Iwo Jima Coast

The coast of Iwo Jima faces waters crossed by navigators seeking routes between the Philippines and New Spain. Bernardo de la Torre almost certainly saw the Volcano Islands in 1543 while commanding San Juan de Letrán on an unsuccessful eastward passage. His group name Balcones appears instead to have referred to an eruption in the islands, probably on South Iwo Jima. Spanish sailors subsequently passed the area without establishing settlement or a formal claim, although the islands fell within Spain's notional eastern sphere after the treaties dividing Spanish and Portuguese ambitions. Japanese knowledge also reached the island in the late sixteenth century. In 1779 John Gore visited with awareness of earlier Spanish accounts and recorded the English name Sulphur Island. The volcanic shore remained relatively neglected by the principal maritime powers for a long period, illustrating how an island could appear in accounts and imperial geographical assumptions without immediately becoming an occupied possession. Its surrounding sea preserves that earlier history of difficult trans-Pacific routes.