BANABA

also called Ocean Island, coral and phosphate formation 250 miles (400 km) west of the nearest Gilbert Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west central Pacific Ocean. It has a circumference of 6 miles and an area of 2 square miles (6 square km). Sighted in 1804 by the British ship Ocean, the island was annexed by Britain in 1900. In that same year the mining and shipping of phosphate from the island began. By the early 1970s, annual production reached a high of 550,000 tons, but deposits were exhausted by 1979. Made part of the crown colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1919, the island was occupied by Japanese forces from 1942 to 1945. The Japanese deported many of the local Micronesian inhabitants (including both Banabans and Gilbertese) to the Gilbert Islands and in 1945 massacred all but one of the remaining Gilbertese left there. Many of the Banabans who had been deported to the Gilberts later elected to move to Rabi, a small island 1,300 miles southeast of Banaba, in Fiji, after wartime destruction at Banaba made living conditions there impossible. After 1965, Banabans received more adequate compensation from the phosphate company for the exploitation of their island. During the 1970s Banabans attempted to separate from the Gilbert Islands, which was nearing independence as part of Kiribati. Since independence (in 1979) they have been guaranteed ownership of Banaba, as well as dual citizenship in both Kiribati and Fiji. Tabiang is the administrative seat. Pop. (1985) Banaba, 46; (1977) Rabi Island, Fiji (almost all Banabans), 2,426.