Bonin Islands

The first recorded visit by Europeans to the islands happened on 2 October 1543, when the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre on the San Juan sighted Haha-jima, which he charted as Forfana.[8] At that time, the islands were uninhabited. Japanese discovery of the islands occurred in Kanbun 10 (1670) and was followed by a shogunate expedition in Enpō 3 (1675).[9] 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 the shogunate, inventoried several species of trees and birds, but after his expedition, the shogunate abandoned any plans to develop the remote islands.[10]

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), and the territory was granted as a fief by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. However, investigation of the claim found that it was a fraud and the very existence of Sadayori was doubtful; 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.[11] This book, which was published in Japan in 1785,[12] briefly described the Ogasawara Islands.[13]

These groups were collectively called Islas del Arzobispo (Archbishop Islands) in Spanish sources of the 18th–19th century. This name is most likely due to an expedition organized by the Arzobispo (Archbishop) Pedro Moya de Contreras, Viceroy of New Spain, to explore the northern Pacific and the islands of Japan. Its main objective was to find the long sought and 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 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, the expedition could not find the wanted islands after searching the positions where they were charted in contemporary references.[14] Japanese maps at the time seem to have been rather inaccurate and therefore considered by some[15] to be deliberately misleading. It is thought that this was an attempt to discourage colonization attempts by foreign nations. Frederick William Beechey used the Spanish name as late as 1831 and believed that the Japanese Boninsima referred to entirely different islands.[16]

On 12 September 1824 American Captain James Coffin in the whaler Transit first visited the southern group of islands (Coffin Islands). He visited the archipelago again in 1825 but this time he arrived at the middle group of islands (Beechey Group).[17]

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.[17] Whaling ships called on a regular basis, for water and turtles, before continuing their voyages.[18]

In 1827 Captain F. W. Beechey of HMS Blossom reached 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."[19]

He also named the island of Chichijima "Peel" after then British Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel.[3] Beechey 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.[17]

In 1830, with the help of British Consul to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) Richard Charlton, Richard Millichamp, and Matteo Mazzaro sailed to the islands.[17] 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 the Kingdom of Hawaii.[20] They found the climate suitable for farming and the raising of livestock. Rum was made from cane sugar, and bordellos were opened, somtimes 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.[21]

Two years later the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland published a posthumous, abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation of Sankoku Tsūran Zusetsu.[22]

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 age about 112, after being baptized on her deathbed.[23])

Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy visited the islands in 1853 and bought property at Port Lloyd from Savory for $50. The US "Colony of Peel Island" (Chichijima) was created and Savory was appointed governor.

An Ogasawara Island village during the early Shōwa period

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 now officially named Ogasawara, referring to the legendary Japanese discoverer from the late 16th century. This tentative colonization, however, did not last for long. In summer 1863, under foreign pressure, the shogunate ordered the evacuation of the islands.[10]

In 1875 the Japanese Meiji government reclaimed the islands.[24] The Japanese names of each island were resolved and 38 settlers from Hachijojima were sent the following year. In 1876 the islands were put under the direct control of the Home Ministry. Further foreign settlement was banned, and the government assisted settlers who wished to relocate there from mainland Japan. The islands' forests were also cut down for sugar cane production. Colonists largely segregated themselves in two different villages, one for the Americans and the other for the Japanese.[3] Islanders of European and US ancestry were eventually granted Japanese nationality in 1882. Jack London visited the islands in 1893 and published an account of his sojourn.[3]

Lionel Cholmondeley compiled a history of the islands over the course of several years. His work was published in London 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.[25] The current residents include some who claim to be related to Nathaniel Savory.[26] In the winter of 1920–1921, Russian Futurist painter David Burliuk lived in the Bonin Islands and painted several landscapes of the islands.[27]

A man at a well, alongside buildings with the thatched roofs, weather-beaten unpainted sides and paper partitions and windows, characteristic of the islands before World War II

The islanders were relegated to an insignificant status up through the early Shōwa period. After Japan's attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, English was banned on the Bonins, and Americans had to take on Japanese names.[3] As fighting creeped closer to Japan during the later stage of the war, 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 acts on prisoners of war.[28] 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 the only one to ultimately survive.[29][30] Eight other airmen downed near the islands were later executed and cannibalized by the Japanese soldiers.[3] Matoba Sueo was eventually hanged for his crimes after the war.[28] 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.[31]

Following Japan's surrender, 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 and/or related to them by marriage were expelled,[32] while pre-war inhabitants of White American or European, Micronesian or Polynesian ancestry were allowed to return.[33] Vacant properties of exiled Japanese were bulldozed as part of 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, without consulting them, the United States government returned the Bonins to Japanese control. The Americans could choose to either become Japanese nationals or to receive American citizenship and repatriate to the United States. Initially some 600 Japanese relocated to the islands, growing to about 2,000 by the end of the 20th century.[3]

Kominato beach and Kopepe Beach, Chichi-jima

Flora has evolved differently on each of the islands. The Ogasawara Islands are sometimes referred to as the Galápagos of the Orient.[42]

These islands are home to the northernmost outliers of the palm genus Clinostigma. C. savoryianum is endemic and has been planted in mediterranean climates often with success. Other unique species include Metrosideros boninensis, a plant related to similar species growing in Fiji and New Caledonia.

The Ogasawara Archipelago forms 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:[43]

• Type I: Elaeocarpus–Ardisia mesic forest is found in the moist lowland areas with deep soils. The forests have a closed canopy with a height of about 15 metres (49 ft), dominated by Ardisia sieboldii. Elaeocarpus photiniaefolius, Pisonia umbellifera, and Pouteria obovata are other important canopy species. These forests were almost completely destroyed by clearing for agriculture before 1945.
• Type II: Distylium–Raphiolepis–Schima dry forest is found in drier lowland and upland sites with shallower soils. It is also a closed-canopy forest, with a 4-to-8-metre (13 to 26 ft) canopy composed mostly of Distylium lepidotum, Rhaphiolepis integerrima, Schima mertensiana, Pouteria obovata, and Syzygium buxifolium. The Type II forests can be further subdivided into:
  • Type IIa: Distylium-Schima dry forest occurs in cloudy upland areas with fine-textured soils. These forests contain many rare and endemic species, with Pandanus boninensis and Syzygium buxifolium as the predominant trees.
  • Type IIb: Raphiolepis-Livistona dry forest is found in upland areas with few clouds and rocky soils. Rhaphiolepis integerrima is the dominant tree species, along with the fan palm Livistona boninensis, Pandanus boninensis and Ochrosia nakaiana.
• Type III: Distylium-Pouteria scrub forest is found on windy and dry mountain ridges and exposed sea cliffs. These forests have the highest species diversity on the islands. Distylium lepidotum and Pouteria obovata are the dominant species, growing from 0.5 to 1.5 metres (1.6 to 4.9 ft) tall. Other common shrubs are Myrsine okabeana, Symplocos kawakamii, and Pittosporum parvifolium.[43]

A Bonin petrel

The range of the Bonin petrel extends beyond the Ogasawaras to include other islands in the northern Pacific region.

There are two restricted-range species of birds on the islands; the Japanese woodpigeon (Columba janthina) and the Near Threatened Bonin white-eye (Apalopteron familiare), formerly known as "Bonin honeyeater". The Japanese woodpigeon was extirpated in the Iwo Island groups in the 1980s. The formerly endemic Bonin pigeon (Columba versicolor), Bonin thrush (Zoothera terrestris) and Bonin grosbeak (Carpodacus ferreorostris) are now extinct.[44]

A small bat, Sturdee's pipistrelle, 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,[45] and a survey published by the Ogasawara Office of Education in 1999 estimated their number to be around 100.[46]

Mandarina suenoae from Anijima, Ogasawara

The islands are also renowned for the many species of snail that are found across the islands, especially the Mandarina snails.[47] Unfortunately, most of the native snails are now endangered or extinct, because of introduced species and habitat loss.[48]

The Ogasawara Maru at Tokyo's Takeshiba pier. The liner travels between Tokyo and the Bonins.

Futami Port, Chichi-jima, Ogasawara Village.

One can get from the main Japanese islands to Chichijima by way of the Ogasawara Maru liner, run by Ogasawara Marine Transportation. The ship leaves from Takeshiba pier in Tokyo Bay, and the trip takes around 24 hours (in good weather). There are four or five crossings each month. It travels to Futami Port on Chichijima Island.

The Ogasawara Maru is a 6,700 tonnes (6,600 long tons) vessel, 131-metre (430 ft) long, with a capacity of 1,031 passengers.[49] To get to Hahajima, one must first get to Chichijima, and then cross by the liner Hahajima Maru.

Because a trip from the main Japanese islands to the Ogasawaras is very difficult, when people get severely ill or otherwise have an emergency, word is conveyed to the Iwo Jima Japan Maritime Self Defense Force post, and a helicopter is sent to the islands. Emergencies can also be handled from the main Japanese islands by Japan Air Self-Defense Force airplanes, or the Maritime Self Defense Force base in Iwakuni can convey evacuees to the main islands by seaplane, the ShinMaywa US-1. This seaplane is also used to transport the Tokyo governor and other VIPs.

• Harbours: Futami Port on Chichijima

Ogasawara Village operates 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 one's own automobile onto the island is extremely difficult and costly.

The world's first "techno superliner", the Super Liner Ogasawara (which was to be commissioned in 2006), with a maximum speed of 38 knots (70 km/h; 44 mph), 14,500 tons gross tonnage, was expected to shorten the voyage to Ogasawara to about 17 hours and carry up to 740 passengers.[50] However, the project was canceled in July 2005 due to rising fuel prices and the loss of ¥2 billion.[51]

The Ogasawara Islands have no airport. However, for several decades there was talk of building one.[52][53][54][55] Anijima and Chichijima were once designated possible construction sites, but because there are numerous valuable, rare, or endangered plant species forming a unique ecosystem in the vicinity of the proposed sites, issues of nature conservation were raised. Although construction of an airport was desired by some, a desire to keep the natural beauty of the islands untouched created a movement to block it.[56][57] The airport issue was quite controversial on the islands.[58]

On 26 June 2016, Tamayo Marukawa, Minister of Environment talked about Ogasawara airport construction after the meeting in Tokyo commemorating the fifth anniversary of the registration of the Ogasawara Islands as World Natural Heritage, and to consult with Tokyo and various ministries and agencies concerned.[59] On 27 July 2017 at a meeting with Ogasawara Village, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced that it is considering to open a regular air route to the Ogasawara Islands (Tokyo) with a plan to construct an airport on Chichijima (Chichijima Village) with a 1,200-metre (3,900 ft) runway that will land propeller aircraft with 50 passengers. It said that future assessment of the impact on the natural environment and feasibility report will be carried out. In the past, there were two other plans: to utilize the Self Defense Force helicopter pad on Iwojima (Iwojima Village); and to operate a flying boat. Meanwhile the airport plan, which Ogasawara Village had been supporting, is prioritized.[60]

In fiscal 2019, 490 million Yen was included in the budget for a feasibility study with a survey on Chichijima. The purpose is to determine the best location to construct an airport. The potential construction will turn a part of the sea area into a runway for propeller aircraft.[61] In August 2020, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a council.[62] It was proposed to use tiltrotor aircraft which require a shorter runway of 500 meters.[62] It would be more environmentally friendly compared with conventional aircraft.[62] Travel time would be around 2 hours from the mainland of Japan.[62] It would also strengthen emergency support and tourism.[62] The government intends to open an airport in 10 years at the earliest.[62]