日本統治時代のファイス島 : 古写真資料の分析

Fais is a small raised coral island situated at 9°46' N and 140°31' E in the Western Caroline islands in Micronesia. A rich phosphate deposit was discovered by the German South Seas Expedition in 1903. German South Sea Phosphate Company was established in 1908 and carried out phosphate mining on Angaur in Palau. Although the company had secured the right of mining phosphate in Peleliu and Fais as well, it could not begin work in these two islands on account of an insufficient labor supply and/or the difficulty of access to the steep island environment. In 1914,the Japanese government had purchased the right for phosphate mining from the German South Sea Phosphate Co. Mining on Fais was planned immediately after Nan' taku (Nanyo Takushoku Co.) took over the management of the phosphate mines from Nan' yo-cho (Japanese civilian government) in 1937. Necessary mining equipment was sent from Palau via Yap. A series of facilities were built on Fais including railways, a pier, a warehouse, Iarge phosphate drying chambers, shop, radio station, workers' dormitory, etc. As Fais is a raised coral island, landing and loading was extremely difficult. Various unique structures were built for loading the processed phosphate stones. The quality of Fais phosphate was inferior to that of Angaur. The first load of mined phosphate from Fais was shipped on October 1938. An average of about 30,000 ton were shipped annually until 1944 when the Fais mining project was stopped due to the W.W.II. A number of photographs taken at the early stage of phosphate mining on Fais are found and described in this paper. These were taken by a photographer of Nan'taku and were submitted to Takumu-sho (then Japanese Ministry of Industry).