Tinian

Tinian , island (2000 pop. 3,540), 39 sq mi (101 sq km), W Pacific, one of the Northern Mariana Islands . The island lies immediately SW of Saipan. The inhabitants are of mixed Micronesian, Filipino, and Spanish descent. Tinian's once large phosphate deposits have been depleted. Vegetable gardening is now the main occupation, but attempts have been made to raise large numbers of cattle. In World War II Tinian was taken (1944) by U.S. forces and made into an important military base for attacks on the Japanese mainland. The planes that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were flown from Tinian.

Tinian one of the Marianas Islands, first taken from the Japanese by the Marines in 1944 and thereafter developed as an airbase for bombing raids on Japan. The components of the “Little Boy” bomb were assembled here.

Tinian. One of the Pacific Mariana Islands chain, this island 16 km. (10 mi.) long, which lies just 5 km. (3 mi.) from Saipan, was garrisoned by 8,350 Japanese troops during the Pacific war. Following a 43-day air and sea bombardment, 2nd and 4th US Marine Divisions of Maj-General Harry Schmidt's 5th Amphibious Corps (see also amphibious warfare) landed there on 24 July 1944. They overcame all organized opposition in twelve days, though it took three months to eliminate pockets of resistance. So well did the marines fight and co-ordinate with the supporting forces that the commanding general of the Marianas Expeditionary Troops, Lt-General Holland Smith (1882–1967), considered it the best amphibious operation in the Pacific war. It was from Tinian that B29 bombers delivered the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.