Rota – the Friendly Island of the southern Marianas
Rota, known in Chamorro as Luta and often called the Friendly Island, is the southernmost island of the Northern Marianas. The first European to see it, in 1521, was a lookout on Ferdinand Magellan's ship Victoria, but the first to come ashore was the Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, in 1524. Rota was later sold to the German Empire under the German-Spanish Treaty of 1899, and after the First World War it came under Japanese administration, formally recognised in 1919; sugar cane growing followed, and a refinery that closed after only three years. The island was drawn into the fighting of the Second World War. Today Sinapalo and Songsong are its main villages. What memories, photographs or family stories would you like to share?