TINIAN

one of the Mariana Islands, part of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean. It lies 100 miles (160 km) north of Guam. Of volcanic formation, it has a total land area of 39 square miles (101 square km) and rises to 545 feet (166 m). Tinian was administered by Japan before World War II and became a major sugarcane growing and processing centre. After its capture by U.S. forces in 1944 the island was equipped with what were then the world's longest runways; from these were launched the planes that dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The economy is little developed, with some cultivation of vegetables for export to Guam and a fledgling beef-cattle industry. The village of Tinian is on the southwest coast. Pop. (1990) 2,118.