[2] In 1863, a ship with a crew of 460 Chinese laborers and 23 American sailors, bound for the United States from China, was shipwrecked on the island.

Although at that time the Japanese populace had been ordered by the shogunate to kill or imprison any foreigners who entered Japan without authorization, Mikura's inhabitants treated the shipwrecked crew with hospitality and kindness.

As with most of the other islands in the Izu archipelago, Mikura-shima rises sharply from the sea with coastal cliffs up to 500 meters in height, and has a steep interior.

The island's largest spring forms Shirataki (white falls) waterfall that drops 80m into the Pacific Ocean below.

[3] Unlike the other islands in the Izu group, Mikura-jima has preserved most of its old-growth forest and endemic flora, such as the nioiebine orchid.

The island has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it hosts the largest breeding colony of streaked shearwaters (with some two million birds) in the world, as well as supporting populations of Japanese wood pigeons, Japanese murrelets, Pleske's grasshopper warblers, Ijima's leaf-warblers and Izu thrushes.