Anatahan is an island in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and has one of the most active volcanoes of the archipelago. Although formerly inhabited, the island is currently uninhabited due to the constant danger of volcanic eruptions. Anatahan is located northwest of Farallon de Medinilla and north of Saipan. History The island was first charted by Europeans in late October 1543 by Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre on board of the carrack San Juan de Letrán when trying to return from Sarangani to New Spain. At the time, the island was settled by the Chamorros. In 1695, the natives were forcibly removed to Saipan and, three years later, to Guam. Under Spanish rule, coconut plantations were developed for the production of copra. In 1884, an estimated 125 tons were exported. Following the sale of the Northern Marianas by Spain to the German Empire in 1899, Anatahan was administered as part of German New Guinea. However, by May 1901 the island was reported as uninhabited. In 1902, the island was leased to a private firm, the Pagan Society, owned by a German and a Japanese partner, to further develop the coconut plantations. Severe typhoons in September 1905 and September 1907 destroyed the plantations and bankrupted the company, although copra production continued on a smaller scale afterwards. During World War I, Anatahan came under the control of the Empire of Japan and was subsequently administered as part of the South Seas Mandate. In June 1944, 30 survivors of at least three Japanese shipwrecks reached Anatahan. After the surrender of Japan in World War II, the Americans evacuated two Japanese and 45 natives from the island, but the Japanese castaways refused to believe that the war had ended, and fled into the interior of the island as Japanese holdouts. By 1950, the holdouts were led by Kazuko Higa, who was the only woman left on the island. Higa lived with a harem of five men, but after eleven of the holdouts died under uncertain circumstances, the remainder surrendered in June 1951. The story of the holdouts was sensationalized as a lurid tale of sex and violent death by the mass media, and was portrayed in 1953 by Josef von Sternberg in his film The Saga of Anatahan. In 1954, one of the survivors, Michiro Maruyama, published a book, Anatahan Island of the Unfortunates, which attempted to refute the more