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| World War II Remembered | ||||||||||||||
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| June 16, 2008 — Srednego Islands / Rasshua / Matua, Russia
These rugged islands are home to thousands of birds nesting on columnar stack s— northern fulmars, guillemots, black-legged kittiwakes, and, the rarely viewed whiskered auklet. A huge population of Steller’s sea lions and northern fur seals also resides in these often fog-enshrouded islets. We approached a second island but harems had been established and not wanting to disturb them we returned to the earlier group. We hoped to stop at Rasshua making us the first expedition ship to visit but were unable to find a suitable landing site. One of the Kuril’s most active volcanoes rises from Matua with more than 14 eruptions documented in the past 250 years. During World War II the Japanese established an airfield here, targeted by the United States frequently in 1944. While Joan went birding my group walked on the old roads. We witnessed old bunkers and the remains of equipment and artillery scattered about and at the landing site. And a day was always more complete when we got a chance to do a a little whale watching. Following a late supper and losing another hour— our third since leaving Japan — it was a bit of a shock to learn it would be an early Zodiac tour in the morning. |
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These slideshows are in Quicktime |
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