Over at Coming Anarchy, Curzon blogs about some (almost) worthless rocks in the middle of the ocean that are subject to disputed sovereignty claims. Note: none of them are claimed by either the Republic of Korea or Japan.
Anyway, about Australia-controlled Heard Island, he writes:
Heard Island is the only island in the area believed to have been continuously inhabited. During the sealing period from 1855–1880, as many as 200 American sealers lived on the island, at least until the seal population was wiped out. Remains of the settlements are remarkably well preserved, and stone platforms, hut ruins, and graves from the era have become part of Australia’s cultural heritage.
That Americans have left something of a cultural and historical footprint in the middle of nowhere reminded me of another similar legacy that’s still very much alive—Japan’s Bonin Islands. A little background:
In 1820 an American whaler commanded by a Captain Coffin landed on what is now Haha Jima. In 1825 and again in 1827 British ships landed on various islands of the chain and formally took possession in the name of the Queen.
In 1830 a group , consisting of two Americans, two Englishmen, one Portugese and about 20 Hawaiians, under the auspices of the British Council for the Sandwich Islands, arrived on Peel Island (Chichi Jima) to make a permanent settlement. Several times during the succeeding years the small colony was increased by deserters from the rare whaling ships that put in for reprovisioning.
In 1853 Comodore Perry stopped there on his way to Japan. He purchased a sizeable piece of land adjacent to Ten Fathom Hole with the idea of constructing a coaling station. In 1867 a group of Japanese arrived and this time better prepared for this type of climate, they remained. The original colonists were fairly well treated, though they were gradually eased away from the better land. The Japanese built up a rather extensive community with towns and farms on all the larger islands. It is estimated that at one time Chichi Jima had a population of about 7,000.
During this period of relative peace and prosperity most of the original colonists maintained identification with their mother countries. English was the accepted language while at home, though the children learned Japanese in school. Even today many of the older folks retain the “Harvard” accent learned from their parents. The colonists tried to keep to themselves as much as possible and discouraged intermarriage with the Japanese.
Begining in the early 1930′s the Japanese Army began to fortify the islands. The first American bombing occurred in early 1943. Shortly afterwards, the Japanese evacuated all but a small handful of the civilian population to Japan. There the Bonin Islanders were somewhat discriminated against because of their caucasian features.
In December 1945 the United States Marines peacefully took possession of the Bonin Islands. Not knowing who was to have final control over these islands, the Marines destroyed and burned all equipment and buildings considered to be of military value.
In 1946, the Bonins, having been occupied and the residual Japanese military installations demolished by the 3rd Marines, were uninhabited. Three or four of the former inhabitants had been returned as witnesses at the war crime trials which were held on Guam.
These men resided on Chichi Jima at the site of the former town of OMURA, and included Fred Savory, Jerry Savory, and Willie Savory, all great grandsons of old Nathaniel, and Richard Washington, a grandson of the original Washington. These men all spoke English, even after a hundred years of Japanese occupation and they petitioned the Military Governor, Commander In Chief Pacific Fleet, for permission to return the descendants of the original families to Chichi Jima. As these people were decidedly unpopular in Japan and all desired to take up residence at their previous family homesite and return to their former way of life, this request was granted.
In late 1946, about 130 people were returned to Chichi Jima. Nothing remained of their previous dwellings, their property was littered with war time debris of every description. The utilites, water, electricity, etc., were all destroyed, and their existence boiled down to about the same as that which old Nathaniel Savory had started with originally. They had certain advantages over old Nat. Thee was plenty of scrap material lying around, the Marines had left a few usable quonsets, and some of these people were familiar with the terrain and the sea around the islands.
For more information and links about the Bonin Islands and their inhabitants, click on over to Joel’s 2004 post over at Far Outliers.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
C’mon…”Haha” Jima? “Chichi” Jima? No way.
Yeah, the names are sort of funny, but for unintentionally-humorously named islands, I still believe Thailand’s Phi Phi island takes the cake.
I find the name Phuket amusing – at least when it comes out in the Aussie vernacular (think ‘bucket’
).
peace.
Dogbertt: yes, “Mother and Father Island.” I’ve traveled to five of the seven Izu Islands that are closer to Honshu, which are isolated enough as it is, but ferries run daily to even distant Chichijima and Hahajima. Never heard of the Harvard accent before tho!
George Bush’s dad narrowly escaped showing up on the dinner table at Chichi Jima:
The former President George Bush narrowly escaped being beheaded and eaten by Japanese soldiers when he was shot down over the Pacific in the Second World War, a shocking new history published in America has revealed.
The book, Flyboys, is the result of historical detective work by James Bradley, whose father was among the marines later photographed raising the flag over the island of Iwo Jima.
Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 – and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese.
The horrific fate of the other eight “flyboys” was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress.
Mr Bradley has established that they were tortured, beaten and then executed, either by beheading with swords or by multiple stab-wounds from bayonets and sharpened bamboo stakes. Four were then butchered by the island garrison’s surgeons and their livers and meat from their thighs eaten by senior Japanese officers.
The future president escaped a similar fate because he ditched his plane further from the island than the other crews, and managed to scramble on to a liferaft. American planes launched a hail of fire at Japanese boats which set out to capture him, driving them back, and he was eventually rescued by a US submarine.
When the black hull of the USS Finback surfaced in front of him, he thought he was hallucinating, he told Mr Bradley in a television film made to coincide with the publication of Flyboys. He had been vomiting, bleeding from a head wound, and weeping with fear. He said only four words to his rescuers: “Happy to be aboard.”
Mr Bush’s part in the raid – for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross – has long been known to Americans. Not known until now was the grim fate of his downed comrades – none from his own plane – who swam ashore.
Mr Bradley pieced together the horrific truth from secret transcripts of the war crimes trials, given to him by a former officer and lawyer who was an official witness at the time, and the testimony of surviving Japanese veterans.
A radio operator, Marve Mershon, was marched to a freshly dug grave, blindfolded, and made to kneel for beheading by sword, testified a Japanese soldier, named as Iwakawa, at the war crimes trial. “When the flyer was struck, he did not cry out, but made a slight groan.”
The next day a Japanese officer, Major Sueo Matoba, decided to include American flesh in a sake-fuelled feast he laid on for officers including the commander-in-chief on the island, Gen Yoshio Tachibana. Both men were later tried and executed for war crimes.
A Japanese medical orderly who helped the surgeon prepare the ingredients said: “Dr Teraki cut open the chest and took out the liver. I removed a piece of flesh from the flyer’s thigh, weighing about six pounds and measuring four inches wide, about a foot long.”
Another crewman, Floyd Hall, met a similar fate. Adml Kinizo Mori, the senior naval officer on Chichi Jima, told the court that Major Matoba brought “a delicacy” to a party at his quarters – a specially prepared dish of Floyd Hall’s liver.
According to Adml Mori, Matoba told him: “I had it pierced with bamboo sticks and cooked with soy sauce and vegetables.” They ate it in “very small pieces”, believing it “good medicine for the stomach”, the admiral recalled.
A third victim of cannibalism, Jimmy Dye, had been put to work as a translator when, several weeks later, Capt Shizuo Yoshii – who was later tried and executed – called for his liver to be served at a party for fellow officers. Parts of a fourth airman, Warren Earl Vaughn, were also eaten and the remaining four were executed, one by being clubbed to death.
The parents of all the airmen are now dead, but Mr Bradley contacted all their families. “The first reaction was a stunned silence, a hush. But I think that at last knowing how these men died, however horrible their deaths, has allowed closure and in a word I heard from them, healing,” he said. Mr Bush’s first reaction was also to say nothing. “There was a lot of head-shaking, a lot of silence,” the author told The Telegraph. “There was no disgust, shock or horror. He’s a veteran of a different generation.”
The former president returned to Chichi Jima with Mr Bradley for the first time since his rescue for the CNN documentary broadcast last week. Mr Bush looked sombre but never visibly upset, and ventured into the water in a modern liferaft to re-create his experience.
He recalled that while on the submarine he asked himself why he had survived. “Why had I been spared and what did God have in store for me? In my own view there’s got to be some kind of destiny and I was being spared for something on Earth.” Earlier he had told Mr Bradley: “I think about those guys all the time.”
The Japanese renamed the islands the way developers name the streets of a new subdivision: Father, Mother, Elder Sister, Elder Brother, Younger Sister, Younger Brother, Cousin, Grandchild, … I’m not sure how many they renamed that way. The earlier European explorers and ship captains named them after patrons, professors, or other individuals of note, I believe.
Wow, heavy story, Zhang Fei. Thanks.
Thanks for the info. I had not known that “haha” was Nipponese for “father” and “chichi” meant “mother”.
Also, I had no idea how close we came to a W-less and Jeb-less future! Imagine how tragic that would have been.
Actually dog, it is the other way round: “haha = mother” and “chichi = father”
Chichi/otousan/father 父, haha/okaasan/mother 母.
Chichi also means “breast”, very similar to chikubi meaning “nipple”.
–Remort
Right, chichi means breast, that’s why I was thinking it should be mother.
Perhaps Japanese infants are nurtured differently from what we’re accustomed to.
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