxes on the island were also sheathed with wood.

The Japanese airfield is now in a rather deplorable state, it was badly damaged by air raids and natural disasters. Now there are several helipads. However, in the future, its restoration is possible. Of course, the main question is: do we need this piece of land, absolutely unsuitable for normal life?

“Since last year, the Sea of Okhotsk has become our inland sea,” says Andrey Ryabukhin. This is our sea. And here, so to speak, there are many open doors. And everyone wants to enter them. But with what intentions they enter these doors - good or not, you will not immediately understand. In order to reliably protect our territories, we must make efforts so that later we don’t regret that we didn’t do anything. Loopholes still exist, and they must be eliminated, including by creating Russian bases. So far, it is planned that Pacific Fleet units will be located on the island, which will ensure the protection of state interests.”

At the same time, the vice admiral believes that it makes no sense to restore the Japanese infrastructure on the island.

“Now, in modern conditions, going deep underground, building cities and railways there is expensive and impractical. he continues. - Again, all the underground communications that we open are very dilapidated. They crumble, crumbling. The structure of the soil here is peculiar, including rocks that are very fragile. The fact that the Japanese dug up here was very relevant for that time, now it’s gone.”

Conclusions about whether Matua is needed by the armed forces, whether a base will appear there, will be made already this year. And there is a high probability that our troops will still be located on Matua.

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 - spoke at the next meeting of the Russian Geographical Society about their amazing finds discovered on this small but very mysterious island of the Kuril ridge, reports corr. IA SakhalinMedia.

The participants of the second joint expedition of the military and scientists to the Kuril island of Matua summed up their work. At the next meeting of the Sakhalin branch of the Russian Geographical Society, they made presentations in which they told what new secrets the island revealed to them and what findings gave rise to new questions.

Opened the meeting Chairman of the Russian Geographical Society Sergey Ponomarev. He noted that cooperation with the Pacific Fleet provided new opportunities for studying the Kuril Islands.

“The most expensive part of the expedition is transportation to the Kuril Islands. But the fact that Sergei Shoigu headed the Russian Geographical Society, allowed organizing such joint projects with the Ministry of Defense. The military is also sent to Matua with their research goals. And they take our scientists with them. We use this cooperation to our advantage. Our research concerns history, archeology, ecology. Such versatility helps the complex study of the islands, both on land and in the sea,” Ponomarev said.

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 transit point on the route from north to south, as well as a powerful naval base and airfield.

Local historian Igor Samarin during this expedition he continued his last year's work. His main task was to restore the scheme of Japanese long-term 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 a ceramic pipe coming out of the ground. They lowered an impromptu video camera into it - a smartphone with a flashlight, 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 located underground. 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 lampshade from a lamp. Igor Samarin explains: according to the testimony of the Japanese military themselves of those years, naval sailors lived better than 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. Here we found a beer bottle, the most common, but on the bottom - the date of manufacture “18 S 8”. For a knowledgeable person, this is simple - August 16, according to the European calendar - 1941. 25 such bottles were 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 supply of provisions began in 1938 and ended in 1943. And in 1944, the blockade of the island of Matua by American submarines began,” Samarin continued his report.

Scientists did not disregard the Japanese kitchen heaps near each dugout. Bird bones were found among the waste. As it turned out, the Japanese actively used local puffins for food. They also ate mice - voles. There was even a barter in kind - one mouse was worth two cigarettes. The skins of rodents were transported to the metropolis for the manufacture of gloves from them.

In total, historians brought 86 items from the Japanese and Soviet period from the island - from baby booties and dishes to fuel barrels and handicraft stoves.

Also, scientists managed to uncover another mystery that the Matua Islands have kept 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 was preserved about it. Hydrographers led by the captain of a large hydrographic boat, Igor Tikhonov, combed the entire water area of Dvoynaya Bay using a multibeam echo sounder. And an object very similar to a submarine was discovered near Cape Yurlov at a depth of 110 meters. What to do next with this discovery, the military will determine.

As part of the expedition, the researchers also studied a more ancient period in the history of the island. Yes, 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 conducted excavations at the sites of finds and marked the boundaries of archaeological sites.

At the end of the meeting, the chairman of the Sakhalin Russian Geographical Society, Sergey Ponomarev, announced 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 name of about three dozen bays, capes and heights, so that when compiling maps and diagrams, we can use the same designations and understand each other,” Ponomarev said.

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