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The Bonin Islands, also known as the 小笠原諸島, is a Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total area of 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 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, the islands were largely ignored by the Spanish Empire, Dutch Empire, and sakoku Edo period until finally being claimed by a passing British Empire captain in 1827. United States, , and Native Hawaiians 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, 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 people 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 the development required for an airport remains a contentious local issue.
The name Ogasawara (; ) literally means "little hat-shaped field(s)" but is used for the islands in honor of Ogasawara Sadayori (小笠原 ), a supposed ancestor of the ronin Ogasawara Sadatō (小笠原 ) fictitiously credited with the discovery of the chain. Within Japanese, the Bonins proper are known as the "Ogasawara Islands" or "Group" (小笠原, Ogasawara-guntō) while the "Ogasawara Islands" or "Archipelago" (小笠原, Ogasawara-shotō) is a wider term including the other islands of the Ogasawara Municipality (小笠原, Ogasawara-mura) and its coterminous Ogasawara Subprefecture (小笠原, Ogasawara-shichō)namely, 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 (), probably in honor of Pedro Moya de Contreras, archbishop of Mexico and viceroy of New Spain, who sent an expedition to the area in the late 16th century.
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 An Illustrated Description of Three Countries by Hayashi Shihei.WorldCat, Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu; alternate romaji Sankoku Tsūran Zusetsu This book, which was published in Japan in 1785,Cullen, Louis M. (2003). briefly described the Ogasawara Islands.Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. (1998).
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 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, 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 the Japanese "Boninsima" were entirely different islands.
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. The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol.II,, (1847) London, Charles Knight, p.205.
In 1827, Captain F. W. Beechey of reached the island chain and claimed them as a British possession. A copper sheathing was removed from Blossoms hull and left on a beach as a marker of the claim:
He also named the island of Chichijima "Peel" after then British Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel. 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.
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 the Kingdom of Hawaii.Notes on the Bonin Islands, Michael Quin, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 26, (1856), pp. 232–235, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 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.Coppock, p. 61
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.
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 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 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. Language and Citizenship in Japan, edited by Nanette Gottlieb, Chapter 10, p. 176. 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 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 the islands in 1893 and published an account of his sojourn.
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. National Geographic, October 1944, pp. 387–388, 404. The current residents include some who claim to be related to Nathaniel Savory. In the winter of 1920–1921, Russian Futurism 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 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 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 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 Yoshio 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.Nicol, C. W., " "The far-out Ogasawaras", Japan Times, 7 August 2011, p. 10.
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 (the Ōbeikei Islanders) and/or related to them by marriage were expelled, J. Bradshaw, "Review of English on the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands", Language Documentation and Conservation v2, n1 (June 2008), pp. 176–8 while pre-war inhabitants of White American or White people, or Polynesians ancestry were allowed to return.Trumbull, Robert. "Bonin Islanders Seek U.S. Tie But Remain International Pawns; Descendants of Americans Ask Citizenship in Vain—Fight Return of Japanese," New York Times. March 11, 1956. 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, 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 the islands, growing to about 2,000 by the end of the 20th century.
Some government agencies are also involved with the islands. A radio telescope is located in Chichijima, one of the stations of the very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) project. It is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
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). "Bonin Islands," Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 06, 2009. Ogasawara itself is organized as a subprefecture of Tokyo.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Tōkyō" in ; in 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 back into English as another meaning for "the Bonin Islands".
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 the entire chain lies on South Iwo Jima, at . In November 2013, a new volcanic island formed offshore from Nishinoshima and eventually merged with it.
The islands are fringed with healthy and have many small beaches. coral reefs
The climate of Chichijima 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 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.
These islands are home to 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.
Previously, there had been plans for a 14,500-gross tonnage "techno superliner" able to reach a maximum speed of 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.
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 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 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 a regular air route between Tokyo and the Bonins using a proposed 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 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 the runway to about and using tiltrotor aircraft to compensate.
Japanese is the common language. Because settlers from the United States, Europe, and other Pacific islands preceded ethnic Japanese residents, an English-lexified pidgin which subsequently developed into a creole language, known as Bonin English, Ogasawara Creole or Ogasawara Mixed Language, emerged on the islands during the 19th century. This was the result of Japanese being hybridized with island English, resulting in a mixed language that can still be heard.
The Ogasawara Village municipality operates public elementary and junior high schools, while Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education operates Ogasawara High School. In the post-World War II era, ラドフォード提督学校 taught elementary students and high school students went to Guam to do their high school education. Ogasawara High opened in 1964.
Chapter XVI of Jack London's autobiographical novel John Barleycorn says, "This isolated group, belonging to Japan, had been selected as the rendezvous of the Canadian and American sealing fleets", and describes the drunken visit of a young sailor and his shipmates to the Bonin Islands.
In the television series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, a fictional island in the chain, South Ataria Island (which would have laid at the southernmost position in the chain, surpassing Minami Iwo Jima), is the landing site of the SDF-1 Macross. Macross Compendium Atlas Listing
In the 1963 film Matango, a luxury yacht is set adrift and lands on an island. Upon approaching the island, one of the crew members shouts: "I wonder if it's the Bonin Islands?" Matango – 00:17 The English subtitles for the film misspell Bonin "Bonan".
In the 2003 film , the twin Mothra larvae hatch from their egg in Himago Island and rush to help their mother who got attacked by Godzilla.
The 2017 anime film takes place on fictional islands in the Bonins.
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