Fais

Fais is an island in the Western Caroline Islands.

Alternative spellings and historic names include: Astrolabe, Feis, Feys, Fuhaesu, Huhaesu, Tromelin, Woaje

This single island is located at 9° 45' N, 140° 31' E, approximately 97 miles north of Sorol and 48 miles east of Ulithi. It has an altitude of 30 feet (some older sources say 60 to 65 feet). Geologists differ as to whether the island is an elevated atoll, which once had a lagoon, or an uplifted table reef. It is one and one half miles long and three quarters of a mile wide. The greater part of the shore is fringed by reefs; elsewhere the coast is of a firm stalaotitic formation, with precipitous slopes, which in some places have been deeply eroded by ocean breakers. The center of the island is flat and cultivated, a large part being covered with coconut palms. The settlements are in the south.

Fais was discovered by Ruy López de Villalobos in 1543; visited by de Louis Tromelin in 1828; and tentatively mapped by Friedrich Benjamin Graf von Lütke in 1828.

Fais is a part of the Outer Islands of Yap, a component of Yap State, itself part of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Subunits

Inhabited places on Fais include: Choichoi and Periko.

Population, Language and Religion

The 2010 FSM Census reported a population of 294. Ulithian is the spoken language and religious affiliation is predominantly Roman Catholic.

A 1935 count of the population by the Japanese identified 334 native residents. After the war, in summer of 1946, the US Naval Military Government counted 236 local residents on Fais.

Governance

Spain laid claim to the Carolines from the time of initial discovery in the early 1500's but made no attempt to occupy or administer them. In 1885 a Governor for the Carolines was appointed by the Governor General of the Philippines and presence established in Pohnpei and Yap. In this Spanish Period (1521-1899), Fais fell within the Western District of the Spanish East Indies.

After the Spanish-American War, Spain sold the Palau, Caroline, and Marianas Islands to Germany in 1899. In this German Period (1899-1914), the Caroline, Palau and Mariana Islands (excluding Guam), along with the Marshalls, annexed in 1885, were titled Imperial German Pacific Protectorates. The Carolines become an administrative district of German New Guinea under direction of a vice-governor and Faisfell within the Western Caroline District.

The Carolines were seized from the Germans by the Japanese early in World War I. Despite protests from the United States, including the Yap Crisis, the Islands were in 1920 mandated to Japan by the League of Nations. In this Japanese Period (1914-1941), Fais fell within the Yap District of the “Nan'yō Cho” or South Seas Government.

Following liberation of the islands in the War in the Pacific, the islands were administered by the US Navy. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was formalized by United Nations Security Council Resolution 21 in 1947. The Navy passed governing duties to the Department of the Interior in 1951. During the USN Period (1945-1947) and the TTPI Period (1947-1979) Fais fell within the Yap Administrative Unit and then the Yap District.

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) was established with the end of the Trust Territory. The FSM is one of three “Freely Associated States,” or “FAS” nations that entered into a Compact of Free Association or “COFA” with the US. The treaty and agreements provide economic assistance to the countries, secured US defense rights and set defense responsibilities, and allow FAS citizens to migrate to the United States.

Traditional Culture

Pre-Contact

Fais was part of the "Yap-Ulithi-"Woleai" chain of authority and the related "Sawei" Yap/Outer Island Trade and Tribute Network (sometimes called the "Yap Empire”). Pre-contact social order was characterized by a social hierarchy with a strong egalitarian ethic and chief(s) with highly circumscribed powers (Goldman Level 1 of 3); very rare interpersonal violence (between individuals who frequently, but not always, are known to one another); perhaps one death per decade (1 on Younger's 0-4 scale); and no recorded instance, or only a few over several centuries, of warfare, defined as armed aggression between political communities or alliances of political communities (0 on Younger's 0-4 scale).

Property rights were characterized by: a land tenure system based on patrilineal ownership (Sudo, Type 4). Food resources were owned by the agnatic (patrilineal) lineage and inherited patrilineally.

Present Day

Traditional chiefly authority is exercised by the Council of Tamol.

In Yap, traditional leaders have a role in governnance that enshrines them as a "Fourth Branch." As John Haglelgam, former President of the FSM observed in his "Traditional Leaders and Governance in Micronesia" (1998), “in Yap, the traditional leaders have formal roles in the government. The Yap state constitution created two councils of chiefs: one for the main islands of Yap and one for the outer island chiefs. These councils are empowered to review and disapprove an act of the state legislature if it violates custom and tradition… The legislature cannot override the veto of these councils but can incorporate their objection in the bill and return it for their review. So far. the councils have used their power sparingly. The councils have also expanded their power to review policy of the executive branch which has forced the governor and his cabinet to justify their policy to the councils… The two councils are in essence public watchdogs, making sure that elected officials and bureaucrats are doing their job.“

Electoral Divisions

The legislative branch of the Federated States of Micronesia is unicameral. Two types of Senators are elected: at-large senators, one for each of the four states, who serve four-year terms, and population-based senators, representing specific constituencies, who serve two-year terms. The President of Micronesia is elected by the Congress from amongst the four at-large senators, after which a special election is held to (re)fill that seat. Fais is represented in the FSM Congress by the Yap, At-Large Seat Senator, and the Yap, Sole Population-Based District Senator.

Since the establishment of the FSM, Yap State voters have elected and maintained in Congress one Yapese Senator and one Outer Island Senator. This de facto power-sharing arrangement is similar to the requirement in the Yap's State Constitution stating "if the Governor is a resident of Yap Islands Proper, the Lieutenant Governor shall be a resident of the Outer Islands, and if the Governor is a resident of the Outer Islands, the Lieutenant Governor shall be a resident of Yap Islands Proper."

Education

The Local Education Agency, or “school district” for Fais is the Yap State Department of Education and Fais falls within the Ulithi Zone.

Phosphate

Phosphate deposits in the Palaus and Yap's Outer Islands were first discovered by a research expedition sent out in 1903 from Germany. The German Government immediately gave the sponsors of the expedition concessions over the deposits on Anguar and Peleliu; later they also acquired rights over Fais. In 1909, as the South Sea Rock Phosphate Corporation, they began mining on Anguar, but the deposits on Peleliu and Fais had not been worked when the islands were taken over by the Japanese in 1914. In 1920, when Japan was given mandate over the islands, phosphate mining rights on Angaur, Peleliu and Fais, and rights were purchased by the Japanese government. In 1938 the South Seas Colonialization Corporation began to develop the deposits on Fais.

The principal phosphate deposits in Yap State are on Gaferut and Fais. The former were owned by the Nanyo Boeki Kaisha, the latter by the Nanyo Takushoku Kaisha during the Japanese Period. Fais deposits were estimated to exceed 400,000 tons in 1944 and were reported to be of excellent quality. The ore was said to be of high grade, with a calcium phosphate content running as high as 80 per cent. The major difficulty in exploiting them was the lack of good loading facilities.

When first examined in detail by the Germans in 1911, it was found that about half of the surface of Fais was covered with guano phosphate, which they estimated to amount to 700,000 tons. Of this amount, 283,000 tons were mined and shipped to Japan during the period 1938 to 1944.

Japanese era mining at Fais was done entirely by hand and was a very simple process. The Japanese arbitrarily divided the ore body into two parts, known as the "shallow seam" and the "deep seam". The shallow seam was the surface soil, which is phosphatic, and could be simply shoveled from the surface above the solution-pitted coral. This ore probably did not average much over one foot in thickness. The deep seam ore was the material which must be gouged from the narrow, closely spaced pot holes in the coral. This was done with a three-pronged tool similar to a post hole digger and required more man hours per ton than did mining the shallow seam ore.

Post-War US analysis indicated the deposits on Fais are filled crevices between limestone pinnacles. The crevices average only six feet in depth, and are relatively low in alumina and ferric oxide. In the late 1940s, it was surmised that on Fais hard phosphate rock had been formed from the alteration of the limestone pinnacles, but these had not been mined. American researchers further noted that, at that point, no analyses had been made to determine if the limestone underlying the phosphates had been dolomitised.

Relatedly, Tobacco is grown in larger or smaller quantities on most of the islands, but particularly on Fais and Palau, In Fais, after the tobacco is dried out it is wrapped in apandanus leaf in the shape of a spindle about one foot long and was used as an article of trade. This native tobacco, introduced originally from the Philippines, is strong and bitter.

Japanese Era

The island was the site of a Japanese radio tower, the naval station using call letters JFF. It was licensed to operate at a capacity of 60 kw., used the A-1 type of transmission, and broadcasted on a frequency of 5,420 kc. It also has short-wave equipment. A branch depot of the Nanyo Boeki Kaisha was located at thp south end of the island. This included  a large warehouse, adjacent to the phosphate works.

Bunko Hijikata, a graduate of the Tokyo Fine Arts School, was reported in 1934 to have been living for several years on Fais, studying native life. Sasuke Sugiura, a Japanese carpenter, left Palau in 1934 to join Bunko Hijikata. Shoken Kamimiya served as postmaster of the Fais Special Post Office in the early 1940s.

Runway

Fais Civil Airfield is located in Yap State on Fais Island, roughly 166 miles (268 km) east of Yap International Airport and 53 miles (85 km) east of Ulithi Atoll. It is currently served by Pacific Missionary Aviation. The airfield is unattended. The runway is 3,000 by 75 feet of chipseal (asphalt over fine aggregate).

Texts Dealing with Fais

Buden, Donald W. 2011. “The Odonata of Fais Island and Ulithi and Woleai Atolls, Yap State, Western Caroline Islands, Federated States of Micronesia.” Micronesica 41(2): 215–22.

“Cultural Preservation of Traditional Textiles on Fais Island in Micronesia.”

Fosberg, F. Raymond, and Michael Evans. 1969. “A Collection of Plants from Fais, Caroline Islands.” Atoll Research Bulletin 133: 1–15. doi:10.5479/si.00775630.133.1.

Intō, Michiko. 2008. “Ongoing Archaeological Research on Fais Island, Micronesia.” Asian Perspectives 47(1): 121–38. doi:10.1353/asi.2008.0000.

Rubinstein, Don. “Native Place-Names and Geographic Systems of Fais, Caroline Islands.”