Now when it comes to Tokyo, people usually think of the capital of Japan (the de facto capital), a super bustling metropolis, but in fact, the "Tokyo" and "Tokyo" in the Japanese population are actually different concepts, "Tokyo" is a bustling big city, but "Tokyo" belongs to an administrative division of Japan. Friends who are familiar with Japan may know that in addition to the city of "Tokyo", half of its western part is called "Tama Place", which also occupies half of Tokyo.
However, Tama is still close to Tokyo and has a town, but in addition to this, "Tokyo Metropolitan" actually includes a part - islands!
Three parts of tokyo
Yes, tokyo is actually made up of three parts: the ward department (tokyo city 23 wards), the Tama area, and the island part (i.e. the Izu Islands and the Ogasawara Islands). The Izu Islands are close to Tokyo, but the Ogasawara Islands are quite special. This place is nearly 2,000 kilometers away from downtown Tokyo, and a large city governs 2,000 kilometers away, which may not be found in the world.
Tokyo also manages a group of islands
What is the peculiarity of the Ogasawara Islands? It is not actually the first place discovered by the Japanese, it is said that it was discovered by Spanish explorers in 1543, before the Japanese did not know that there was such a place, and Japan was not an explorer of the "Age of Discovery", of course, did not catch up with the development of this place. But the part discovered by the Spaniards was actually Iwo Jima, not the core of the Ogasawara Islands.
However, according to the Japanese, in 1593 (the 20th year of Tenshō, Japan), the Ogasawara clan of the Shinano area also discovered this place and named the archipelago after their own surname. However, this theory was only proposed by the descendants of the Ogasawara clan after the 18th century, and there is no original historical data, so it is doubtful.
Ogasawara Islands
Both of these claims are doubtful, but in 1639, the Dutch discovered that the Ogasawara Islands were more credible, when Dutch maritime trade was very developed, and the Dutch fleet discovered the Ogasawara Islands, but they did not pay much attention to it, because it was just a desert island.
In 1670, seven people, including NagayoEmon of the Kishu Domain of the Edo shogunate in Japan, encountered a storm on a boat and drifted to the islands of Mother Island and Hachijo Island in the Ogasawara Islands, and they informed the Edo shogunate of this experience after returning to Edo. This attracted the attention of the shogunate, and in 1675, the Matsuura Clan of the Edo shogunate (a samurai group famous for its water army) went to the Ogasawara Islands for a 36-day survey, incorporated them into the Japanese territory, and set up a monument (the inscription is "This Island is within Japan") to demarcate the island boundaries. But this is only nominal, because the place is too remote, and there is no possibility of development under the conditions at that time, so it is still a desert island.
Since then, some Japanese expeditions have also explored this place many times, but they do not attach much importance to this place. However, as the navies of the Western powers grew stronger, they occupied Ogasawara.
In the 19th century, due to the development of the whaling industry, Ogasawara's value increased: it was an excellent supply for whaling ships sailing to the ocean.
In 1830, with the support of the British Minister to Honolulu, 25 people of various nationalities born in massachusetts, USA, began colonizing the Ogasawara Islands. These people were born in the United States but represented British colonization, so they brought rice flags with them. This was the first time that humans had settled in the Ogasawara Islands, and the British claimed sovereignty over the Ogasawara Islands.
The 25-man reclamation was successful, and soon created a colony capable of supplying passing whaling ships. But after all, it is too far away, so the British government can not control it, this is a "foreign land", so the Americans take advantage of the void. For the British, Ogasawara was better than nothing, but for the Americans, Ogasawara was a good transit point when their fleet sailed in the Pacific.
The United States was also inconvenient to occupy the Ogasawara Islands itself, so the Americans strongly advocated that the sovereignty here was Japanese, after all, dealing with the Japanese was more convenient than dealing with the British Empire. However, due to the Civil War, the issue was shelved, but the Japanese shogunate attached great importance to this issue, and the shogunate realized that Ogasawara had been controlled by the British and swore sovereignty, and understood the position of the United States, so the shogunate also began to act.
After several rounds of confrontation with the British, it was not until 1876, after the Meiji Restoration, that the British recognized Japan's sovereignty over the Ogasawara Islands. As a result, it became Japan's only overseas territory.
In 1875, the British transferred ownership of the islands to Japan. In 1882, all islanders accepted Japanese citizenship. In addition, Japan also sent residents to colonize and develop it.
During World War II, the Ogasawara Islands were an important strategic anchor in the southern waters of Japan, and the United States and Japanese troops fought fierce battles for the Ogasawara Islands, and the United States has always controlled them after victory. It was not until 1968, under the Ogasawara Restitution Agreement, that the archipelago was returned to Japan, and the formerly displaced inhabitants returned to the island.
Akira Ogasawara
Today, the administrative division of the area is under the jurisdiction of the village of Ogasawara in Tokyo. The Ogasawara Archipelago consists of more than 30 small islands, including the famous ones Chichijima, Hahajima and Iwo Jima, with a total area of 104.41 square kilometers and a total population of 2,380 people.
Interestingly, however, is the English name of the Ogasawara Islands, Bonin Islands. This Coin is a transliteration of the Japanese word for uninhabited island.
Author: Yun Fan