Nanshin-ron ( 南進論 , "Southern Expansion Doctrine" or "Southern Road") was a political doctrine in the Empire of Japan that stated that Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands were Japan's sphere of interest and that their potential value to the Empire for economic and territorial expansion was greater than elsewhere.
97-626: The opposing political doctrine was Hokushin-ron ( 北進論 , "Northern Expansion Doctrine") , largely supported by the Imperial Japanese Army , which stated the same but for Manchuria and Siberia . After military setbacks at Nomonhan , Mongolia ; the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War tying down millions of Japanese troops in China; and negative Western attitudes towards Japanese expansionist tendencies,
194-415: A bus service on Chichijima and elderly passengers may use a "silver pass". There is also a sightseeing taxi service, a rental car company, motorized scooter rental services, a bike rental service, and other amenities. Bringing your automobile onto the island is extremely difficult and costly. The Bonins have no airport. During severe accidents, illnesses, and other emergencies, a helicopter is dispatched from
291-683: A century, and Japanese foreign policy had little experience there. In pursuing Nanshin-ron Japan would risk and, in some quarters even welcome, a large-scale war with the great powers from across the globe. In November 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Japan and Nazi Germany . It agreed that in case of an attack by the Soviet Union against Germany or Japan, both countries agreed to consult on what measures to take "to safeguard their common interests." They also agreed that neither would make any political treaties with
388-620: A posthumous, abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation of Sankoku Tsūran Zusetsu . Further settlers arrived in 1846 aboard the whaling ship Howard . They established themselves initially in South Island. One of them, a woman from the Caroline Islands named Hypa, died in 1897 at the age of about 112, after being baptized on her deathbed. Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy visited
485-481: A regular air route between Tokyo and the Bonins using a proposed 1,200 m (3,900 ft) runway that would be built on Chichijima. This would allow it to land propeller aircraft with up to 50 passengers. The Tokyo government said that construction would depend on future assessments of the impact on the natural environment and economic feasibility. Ogasawara Village supported the runway in preference to expanding either
582-799: A second front in the Far East . Indeed, Japan did not militarily engage with the Soviet Union again until the Soviets declared war on Japan in August 1945. Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands , also known as the Ogasawara Islands (pronounced: [ogasawaɾa] ) (小笠原諸島), is a Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands located around 1,000 kilometers (620 mi ) SSE of Tokyo and 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi) northwest of Guam . The group as
679-834: A shift towards Nanshin-ron to procure colonial resources in South East Asia and to neutralize the threat posed by Western military forces in the Pacific. Japan and the USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941, which freed Japan for preparations for the Pacific War . When Nazi Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Japan did not join its Axis ally's invasion by opening
776-543: A whole has a total area of 84 square kilometers (32 sq mi) but only two of the islands are permanently inhabited, Chichijima and Hahajima . Together, their population was 2,560 as of 2021. Administratively, Tokyo 's Ogasawara Subprefecture also includes the settlements on the Volcano Islands and the Self-Defense Force post on Iwo Jima . The seat of government is Chichijima. Because of
873-609: Is on the boundary between the humid subtropical climate (Köppen classification Cfa ) and the tropical monsoon climate (Köppen classification Am ). Temperatures are warm to hot all year round due to the warm currents from the North Pacific gyre surrounding the island. Rainfall is less heavy than in most parts of mainland Japan since the island is too far south to be influenced by the Aleutian Low and too far from Asia to receive monsoonal rainfall or orographic precipitation on
970-519: Is only known in one record and has not been seen since 1915. The Bonin flying fox ( Pteropus pselaphon ), also called the Bonin fruit bat, is endemic to the islands. It is currently listed as endangered , and a survey published by the Ogasawara Office of Education in 1999 estimated their number at around 100. The Bonin sambar ( R. unicolor boninensis) , a subspecies of the sambar deer ,
1067-670: Is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan . The Bonin Islands consist of three subgroups. Their former names come from a variety of sources, but their Japanese ones generally reflect a family: Although not part of the Bonins ( 小笠原群島 , Ogasawara- guntō ) geographically, the nearby Volcano Islands , Nishinoshima (Rosario Island), Okinotorishima (Parece Vela), and Minamitorishima (Marcus Island) are organized as part of Ogasawara municipality (小笠原村, Ogasawara- mura ). Ogasawara itself
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#17327730395111164-525: Is organized as a subprefecture of Tokyo . In Japanese, the geographical expression for the full range of the municipality is the "Ogasawara Archipelago" ( 小笠原諸島 , Ogasawara- shotō ) which in turn is sometimes calqued back into English as another meaning for "the Bonin Islands". The Bonin Islands are a part of the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc of Pacific islands . A fore arc, they lie above
1261-603: Is quite controversial on the islands. On 26 June 2016, the Japanese Minister of Environment Tamayo Marukawa talked about airport construction on the Bonins after the meeting in Tokyo commemorating the fifth anniversary of their registration as World Natural Heritage. At a 27 July 2017 meeting with Ogasawara Village, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced that it was considering opening
1358-512: The Mandarina snails. Most of the native snails are now endangered or extinct because of introduced species and habitat loss. The giant squid ( Architeuthis dux ) was photographed off the Bonins for the first time in the wild on 30 September 2004. It was filmed alive there in December 2006. The main port is Futami on Chichijima . Since 2016, the main line connecting the islands to
1455-680: The Bonin Islands and Taiwan into the Japanese Empire can be viewed as first steps in implementation of the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" in concrete terms. However, World War I had a profound impact on the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" since Japan occupied vast areas in the Pacific that had been controlled by the German Empire : the Caroline Islands , Mariana Islands , Marshall Islands and Palau . In 1919,
1552-787: The Bonin petrel extends beyond the Bonins themselves to other islands in the North Pacific. There are two restricted-range species of birds on the islands, the Japanese wood pigeon ( Columba janthina ) and the near-threatened Bonin white-eye ( Apalopteron familiare ), formerly known as the Bonin honeyeater. The Japanese wood pigeon was extirpated from the Iwo Island groups in the 1980s. The formerly endemic Bonin pigeon ( C. versicolor ), Bonin thrush ( Zoothera terrestris ) and Bonin grosbeak ( Carpodacus ferreorostris ) are now extinct. A small extinct bat, Sturdee's pipistrelle ,
1649-616: The Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1895) and the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 , which annexed Korea to Japan. After the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) Field Marshal Prince Yamagata Aritomo , a political and military ideological architect of Hokushin-ron , traced the lines of a defensive strategy against Russia . A February 1907 Imperial National Defence guideline envisioned two strategies: Nanshu Hokushin Ron (南守北進, defence in
1746-624: The Kingdom of Hawaii . They found the climate suitable for farming and the raising of livestock. Rum was made from cane sugar, and bordellos were opened, sometimes staffed by women kidnapped from other island chains. Whalers and other ships that could not find another friendly port in Japan often visited the Bonins for provision and recreation. Two years later, the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland published
1843-706: The Kwantung Army had 12,000 men available for the invasion of Manchuria, it needed reinforcements. War Minister Sadao Araki was a solid supporter of the Hokushin-ron and of a proposed attack on the Soviet Far East and Siberia . He arranged for Chōsen Army forces to be moved from Korea north into Manchuria without permission from Tokyo in support of the Kwantung Army. The plot to seize Manchuria proceeded as planned, and when presented by
1940-697: The Meiji Restoration of 1868, the nanshin-ron policy came to be advanced with the southern regions as a focus for trade and emigration. During the early Meiji period , Japan derived economic benefits from Japanese emigrants to Southeast Asia, among which there were prostitutes ( Karayuki-san ) who worked in brothels in British Malaya , Singapore , the Philippines , the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina . Nanshin-ron
2037-561: The San Juan sighted Haha-jima , which he charted as Forfana . The islands were uninhabited at that time. Japanese discovery of the islands occurred in Kanbun 10 (1670) and was followed by a shogunate expedition in Enpō 3 (1675). The islands were then referred to as Bunin jima ( 無人島 , Buninjima ) , literally "the uninhabited islands ". Shimaya Ichizaemon, the explorer at the order of
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#17327730395112134-539: The Self-Defense Force post on Iwo Jima . The ShinMaywa US-1 seaplane from the SDF post at Iwakuni is used during visits by the Tokyo governor and other dignitaries and for any emergency requiring rapid transport back to Honshu . For several decades, there has been talk of building a full airport. Sites on Chichijima and Anijima have both been rejected. Travel time to the mainland would be cut to around two hours, improving tourism and providing emergency services, and
2231-586: The Soviet–Japanese border conflicts ; as a result, the Navy gained the ascendency. It was supported in that by a number of the powerful industrial zaibatsu , which were convinced that they could best serve their interests by fulfilling the Navy's needs. The military setbacks on the Mongolian front, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War , and negative Western attitudes towards Japanese expansionist tendencies led to
2328-463: The U.S. Navy occupied the island, bulldozing existing Japanese homes and restricting resettlement until full control of the Bonins was returned to Japan in 1968. Ethnically, the island is now majority Japanese but remains unusually diverse, which is reflected in the local Creole language known as Bonin English . Improved transportation has made agriculture more profitable and encouraged tourism, but
2425-473: The Volcano Islands and three remote islands of Nishinoshima , Minamitorishima , and Okinotorishima . These islands are parts of Japan's Nanpō Islands . The islands were also formerly known to Europeans as the Archbishop Islands ( Spanish : Islas del Arzobispo ), probably in honor of Pedro Moya de Contreras , archbishop of Mexico and viceroy of New Spain , who sent an expedition to
2522-556: The characters ( buninshima for mujintō ), and then transcribed the resulting reading incorrectly into French as Bo-nin Sima , which eventually lost its original hyphen . The name Ogasawara ( 小笠原 ) literally means "little hat-shaped field(s)" but is used for the islands in honor of Ogasawara Sadayori ( 小笠原 貞 頼 ), a supposed ancestor of the ronin Ogasawara Sadatō ( 小笠原 貞 任 ) fictitiously credited with
2619-517: The coronavirus pandemic . Previously, there had been plans for a 14,500- ton "techno superliner" able to reach a maximum speed of 38 knots (70 km/h; 44 mph) and make the same journey in only 17 hours with a capacity of around 740 passengers. The project was canceled in July 2005, however, due to rising fuel prices and cost overruns of ¥2 billion. Hahajima is reachable via the ferry Hahajima Maru from Chichijima. Ogasawara Village operates
2716-514: The fait accompli , all that Prime Minister Reijirō Wakatsuki could do was weakly protest and resign with his cabinet. When the new cabinet was formed, Araki, as War Minister, was the real power in Japan. A puppet state was formed in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia , named Manchukuo , and was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy . Hokushin-ron was largely supported by the Imperial Japanese Army . General Kenkichi Ueda
2813-659: The natural resources of Siberia by attacking the Soviet Union via Manchuria. Southward expansion ( Nanshin-ron ) would involve seizing the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia ) and other colonies from the French and/or the British. Japan's supply of resources would eventually be assured by creating a " Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ". However, European powers had been dominant in Southeast Asia for more than
2910-709: The subduction zone where the Pacific Plate slides beneath the Philippine Sea Plate . This began during the Eocene , simultaneously producing the deep Bonin Trench to the east about 50 million years ago and prolonged volcanic activity that created the islands on the west around 48 million years ago. The Bonins are mostly composed of an andesitic volcanic rock called boninite , rich in magnesium oxide , chromium , and silicon dioxide . They may represent
3007-592: The 1920s, Japan had already begun the secret construction of fortifications in Palau, Tinian and Saipan . To evade monitoring by the Western powers, they were camouflaged as places to dry fishing nets or coconut, rice, or sugar-cane farms, and Nan'yō Kohatsu Kaisha (South Seas Development Company) in co-operation with the Japanese Navy, assumed responsibility for construction. The construction increased after
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3104-576: The Army and war with China as a strategic imperative. Relations between the Japanese Army and Navy were never cordial and were often marked by deep hostility, a situation whose origin can be traced back to the Meiji period . From the early 1930s the Army saw the Soviet Union as Japan's greatest threat and for the most part supported the Hokushin-ron concept that Japan's strategic interests were on
3201-498: The Army claimed to represent the "true will" of the Emperor. The radical ultranationalist Imperial Way Faction ( Kōdōha ) had many young activists who were strongly supportive of the Hokushin-ron strategy and a preemptive strike against the Soviet Union. They were opposed by the more moderate conservative Control Faction ( Tōseiha ), which favored a more cautious defence expansion and sought to impose greater discipline over
3298-578: The Army, including Araki, who was forced to retire in March 1936. The Imperial Defence Plan, formulated in June 1936, incorporated a balance of both Hokushin-ron and Nanshin-ron by requiring both the Army and the Navy to take a peaceful and unprovocative approach to their "enemies". The plan's goal was to acquire territories that possessed the raw materials, particularly petroleum , which Japan needed to sustain its growth and economy but it did not possess itself. Northward expansion ( Hokushin-ron ) would gain
3395-687: The Asian continent. The Navy looked across the Pacific Ocean and saw the United States as the greatest threat and, for the most part, supported the Nanshin-ron concept that Japan's strategic interests were in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. By the mid-1930s there was the serious possibility of a clash between the Army and the Navy because of their incompatible expansionist ideas. The Kōdōha faction, which favoured Hokushin-ron ,
3492-533: The Bonins' isolation, many of their animals and plants have undergone unique evolutionary processes. It has been called "the Galápagos of the Orient " and was named a natural World Heritage Site in 2011. When first reached during the early modern period , the islands were entirely uninhabited. Subsequent research has found evidence of some prehistoric habitation by Micronesians . Upon their repeated rediscoveries,
3589-766: The Japanese "Boninsima" were entirely different islands. On 12 September 1824, American Captain James Coffin in the whaler Transit first visited the southern group of islands ( Coffin Islands ). He revisited the archipelago in 1825, but this time, he arrived at the middle group of islands ( Beechey Group ). In September 1825, the British whaling ship Supply landed in the southern Bailey Group of islands. In 1826, another British whaler, William , arrived at Beechey Island. Whaling ships called regularly for water and turtles before continuing their voyages. In 1827, Captain F. W. Beechey of HMS Blossom reached
3686-462: The Japanese troops in the fortifications without supplies. Hokushin-ron Hokushin-ron ( 北進論 , "Northern Expansion Doctrine" or "Northern Road") was a political doctrine of the Empire of Japan before World War II that stated that Manchuria and Siberia were Japan's sphere of interest and that the potential value to Japan for economic and territorial expansion in those areas
3783-599: The Navy in the economic development of Taiwan and the South Seas Mandate through alliances among military officers , bureaucrats , capitalists , and right-wing and left-wing intellectuals contrasted sharply with Army failures in the Chinese mainland. The Washington Naval Treaty had restricted the size of the Japanese Navy and also stipulated that new military bases and fortifications could not be established in overseas territories or colonies. However, in
3880-512: The Navy's management of nuclear weapons on Chichijima. In 1956, the residents petitioned for American annexation of the islands but received no response. In 1968, the United States government returned the Bonins to Japanese control. The Ōbeikei could either become Japanese nationals or receive American citizenship and repatriate to the United States. The majority remained in the islands as Japanese citizens. Initially, 600 Japanese relocated to
3977-637: The Pacific region from the 17th-century red seal ship trading voyages, and Japanese immigration and settlement in Nihonmachi during the period before the Tokugawa shogunate 's national seclusion policies. Some researchers attempted to find archeological or anthropological evidence of a racial link between the Japanese of southern Kyūshū (the Kumaso ) and the peoples of the Pacific islands. Nanshin-ron appeared in Japanese political discourse around
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4074-576: The South Seas" ( Tai Nan'yō Hōsaku Kenkyū-kai ) to explore military and economic expansion strategies and cooperated with the Ministry of Colonial Affairs ( Takumu-sho ) to emphasize the military role of Taiwan and Micronesia as advanced bases for further southern expansion. In 1920 the Foreign Ministry convened the Nan-yo Boeki Kaigi (South Seas Trade Conference), to promote South Seas commerce and published in 1928 Boeki, Kigyo oyobi imin yori mitaru Nan'yo ("The South Seas in View of Trade and Emigration"). The term Nan-yo kokusaku (National Policy towards
4171-591: The South Seas) first appeared. The Japanese government sponsored several companies, including the Nan'yō Takushoku Kabushiki Kaisha (South Seas Colonization Company), the Nan'yō Kōhatsu Kabushiki Kaisha (South Seas Development Company), and the Nan'yō Kyōkai (South Seas Society) with a mixture of private and government funds for development of phosphate mining, sugarcane and coconut industries in islands and to sponsor emigrants. Japanese Societies were established in Rabaul , New Caledonia , Fiji and New Hebrides in 1932 and in Tonga in 1935. The success of
4268-581: The South and advance in the North) and Hokushu Nanshin Ron (北守南進, defence in the North and advance in the South). There was intense discourse within Japan on the two diverging theories. After World War I , Japanese troops were deployed as part of the Siberian Intervention during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War , with the hope that Japan could be freed from any future Russian threat by detaching Siberia and forming an independent buffer state . The Japanese troops remained until 1922, which encouraged discussion by Japanese strategic planners of
4365-409: The Southern Expansion Doctrine became predominant. Its focus was to procure resources from European Southeast Asian colonies, eliminate supply routes to China, and neutralize the Allied military presence in the Pacific. The Army favored a "counterclockwise strike", while the Navy favored a "clockwise strike". In Japanese historiography , the term nanshin-ron is used to describe Japanese writings on
4462-494: The Soviet Union, and Germany also agreed to recognize Manchukuo. A series of Soviet–Japanese border conflicts , without any formal declaration of war , began in 1932. Aggressive actions initiated by Japanese staff and field officers on the Soviet border with Manchukuo and Mongolia led to the disastrous Battles of Khalkhin Gol (1939), which resulted in heavy casualties for Kwantung Army and severely challenged its much-vaunted reputation. Any farther expansion northwards into Siberia
4559-407: The area in the late 16th century. At the end of the 20th century, prehistoric tools and carved stones were discovered on North Iwo Jima and Chichijima , establishing that the islands were previously home to at least some members of an unknown Micronesian people . The first recorded visit by Europeans to the islands happened on 2 October 1543, when the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre on
4656-419: The basis of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere , which was proclaimed by Japanese Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro from July 1940. Resource-rich areas of Southeast Asia were earmarked to provide raw materials for Japan's industry, and the Pacific Ocean was to become a "Japanese lake." In September 1940, Japan occupied northern French Indochina, and in November, the Pacific Islands Bureau ( Nan'yō Kyoku )
4753-474: The current helicopter or seaplane access. In fiscal 2019, 490 million yen was included in the Japanese budget for a feasibility study and a survey on Chichijima to determine the best location to construct the runway. In August 2020, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a council during which it affirmed its desire to open an airport. Still, it claimed it would not occur until 2030 at the earliest. To address environmental concerns, they further proposed shortening
4850-405: The development required for an airport remains a contentious local issue. The name Bonin comes from an 1817 article in the French Journal des Savans by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat in which—among various other misunderstandings of his source material —he misread a description of the islands as uninhabited ( 無人嶋 , " desert island [s]") for their actual name, used the wrong reading of
4947-478: The diametrically-opposite rival policy, Nanshin-ron ( 南進論 , "Southern Expansion Doctrine" or "Southern Road") , which regarded Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands as Japan's political and economic sphere of influence and aimed to acquire the resources of European colonies and to neutralize the threat of Western military forces in the Pacific. From the 1890s First Sino-Japanese War , Hokushin-ron came to dominate Japanese foreign policy. It guided both
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#17327730395115044-416: The discovery of the chain. Within Japanese , the Bonins proper are known as the "Ogasawara Islands" or "Group" ( 小笠原 群島 , Ogasawara-guntō ) while the "Ogasawara Islands" or "Archipelago" ( 小笠原 諸島 , Ogasawara-shotō ) is a wider term including the other islands of the Ogasawara Municipality ( 小笠原 村 , Ogasawara-mura ) and its coterminous Ogasawara Subprefecture ( 小笠原 支庁 , Ogasawara-shichō )—namely,
5141-481: The entire chain lies on South Iwo Jima , at 916 meters (3,005 ft). In November 2013, a new volcanic island formed offshore from Nishinoshima and eventually merged with it. The islands are fringed with healthy coral reefs and have many small beaches. The climate of the Bonin Islands ranges from a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ) to tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen climate classification Am ). The climate of Chichijima
5238-426: The equatorward side of the Siberian High . The wettest months are May and September, while the driest are January and February. The easternmost island, Minamitorishima or Marcus Island, has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen classification Aw ) with warm to hot temperatures throughout the year. The wettest months are July and August, while the driest are February and March. Flora has evolved differently on each of
5335-400: The even more restrictive London Naval Treaty of 1930, and the growing importance of military aviation led Japan to view Micronesia to be of strategic importance as a chain of " unsinkable aircraft carriers " protecting Japan and as a base of operations for operations in south-west Pacific. The Navy also began examining the strategic importance of Papua and New Guinea to Australia since it
5432-426: The expedition could not find the wanted islands after searching the positions where they were charted in contemporary references. Japanese maps at the time seem to have been rather inaccurate, to the point that some contemporaries considered them to have been deliberately misleading to discourage colonization attempts by foreign nations. Frederick William Beechey used the Spanish name as late as 1831, believing that
5529-435: The exposed parts of an ophiolite that has not yet been emplaced on oceanic crust. Although the area is currently dormant, most of the islands still have steep shorelines, often with sea cliffs ranging from 50 to 100 meters (160 to 330 ft) high. The Volcano Islands are much younger and still geologically active. Iwo Jima is a dormant volcano characterized by rapid uplift and several hot springs . The highest point in
5626-425: The idea of permanent Japanese occupation of Siberia east of Lake Baikal . An essential step in the Hokushin-ron proposal was for Japan to seize control of Manchuria to obtain an extensive de facto land border with the Soviet Union . Insubordination by rogue Japanese military personnel in the Kwantung Army in 1931 led to the Mukden Incident and provided a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria . As
5723-490: The importance to Japan of the South Seas region in the Pacific Ocean . Japanese interest in Southeast Asia can be observed in writings of the Edo period (17th–19th centuries). During the final years of the Edo period, the leaders of the Meiji Restoration determined that Japan needed to pursue a course of imperialism in emulation of the European nations to attain equality in status with the West, as European powers were laying claim to territories ever closer to Japan. After
5820-450: The island chain and claimed them as a British possession. A copper plate was removed from Blossom ' s hull and left on a beach as a marker of the claim: "HBM Ship Blossom Capt F. W. Beechey took possession of this Group of Islands in the Name of and on the behalf of His Britannic Majesty George the IV on the 14th June 1827." He also named the island of Chichijima "Peel" after then British Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel . Beechey
5917-431: The island groups officially became a League of Nations mandate of Japan and came under the administration of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The focus of the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" expanded to include the island groups (the South Seas Mandate ), whose economic and military development came to be viewed as essential to Japan's security. Meiji-period nationalistic researchers and writers pointed to Japan's relations with
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#17327730395116014-492: The islands in 1853 and bought a property at Port Lloyd from Savory for $ 50. The US " Colony of Peel Island " (Chichijima) was created, and Savory was appointed governor. In January 1862 ( Bunkyū 1), the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan claimed the islands in a short-lived colonial enterprise. The shogunal steamboat Kanrin Maru was dispatched to the islands with a crew of cartographers, physicians, and prominent bureaucrats. The islands were officially renamed Ogasawara, referring to
6111-434: The islands in 1893 and published an account of his sojourn. Lionel Cholmondeley compiled a history of the islands over several years, publishing it in 1915. In 1917, 60–70 island people claimed ancestry among the 19th-century English-speaking settlers; however, in 1941, no Bonin people would acknowledge descent from these early colonists. The current residents include some who claim to be related to Nathaniel Savory. In
6208-456: The islands were controlled by the United States Navy for the next 23 years, which the Westerners referred to as "Navy Time." All residents except those descended from the original settlers (the Ōbeikei Islanders) and/or related to them by marriage were expelled, while pre-war inhabitants of White American or European , Micronesian or Polynesian ancestry were allowed to return. Vacant properties of exiled Japanese were bulldozed as part of
6305-498: The islands were largely ignored by the Spanish , Dutch , and isolationist Japanese until finally being claimed by a passing British captain in 1827. American , European , and Hawaiian colonists arrived from the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1830. Subsequently, Meiji Japan successfully colonized and reclaimed the islands in 1875, but the original multicultural community continued up to World War II , when most islanders were forcibly relocated to Honshu . Following Japan's defeat ,
6402-510: The islands were put under the direct control of the Home Ministry . Further, foreign settlements were banned, and the government assisted settlers who wished to relocate from mainland Japan. The islands' forests were also reduced to use the land for sugar cane production. Colonists largely segregated themselves in two different villages, one for the Americans and the other for the Japanese. Islanders of European and US ancestry were eventually granted Japanese nationality in 1882. Jack London visited
6499-468: The islands' remoteness and unusually mixed local culture. Refrigeration has also allowed for the greater exportation of fruits and vegetables. Coffee bushes have also recently been introduced successfully. Some government agencies are also involved with the islands. A 25-metre-diameter (82 ft) radio telescope is located in Chichijima, one of the stations of the very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) project. It
6596-480: The islands, growing to about 2,000 by the end of the 20th century. The Bonins were named a natural World Heritage Site on 24 June 2011. Historically, the Bonin Islands consisted of subsistence farming with some exploitation of timber and grazing land for export to the mainland. With improved transportation, it has developed as a tourist destination, particularly for Japanese interested in scuba diving and ecotourism . Foreign tourists are also sometimes drawn by
6693-411: The islands. The Bonin Islands are sometimes referred to as the Galápagos of the Orient. They form a distinct subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion , the Ogasawara subtropical moist forests . The ecoregion has a high degree of biodiversity and endemism . The islands are home to about 500 plant species, of which 43% are endemic. The forests are of three main types: These islands are home to
6790-459: The later stage of World War II , most inhabitants were forcibly evacuated to the mainland. There was a Japanese military base on Chichijima run by a Major Sueo Matoba ( 的場 末男 , Matoba Sueo ) , who was known for engaging in cannibalism and other heinous acts on prisoners of war. The torpedo bomber of later American President George H. W. Bush crashed in the ocean near Chichijima. He ended up getting rescued by USS Finback and becoming
6887-411: The legendary Japanese discoverer from the late 16th century. This tentative colonization, however, did not last for long. In the summer of 1863, under foreign pressure, the shogunate ordered the evacuation of the islands. In 1875, the Japanese Meiji government reclaimed the islands. The Japanese names of each island were resolved, and 38 settlers from Hachijojima were sent the following year. In 1876,
6984-675: The long sought but legendary islands of Rica de Oro ("Rich in Gold"), Rica de Plata ("Rich in Silver"), and the Islas del Armenio ("Islands of the Armenian") . After several years of planning and frustrated initial attempts, the expedition finally set sail on 12 July 1587, commanded by Pedro de Unamuno . Even if it did revisit the Daitō Islands , already charted by Bernardo de la Torre in 1543,
7081-628: The mainland is the Ogasawara Shipping Company ( 小笠原海運株式会社 ). It operates the Ogasawara Maru ( おがさわら丸 ), an 11,035- ton 150-meter (490 ft) long vessel with 170 private rooms and a total capacity of 894 passengers. With a top speed of 24.7 knots (45.7 km/h; 28.4 mph), it makes the trip from Takeshiba Pier in Tokyo in about 24 hours in good weather. The number of monthly voyages varies, having fallen during
7178-594: The mid-1880s. In the late 19th century, the policy focused on China, with an emphasis on securing control of Korea and expanding Japanese interests in Fujian . Russian involvement in Manchuria at the turn of the century led to the policy being eclipsed by hokushin-ron (the "Northern Expansion Doctrine"). The resulting Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) produced territorial gains for Japan in South Manchuria . After
7275-428: The national, regional, and local governments have all supported the idea in theory. Projects have lagged, however, due to concerns about their economic feasibility and concerns that the proposed sites are homes to numerous valuable, rare, or endangered plant species. Some locals have greatly desired an airport, while a desire to keep the islands' natural beauty untouched has prompted others to work to block one. The issue
7372-560: The northernmost outliers of the palm genus Clinostigma . C. savoryianum is endemic and has been planted in Mediterranean climates with success. Other unique species include Metrosideros boninensis , a plant related to similar species growing in Fiji and New Caledonia . Due to its isolation and recent colonization, the Bonin Islands contain several endemic animal species, most of them recently extinct . The range of
7469-489: The only one to survive ultimately. Eight other airmen downed near the islands were later executed and cannibalized by the Japanese soldiers. After the war, Lieutenant General Tachibana , Major Matoba, and Captain Yoshii) were found guilty and hanged. The Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, one of the fiercest battles of World War II, was fought on a garrison island in this region of the Pacific. Following Japan's surrender ,
7566-619: The region to address what the Japanese saw as the twin problems of underdevelopment and Western colonialism . During the first decade of the 20th century, private Japanese companies became active in trade in Southeast Asia. Communities of emigrant Japanese merchants arose in many areas and sold sundry goods to local customers, and Japanese imports of rubber and hemp increased. Large-scale Japanese investment occurred especially in rubber, copra , and hemp plantations in Malaya and in Mindanao in
7663-408: The shogunate, inventoried several species of trees and birds, but after his expedition, the shogunate abandoned any plans to develop the remote islands. In 1727, Ogasawara Sadatō ( 小笠原 貞任 , Ogasawara Sadatō ) , a rōnin , claimed that the islands were discovered by his ancestor Ogasawara Sadayori ( 小笠原 貞頼 , Ogasawara Sadayori ) , in 1593, ( Tensho 20). Toyotomi Hideyoshi granted
7760-600: The southern Philippines. The Japanese Foreign Ministry established consulates in Manila (1888), Singapore (1889), and Batavia (1909). With increasing Japanese industrialization came the realization that Japan was dependent on the supply of many raw materials from overseas locations outside its direct control and was hence vulnerable to that supply's disruption. The Japanese need for the promotion of trade, developing and protecting sea routes, and official encouragement of emigration to ease overpopulation arose simultaneously with
7857-488: The strengthening of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which gave Japan the military strength to protect its overseas interests if diplomacy failed. The Japanese government began pursuing a policy of overseas migration in the late 19th century as a result of Japan's limited resources and increasing population. In 1875, Japan declared its control over the Bonin Islands . The formal annexation and incorporation of
7954-549: The territory as a fief. However, an investigation of the claim not only found it to be a fraud but also doubtful of the very existence of Sadayori; as a punishment, Sadato was exiled by the shogunate (1735). The first published description of the islands in the West was brought to Europe by Isaac Titsingh in 1796. His small library of Japanese books included Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu ( 三国通覧図説 , An Illustrated Description of Three Countries ) by Hayashi Shihei . This book, which
8051-625: The university were either active or former Navy officers, with direct experience in the territories in question. The university published numerous reports promoting the advantages of investment and settlement in the territories under Navy control. In the Navy, the Anti-Treaty Faction ( han-joyaku ha ) opposed the Washington Treaty, unlike the Treaty Faction . The former set up a "Study Committee for Policies towards
8148-631: The war, the expansionist aspects of nanshin-ron became more developed, and the policy was incorporated into the national defense strategy in 1907. In the 1920s and 1930s, the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" gradually came to be formalized, largely through the efforts of the Imperial Japanese Navy's "South Strike Group," a strategic think tank based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taiwan . Many professors at
8245-473: The winter of 1920–1921, Russian Futurist painter David Burliuk lived in the Bonin Islands and painted several landscapes of the islands. The islanders were relegated to an insignificant status until the early Shōwa period . After Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor , English was banned on the Bonins, and Americans had to take on Japanese names. As fighting crept closer to Japan during
8342-450: Was a strong believer in the Hokushin-ron policy since he believed that Japan's main enemy was communism and that Japan's destiny lay in conquest of the natural resources of the sparely-populated Northern Asian mainland. General Yukio Kasahara was also a major proponent of the Hokushin-ron philosophy and felt strongly that the Soviet Union posed both a major threat and a major opportunity for Japan. However, rival cliques of officers in
8439-428: Was advocated as a national policy by a group of Japanese ideologues during the 1880s and the 1890s. Writings of the time often presented areas of Micronesia and Southeast Asia as uninhabited or uncivilised and suitable for Japanese colonisation and cultivation. In its initial stages Nanshin-ron focused primarily on Southeast Asia, and until the late 1920s, it concentrated on gradual and peaceful Japanese advances into
8536-917: Was also surprised to find two men living on the islands. They remained on the islands after the William left the year before in 1826. The men were Wittrein and Petersen. In 1830, with the help of the British Consul to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Richard Charlton, Richard Millichamp, and Matteo Mazzaro sailed to the islands. The first permanent colony was made up of Nathaniel Savory of Bradford, Massachusetts , America, Richard Millichamp of Devon , England; Matteo Mazzaro of Ragusa/ Dubrovnik , Austrian Empire (now in Croatia ); Alden B. Chapin and Nathaniel Savory of Boston ; Carl Johnsen of Copenhagen ; as well as seven unnamed men and 13 women from
8633-488: Was aware that the Australian annexation of those territories had been motivated in large part in an attempt to secure an important defense line. In 1931, the "Five Ministers Meeting" defined the Japanese objective of extending its influence in the Pacific but excluded areas such as the Philippines , the Dutch East Indies and Java , which might provoke other countries. Nanshin-ron became official policy after 1935 and
8730-554: Was brought to an end by the Japanese surrender at the end of the war. After the attack on Pearl Harbor , Japan expected to capture the strategic islands across the Pacific to make it more challenging for the US to invade. Highly fortified islands would aim to inflict heavy casualties on the US troops and force America into signing a peace treaty. The Japanese strategy failed to consider island hopping , in which US marines would skip heavily defended islands and capture easier targets, which left
8827-468: Was dominant in the Army during Araki's tenure as Minister of War from 1931 to 1934 and occupied most significant staff positions. However, many of its members were replaced by Tōseiha officers following Araki's resignation from ill health in 1934. In 1936, Kōdōha-affiliated young Army officers launched an unsuccessful coup d'état in the February 26 Incident . As a result, Kōdōha generals were purged from
8924-681: Was established by the Foreign Ministry. The events of the Pacific War from December 1941 overshadowed further development of the "Southern Expansion Doctrine", but the Greater East Asia Ministry was created in November 1942, and a Greater East Asia Conference was held in Tokyo in 1943. During the war, the bulk of Japan's diplomatic efforts remained directed at Southeast Asia. The "Southern Expansion Doctrine"
9021-698: Was greater than elsewhere. Its supporters were sometimes called the Strike North Group . It enjoyed wide support within the Imperial Japanese Army during the interwar period but was abandoned in 1939 after military defeat on the Mongolian front at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol (known in Japan as the Nomonhan incident) and the signing of Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in 1941. It was superseded by
9118-728: Was officially adopted as national policy with the promulgation of the Toa shin Chitsujo (New Order in East Asia) in 1936 at the "Five Ministers Conference" (attended by the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, Army Minister and the Navy Minister), with the resolution to advance south peacefully. By the start of World War II , the policy had evolved in scope to include Southeast Asia. The doctrine also formed part of
9215-526: Was published in Japan in 1785, briefly described the Ogasawara Islands . These groups were collectively called the Archbishop Islands in Spanish sources of the 18th–19th century, most likely due to an expedition organized by Pedro Moya de Contreras , archbishop of Mexico and viceroy of New Spain , to explore the northern Pacific and the islands of Japan. Its main objective was to find
9312-567: Was shown to be impossible because of the Soviets' superiority in numbers and armour. However, General Ueda continued to support the actions of his officers, refused to discourage them from taking similar actions, and remained adamant in his support of the Hokushin-ron policy. He was recalled back to Japan in late 1939 and forced into retirement. The Kwantung Army was purged of both its more insubordinate elements and its proponents of Hokushin-ron . The Army lost prestige because of its failures in
9409-474: Was supposedly a population introduced to the islands only as late as 1850, but is also known from subfossil remains ; it went extinct after 1925-26, when Richard Goldschmidt saw the taxidermied pair of the Chichijima museum and was told by locals that merely "half a dozen" animals remained alive The islands are also renowned for the many species of snails that are found across the islands, especially
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