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Chichijima
Chichijima (父島) is the largest and most populous of the Bonin Islands. Chichijima is about 240 km (150 mi) north of Iwo Jima. 23.5 km2 (9.1 sq mi) in size, the island is home to about 2,120 people (2021). Connected to the mainland only by a day-long ferry that runs a few times a month, the island is nonetheless organized administratively as the seat of Ogasawara Village in the coterminous Ogasawara Subprefecture of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Together with the Volcano and Izu Islands, it makes up Japan's Nanpō Islands.
Some Micronesian tools and carvings have been found elsewhere in the Bonins, but Chichijima was long uninhabited when it was rediscovered. Ignored by the Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese Empires for centuries, it was finally claimed by a passing British captain in 1828 and settled by an international group from the Hawaiian Kingdom two years later, the original nucleus of the Bonin Islanders. Britain subsequently yielded to Japanese claims and colonization of the island, which established two villages at Ōmura (大村) and Ōgimura-Fukurosawa (扇村袋沢村). These were formally incorporated in 1940, just before the civilian population was forcibly evacuated to Honshu in 1944 during the end of World War II.
After the Surrender of Japan, the United States Armed Forces occupied the islands for two decades, destroying Japanese homes and businesses and only allowing resettlement by Bonin Islanders. Following the resumption of Japanese control in 1968, ethnic Japanese rapidly became the majority again.
The Japanese names of the Bonin Islands are mostly based on family relationships, established by the 1675 expedition under Shimaya Ichizaemon and fully adopted in the 1870s after the onset of Japanese colonization. As the largest island in the chain, Chichijima (父島) means "Father Island". It is sometimes written Chichi Jima or Chichi-jima and is also sometimes incorrectly read as Chichishima or Chichitō, based on other pronunciations of the character for "island".
Historically, Chichijima has also been known as Gracht, Graght, or Graft Island (Dutch: Grachts, Graghts, or Grafts Eylandt) after a Dutch ship named for the Netherlands' urban canals; Peel Island after the British home secretary Robert Peel, later prime minister; and the Main Island (and by extension Bonin Island, Bonin Sima, etc.).
Some Micronesian tools and carvings have been found on North Iwo Jima and elsewhere in the Bonins, but Chichijima was long uninhabited when it was rediscovered. The Japanese accounts of a discovery by a member of the Ogasawara clan of samurai—the source of the Bonin's Japanese name—are now known to be false. Similarly, accounts that Chichijima was discovered by the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre during his failed 1543 voyage are incorrect, De la Torre having at most seen a single island from the Hahajima group at the southern end of the Bonin chain and most likely not even that. Despite the Bonins lying near the northern return route used by the Spanish after , none are recorded landing or charting the islands with any certainty.
The first certain sighting of Chichijima was by the failed 1639 Dutch expedition sent in search of the phantom Islands of Gold and Silver under Matthijs Quast and his lieutenant Abel Tasman.
A Japanese merchant ship carrying mikan (a kind of tangerine) from Arida was blown off course around 10 December 1669 and shipwrecked on Hahajima 72 days later, about 20 February 1670. The captain dead, the remaining six crew rested, explored, and rebuilt their ship for 52 days and then left (around April 13) for Chichijima. They stayed there five or six days, visited Mukojima for a few days, and then reached Hachijojima in the Izu Islands eight days after that. Once back on Honshu at Shimoda, they reported their (re)discovery in detail to the bakufu. The shipwrights at Nagasaki were then specially permitted to build an ocean-going junk of the "Chinese type", the Fukkokuju Maru. Shimaya Ichizaemon was allowed to use it to trade between Nagasaki and Tokyo for four years before being directed to undertake a secret mission to explore and chart the islands with a crew of about 30 in May 1674. The attempts in June 1674 and February 1675 both failed but after repairs and waiting for more favorable winds the reached the Bonins on April 29. After erecting a shrine and mapping the chain including Chichijima, Shimaya departed on June 5, reaching Tokyo with his maps and samples of the soil, plants, and animals that he had found. After notionally placing the islands under the jurisdiction of Izu, the sakoku isolationist policy was resumed: the crew was disbanded, the junk broken up, and no further activity was taken or allowed with the islands. (It remained uninhabited until 1830.)
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Chichijima
Chichijima (父島) is the largest and most populous of the Bonin Islands. Chichijima is about 240 km (150 mi) north of Iwo Jima. 23.5 km2 (9.1 sq mi) in size, the island is home to about 2,120 people (2021). Connected to the mainland only by a day-long ferry that runs a few times a month, the island is nonetheless organized administratively as the seat of Ogasawara Village in the coterminous Ogasawara Subprefecture of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Together with the Volcano and Izu Islands, it makes up Japan's Nanpō Islands.
Some Micronesian tools and carvings have been found elsewhere in the Bonins, but Chichijima was long uninhabited when it was rediscovered. Ignored by the Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese Empires for centuries, it was finally claimed by a passing British captain in 1828 and settled by an international group from the Hawaiian Kingdom two years later, the original nucleus of the Bonin Islanders. Britain subsequently yielded to Japanese claims and colonization of the island, which established two villages at Ōmura (大村) and Ōgimura-Fukurosawa (扇村袋沢村). These were formally incorporated in 1940, just before the civilian population was forcibly evacuated to Honshu in 1944 during the end of World War II.
After the Surrender of Japan, the United States Armed Forces occupied the islands for two decades, destroying Japanese homes and businesses and only allowing resettlement by Bonin Islanders. Following the resumption of Japanese control in 1968, ethnic Japanese rapidly became the majority again.
The Japanese names of the Bonin Islands are mostly based on family relationships, established by the 1675 expedition under Shimaya Ichizaemon and fully adopted in the 1870s after the onset of Japanese colonization. As the largest island in the chain, Chichijima (父島) means "Father Island". It is sometimes written Chichi Jima or Chichi-jima and is also sometimes incorrectly read as Chichishima or Chichitō, based on other pronunciations of the character for "island".
Historically, Chichijima has also been known as Gracht, Graght, or Graft Island (Dutch: Grachts, Graghts, or Grafts Eylandt) after a Dutch ship named for the Netherlands' urban canals; Peel Island after the British home secretary Robert Peel, later prime minister; and the Main Island (and by extension Bonin Island, Bonin Sima, etc.).
Some Micronesian tools and carvings have been found on North Iwo Jima and elsewhere in the Bonins, but Chichijima was long uninhabited when it was rediscovered. The Japanese accounts of a discovery by a member of the Ogasawara clan of samurai—the source of the Bonin's Japanese name—are now known to be false. Similarly, accounts that Chichijima was discovered by the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre during his failed 1543 voyage are incorrect, De la Torre having at most seen a single island from the Hahajima group at the southern end of the Bonin chain and most likely not even that. Despite the Bonins lying near the northern return route used by the Spanish after , none are recorded landing or charting the islands with any certainty.
The first certain sighting of Chichijima was by the failed 1639 Dutch expedition sent in search of the phantom Islands of Gold and Silver under Matthijs Quast and his lieutenant Abel Tasman.
A Japanese merchant ship carrying mikan (a kind of tangerine) from Arida was blown off course around 10 December 1669 and shipwrecked on Hahajima 72 days later, about 20 February 1670. The captain dead, the remaining six crew rested, explored, and rebuilt their ship for 52 days and then left (around April 13) for Chichijima. They stayed there five or six days, visited Mukojima for a few days, and then reached Hachijojima in the Izu Islands eight days after that. Once back on Honshu at Shimoda, they reported their (re)discovery in detail to the bakufu. The shipwrights at Nagasaki were then specially permitted to build an ocean-going junk of the "Chinese type", the Fukkokuju Maru. Shimaya Ichizaemon was allowed to use it to trade between Nagasaki and Tokyo for four years before being directed to undertake a secret mission to explore and chart the islands with a crew of about 30 in May 1674. The attempts in June 1674 and February 1675 both failed but after repairs and waiting for more favorable winds the reached the Bonins on April 29. After erecting a shrine and mapping the chain including Chichijima, Shimaya departed on June 5, reaching Tokyo with his maps and samples of the soil, plants, and animals that he had found. After notionally placing the islands under the jurisdiction of Izu, the sakoku isolationist policy was resumed: the crew was disbanded, the junk broken up, and no further activity was taken or allowed with the islands. (It remained uninhabited until 1830.)
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