Pohnpei

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Image:Pohnpei.png Image:Pohnpei Island.png Image:Ponape.jpg

Pohnpei (also spelled Ponape and earlier Bonabee) is the name of one of the states in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and one of the Senyavin Islands. The FSM's capital Palikir is located on Pohnpei.

1 History
2 Nearby islands
3 Pohnpei in fiction
4 External links

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History

First sighted by the Russian navigator Fyodor Litke in 1828, the island was a Japanese territory in World War II, Japan having acquired Ponape along with the rest of the Carolines, the Marshalls, and the Marianas (less American-owned Guam) as war reparations from Germany. However, the island was one of those bypassed by the US Navy during the amphibious campaigns of 1943-1945. The military facilities were shelled on several occasions, including by the battleships USS Massachusetts (BB-59) and Iowa (BB-61), and by the aircraft of Cowpens (CVL-25).

The Federated States of Micronesia achieved independence in 1986.

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Nearby islands

The atoll of Pingelap, located several hundred miles to the east of Pohnpei, but part of Pohnpei State, is notable for the prevalence of the extreme form of color blindness known as maskun. Maskun is relatively rare but often shows up in communities with small gene-pools. Pingelap was featured in the book, The Island of the Colorblind, by neurologist Oliver Sacks.
The ancient artificial islands of Nan Madol are near to Pohnpei.

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Pohnpei in fiction

Pohnpei plays a central role in the fictional Cthulhu Mythos, in which it is only about ten days journey by fast ship from the fictional island of R'lyeh, the place where the fictional character Cthulhu currently resides. Several stories by H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth and others use this island as a setting or contain references to it.

Pohnpei's role in the Mythos was inspired by the ruins of Nan Madol (see above), which had already been used as the setting for a lost race story by Abraham Merritt, The Moon Pool, in which the islands are called Nan-Tauach. Some Occultists see Nan Madol as connected to the lost continent of Lemuria.

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