Matua is the most mysterious and enigmatic island in Russia. The team of the catamaran "Kotoyarvi" explored this piece of Kuril land for several days and only strengthened the idea that we had not seen the most important thing. Secret chemical laboratories, underground cities - yes, it was all there. But clearly there is something that has eluded us. Perhaps it was here that the Nazis hid some of the looted treasures: we made sure that German submarines went to the allies even after the surrender of Berlin.

Matua Island is relatively small - 11 kilometers long, 6.5 kilometers wide. Height highest point, Sarychev Peak (Fuyo Volcano), - 1485 meters. The island is located in the central part Kuril ridge, and therefore far removed from populated areas Sakhalin and Kamchatka. There is no connection with the outside world. Yes, actually, and there is no need - the island is uninhabited.

on Iwo Jima, it has 45 floors of communications. We assume that on Matua in the hill there are at least 45 floors of communications and galleries

Until the beginning of the 20th century, there was a permanent settlement of the Ainu. On the eve of World War II, the Japanese turned Matua - by the way, the Japanese themselves pronounce its name as Matsua-to - into a powerful fortress, into an unsinkable aircraft carrier that controlled the Pacific Northwest. There was a large airfield with three long runways, allowing aircraft to be lifted in almost any wind direction. The strips were heated by thermal waters, and therefore could be used all year round. There are enough reasons to believe that there were some secret Japanese facilities on Matua. It is likely that these were laboratories for the development of chemical or bacteriological weapons. Submarines of the Third Reich came here, having made an almost round-the-world trip. The Americans repeatedly tried to destroy airfields and island facilities, losing a dozen aircraft and at least two submarines in battle.

After the surrender of Japan on August 14 and until the capture of the island by Soviet troops on August 27, 1945, the Japanese had enough time to hide and conserve all the most important and valuable island objects. Surprisingly, judging by the inventory of weapons and equipment captured on the island, the paratroopers did not find a single aircraft, tank or gun on Matua. For 3811 Japanese soldiers and officers who surrendered, only 2127 rifles turned out to be available. At the same time, pilots, sailors and gunners disappeared somewhere, and only construction battalion workers and support personnel were captured. Compare this with the trophies taken on the island of Shumshu, suddenly attacked on August 18, where there were more than 60 tanks alone.

Already after the Japanese were evacuated from Matua, and the Soviet military settled in their place, very strange events began to occur on the island: people disappeared, at night, light flickered on the slopes of the volcano, and out of nowhere, our military appeared rare trophies. For example, collectible French cognac ...

After the war, the United States really wanted to get Matua for itself, but Truman did not accept Stalin's crafty offer to change it to one of the Aleutian Islands.

Little is known about what happened on Matua in Soviet times. Civilians did not get here and were not allowed, but the military keep their secrets. Apparently, there was a military unit serving radars on the island. Broken installations and dumps of electronic equipment from the 60s and 70s are scattered throughout the island.

Until about 2001, a frontier post was maintained on Matua. Then it burned down, and the border guards who lost their homes were evacuated to big land. There is no one on the island now.

There are no closed bays on Matua. If you look at the island on maps or aerial photography, it may seem that there is no good shelter for a ship near the island at all. In practice, a convenient and relatively safe place is the strait in the southwestern part of the island, covered from the west by the small island of Ivaki (Toporkovy). It was here that the Japanese raid was located, the berths were located. The two-story pillbox on the shore, the beach littered with the wreckage of ships and equipment, the remains of the pier and the skeleton of the Royo-maru transport sunk in the strait are reminiscent of the Japanese. Somewhere at the bottom of the strait lie other Japanese transports - Iwaki-maru and Hiburi-maru, torpedoed by the American submarine SS-233 Herring.

Not far from the Kotojärvi parking lot, at low tide, a huge diesel engine emerges from the water, overgrown with algae and shells. The heart of which of the ships that found their end in the strait, he was, is no longer possible to establish.

We stayed on Matua for several days, and each trip to the island was accompanied by amazing finds and discoveries. The runways of the airfield are well preserved. The concrete on them is still better than what is in Sheremetyevo. There are hundreds of rusty fuel barrels around the airfield. Mostly ours, but there are also German ones marked Kraftstoff Wehrmaght 200 Ltr. ("Fuel of the Wehrmacht, 200 liters"). The dates from 1939 to 1945 are clearly visible on the barrels. Surprisingly, among the German barrels there are also full ones.

Numerous defensive structures are openly available: bunkers, pillboxes, caponiers, equipped artillery positions, tens of kilometers of trenches and ditches. The alder thickets are full of iron rubbish, sometimes the most amazing. You can, for example, stumble upon a cast-iron steam plant, very reminiscent of a small steam locomotive. Cast-iron and ceramic pipes stick out of the ground in ditches and on coastal screes. What is it? Plumbing, sewerage or parts of the airfield heating system?

I walked along the coast - I came across a disguised water station with huge cast-iron mechanisms inside the casemates. Everything is relatively safe. In the back wall of another collapsed building, I found a small door. I opened a path behind it, after 200 meters there was a rock in the forest, I looked closely - and this is skillful masonry, behind which is the entrance to a stone tunnel that goes uphill. Unfortunately, littered with an explosion at the very beginning. Landfill nearby. A cast-iron Japanese “potbelly stove” sticks out of the ground, next to it are fragments of ceramics, on which the markings of the Japanese army are read, bottles and vials with hieroglyphs, cartridge cases, leather shoes ...

Even if you do not try too hard, it is easy to find many structures on the island, the purpose of which is not easy to explain. What kind of load, for example, could be carried by concrete bunkers with meter-long walls, thick steel doors and the same shutters? Barracks, command post, warehouse, bomb shelter? But why then so many windows with a complex system of steel shutters and locks, why an intricate network of air ducts? Maybe a lab? On the island, more than once, some complex devices with sensors, pressure gauges, centrifuges were found ... However, these devices were broken and thrown away by the Japanese themselves. Where is everything else? Technique, equipment, equipment, personal belongings of the garrison? What did German submarines bring or take away here? What did the Americans try to destroy or capture, what have ours already found?

There are many questions. We were able to get answers to some of them in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, having met with Evgeny Mikhailovich Vereshchaga, the permanent leader of the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition.

We contacted Vereshchaga from Moscow and talked about our plans. An experienced Kamchadal looked at the photos of the catamaran and expressed polite bewilderment: Sea of ​​Okhotsk and Pacific Ocean they don't go to that. But he did not refuse help - 120 liters of 92nd gasoline were waiting for us on Matua, without which it would have been difficult. We could meet at sea. Around the time when the Kotoyarvi was moving north, the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition with border guards was installing Orthodox crosses in the Kuriles. Near Ushishir Island, we got in touch with a border whaleboat, but could not approach it because of the rough sea and dense fog. We met already in Petropavlovsk - in the museum that Evgeny Vereshchaga, Irina Viter and their associates created as a result of research Kuril Islands and especially Matua.

- Why exactly Matua, because very close to Kamchatka there are Shumshu and Paramushir, bigger and better famous islands recaptured from the Japanese in the same 1945?

- For a very long time, Matua was absolutely inaccessible. The opportunity to get there appeared only in 2001, when the outpost burned down and the border guards left. This year we have already completed the 14th expedition, but even now the island shows us only one hundredth of its secrets. Although the conclusion is unequivocal: the island was mothballed by the Japanese garrison before surrendering to Soviet troops.

Did they have time for this?

- On August 18, the Kuril landing operation began. Information about this passed through all the Kuril Islands, naturally, on Matua they learned about the start of hostilities by the USSR. On August 23, the Japanese garrison capitulated to Shumshu and Paramushir. And on August 25, the Matua garrison, led by commander Colonel Ledo, surrendered. However, we know from Japanese sources that since February 1945, Ketsu's plan was implemented in Japan, according to which it was necessary to take out everything that was possible from the Kuril Islands, and what could not be taken out, then mothballed, that is, hidden. Equipment, machinery, raw materials ... The country's leadership took such actions due to the fact that there was a forecast about the imminent surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan's main ally. In February-March 1945, the Ketsu plan was put into effect on Matua. Everything that could not be taken out was hidden. And what could not be hidden was destroyed. We found a large number of burned equipment, and not just burned, but burned and buried 2 meters. Small parts were burned in barrels at high temperatures. Everything there was scorched and melted. Everything was destroyed very carefully. But we assume that especially valuable things were well hidden. After all, it is known how in such cases the Japanese acted on southern islands, in the same Philippines, for example. According to our assumptions, about 10-15 thousand people left the island before the surrender. And those who surrendered were the so-called funeral brigade, which conserved the island and hid everything.

- But in February 1945, and even more so later, it was very difficult for the Japanese to evacuate such a large and complex military facility as the island of Matua. Maybe they drowned everything in the ocean?

– The divers who participated in the expedition examined the coast, including the secret pier. Apart from a few pieces of iron and American shells that were fired at the island, there is nothing there.

- And why was this rather small island, which does not have a convenient bay, so important for the Japanese?

- We believe that Matua was built as a powerful reserve base, which was supposed to become a springboard for a possible retreat from the northern islands. Shumshu and Paramushir are the tip of the sword directed at Kamchatka. The structures on these islands are of purely military importance. Nothing exotic, but on Matua we see paved roads, figured walls, decorative finishes, new technologies ... It can be seen that everything was very comfortable here, the blissful Japanese lived, there was a rear. As we learn from the interrogations of General Tsumi Fusaki, the commander of the northern group, the Matua garrison did not obey him and was controlled directly from the Hokkaido headquarters. It speaks of some special status islands of Matua. Japanese and our mentality are very different; on an island where it would seem impossible to create naval base the Japanese built it. Surprise and paradox are their know-how.

- In Germany, work was underway to create a new weapon. In particular, chemical and bacteriological. They probably did the same in Japan. There is a version that secret laboratories were located on Matua. What did your research show?

The Japanese did this kind of work. It is known that Detachment 731 was engaged in the development of chemical and bacteriological weapons in Harbin, on the territory of today's PRC. I was there two years ago and saw structures very similar to those on Matua. Of course, we heard all sorts of scary stories, tales, myths, so we try to observe safety precautions as much as possible. If we find something that could potentially be dangerous, then we never touch it. We mask it so that someone else does not find it, and examine it very carefully.

- I saw some chemical flasks, other glass-blown vessels ...

Of course we found them too. But we did not carry out special excavations. Everywhere in the world there are safety standards. If warehouses of dangerous chemicals or bacteria must be hidden at a depth of 20 meters, it is natural that they are there. In this sense, Matua is safe. Our garrisons have been here for 55 years, and nothing bad has happened.

- What evidence is there that mothballed objects are hidden inside the island?

– We found underground communications, 100-200-300 meters of corridors carved in basalt, finished with wood, there are many different rooms inside, stoves for cooking and heating ... This is the so-called object underground city. And this is only that part of it that we discovered by accident. There was a scree, an entrance was formed, and we were able to climb through. After earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, more and more objects are accidentally discovered. But we find only that which is not very disguised.

You can take for example the island of Iwo Jima, which everyone has probably heard of. Its garrison consisted of 22 thousand people. The Americans stormed it for three months. The operation involved about 200 thousand soldiers, hundreds of ships, it was only bombed for a whole month ... So, Iwo Jima is three times smaller than Matua. And on Matua, when ours arrived there, not a single plane, not a single tank, not a single gun. And the huge US interest in this island. All this suggests that the main facilities were mothballed by the state resource. I mean the Ketsu plan or something similar. Everything was done by specialists, everything was purposefully disguised, put into storage, then to be taken away, clogged, exploded. With the resources we have, it is very difficult to open what was hidden by the resources of the whole state.

P.S. Read the end of the conversation and the story about the island of Matua in the next issue.

7 541

After the end of the war with Japan, President Truman turned to Stalin with an unusual request: to provide the United States with the island of Matua, located in the very center of the Kuril chain, occupied Soviet troops. At the end of the war with Japan, on the island of Matua (20 x 10 km in size) there was a Japanese military garrison of 3,811 people, who surrendered without resistance to our border guards of 40 people.

On the island there were: an airfield, a hangar inside the hill, bunkers, branched passages, tunnels, artificial caves, engineering Communication. Under the concrete field of the airfield were pipes through which hot water flowed from thermal springs. However, there were no military equipment on the island. Her careful searches since 1945 and still have not yielded results. When trying to restore the destroyed communications, a "volcanic eruption" unexpectedly occurred in the center of the island. The mysterious death of our military researchers on the island attracts attention. The dense network of dungeons of the island-fortress is fraught with a lot of mystery.

The Japanese responded to requests from Soviet and Russian researchers with a reference to the secrecy of this information.

Our study of the lands of the Kuril chain over the past decades has shown that its islands are rich in rare and valuable minerals. In terms of their wealth, they are not inferior to Alaska, and in some respects even surpass them. A number of the Kuril Islands have ascending water plutonium flows, which carry constantly replenished minerals from the depths of the earth. These islands also include the South Kuril island of Shikotan (claimed by Japan) and the island of Matua.

Through instrumental studies on the island of Matua, it was possible to draw up a plan-scheme of the main underground tunnels, communications and a number of other facilities. One gets the impression that in the depths of the island, mining was carried out, as well as their smelting. To do this, the island had energy sources and a power transmission network. The dungeons also had an air supply system, where the heights of 446 m and 829 m had a central shaft, one of which was used as a supply and the other as an exhaust ventilation. There are reasons to believe that these mine shafts, as well as the entrances and exits from the dungeons, were mined with powerful charges. Therefore, with the careless handling of researchers, the charge inside the mine shaft worked and ejected energy and earth (as from a gun shaft) like a volcanic eruption. It was revealed that some tunnels and underground workings were flooded with water, and military and industrial equipment from the island was taken far into the sea and flooded. Their coordinates can be established if this metal is of interest to someone else. Penetration into the island is possible after the elimination of mined entrances and a number of other dangers, after which the dungeons can be used to extract valuable materials. Flooded tunnels and adits are not destroyed, and therefore they can be rid of water. On the island there are several ancient cult remnant rocks above the burials, above which the vertical energy flows of space communication channels are fixed by instrumentation and it is possible that “mystical” riddles are connected with the places of ancient cult burials.

According to American experts (Charles Stone and others), during World War II, Japan was working on the creation of a top-secret bomb, and at dawn on August 12, 1945, it exploded in the Sea of ​​Japan with the formation of a giant mushroom cloud. Its power corresponded to the power of the American bomb detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is possible that to create this bomb on the island of Matua, the Japanese mined some very important substances. American experts reported that the explosion of the Japanese bomb had an unknown nuclear device.

A respected person in the city who organizes trips to the Kuril Islands with sponsorship money (who are they?) and with the participation of the military and the Russian Orthodox Church (where would they be without them) and then exhibiting in local institutions what they managed to steal from the islands, but failed drive. The result of his "expedition" to Matua was a film with his participation, shot by the miracle masters of our famous Ren-TV channel (well, maybe not the channel itself, but shown on Ren-TV). For those 100% of readers who do not want to get acquainted with the masterpiece of domestic television journalism, I will briefly outline the essence of the program ...

This is how the fortifications of the island and the airfield look from space:

According to the authors and Mr. V., Matua Island is an impregnable Japanese super-fortress, where the secret palace of Emperor Hirohito himself is located, warehouses of Japanese atomic bombs (here in the film we are shown a Japanese army device for cleaning drinking water with a hieroglyph, which V. interprets as "secret"), the biological superweapon of Japan (detachment 731, where would it be without it!), a super-powerful submarine fleet in an underwater bay carved into the rock of the island, etc. Also, Mr. V. assures that Hitler himself personally arrived on this island on a submarine for a secret meeting with the Emperor of Japan (this conclusion is made on the basis of a simple logical chain, understandable from the photo below):

But this pimple on the right with air defense antennas, Mr. V. attributes to the Japanese engineering and construction genius. Seriously, he says in the film that it was poured by the poor Japanese and their Koreans and Chinese prisoners of war. Not otherwise under it is the palace of the emperor and the warehouses of nuclear bombs.

This nonsense in the film with smart faces is carried by Mr. V. himself, a certain military man - ex-beginning. outposts on Matua, as it appears (when you look at it, one gets the feeling that professionally unsuitable, mentally unhealthy military men were exiled to the islands), as well as some "scientists" - members of the expeditions of Mr.

Mr. V., who, as it turns out, in addition to the selfless exploration of the Kuriles, is also CEO"Kurily-Tour" and to establish tourism bought (or rented?) This island from the military, which sheds light on the following results of his "research":

"Commander of the North-Eastern Border Directorate of the Coast Guard of the FSB of Russia
Lieutenant General Valery Putov signed an agreement on the transfer of the island of Matua in the center
Kuril ridge to the travel agency "Kurily-Tour".
A frontier post burned down on the island a few years ago, and those who visited here in the summer
with an inspection trip on the Vorovsky patrol ship, the commander took
decision on the inexpediency of its restoration.
Meanwhile, there were attacks on the previous commander, Lieutenant General V. Prokhoda
both from the media and from counterintelligence for the removal from the territory of the Northern
He smoked rare aircraft equipment left here from the time of the war. The keynote of these
performances was that you need to show rarities, and not sell them "quietly"
on the side, using the status of a closed border zone."
(- by the way, there is an intersting portal about our hero Vereshchaga)

Such is the link between business and science in a purely "Russian way".

The results of the work of the friend mentioned above:

Well, now, having laughed sadly, as they say, let's listen to the correct answer. Matua Island is an airfield. Yes, yes, the usual jump airfield for Japanese aviation, which supplied the main Japanese defensive forces on the island of Shumshu, which covered Japan from the invasion of the Americans, who could use the Kuriles as a springboard for an attack from the north, moving through the ridge of the Aleutian Islands. The kilometer-long concrete airfield is the main and main value of the island.
Someone started a rumor that the airfield is heated by thermal waters and it even entered Wikipedia. What gave rise to such assumptions is a mystery to me, because there are no outlets of thermal springs on the island, and ordinary drainage channels along the edges of the strip, even theoretically, could not thaw the strip, even pass boiling water through them. If someone thinks that pipes like modern stadium heating are laid under the strip, then he will still be wrong - there is nothing like that there.

However, this airfield obviously did not represent super-value for Japan - yes, it is well located almost in the middle of the Kuril ridge and allowed aviation to control all the islands, but the practical value of this was lost when it became clear that the Americans would attack Japan from south. This is clearly visible from the entire infrastructure: open, completely unprotected aircraft parking, a minimum of protected bunkers for storing supplies and shelters for personnel. Yes, the island has underground shelters and warehouses, a network of tunnels, but what island, defended by the Japanese, does not have this? Remember, for example, films about the landing on Iwo Jima: "Iwo Jima" and "Letters from Iwo Jima".

As on any large island Kuriles, bays, convenient for landing troops, are minimally covered by light coastal fortifications - machine-gun and gun pillboxes. On Matua, one can still observe some redundancy of defensive structures, which can be easily explained by the fact that the defense of the island was created in the years when the principles of defense of the islands changed. Initially, it was planned to destroy landing ships on the way, and for this powerful anti-ship gun bunkers were built. However, practice quickly showed the ineffectiveness of such defense, because such points were easily detected and suppressed by naval artillery and aircraft. Then the doctrine of fighting directly with the landing troops landed on the shore was adopted, for which, first of all, flanking machine-gun points (such as in the photo below) and light gun points were built. Naturally, the already built anti-ship pillboxes remained, the guns were simply dismantled from them.

In addition, as in all the armies of the world, when the interests of different branches of the armed forces converge on one patch (and here it is the land and navy), leapfrog and confusion arises in the planning of fortifications. Here is the interrogation of the commander of the 91st Infantry Division Tsutsumi Fusaki:

"
Q. What is the significance of the island in the Kuril Islands system? Matua?

A. Matua Island is located in the center of the Kuril chain and is an intermediate
air base, as well as a base for parking ships. With the capture of this island,
be created good base for action against Hokkaido and cut
communication with the northern islands. The Americans were interested in this island,
therefore, we kept a lot of forces on the island and built a good defense.

B. How was the interaction with the neighbor - the 41st separate infantry detachment
Matua islands?

O.41st Infantry Detachment reported directly to the headquarters of the 5th Front, there was no connection with me
had, so there was no interaction."

Another important point: the island does not have a bay suitable for anchorage.

Here is also one of the examples of a machine gun point:

There is a network of carved tunnels on the island, some of which were blown up by the Japanese after the surrender of the garrison. By the way, during the Kuril landing operation on August 25, 1945, the garrison of the island (3811 soldiers and officers) capitulated to forty Soviet border guards without a fight. Long before this, the Japanese had removed almost all heavy weapons, tanks and most of the personnel from the island to defend the central Japanese islands, since the Americans decided to attack Japan from the south and the strategic importance of the Kuril Islands did not disappear.

They say that it was Matua that Truman had in mind when he offered Stalin to cede one of the islands of the ridge for the US naval base. After a return request to allocate one of the Aleutian Islands for Soviet base the question was not raised again.
Now, traces of the presence of our valiant air defense warriors are visible all over the island: air defense stations and MOUNTAINS, MOUNTAINS, MOUNTAINS of barrels with diesel fuel are now broken:

And this is a view of the Sarychev volcano (1446 m), which actually forms the island. Volcanic eruptions were in 1760, 1878-1879, 1923, 1928 (strong), 1930 (strong), 1946 (strong), 1954, 1960, 1965, 1976 (strong) and 2009 (strong). The nature of the eruptions is both calm effusion and explosive processes. During the strong eruption of the Sarychev volcano in 1946, pyroclastic flows reached the sea.

Here is a map of the tunnels made "miracle researchers". Does it bother anyone that they are drawn passing through such an active volcano?

Super-fortifications of the Japanese.

One of the fortified warehouses.

Original taken from atrizno in Secrets of the mysterious island of Matua in the Kuriles

Following up on a recent post
(from archive)

Original taken from masterok to the Mysterious Island of Matua in the Kuriles

The middle and northern Kuriles can safely be called uninhabited. These foggy volcanic islands absolutely deserted. There is not a soul today on Harimkotan, Chirinkotan, Ekarma, Shiashkotan, Matua and Rasshua. And according to the stories of the locals, there is no one further south - on the islands of Ushishir, Ketoy and this one unique island Simushir. Hundreds of kilometers of the coasts of the Russian islands are completely uninhabited, although we have owned the Kuriles since 1945. There are no fishing bases here, therefore, fish are not caught in the adjacent waters.

There is no population here, so there are no hunters, geologists, miners, not even tourists. Even on the air - complete peace. Meanwhile, the Kuril Islands are teeming with living creatures - both water and land. Draw and draw. The Kuriles are also rich in history. Conventionally, it can be divided into 3 stages: early, Japanese and Soviet (Russian).

We more or less know the Soviet and early ones. But about the Japanese - impossibly little.

Therefore, the most mysterious and unexplored island of the Kuril ridge still remains a small about. Matua

Matua Island is relatively small - 11 kilometers long, 6.5 kilometers wide. The height of the highest point, Sarychev Peak (Fuyo Volcano), is 1485 meters. The island is located in the central part of the Kuril ridge, therefore it is significantly removed from the populated areas of Sakhalin and Kamchatka. There is no connection with the outside world. Yes, actually, and there is no need - the island is uninhabited.

The first mention of the island of Matua was found by Ivan Kozyrevsky, who was on the northernmost islands of Shumshu and Paramushir in 1711 and 1713 and collected a lot of information about the entire ridge. He called Matua the island of Motogo. The Cossack centurion Ivan Cherny, who reached Iturup in 1766-1769, called Matua the island of Mutov.

In his report, he wrote about him:
"Mutova - there is a hill on it, which, according to the announcement of the Kurils, burned terribly in recent years, and stones were scattered all over the island so that many flying birds were killed by them. The root is all burned out and swept up by a stone".

Until the beginning of the 20th century, there was a permanent settlement of the Ainu. On the eve of World War II, the Japanese turned Matua - by the way, the Japanese themselves pronounce its name as Matsua-to - into a powerful fortress, into an unsinkable aircraft carrier that controlled the northwest Pacific Ocean. There was a large airfield with three long runways, allowing aircraft to be lifted in almost any wind direction. The strips were heated by thermal waters, and therefore could be used all year round. There are enough reasons to believe that there were some secret Japanese facilities on Matua. It is likely that these were laboratories for the development of chemical or bacteriological weapons. Submarines of the Third Reich came here, having made an almost round-the-world trip. The Americans repeatedly tried to destroy airfields and island facilities, losing a dozen aircraft and at least two submarines in battle.

Not only was the island securely protected by impregnable cliffs and high shores, but a whole network of various military fortifications was additionally built on it. Both the Japanese themselves and prisoners of war from China had to work hard on their construction. Fearing bombing and shelling from the sea, the Japanese dug deeper into the ground, and by the summer of 1945 there was no free space on Matua from all kinds of defensive fortifications in the form of ditches, trenches, trenches, dugouts, pillboxes and bunkers, lunettes, underground shelters and entire galleries . By this time, Matua Island, like many other Kuril Islands, had turned into a real fortress in the middle of the ocean, which was problematic to take. But the Russians were lucky enough to storm only one island, the northernmost in the Kuriles - Shumshu, the rest were taken with less blood, or even without a fight. In this row is the island-fortress of Matua. Its garrison laid down their arms in front of our troops on August 26-27, 1945. Since then, the island has become Russian, but to this day it continues to keep many Japanese secrets.

The ceremony of surrendering the soldiers of the 41st separate infantry regiment, which was part of the garrison of the island of Matua. Japanese officer - regiment commander, Colonel Ueda.

After the surrender of Japan on August 14 and until the capture of the island by Soviet troops on August 27, 1945, the Japanese had enough time to hide and conserve all the most important and valuable island objects. Surprisingly, judging by the inventory of weapons and equipment captured on the island, the paratroopers did not find a single aircraft, tank or gun on Matua. For 3811 Japanese soldiers and officers who surrendered, only 2127 rifles turned out to be available. At the same time, pilots, sailors and gunners disappeared somewhere, and only construction battalion workers and support personnel were captured. Compare this with the trophies taken on the island of Shumshu, suddenly attacked on August 18, where there were more than 60 tanks alone.

Already after the Japanese were evacuated from Matua, and the Soviet military settled in their place, very strange events began to occur on the island: people disappeared, at night, light flickered on the slopes of the volcano, and out of nowhere, our military appeared rare trophies. For example, collectible French cognac ...

After the war, the United States really wanted to get Matua for itself, but Truman did not accept Stalin's crafty offer to change it to one of the Aleutian Islands. Why? This will become clear if one finds quotations from the correspondence between Stalin and Truman on the surrender of Japan. According to a preliminary agreement, the Japanese had to capitulate in the Kuril Islands and the northern part of Hokkaido to the Soviet troops. But Truman "forgot" about this and in his order to General MacArthur, he stipulated the entire surrender of the Japanese only to American troops. Stalin promptly recalled this, but Truman began to break down and eventually expressed a desire "to have the rights to air bases for land and sea aircraft on one of the Kuril Islands, preferably in the central group." Only Matua was such an island with a ready, beautiful airfield. Stalin, in response, asked for one of the islands of the Aleutian ridge for his base. Since then, there have been no such issues. So, in 1944-45, the Americans, it seems, laid eyes on Matua and, by and large, spared his unique defensive structures.

Little is known about what happened on Matua in Soviet times. Civilians did not get here and were not allowed, but the military keep their secrets. Apparently, there was a military unit serving radars on the island. Broken installations and dumps of electronic equipment from the 60s and 70s are scattered throughout the island.

Until about 2001, a frontier post was maintained on Matua. Then it burned down, and the homeless border guards were evacuated to the mainland. There is no one on the island now.

There are no closed bays on Matua. If you look at the island on maps or aerial photography, it may seem that there is no good shelter for a ship near the island at all. In practice, a convenient and relatively safe place is the strait in the southwestern part of the island, covered from the west by the small island of Ivaki (Toporkovy). It was here that the Japanese raid was located, the berths were located. The two-story pillbox on the shore, the beach littered with the wreckage of ships and equipment, the remains of the pier and the skeleton of the Royo-maru transport sunk in the strait are reminiscent of the Japanese. Somewhere at the bottom of the strait lie other Japanese transports - Iwaki-maru and Hiburi-maru, torpedoed by the American submarine SS-233 Herring.

Not far from the Kotojärvi parking lot, at low tide, a huge diesel engine emerges from the water, overgrown with algae and shells. The heart of which of the ships that found their end in the strait, he was, is no longer possible to establish.

We stayed on Matua for several days, and each trip to the island was accompanied by amazing finds and discoveries. The runways of the airfield are well preserved. The concrete on them is still better than what is in Sheremetyevo. There are hundreds of rusty fuel barrels around the airfield. Mostly ours, but there are also German ones marked Kraftstoff Wehrmaght 200 Ltr. ("Fuel of the Wehrmacht, 200 liters"). The dates from 1939 to 1945 are clearly visible on the barrels. Surprisingly, among the German barrels there are also full ones.

Numerous defensive structures are openly available: bunkers, pillboxes, caponiers, equipped artillery positions, tens of kilometers of trenches and ditches. The alder thickets are full of iron rubbish, sometimes the most amazing. You can, for example, stumble upon a cast-iron steam plant, very reminiscent of a small steam locomotive. Cast-iron and ceramic pipes stick out of the ground in ditches and on coastal screes. What is it? Plumbing, sewerage or parts of the airfield heating system?

I walked along the coast - I came across a disguised water station with huge cast-iron mechanisms inside the casemates. Everything is relatively safe. In the back wall of another collapsed building, I found a small door. I opened a path behind it, after 200 meters there was a rock in the forest, I looked closely - and this is skillful masonry, behind which is the entrance to a stone tunnel that goes uphill. Unfortunately, littered with an explosion at the very beginning. Landfill nearby. A cast-iron Japanese “potbelly stove” sticks out of the ground, next to it are fragments of ceramics, on which the markings of the Japanese army are read, bottles and vials with hieroglyphs, cartridge cases, leather shoes ...

Even if you do not try too hard, it is easy to find many structures on the island, the purpose of which is not easy to explain. What kind of load, for example, could be carried by concrete bunkers with meter-long walls, thick steel doors and the same shutters? Barracks, command post, warehouse, bomb shelter? But why then so many windows with a complex system of steel shutters and locks, why an intricate network of air ducts? Maybe a lab? On the island, more than once, some complex devices with sensors, pressure gauges, centrifuges were found ... However, these devices were broken and thrown away by the Japanese themselves. Where is everything else? Technique, equipment, equipment, personal belongings of the garrison? What did German submarines bring or take away here? What did the Americans try to destroy or capture, what have ours already found?

There are many questions. We were able to get answers to some of them in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, having met with Evgeny Mikhailovich Vereshchaga, the permanent leader of the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition.

We contacted Vereshchaga from Moscow and talked about our plans. An experienced Kamchadal looked at photographs of a catamaran and expressed polite bewilderment: they don’t go on such a boat in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. But he did not refuse to help - 120 liters of 92nd gasoline were waiting for us on Matua, without which it would have been difficult. We could meet at sea. Around the time when the Kotoyarvi was moving north, the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition with border guards was installing Orthodox crosses in the Kuriles. Near Ushishir Island, we got in touch with a border whaleboat, but could not approach it because of the rough sea and dense fog. We met already in Petropavlovsk - in the museum that Evgeny Vereshchaga, Irina Viter and their associates created as a result of the study of the Kuril Islands and, first of all, Matua.

Why exactly Matua, because very close to Kamchatka there are Shumshu and Paramushir, larger and better known islands, recaptured from the Japanese in the same 1945?

For a very long time, Matua was completely inaccessible. The opportunity to get there appeared only in 2001, when the outpost burned down and the border guards left. This year we have already completed the 14th expedition, but even now the island shows us only one hundredth of its secrets. Although the conclusion is unequivocal: the island was mothballed by the Japanese garrison before surrendering to Soviet troops.

Did they have time for this?

On August 18, the Kuril landing operation began. Information about this passed through all the Kuril Islands, naturally, on Matua they learned about the start of hostilities by the USSR. On August 23, the Japanese garrison capitulated to Shumshu and Paramushir. And on August 25, the Matua garrison, led by commander Colonel Ledo, surrendered. However, we know from Japanese sources that since February 1945, Ketsu's plan was implemented in Japan, according to which it was necessary to take out everything that was possible from the Kuril Islands, and what could not be taken out, then mothballed, that is, hidden. Equipment, machinery, raw materials ... The country's leadership took such actions due to the fact that there was a forecast about the imminent surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan's main ally. In February-March 1945, the Ketsu plan was put into effect on Matua. Everything that could not be taken out was hidden. And what could not be hidden was destroyed. We found a large amount of burnt equipment, and not just burnt, but burnt and buried 2 meters. Small parts were burned in barrels at high temperatures. Everything there was scorched and melted. Everything was destroyed very carefully. But we assume that especially valuable things were well hidden. After all, it is known how the Japanese acted in such cases in the southern islands, in the same Philippines, for example. According to our assumptions, about 10-15 thousand people left the island before the surrender. And those who surrendered were the so-called funeral brigade, which conserved the island and hid everything.

But in February 1945, and even more so later, it was very difficult for the Japanese to evacuate such a large and complex military facility as the island of Matua. Maybe they drowned everything in the ocean?

The divers who participated in the expedition examined the shores, including a secret pier. Apart from a few pieces of iron and American shells that were fired at the island, there is nothing there.

And why was this rather small island, which does not have a convenient bay, so important to the Japanese?

We believe that Matua was built as a powerful reserve base, which was to become a springboard for a possible retreat from the northern islands. Shumshu and Paramushir are the tip of the sword directed at Kamchatka. The structures on these islands are of purely military importance. Nothing exotic, but on Matua we see paved roads, figured walls, decorative finishes, new technologies ... It can be seen that everything was very comfortable here, the blissful Japanese lived, there was a rear. As we learn from the interrogations of General Tsumi Fusaki, the commander of the northern group, the Matua garrison did not obey him and was controlled directly from the Hokkaido headquarters. This indicates some special status of the island of Matua. Japanese and our mentality are very different; on the island, on which it would seem impossible to create a naval base, the Japanese built it. Surprise and paradox are their know-how.

In Germany, work was underway to create a new weapon. In particular, chemical and bacteriological. They probably did the same in Japan. There is a version that secret laboratories were located on Matua. What did your research show?

The Japanese were doing this. It is known that Detachment 731 was engaged in the development of chemical and bacteriological weapons in Harbin, on the territory of today's PRC. I was there two years ago and saw structures very similar to those on Matua. Of course, we heard all sorts of scary stories, tales, myths, so we try to observe safety precautions as much as possible. If we find something that could potentially be dangerous, then we never touch it. We mask it so that someone else does not find it, and examine it very carefully.

During the war, the island of Matua and its pilots carried a special, strategic mission to protect the base on about. Simushir. And, if it were not for the surrender of Japan, announced by Emperor Hirohito on August 14 and forcing many Japanese island garrisons to surrender without a fight, it is not known how long our landing forces would have stormed Matua, how much blood would have been shed on both sides, especially from the advancing. I think that the use of atomic bombs by the Americans played a significant role in the surrender. A demonstration of overwhelming power, which even the garrisons of these islands would not have resisted, also did its job.

It seems that the island was a kind of transshipment, rear base between the islands of the Kuril chain and Japan. Reserve stocks of fuel, food, equipment were located on the island.

I saw some chemical flasks, other vessels blown out of glass...

Of course, we also found them. But we did not carry out special excavations. Everywhere in the world there are safety standards. If warehouses of dangerous chemicals or bacteria must be hidden at a depth of 20 meters, it is natural that they are there. In this sense, Matua is safe. Our garrisons have been here for 55 years, and nothing bad has happened.

What evidence is there that mothballed objects are hidden inside the island?

We found underground communications, 100-200-300 meters of corridors carved in basalt, trimmed with wood, there are many different rooms inside, stoves for cooking and heating ... This is the so-called underground city object. And this is only that part of it that we discovered by accident. There was a scree, an entrance was formed, and we were able to climb through. After earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, more and more objects are accidentally discovered. But we find only that which is not very disguised.

You can take for example the island of Iwo Jima, which everyone has probably heard of. Its garrison consisted of 22 thousand people. The Americans stormed it for three months. The operation involved about 200 thousand soldiers, hundreds of ships, it was only bombed for a whole month ... So, Iwo Jima is three times smaller than Matua. And on Matua, when ours arrived there, not a single plane, not a single tank, not a single gun. And the huge US interest in this island. All this suggests that the main facilities were mothballed by the state resource. I mean the Ketsu plan or something similar. Everything was done by specialists, everything was purposefully disguised, put into storage, then to be taken away, clogged, exploded. With the resources we have, it is very difficult to open what was hidden by the resources of the whole state.

The northern part of the island of Matua is occupied by mountain range, which is crowned by Sarychev Peak (Fuyo Volcano). The approaches and slopes are densely overgrown with impenetrable alder dwarfs, fresh slag screes begin higher with a steepness of 60-70 degrees. The volcano is alive: the last eruption occurred just two years ago.

We continue our conversation with Evgeny Vereshchaga, the leader of the Kamchatka-Kuril expedition, who has been trying to penetrate the secrets of the island for almost 10 years.

What is the uniqueness of the structures on Matua, in particular the airfield? What we have seen is amazing. After 70 years, the coating is absolutely usable. And what was the airfield under the Japanese?

There were three lanes with asphalt concrete pavement. One - 400 meters, there were four metal hangars on it and taxiing was going on a large strip about 2 kilometers long. Another lane - 1.5 kilometers. The width of the strips is 70 meters, along the edges there are gutters for water flow. Under the coating - laid pipes. Those who served here say that until 1985 the airfield was heated with thermal waters.

It turns out a contradiction: on the one hand, the airfield, and on the other - laboratories. But the very presence of a huge airfield would unmask secret objects. What is primary anyway? Did the airfield serve some important infrastructure or were all these facilities built to serve the airfield?

The Japanese began to explore the island a long time ago. In 1923, there was already the settlement of Matsua-mura. If we imagine that the construction began in the 30s, then it was the interior of Japan and there was hardly any need to hide the work. And then the war began and the situation changed. In American photographs from the war, the airfield is practically invisible from the air. Everything was covered with camouflage nets. Remnants of this disguise are still preserved. We believe that in addition to the airfield, there was some kind of production here. Factories, stocks of raw materials…

It is known that Japanese submarines reached Germany. Barrels of German fuel found on the island may indicate that the Germans also came here. After May 1945, many German submarines simply disappeared. Material values, treasures, documents also disappeared. Later, the crew members of these submarines were announced in different parts Sveta. You have found underwater mooring walls, tunnels. Could the Germans deliver something to their allies on Matua?

We consider this possibility quite real. Why, for example, the same Amber Room could not be taken to one of the distant and hard-to-reach islands, and even to the allies? Fantastic version, of course. But it has the right to exist. In terms of communication, the island is so developed that you can hide anything on it. There was no information leak at all. Any cargo that was brought in was kept here in complete secrecy, information could not get away. The Japanese are still silent. The head of the garrison, Colonel Ledo, died in 1985 without leaving any memoirs. Until 2000, the Matua Veterans Society officially existed in Japan. On the island of Iwo Jima, out of a 20,000-strong garrison, only 200 people were captured, and even those were wounded. Japanese society does not perceive them, considers them outcasts, because they surrendered instead of dying for the emperor. And on Matua, 3811 people surrendered, and society excuses them. Why? So that was their mission.

If the Japanese faced such a task, then there were opportunities for this. At least Japanese planes in the Matua area were hit more than once.

Almost all ground military facilities have a single connecting underground gallery. Almost everywhere along the upper line of defense there is a narrow-gauge railway, along which trolleys went for a centralized supply of ammunition. Also on the island there are anti-tank ditches, the coastline throughout - in trenches and anti-personnel barriers.

All pillboxes are arranged in a certain sequence for the effective use of crossfire. All pillboxes are in excellent condition, with glass in armored doors and perfectly preserved finishes on the walls and ceiling (something like fiberboard, only from a mixture of seaweed and cement).

There are a lot of secrets here, and one of them is the possible work of the Japanese in the Kuriles on chemical and bacteriological weapons. Submarines and raiders of the Wehrmacht came to the Kuriles, this can be indirectly confirmed even by empty German barrels of those years that are found on Matua.

The airfield is located in such a way that the winds that dominate Matua (east or southwest) could not interfere with either takeoff or landing of aircraft. If the wind suddenly changes - there is a third lane, departing from the first at 145 degrees. Two parallel strips 1570 meters long and 35 meters wide are concreted. Moreover, the quality of concrete is still impressive today: there are practically no cracks on it. It should be noted one very interesting detail that immediately catches your eye: the take-off fields were heated by local thermal water. It was brought along a special concreted ditch (chute) from the deposit, which was apparently located somewhere on the slope of the Sarychev volcano. The groove runs between two parallel runways, and pipes are laid under each of these runways - water circulates through them. And so - for the entire length, after which the water went under the third lane, and then turned back. Thus, in winter, the Japanese had no problems with snow removal on the runways - they were always clean.

According to the foundations of the barracks, preserved near the airfield, it can be judged that officers lived here. Everyone has their own little room, a narrow corridor. Above the foundation rises the preserved chimney and the stove itself, which was used to heat the bath. The Japanese bath is a communal pool with stone seats on the sides. They went into it, sat down and rinsed for their pleasure.

The airfield was the real pride of the commander of the island garrison, Colonel Ueda and all senior officers, although it was he who, being strategic for the Kuriles, like flies, attracted American bombers. They hardly bombed other targets on Matua, but runways plowed so thoroughly that their repair took a long time.
This can be seen in the photo by the numerous patches in the concrete. But what quality patches!
(Barrels are from our time.)

Pilots of the 28th group bombed the Kuril Islands long-range bombers which was located in Alaska. This happened from April 1944 to August 1945, until the USSR declared war on Japan. Mostly B-24 and B-25 aircraft were used. The main purpose of the bombing was to draw off part of the Japanese forces, including aviation, from the main American strikes. I must say that the Americans succeeded: if in 1943 Japan kept a total of 262 aircraft in Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, then in the summer of 1944 there were already about 500 of them. only 18 fighters on Paramushir and 12 naval bombers on Shumshu.

It's the same with people. If until 1943 there were a total of 14-15 thousand people in the Kuriles, then at the end of the year there were already 41 thousand, and in 1945 there were 27 thousand. During raids on the Kuriles, including the island of Matua, the Americans took a big risk because of the long range. There are different opinions about their use of "jump" bases, but I'm not talking about that. 50 were shot down over Matua alone American aircraft with crews of several people. This suggests that the Japanese fought very skillfully and were ready for defense. Yet the Americans bombed the island selectively. Bombs fell mainly on runways and objects such as fuel and lubricants, while other structures were spared.

But since then, the island is full of the remains of a rare military equipment, which, fortunately, turned out to be inaccessible to fans of ferrous metals.

The commandant on the island also had another pride - this is a huge hill with regular rounded outlines, towering above the surroundings and second only to the owner - the volcano Fue. But Ueda preferred not to talk about this object, being proud of it silently, to himself, because in the hill there was a whole underground city with warehouses, housing, a hospital, and headquarters. This is a height of 124.8 meters, according to preliminary information, artificially created by the hands of the Japanese - in other words, bulk. Now all the entrances to the hill have been blown up, and only roads and careful stone finishing indicate that there was an important object here. Moreover, the stones are hewn and carefully fitted to each other. The cement between them gleamed like glass.

Interestingly.

3,795 Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered on the island. Trophies amounted to 2127 rifles, 81 light machine guns, 464 heavy machine guns and 98 grenade launchers. Strange, but among the listed trophies taken on Matua, there were no artillery pieces. Why? In general, there are many questions in the history of the landing of our paratroopers on Matua.

At Japanese garrison on the island of Matua, after the announcement of the surrender of Japan, there was plenty of time to resolve all issues either with the destruction of all military equipment available there, or very professionally hide it just in case. The only thing the Japanese could do was to drown the equipment and secret equipment in the sea, or hide it underground, blowing up the paths to the underground warehouses. Until now, there are disguised components and assemblies of military equipment on the island, strange numbered rods with threads, the purpose of which can only be guessed. Exploring the island, you can find many things and objects belonging to Japanese soldiers.

imperial vase

soldier token

Hirohito's motnet in 10 sen

razor rinse

... In the late 1970s, three border guards disappeared here. The sergeant and two enlisted men, out of curiosity, descended into the Japanese installations, and no one else saw them. Then they figured out that they were descending into one of the ventilation shafts of the round hill. Then an order was issued strictly forbidding any climbing on Japanese workings. By the way, because of this ban, many border guards who were on urgent duty on the islands did not leave the location of the unit for their entire service.

Laz, in which the border guards disappeared

Even on Matua there are bays artificially cut down by the Japanese for sheltering boats and submarine mini-boats. Above some bays there are underground shelters in the form of galleries. The crews of the ships could go there in case of an alarm. The ships themselves stood in bays under camouflage nets.

After the withdrawal of the Japanese army, a lot of ammunition remained on the island. They were taken to the airfield area, stacked and blown up.

This pillbox is the most famous on Matua. They say that this is the only pillbox that is not connected by an underground passage to the general underground system of the island. It has no underground outlet at all. Therefore, our border guards called it a suicide pillbox.

The clue to the island of Matua is waiting for its researchers. The fact that everything is preserved there, as the Japanese left, is a rarity. But, again, the security situation maritime borders Russia under Yeltsin was such that foreigners could easily enter and live illegally on the islands for years, and no one could find them. And when discovered, it was impossible to get them - our ships did not have fuel, on which in those years a bunch of swindlers made their fabulous fortunes, and the ships could not go to sea. The border guards only gritted their teeth from impotence. In those shameful, accursed years, everything could be taken out of the foggy Kuriles, everything. Or maybe they took it out. Who knows…

well, for fun, you can remember