Concrete entrance on the Kuril Islands. Matua underground bunkers

The middle and northern Kuril Islands can be safely called uninhabited. These foggy, volcanic islands are completely deserted. Not a soul today is in Harimkotan, Chirinkotan, Ekarma, Shiashkotan, Matua and Rasshua. And according to local stories, there is no one further to the south - on the islands of Ushishir, Ketoi and this unique island of Simushir. Hundreds of kilometers of coasts of the Russian islands are completely uninhabited, although we have owned the Kuril Islands since 1945. There are no fishing bases, so they do not fish in the adjacent water areas.

There is no population, so there are no hunters, geologists, miners, not even tourists. Even on air - complete peace. Meanwhile, the Kuril Islands are teeming with animals - both aquatic and land. To scoop and scoop. The Kuril Islands are rich in history. Conventionally, it can be divided into 3 stages: early, Japanese and Soviet (Russian).

Soviet and early we more or less know. But about the Japanese - there is little to impossible.

Therefore, the most mysterious and unexplored island of the Kuril ridge still remains small about. Matua

The island of Matua is relatively small - 11 kilometers long, 6.5 kilometers wide. The height of the highest point, Sarychev peak (Fuyu volcano), is 1485 meters. The island is located in the central part of the Kuril ridge, therefore it is significantly removed from the populated areas of Sakhalin and Kamchatka. There is no connection with the outside world. Yes, actually, and there is no need - the island is uninhabited.

The first mention of the island of Matua was found at Ivan Kozyrevsky, who was on the northernmost islands of Shumshu and Paramushir in 1711 and 1713 and collected a lot of information about the entire ridge. He called Matua the island of Motogo. Cossack centurion Ivan Cherny, who reached Iturup in 1766-1769, called Matua the island of Mutova.

In his report, he wrote about him:
"Mutova - there is a hill on it, which, according to the announcement of the smokers in recent years, has been burning terribly, and stones have been scattered all over the island so that they killed many flying birds. Root everything burned out and swept away with a stone".

Until the beginning of the 20th century, there was a permanent settlement of the Ainu. On the eve of World War II, the Japanese turned Matua - by the way, the Japanese themselves pronounce its name as Matsua — into a powerful fortress, into an unsinkable aircraft carrier that controlled the north-west of the Pacific Ocean. There was a large airfield with three long runways, allowing you to lift planes in almost any direction of the wind. The bands were heated by thermal waters, and therefore could be used year-round. There is sufficient reason to believe that there were some secret Japanese objects on Matua. It is likely that these were laboratories for the development of chemical or bacteriological weapons. Submarines of the Third Reich came here, having made an almost round-the-world trip. The Americans have repeatedly tried to destroy airfields and island objects, having lost a dozen aircraft and at least two submarines in battle.

Not only has the island been reliably protected by impregnable cliffs and high banks, it has additionally built a whole network of various military fortifications. I had to work hard on their construction both by the Japanese themselves and by prisoners of war from China. Fearing the bombing and shelling from the sea, the Japanese buried deeper and deeper into the ground, and by the summer of 1945 there was no free space on Matua from all kinds of defensive fortifications in the form of ditches, trenches, trenches, dugouts, bunkers and bunkers, lunettes, underground shelters and whole galleries . By this time, the island of Matua, like many other Kuril Islands, had turned into a real fortress in the middle of the ocean, which was difficult to take. But the Russians were lucky enough to storm only one island, the most northern on the Kuril Islands - Shumshu, the rest were taken with less blood, and even without a fight. In this row is the fortified island of Matua. His garrison laid down arms in front of our troops on August 26–27, 1945. Since then, the island has become Russian, but so far continues to keep many Japanese secrets.

The ceremony of the captivity of the 41st separate infantry regiment, part of the garrison of the island of Matua. Japanese officer - regiment commander, Colonel Ueda.

After the surrender of Japan on August 14 and before the capture of the island by the Soviet landing on August 27, 1945, the Japanese had enough time to hide and conserve all the most important and valuable island objects. Surprisingly, judging by the inventory of weapons and equipment seized on the island, the paratroopers did not find a single plane, tank or gun on Matua. On 3811 surrendered Japanese soldiers and officers, only 2,127 rifles were available. At the same time, pilots, sailors and gunners disappeared somewhere, and only construction battalions and auxiliary personnel were captured. Compare this with the trophies taken on the island of Shumshu, suddenly attacked on August 18, where there were more than 60 tanks alone.

Already after the Japanese were evacuated from Matua, and the Soviet military settled in their place, very strange events began to occur on the island: people disappeared, lights flickered at night on the slopes of the volcano, and rare military trophies appeared from our soldiers. For example, collection French cognac ...

After the war, the United States really wanted to get Matua, but Truman did not accept Stalin’s crafty offer to exchange it for one of the Aleutian islands. Why? This will become clear if you find quotes from the correspondence of Stalin and Truman on the surrender of Japan. By prior arrangement, the Japanese must have capitulated to the Soviet troops in the Kuril Islands and northern Hokkaido. But Truman “forgot” about it and in his order for General MacArthur stipulated the entire surrender of the Japanese only to the American troops. Stalin immediately recalled this, but Truman began to break down and in the end expressed a desire to "have the rights to air bases for land and sea aircraft on one of the Kuril Islands, preferably in the central group." Only Matua was such an island with a ready, beautiful airfield. Stalin in response asked for his base one of the islands of the Aleutian ridge. Since then, questions of this kind have not arisen. So, in 1944-45, the Americans, it seems, laid eyes on Matua and, by and large, spared his unique defenses.

Little is known about what happened on Matua in Soviet times. Civilians did not get here and were not allowed, and the military kept their secrets. Apparently, the military unit serving the radars was located on the island. Broken installations and dumps of electronic equipment from the 60s and 70s are scattered throughout the island.

Until about 2001, a frontier post remained on Matua. Then it burned down, and the border guards who had lost their shelter were evacuated to the mainland. Now there is nobody on the island.

There are no closed bays on Matua. If you look at the island on maps or aerospace surveys, it may seem that there is no good shelter for a ship near the island at all. In practice, a convenient and relatively safe place is the strait in the southwestern part of the island, covered from the west by the small island of Iwaki (Toporkovy). It was here that the Japanese raid was located, moorings were located. The Japanese are reminded of a two-story pillbox on the shore, a beach littered with shipwrecks and the remains of a pier and the skeleton of the Royo-maru drowned in the strait. Somewhere at the bottom of the strait are other Japanese transports - Iwaki-maru and Hiburi-maru, torpedoed by the American submarine SS-233 Herring.

Not far from the Kotoyarvi parking lot, an enormous diesel engine emerges from the water at low tide, overgrown with algae and shells. It was already impossible to establish the heart of which of the ships that found their end in the strait.

We stood on Matua for several days, and each trip to the island was accompanied by amazing finds and discoveries. Perfectly preserved runways of the airfield. Concrete on them is now better than what lies in Sheremetyevo. There are hundreds of rusty fuel barrels around the airfield. Mostly ours, but also German ones with the marking Kraftstoff Wehrmaght 200 Ltr. ("Fuel of the Wehrmacht, 200 liters"). Barrels clearly read dates from 1939 to 1945. Surprisingly, among German barrels there are also full ones.

Numerous defenses are openly accessible: bunkers, bunkers, caponiers, equipped artillery positions, tens of kilometers of trenches and ditches. In the thicket of alder is full of iron trash, sometimes the most surprising. You can, for example, stumble upon a cast-iron steam installation, very reminiscent of a small steam locomotive. Cast iron and ceramic pipes stick out from the ground in ditches and on coastal screes. What is it? Water supply, sewage or parts of the airfield heating system?

I walked along the shore - I came across a disguised water station with huge cast-iron mechanisms inside the casemates. Everything is in relative safety. In the back wall of another collapsed building, I found a small door. He opened a path behind it, after a rock 200 meters away in the forest, took a closer look - and this is a skillful masonry, behind which there is an entrance to a stone tunnel that goes uphill. Unfortunately, heaped up by the explosion at the very beginning. Nearby dump. A cast-iron Japanese “potbelly stove” sticks out of the ground, next to fragments of ceramics that read the markings of the Japanese army, bottles and bubbles with hieroglyphs, sleeves, leather shoes ...

Even if you do not try too hard, it is easy to find many structures on the island, the purpose of which is not easy to explain. What kind of load, for example, could concrete bunkers with meter walls, thick steel doors and the same shutters carry? Barracks, command post, warehouse, bomb shelter? But why then so many windows with a complex system of steel shutters and constipation, why a tricky network of ducts? Maybe laboratories? On the island more than once they found some complicated devices with sensors, manometers, centrifuges ... True, these devices were broken and discarded by the Japanese themselves. And where is the rest? Machinery, equipment, gear, personal belongings of the garrison? What did German submarines bring or take here? What did the Americans try to destroy or capture, what have ours already found?

There are many questions. We were able to get answers to some of them in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, meeting with Evgeny Mikhailovich Vereshchagoy, the permanent leader of the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition.

We got in touch with Vereshchaga from Moscow, talked about plans. The experienced Kamchadal looked at the photos of the catamaran and expressed polite bewilderment: they don’t go on this in the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. But he didn’t refuse help - on Matua we were waiting for 120 liters of 92nd gasoline, without which it would have been tight. We could meet at sea. At about the time that Kotoyarvi was moving north, the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition with border guards established Orthodox crosses on the Kuril Islands. On the island of Ushishir, we got in touch with the border whaleboat, but could not approach it because of the stormy sea and dense fog. We met already in Petropavlovsk - in the museum, which Yevgeny Vereshchag, Irina Viter and their associates created as a result of a study of the Kuril Islands, and especially Matua.

- Why Matua, because very close to Kamchatka there is Shumshu and Paramushir, large in size and better-known islands, recaptured from the Japanese in the same 1945?

- For a very long time, Matua was completely inaccessible. The opportunity to get there only appeared in 2001, when the outpost burned down and border guards left. This year we already had the 14th expedition, but even now the island shows us only one hundredth of its secrets. Although the conclusion is clear: the island was mothballed by the Japanese garrison before surrendering to the Soviet troops.

“Did they have time for this?”

- On August 18, the Kuril landing operation began. Information about this passed through all the Kuril Islands, naturally, on Matua they learned about the beginning of hostilities on the part of the USSR. On August 23, the Japanese garrison capitulated to Shumsha and Paramushira. On August 25, the Matois garrison surrendered, led by Commander Colonel Ledo. However, from Japanese sources we know that since February 1945, Ketsu’s plan has been implemented in Japan, according to which it was necessary to remove everything that is possible and what cannot be taken out of the Kuril Islands, then preserve, that is, hide. Equipment, machinery, raw materials ... The country's leadership took such actions in connection with the fact that there was a forecast about the imminent surrender of fascist Germany, Japan's main ally. In February-March 1945, the Ketsu plan was put into effect on Matua. Everything that could not be taken out was hidden. And what could not be hidden was destroyed. We found a large number of burnt equipment, and not just burnt, but burnt and buried by 2 meters. Small parts were burned in barrels at high temperatures. Everything was sintered and melted there. They destroyed everything very carefully. But we suggest that particularly valuable items were well hidden. After all, it is known how, in such cases, the Japanese acted on the southern islands, in the same Philippines, for example. According to our assumptions, about 10-15 thousand people left the island before capitulation. And those who surrendered - it was the so-called funeral team, which preserved the island and hid everything.

- But in February 1945, and even more so later, it was very difficult for the Japanese to evacuate such a large and complex military facility as the island of Matua. Maybe they drowned everything in the ocean?

- The divers who participated in the expedition examined the shores, including the secret pier. Apart from a few pieces of iron and American shells, which fired at the island, there is nothing there.

- And why was this rather small island that did not have a convenient bay so important for the Japanese?

- We believe that Matua was built as a powerful reserve base, which was to become a springboard for a possible retreat from the northern islands. Shumshu and Paramushir - this is the tip of a sword aimed at Kamchatka. The structures on these islands are of purely military importance. There is no exotic, but on Matua we see paved roads, curly walls, decorative finishes, new technologies ... It can be seen that everything was very comfortable here, the Japanese were relaxed, there was a rear. As we learn from the interrogations of General Tsumi Fusaki, the commander of the northern group, the garrison of Matua did not obey him and was controlled directly from the headquarters on Hokkaido. This indicates some special status of the island of Matua. Japanese and our mentality are very different; on an island on which it would seem impossible to create a naval base, the Japanese built it. Surprise and paradox are their know-how.

- In Germany, work was underway to create new weapons. In particular, chemical and bacteriological. Surely they did the same in Japan. There is a version that secret laboratories were located on Matua. What did your research show?

- The Japanese carried out such work. It is known that in Harbin, on the territory of present-day China, detachment 731 was engaged in the development of chemical and bacteriological weapons. I was there two years ago and saw structures very similar to those on Matua. Of course, we heard all sorts of scary stories, stories, myths, so we try to comply with safety precautions as much as possible. If we find something that could potentially be dangerous, then we never touch it. We mask so that someone else does not find it, and very carefully examine it.

During the war, the island of Matua and its pilots carried a special, strategic mission to protect the base on about. Simushir. And if it were not for the surrender of Japan, announced by Emperor Hirohito on August 14 and forcing many Japanese island garrisons to surrender without a fight, it is not known how long our assault forces would storm Matua, how much blood would have spilled from both sides, especially from the advancing side. I think that the use of atomic bombs played a significant role in capitulation. The demonstration of overwhelming power, which even the garrisons of these islands could not resist, also did its job.

It seems that the island was a kind of transshipment, rear base between the islands of the Kuril ridge and Japan. The island had reserves of fuel, food, and equipment.

- I saw some chemical flasks, other vessels blown out of glass ...

- Of course, we also found them. But we did not make special excavations. Everywhere in the world there are safety standards. If warehouses of hazardous chemicals or bacteria should be hidden at a depth of 20 meters, it is natural that they are there. In this sense, Matua is safe. Our garrisons were here for 55 years, and nothing bad happened.

- What evidence is there that canned objects are hidden inside the island?

- We found underground utilities, 100–200–300 meters of corridors cut down in basalt, finished with wood, inside there are many different rooms, stoves for cooking and heating ... This is the so-called underground city facility. And this is only that part of it that we discovered by chance. There was a scree, an entrance formed, and we were able to climb there. After earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, more and more new objects accidentally open up. But we find only that which is not very disguised.

You can take for example the island of Iwo Jima, which everyone probably heard about. Its garrison amounted to 22 thousand people. The Americans stormed him for three months. About 200 thousand soldiers, hundreds of ships participated in the operation, it was only bombed for a month ... So, Iwo Jima is three times smaller than Matua. And on Matua, when ours arrived there, not a single plane, not a single tank, not a single gun. And the huge interest of the USA in this island. All this suggests that the main facilities were mothballed by the state’s resources. I mean Ketsu’s plan or something similar. Everything was done by specialists, everything was purposefully camouflaged, put into storage, then to be picked up, clogged, blown up. It is very difficult to discover what we have hidden as a resource hidden by the resources of the whole state.

The northern part of the island of Matua is occupied by a mountain range, crowned by the peak of Sarychev (Fuyu volcano). The approaches and slopes are densely overgrown with an impenetrable alder dwarf; above, fresh slag screes with a steepness of 60–70 degrees begin. The volcano is alive: the last eruption occurred only two years ago.

We continue the conversation with Eugene Vereshchag, the head of the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition, who has been trying to penetrate the secrets of the island for almost 10 years.

- What is the uniqueness of the facilities on Matua, in particular the airfield? What we saw is amazing. After 70 years, the coating is absolutely usable. And what was the airfield under the Japanese?

- There were three lanes with asphalt pavement. One - 400 meters, four metal hangars stood on it and taxiing was on a large strip about 2 kilometers long. Another strip is 1.5 kilometers. The width of the strips is 70 meters, along the edges there are gutters for water flow. Under the cover - laid pipes. Those who served here say that until 1985 the airfield was heated by thermal waters.

- It turns out a contradiction: on the one hand, an airfield, and on the other - a laboratory. But the very presence of a huge airdrome would unmask secret objects. What is all the same primary? Did the airfield serve some important infrastructure, or were all these facilities built to serve the airfield?

- The Japanese began to explore the island a long time ago. In 1923, the village of Matsua-mura was already here. If you imagine that the construction began in the 30s, then it was the inland territory of Japan and there was hardly any need to hide the work. And then the war began and the situation changed. In American photographs of the war, the airfield is almost invisible from the air. Everything was covered in camouflage nets. The remains of this disguise have survived to this day. We believe that in addition to the airfield there was some kind of production. Factories, stocks of raw materials ...

- It is known that Japanese submarines reached Germany. Barrels of German fuel found on the island may indicate that the Germans came here. After May 1945, many German submarines simply disappeared. Material values, treasures, and documents also disappeared. Later, the crew members of these submarines were announced in different parts of the world. You found underwater mooring walls, tunnels. Could the Germans deliver something to their allies on Matua?

- We consider this possibility quite real. Why, for example, could the same Amber Room not be taken to one of the distant and inaccessible islands, and even to the allies? Fantastic version of course. But it has a right to exist. In terms of communication, the island is so developed that you can hide anything on it. Information leakage was completely absent. Any cargo that was imported was kept here in complete secrecy, the information could not escape. The Japanese are still silent. The head of the garrison, Colonel Ledo died in 1985, leaving no memoirs. Until 2000, the Matua Veterans Society officially existed in Japan. On the island of Iwo Jima, only 200 people were captured from the 20,000th garrison, and even those wounded. Their Japanese society does not perceive, considers it an outcast, because they surrendered, instead of dying for the emperor. And on Matua 3811 people surrendered, and the society excuses them. Why? So their mission was this.

- If the Japanese had such a task, then there were opportunities for this. At least Japanese planes in the area of \u200b\u200bMatua have intercepted more than once.

Almost all ground-based military facilities have a single connecting underground gallery. Almost everywhere along the top line of defense there is a narrow gauge railway along which trolleys for centralized supply of ammunition go. Also on the island there are anti-tank ditches, the coastal strip throughout - in the trenches and anti-personnel barriers.

All bunkers are arranged in a certain sequence for the effective use of crossfire. All bunkers are in excellent condition, with glass in the armored doors and perfectly preserved decoration on the walls and ceiling (something like fiberboard, only from a mixture of seaweed with cement).

There are a lot of secrets, and one of them is the possible work of the Japanese in the Kuril Islands on chemical and bacteriological weapons. Submarines and Wehrmacht raiders came to the Kuril Islands, indirectly even empty German barrels of those years that are found on Matua can confirm this.

The airdrome is located in such a way that the winds that dominate Matua (east or southwest) could not prevent the take-off or landing of aircraft. If the wind suddenly changes - there is a third band, extending from the first at 145 degrees. Two parallel strips 1570 meters long and 35 meters wide are concrete. Moreover, the quality of concrete is impressive today: there are practically no cracks on it. One very interesting detail should be noted that immediately catches your eye: the take-off fields were heated by local thermal water. It was brought along a special concreted ditch (gutter) from the deposit, which was apparently located somewhere on the slope of Sarychev volcano. The groove runs between two parallel runways, and pipes are laid under each of these runways - water circulated through them. And so - the entire length, after which the water went under the third lane, and then turned back. Thus, in winter, the Japanese had no problems with snow removal on the runways - they were always clean.

According to the foundations of the barracks, preserved near the airfield, it can be judged that officers lived here. Each has its own small room, a narrow corridor. The preserved chimney rises above the foundation and the stove itself, with which the bath was heated. The Japanese Bathhouse is a communal pool with stone seats on each side. We went into it, sat down and rinsed for pleasure.

The airfield was the real pride of the commander of the island garrison, Colonel Ueda and all the senior officers, although it was he who, being strategic for the Kuril Islands, like flies, attracted American bombers. They almost did not bomb other objects on Matua, but the runways plowed so thoroughly that their repair took a long time.
This can be seen in the photo on the numerous patches in concrete. But what a quality patch!
(Barrels are from our time.)

The Kuril Islands bombed pilots of the 28th group of long-range bombers, which was located in Alaska. This happened from April 1944 until August 1945, until the USSR declared war on Japan. Mostly used aircraft B-24 and B-25. The main purpose of the bombing was to pull part of the Japanese forces, including aircraft, from the main strikes of the Americans. I must say that the Americans succeeded: if in 1943 Japan kept a total of 262 aircraft in Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, then in the summer of 1944 there were already about 500 of them. However, by the spring of 1945 the Japanese had taken almost all the aircraft from the Kuril Islands, leaving only 18 fighters in Paramushir and 12 naval bombers in Shumsha.

Same thing with people. If before 1943 there were a total of 14-15 thousand people on the Kuril Islands, then at the end of the year there were already 41 thousand, and in 1945 27 thousand remained. During the raids on the Kuril Islands, including the island of Matua, the Americans took great risks because of the long range. There are different opinions about their use of the “jump” bases, but I’m not talking about that. Only over Matua 50 American planes were shot down with crews of several people. This suggests that the Japanese fought very skillfully and were ready for defense. Yet the Americans bombed the island selectively. Bombs fell mainly on runways and objects such as fuel and lubricants, while other structures were spared.

But since then, the island is full of the remains of rare military equipment, which, fortunately, turned out to be inaccessible to lovers of ferrous metals.

The commandant on the island also had another pride - this is a huge hill with regular round shapes that towered above the neighborhood and was second only to the owner - the volcano Fue. But Ueda preferred not to talk about this object, proud of him silently, to himself, because in the hills there was a whole underground city with warehouses, housing, a hospital, and headquarters. This is a height of 124.8 meters, according to preliminary information, artificially created by the hands of the Japanese - in other words, bulk. Now all the entrances to the hill have been blown up, and only roads and careful stone decoration indicate that there was an important object. Moreover, the stones are hung and carefully fitted to each other. The cement between them shone like glass.

Interestingly.

On the island, 3,795 Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered. Trophies amounted to 2127 rifles, 81 light machine guns, 464 heavy machine guns and 98 grenade launchers. Strange, but among the listed trophies taken on Matua, there were no artillery pieces. Why? In general, there are many questions in the history of the landing of our paratroopers on Matua.

After the announcement of the surrender of Japan, the Japanese garrison on the island of Matua had enough time to resolve all issues either with the destruction of all military equipment there, or very professionally to hide it just in case. The only thing the Japanese could do was to drown equipment and secret equipment in the sea, or hide it underground, blowing up the approaches to underground warehouses. Until now, there are camouflaged knots and assemblies of military equipment on the island, strange number rods with carvings, the purpose of which can only be guessed. Exploring the island, you can find many things and objects belonging to Japanese soldiers.

imperial vase

soldier token

motnet Hirohito in 10 sen

shaving rinse

... In the late 1970s, three border guards disappeared here. The sergeant and two rank-and-file soldiers went down into Japanese structures out of curiosity, and no one else saw them. Then they calculated that they were going down into one of the ventilation shafts of the round hill. Then an order came out strictly prohibiting all climbing on Japanese workings. By the way, because of this ban, many border guards who were passing urgent on the islands did not leave the unit’s location for the entire service.

Laz, in which the border guards disappeared

Even on Matua there are coves artificially cut by the Japanese for sheltering boats and submarines. Above some bays there are underground shelters in the form of adits. Crews of ships could go there in case of alarm. The ships themselves stood in coves under camouflage nets.

After the withdrawal of the Japanese army, a lot of ammunition remained on the island. They were taken to the area of \u200b\u200bthe aerodrome, stacked and stacked.

This pillbox is the most famous on Matua. They say this is the only bunker that is not connected by an underpass with the island’s general underground system. He has no underground exit at all. Therefore, our border guards called him the death row pillbox.

The clue of the island of Matua is waiting for its explorers. The fact that everything was preserved there, as the Japanese left, is a rarity. But, again, the situation with the protection of the sea borders of Russia under the rule of Yeltsin was such that foreigners could easily penetrate and live illegally on the islands for years, and no one could detect them. And upon detection it was impossible to get them - our ships lacked fuel, on which in those years a bunch of swindlers made their fabulous conditions, and the ships could not go to sea. Border guards only gritted their teeth with powerlessness. In those shameful, damned years, everything could be taken out of the foggy Kuril Islands, everything. Or maybe they’ve taken it out. Who knows…

, but the answer to the question is, well, for fun, you can recall

The Zvezda TV channel made the documentary film Matua Island about the research expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Specialists went to the island in 2016 and for many months collected materials about its natural, historical and cultural heritage. Why Matua was interested in the Russian Geographical Society and what secrets the island keeps - in the material “360”.

From a draw island to a mothballed military base

The island of Matua is included in the middle group of the Great Kuril Range and belongs to the Sakhalin Oblast. However, this was not always the case. The Ainu, the most ancient people of the Japanese islands, are considered to be the original population of Matua. In his language, the island is called "hell's mouth."

For a long time Matua existed on its own, and only in the XVII century the first expeditions went to the Kuril Islands. There were Japanese, Russians and Dutch, who even declared the land the property of their East India Company.

By 1736, the Ainu adopted Orthodoxy and became Russian subjects, paying the residents of Kamchatka yasak - a tax in kind in the form of fur, cattle and other items. Russian Cossacks regularly visited the island, and the first scientific expedition arrived on Matua in 1813. The population of the island has always been small: in 1831 only 15 inhabitants were counted on Matua, although at that time the census took into account only adult men. In 1855, the Russian Empire officially gained the right to the island, but 20 years later, Matua came under Japanese rule - such was the price for Sakhalin.

Shortly before World War II, the island became the main stronghold of the Kuril ridge. A fort with anti-tank ditches, underground tunnels and trenches appeared on Matua. For officers created an underground residence in the hill. After the outbreak of the war, fuel was supplied to Matua by Nazi Germany. The island has become one of the key naval bases in Japan. In August 1945, a garrison of 7.5 thousand capitulated without firing a shot. Matua passed to the Soviet Union.

Until 1991, a military unit was located on the island. During this time, Matois was interested not only in historians, but also in politics. US President Harry Truman immediately after the end of World War II suggested that Joseph Stalin cede the island to the US naval base. Then the leader of the USSR, either in jest or in earnest, agreed to exchange Matua for one of the Aleutian islands. Question closed.

The Russian border post was on Matua until 2000. Then the entire naval infrastructure of the island was mothballed, and the inhabitants left it. Matua is now uninhabited. A small island with a length of 11 kilometers and a width of just over six still holds many secrets. Members of the Russian Geographical Society and employees of the Russian Ministry of Defense set off to open them.

Secrets of Matua

In September last year, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sergey Avakyants, told reporters about the results of the first expedition to Matua. It began in April and lasted almost six months. The expedition was attended by Defense Minister and President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergey Shoigu.

Research on Matua took place for the first time since 1813. According to Avakyants, many underground structures were discovered on the island. Some of them definitely belonged to the fort, but the destination of the others has not yet been clarified.

Initially, there was an assumption that these were storage facilities, but everything was taken out of them. And if it were storage facilities, then any material traces would remain. Moreover, it was discovered that a high-voltage cable was suitable for these rooms, and the power supply system allowed to supply up to 3 thousand volts. Naturally, this is excess voltage 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 Sarychev volcano. Nearby are the remains of an old road that leads to the vent of the volcano. At the same time, members of the expedition noticed the entrances to underground structures from a helicopter. What exactly is located in the thickness of the volcano is still unknown. The experts were also interested in another question: why did the garrison surrender without a fight in August 1945. This behavior is not typical for Japanese soldiers, which indicates a well-thought-out plan. “We concluded that the garrison completed its main task - it removed all traces and all the facts that could lead to the disclosure of the true nature of activity on this island,” the admiral explained.

Photo: RIA Novosti / Roman Denisov

Last year, members of the expedition decided to study the collected materials, and a few months later return to Matua to uncover 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 bridgehead in case of war with the USSR.

The Russian Ministry of Defense 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) began engineering work on the study of fortifications on the Kurile 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 the terrains (underground corridors for communication between fortifications, fort forts or strongholds of fortified areas) and warehouses from the rubble has begun," Gordeev said. - Five groups of search engines "carry out earthwork 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 halo of mystery of the island of Matua." Before starting work, air samples are taken in each fortification structure, 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 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 for some reason we do not use its dungeons themselves.

During World War II, the allied aviation, 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. Why did the small island of Matua so attract 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 bridgehead in case of war with the USSR. The war really began, but in 1945, 3811 Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered to 40 Soviet border guards “valiantly”.

The island, which went to the USSR, was dug up and down by moats, trenches and artificial caves. Numerous bunkers and hangars were built on conscience. The entire coast of Matua 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, which have been exploring the island for many years, argue that even today, pillboxes could be used for their intended purpose. Moreover, their device was not limited only to the preparation of a point for firing. Each such position had an extensive network of underground passages, also hollowed out in the rock.

The island’s airdrome was even more carefully constructed. It is located so well and made so technically competent that the aircraft could take off and land in the wind of any strength and direction. Japanese engineers have provided and "anti-snow" design. Pipes were laid under the concrete coating, into which hot water came from thermal springs. So the Japanese pilots were not threatened with icing of the runway, and the planes could take off and land both in winter and in summer.

Hardworking Japanese cut down a huge cave in one of the coastal cliffs, 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 neatly lined with stone, nearby there is a swimming pool and an underground bath.

One of the secrets of the island is the complete disappearance of all military equipment. Despite a thorough search conducted since 1945, nothing was discovered on the island. Moreover, there is an amazing, directly mystical pattern - people who tried to search, died in the fires that often happened on the island, fell into snow avalanches.

In the late 1990s, as a result of an accident, the deputy chief of the frontier post, who led this search, died. And when they tried to restore the destroyed communications, a volcano located in the center of the island suddenly woke up. The eruption took place with such force that huge blocks flying out of the vent shot down the birds soaring hundreds of meters from the crater!

Here is an opinion about the unsolved secrets of the island of Matua by the researcher-enthusiast Evgeni Vereshchagi: “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 this whole whopper was made by human hands. This is an artificial hill that served as a masked aircraft hangar. A very wide man-made hollow, overgrown with trees and shrubs, clearly stands out on its slope. Probably, there were gates to the hangar, which were first blown up, and then covered with ashes of an erupting volcano.

In addition, hundreds of rusty fuel barrels are scattered on the island - mostly German, and they are absolutely intact and from the time of the fascist Third Reich. In translation, the marking on them read “Wehrmacht fuel, 200 liters”. And the dates - 1939, 1943 - until the victorious 1945.

So, rounding the globe, Hitler's allied submarines moored at Matua and delivered goods !?

Speaking of the volcano. There were many questions about where the military equipment disappeared, which, judging by the underground structures, was literally packed with the fortress island. One of the participants in amateur expeditions made an seemingly improbable assumption: “Perhaps the Japanese threw all their ammunition into the mouth of the volcano, and then undermined it, 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 tracked vehicles can be discerned even after decades. One can only guess that the Japanese carried it. ”

But all these eye-catching grandiose structures are only the outer, visible part of the Japanese secret underground fortress. After the end of World War II, more than half a century passed, but no one managed to solve the secrets of the dungeons.

The Japanese, citing the secrecy of this information, stubbornly did not respond to requests from Soviet and then Russian researchers on the island of Matua. The American president also failed to understand the strange interest in the island.

What hides the Kuril island in its depths? But what if the death of the military explorers of the island, the volcano that woke up at the wrong time, the American president’s interest in Matua, and the Japanese’s refusal to provide materials is not an accidental chain of events? Perhaps, in the secret, still not found dungeons of the fortress island, is hidden military equipment that has not rusted and is no longer needed by anyone, but secret laboratories that developed secret weapons that were never used during the war?

At dawn on August 12, 1945, three days before the declaration of surrender by Japan, a deafening explosion sounded in the Sea of \u200b\u200bJapan, not far from the Korean Peninsula. A ball of fire 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 of Japan was detonated here, and the explosion power was about the same as that of the American bombs that exploded a few days before over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

C. Stone's statement that during the Second World War, Japan carried out work on the creation of the atomic bomb and achieved success, was met with great doubt by many US scientists. The military historian John Dower reacted more carefully to 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 \u200b\u200bJapan off the coast of Korea. Evidence of this can serve as a huge secret military Hynnam 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 the unexpected hypothesis of C. Stone is confirmed by the research of the former American intelligence officer Theodore McNelly. At the end of World War II, he served in the analytical intelligence of the headquarters of the commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific Ocean, General MacArthur.

In his article, McNelly writes that American intelligence had reliable data on a large Japanese nuclear center in the Korean city of Hynnam, but kept information about this facility secret from the USSR. Moreover, on the morning of August 14, 1945, American planes brought air samples taken over the Sea of \u200b\u200bJapan off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula to their airfields. Processing the samples yielded stunning results. She testified that an unknown nuclear device exploded in the aforementioned area of \u200b\u200bthe Sea of \u200b\u200bJapan on the night of August 12–13!

If we assume that in the underground city on the fortress island the development of the most terrible weapon of the 20th century, nuclear, was really going on, this answers many questions that confound the organizers of amateur research expeditions.

Why did President Truman, turning to Stalin, ask to transfer Matua Island to the USA?

Even before the end of World War II, the Americans began to prepare for an armed clash with the USSR. After declassifying the materials about World War II, a folder with the inscription "Unthinkable Operation" was found in the British archive. Indeed, no one could have conceived of such an operation! The date on the document is May 22, 1945. Consequently, the development of the operation was begun even before the end of the war. The document described in the most detailed way a plan ... of a massive attack on Soviet troops!

The main trump card in a military conflict could be nuclear weapons available only to the United States. The Soviet tank divisions that passed the Second World War were in the center of Europe. If Stalin had, to his superiority in the ground forces, also nuclear weapons created by Japanese scientists, then in the event of a military conflict the outcome of the war would have been a foregone conclusion and Europe would have become completely socialist.

Why are the Japanese, citing the secrecy of information, stubbornly not responding to requests from Soviet and then Russian researchers on the island of Matua?

But what should they do?

If an underground secret center were discovered on the island of Matua, in which nuclear weapons were developed, and not only developed, but the technology of their manufacture was brought to practical implementation, this would lead to a reassessment of the events of World War II. The atomic bombing of Japanese cities would be justified: American pilots simply ahead of future atomic attacks by Japanese. The demands for the return of the South Kuril Islands could be seen as a desire to continue work on the creation of secret weapons that stopped as a result of the defeat of Japan.

And on this mysterious island, the Pacific Fleet of Russia launched unprecedented research.

The representative of the Eastern Military District recalled that "mobile airfield complexes have already been deployed on the island to support aircraft flights." The drainage system has been cleared and preparation for landing helicopters of any type has been completed.

The personnel of the military historical expedition continues to be active in Dvoynaya Bay in order to "prepare the coastal section of the island for approaching the large landing ship to the shore in a" point-blank "way 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, left Vladivostok on six ships and vessels on May 7 and arrived on Matua Island on May 14.

This is not a legend, it really is. At the same time, the main purpose of the expedition is not to guess the Japanese puzzles, but to make a comprehensive assessment of the territory in order to understand how suitable it is for development, whether the island’s new infrastructure will be washed away by the tsunami and tsunami. Also, the expedition is interested in the question of 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, the deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet, Andrei Ryabukhin, told the Army Standard that the Japanese used exclusively melt water, which is formed by melting snow on the volcano. Therefore, many old Japanese filters for water purification are found on Matua, which was invented by the head of Detachment 731 in Manchuria, Shiro Ishii (a Japanese doctor who conducted inhuman experiments on people and developed bacteriological weapons). They suggested two types of cleaning, coarse and fine. Coarse brushes removed all dirt and debris from the water.

During thin water, they were driven under pressure through ceramic filters, then it went through trenches into special containers. Part of the system was carried out in the area of \u200b\u200bthe mountain system, and part of the Japanese arranged near the lakes that formed during the melting snow. Next to them were installed pumping stations. By the way, due to the fact that there were many rats on the island who also used water, strong antibiotics were found here, which were literally littered with underground hospitals. Pills prevented personnel damage. However, members of the expedition claim that the production of bacteriological weapons on the island was not there. After all, if something went wrong, then the Japanese garrisons in the Kuril Islands would perish themselves.

The island was needed first of all as a huge storage base and a security base for the long communication line that ran from "big" Japan to the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu, where there were large garrisons. The only threat to the security of this route was submarines and surface ships of the Americans. Since the Allied aviation could not actively bomb the islands because of the flight range, the main emphasis was placed on protection from 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 to strengthen Japanese garrisons on the northern islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, if necessary.

I ask Ryabukhin: did the expedition manage to understand how the island’s defense was built?

We figured out the communication system and fortification of the Japanese, we understood how the defense structure of Matua was built, ”he says. - The peculiarity of the island’s structure is a large number of gorges - long gorges in which they concentrated their warehouses. The road system was developed on the island. She was serpentine type and led to where there were separate garrisons. Near the garrison, a warehouse and barracks were equipped, as well as defense positions - trenches, pillboxes. So far, we can only imagine how the supply of products and ammunition was carried out.

It is already clear that road transport and the railway were developed on Matua. Of course, the search engine has not yet found the railway itself, only its tracks are found. One can only guess where it went through - these are tunnels punched underground and like arteries crossing the island. The fact that it acted is also evidenced by numerous finds: trolleys rusted from time to time, fragments of rails. In addition, brass or bronze pipelines for supplying fuel were laid across the island. The search engines find the characteristic fittings and pump parts, but the tanks where the fuel was stored have not yet been found. In addition, the expedition found out how the Japanese built their barracks.

They were collapsible and consisted of a metal frame and wood. All bunkers on the island were also lined with wood. The Japanese airfield is now in rather poor condition, it was badly damaged by air raids and natural disasters. Now there are several helipads equipped. However, in the future its restoration is possible. Of course, the main question: do we need this piece of land, absolutely unsuitable for normal life? “Since last year, the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk has become our inland sea,” says Andrei 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 understand right away. In order to reliably protect our territories, efforts must be made so as not to regret later that they did nothing.

Original taken from atrizno in Secrets of the mysterious island of Matua in the Kuril Islands

Continuing a recent post
(from archive)

Original taken from masterok to the mysterious island of Matua on the Kuril Islands

Soviet and early we more or less know. But about the Japanese - there is little to impossible.

Therefore, the most mysterious and unexplored island of the Kuril ridge still remains small about. Matua

Not only has the island been reliably protected by impregnable cliffs and high banks, it has additionally built a whole network of various military fortifications. I had to work hard on their construction both by the Japanese themselves and by prisoners of war from China. Fearing the bombing and shelling from the sea, the Japanese buried deeper into the ground, and by the summer of 1945 there was no free space on Matua from various defensive fortifications in the form of ditches, trenches, trenches, dugouts, bunkers and bunkers, lunettes, underground shelters and whole galleries . By this time, the island of Matua, like many other Kuril Islands, had turned into a real fortress in the middle of the ocean, which was difficult to take. But the Russians were lucky enough to storm only one island, the most northern on the Kuril Islands - Shumshu, the rest were taken with less blood, and even without a fight. In this row is the fortified island of Matua. His garrison laid down arms in front of our troops on August 26-27, 1945. Since then, the island has become Russian, but so far continues to keep many Japanese secrets.

The ceremony of the captivity of the 41st separate infantry regiment, part of the garrison of the island of Matua. Japanese officer - regiment commander, Colonel Ueda.

Until about 2001, a frontier post remained on Matua. Then it burned down, and the border guards who had lost their shelter were evacuated to the mainland. Now there is nobody on the island.

I walked along the shore - I came across a disguised water station with huge cast-iron mechanisms inside the casemates. Everything is in relative safety. In the back wall of another collapsed building, I found a small door. He opened a path behind it, after a rock 200 meters away in the forest, took a closer look - and this is a skillful masonry, behind which there is an entrance to a stone tunnel that goes uphill. Unfortunately, heaped up by the explosion at the very beginning. Nearby dump. A cast-iron Japanese "potbelly stove" sticks out of the ground, next to fragments of ceramics that read the markings of the Japanese army, bottles and bubbles with hieroglyphs, sleeves, leather shoes ...

Why Matua, because very close to Kamchatka there is Shumshu and Paramushir, large and better-known islands, recaptured by the Japanese in the same 1945?

For a very long time, Matua was completely inaccessible. The opportunity to get there only appeared in 2001, when the outpost burned down and border guards left. This year we already had the 14th expedition, but even now the island shows us only one hundredth of its secrets. Although the conclusion is clear: the island was mothballed by the Japanese garrison before surrendering to the Soviet troops.

Did they have time for this?

On August 18, the Kuril landing operation began. Information about this passed through all the Kuril Islands, naturally, on Matua they learned about the beginning of hostilities on the part of the USSR. On August 23, the Japanese garrison capitulated to Shumsha and Paramushira. On August 25, the Matois garrison surrendered, led by Commander Colonel Ledo. However, from Japanese sources we know that since February 1945, the Ketsu plan was implemented in Japan, according to which it was necessary to remove from the Kuril Islands everything that is possible, and what cannot be taken out, it should be preserved, that is, hidden. Equipment, machinery, raw materials ... The country's leadership took such actions due to the fact that there was a forecast about the imminent surrender of fascist Germany, Japan's main ally. In February-March 1945, the Ketsu plan was put into effect on Matua. Everything that could not be taken out was hidden. And what could not be hidden was destroyed. We found a large amount of burnt equipment, and not just burnt, but burnt and buried by 2 meters. Small parts were burned in barrels at high temperatures. Everything was sintered and melted there. They destroyed everything very carefully. But we suggest that particularly valuable items were well hidden. After all, it is known how, in such cases, the Japanese acted on the southern islands, in the same Philippines, for example. According to our assumptions, about 10-15 thousand people left the island before capitulation. And those who surrendered - it was the so-called funeral team, which preserved the island and hid everything.

But in February 1945, and even more so later, it was very difficult for the Japanese to evacuate such a large and complex military facility as the island of Matua. Maybe they drowned everything in the ocean?

Divers who participated in the expedition examined the coast, including a secret pier. Apart from a few pieces of iron and American shells, which fired at the island, there is nothing there.

And why was this rather small island without a convenient bay so important for the Japanese?

We believe that Matua was built as a powerful reserve base, which was supposed to be a springboard for a possible retreat from the northern islands. Shumshu and Paramushir - this is the tip of a sword aimed at Kamchatka. The structures on these islands are of purely military importance. There is no exotic, but on Matua we see paved roads, curly walls, decorative finishes, new technologies ... It can be seen that everything was very comfortable here, the Japanese were relaxed, there was a rear. As we learn from the interrogations of General Tsumi Fusaki, the commander of the northern group, the garrison of Matua did not obey him and was controlled directly from the headquarters on Hokkaido. This indicates some special status of the island of Matua. Japanese and our mentality are very different; on an island on which it would seem impossible to create a naval base, the Japanese built it. Surprise and paradox are their know-how.

In Germany, work was underway to create new weapons. In particular, chemical and bacteriological. Surely they did the same in Japan. There is a version that secret laboratories were located on Matua. What did your research show?

The Japanese conducted such work. It is known that in Harbin, on the territory of present-day China, detachment 731 was engaged in the development of chemical and bacteriological weapons. I was there two years ago and saw structures very similar to those on Matua. Of course, we heard all sorts of scary stories, stories, myths, so we try to comply with safety precautions as much as possible. If we find something that could potentially be dangerous, then we never touch it. We mask so that someone else does not find it, and very carefully examine it.

It seems that the island was a kind of transshipment, rear base between the islands of the Kuril ridge and Japan. The island had reserves of fuel, food, and equipment.

I saw some chemical flasks, other vessels blown out of glass ...

Of course, we also found them. But we did not make special excavations. Everywhere in the world there are safety standards. If warehouses of hazardous chemicals or bacteria should be hidden at a depth of 20 meters, it is natural that they are there. In this sense, Matua is safe. Our garrisons were here for 55 years, and nothing bad happened.

What evidence is there that canned objects are hidden inside the island?

We found underground communications, 100-200-300 meters of corridors cut in basalt, finished with wood, inside there are many different rooms, stoves for cooking and heating ... This is the so-called underground city facility. And this is only that part of it that we discovered by chance. There was a scree, an entrance formed, and we were able to climb there. After earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, more and more new objects accidentally open up. But we find only that which is not very disguised.

The northern part of the island of Matua is occupied by a mountain range, crowned by the peak of Sarychev (Fuyu volcano). The approaches and slopes are densely overgrown with an impenetrable alder dwarf; above, fresh slag scree with a slope of 60-70 degrees begins. The volcano is alive: the last eruption occurred only two years ago.

We continue the conversation with Eugene Vereshchag, the head of the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition, who has been trying to penetrate the secrets of the island for almost 10 years.

What is the uniqueness of the facilities on Matua, in particular the airfield? What we saw is amazing. After 70 years, the coating is absolutely usable. And what was the airfield under the Japanese?

There were three lanes with asphalt pavement. One - 400 meters, four metal hangars stood on it and taxiing was on a large strip about 2 kilometers long. Another strip is 1.5 kilometers. The width of the strips is 70 meters, along the edges there are gutters for water flow. Under the cover - laid pipes. Those who served here say that until 1985 the airfield was heated by thermal waters.

It turns out a contradiction: on the one hand, the airfield, and on the other - the laboratory. But the very presence of a huge airdrome would unmask secret objects. What is all the same primary? Did the airfield serve some important infrastructure, or were all these facilities built to serve the airfield?

The Japanese began to explore the island a long time ago. In 1923, the village of Matsua-mura was already here. If you imagine that the construction began in the 30s, then it was the inland territory of Japan and there was hardly any need to hide the work. And then the war began and the situation changed. In American photographs of the war, the airfield is almost invisible from the air. Everything was covered in camouflage nets. The remains of this disguise have survived to this day. We believe that in addition to the airfield there was some kind of production. Factories, stocks of raw materials ...

It is known that Japanese submarines reached Germany. Barrels of German fuel found on the island may indicate that the Germans came here. After May 1945, many German submarines simply disappeared. Material values, treasures, and documents also disappeared. Later, the crew members of these submarines were announced in different parts of the world. You found underwater mooring walls, tunnels. Could the Germans deliver something to their allies on Matua?

We consider such an opportunity to be very real. Why, for example, could the same Amber Room not be taken to one of the distant and inaccessible islands, and even to the allies? Fantastic version of course. But it has a right to exist. In terms of communication, the island is so developed that you can hide anything on it. Information leakage was completely absent. Any cargo that was imported was kept here in complete secrecy, the information could not escape. The Japanese are still silent. The head of the garrison, Colonel Ledo died in 1985, leaving no memoirs. Until 2000, the Matua Veterans Society officially existed in Japan. On the island of Iwo Jima, only 200 people were captured from the 20,000th garrison, and even those wounded. Their Japanese society does not perceive, considers it an outcast, because they surrendered, instead of dying for the emperor. And on Matua 3811 people surrendered, and the society excuses them. Why? So their mission was this.

If the Japanese had such a task, then there were opportunities for this. At least Japanese planes in the area of \u200b\u200bMatua have intercepted more than once.

There are a lot of secrets, and one of them is the possible work of the Japanese in the Kuril Islands on chemical and bacteriological weapons. Submarines and Wehrmacht raiders came to the Kuril Islands, indirectly, even empty German barrels of those years that are found on Matua can confirm this.

But since then, the island is full of the remains of rare military equipment, which, fortunately, turned out to be inaccessible to lovers of ferrous metals.

Interestingly.

imperial vase

soldier token

motnet Hirohito in 10 sen

shaving rinse

Laz, in which the border guards disappeared

After the withdrawal of the Japanese army, a lot of ammunition remained on the island. They were taken to the area of \u200b\u200bthe aerodrome, stacked and stacked.

The clue of the island of Matua is waiting for its explorers. The fact that everything was preserved there, as the Japanese left, is a rarity. But, again, the situation with the protection of the sea borders of Russia under the rule of Yeltsin was such that foreigners could easily penetrate and live illegally on the islands for years, and no one could detect them. And when they were found it was impossible to get them - our ships lacked fuel, on which in those years a bunch of swindlers made their fabulous conditions, and the ships could not go to sea. Border guards only gritted their teeth with powerlessness. In those shameful, damned years, everything could be taken out of the foggy Kuril Islands, everything. Or maybe they’ve taken it out. Who knows…

Well, for fun, you can remember