Tinian Bomb Loading Pits, Northern Mariana Islands, US Territories

Three miles south of Saipan is Tinian, the second largest of the Northern Mariana Islands. With a population of just 3,000, most of Tinian’s development are the remains of a World War II airbase. The Americans captured Tinian from the Japanese in August, 1944, built six runways on the island, and made it the busiest airfield in the world for the remainder of the War. The last of the hundreds of missions that flew from here to Japan were the atomic bombings of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki, three days later. The loading pits for the oversized Little Boy and Fat Man bombs remain amidst the vestiges of the base at the north end of the island, known as loading pits A and B.