District center of Pohnpei
Pohnpei (also spelled Ponape and earlier Bonabee) is one of the islands in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and is one of the Senyavin Islands. It is notable for the prevalence of the extreme form of color blindness known as maskun.
The FSM's capital Palikir is located on Pohnpei.
The island was a Japanese territory in World War II, but was one of those bypassed by the US Navy. The military facilities were shelled on several occasions, including by the battleships USS Massachusetts (BB-59) and Iowa (BB-61), and by the aircraft of Cowpens (CVL-25).
The island plays a central role in the fictional Cthulhu Mythos as being only a day away from the fictional island of R'lyeh, the place where the fictional character Cthulhu currently resides. Several stories by H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth and others use this island as a setting or contain references to it.
