Today's news about live giant squid being caught on film off of the Ogasawara Islands made me wonder where exactly those islands were.
I did a little googling and was surprised to learn that the Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Bonin Islands, were first settled in the 1820s by Europeans and Americans, then taken over by the Japanese in the 1870s, and then taken from Japan by the USA after WWII in the 1940s, and then given back to Japan in 1968.
Wow! I never knew that such a place existed. I wonder how much intermarriage there has been between the Euro-Americans and the Japanese?
I did a little googling and was surprised to learn that the Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Bonin Islands, were first settled in the 1820s by Europeans and Americans, then taken over by the Japanese in the 1870s, and then taken from Japan by the USA after WWII in the 1940s, and then given back to Japan in 1968.
The islanders also stress the uniquely multicultural roots of the Ogasawara life, where roughly one-tenth of the population is descended from early European and American settlers, many known by 'katakana' (Japanese syllabary) names and their families going back up to seven generations. Visitors to Ogasawara are unanimous that it is precisely the differences from the rest of Japan that they cherish about island life.
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