Nanpō Islands
The Template:Nihongo is a collective term for the groups of islands that are located to the south of the Japanese archipelago. They extend from the Izu Peninsula west of Tokyo Bay southward for about Template:Convert, to within Template:Convert of the Mariana Islands. The Nanpō Islands are all administered by Tokyo Metropolis.
The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard defines the Nanpō Shotō as follows:<ref name="mlit">Ajiro Tatsuhiko and Warita Ikuo, Waga kuni no kōiki na chimei oyobi sono han'i ni tsuite no chōsa kenkyū (The geographical names and those extents of the wide areas in Japan), Kaiyō Jōhōbu Gihō, Vol. 27, 2009.online edition</ref>
- Nanpō Shotō (Nanpō Islands)
- Izu Shotō (Izu Islands)
- Ogasawara Guntō (Bonin Islands)
- Mukojima Rettō
- Chichijima Rettō
- Hahajima Rettō
- Kazan Rettō (Volcano Islands)
- Kita Iwo Jima (North Iwo Jima)
- Iwo Jima
- Minami Iwo Jima (South Iwo Jima)
- Nishinoshima
- Okinotorishima
- Minamitorishima
The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, a government agency that is responsible for standardization of place names, does not use the term Nanpō Shotō, although it has agreed with the Japan Coast Guard over the names and extents of the subgroups of the Nanpō Shotō.<ref name="mlit"/>
Archeological evidence has since revealed that some of the islands were prehistorically inhabited by members of an unknown Micronesian ethnicity.<ref name="history2">小笠原・火山(硫黄)列島の歴史</ref> The Japanese claim to have discovered the islands in 1593; however, many of the islands were known by the Spanish sailors that went from Philippines to New Spain since Bernardo de la Torre's voyage in 1543, while the British claimed the islands in 1827. However, neither Japan nor Britain developed the Nanpō Islands, although a small colony of Bonin Islanders was established at Chichi-jima.
Some Japanese began migrating to the islands in 1853,<ref name=":0" /> and the Shogunate government attempted to claim the islands in 1861.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1876, the Meji government of Japan formally incorporated Ogasawara islands into the territory with the consent of the Western powers, placing them under the administration of the Tokyo Prefecture.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> And in 1891 Japan incorporated the more southerly and then-uninhabited Volcano Islands as part of Ogasawara Subprefecture.<ref name=":1" />
By the mid-1930s the islands were closed to foreigners and a small Imperial Japanese Navy base was established at Chichi-jima.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> As the war intensified and U.S. forces approached in 1944, most of the civilians living on the islands were forced to evacuate.
After World War II, the islands were administered by the United States under Article III of the Treaty of San Francisco until they were returned to Japan in 1968.<ref name=":1" /> In 2011, the Ogasawara Islands were included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
See also
References
{{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}}