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Draft:Imperial Japan Administered Mariana Islands

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Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
Flag of Mariana Islands
Government
 • BodyNan'yo Cho

The Mariana Islands are the islands that include what is now Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Imperial Japan took control of what is now the Northern Mariana Islands located in Micronesia in 1914. Germany controlled these islands before them. The Japanese military took over Guam later in 1941, being controlled by the US beforehand.[1]

Government

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Micronesian lands in possession of Japan were controlled by the Imperial Japanese Navy.[2] A civil South Seas administration was setup over Japanese administered Micronesia afterwards in 1921.[3][4] The South Seas was headed by governors.[5]

Northern Mariana Islands

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The head of the Marianas Islands was a district governor.[6] They reported to prime minister.

The Japanese did what the Germans did which was choose prominent males as representatives for islanders. The position was alcalde. Alcalde had district congriergos working for them. Japanese gave instructions to alcalde who provided these to the district leaders. They work chosen from districts in Garapan as well as the Tanapag village. After 1936 alcalde and congiergos were voted in rather than chosen.

Policemen were used to enforce laws as well as ordinances.

Guam

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Japanese Navy

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On Guam, the Navy was charged with running the island.[7] Governors ran the island.[8] The Guam Minseibu was setup on Saipan to restore public order, achieve economic self-sufficiency through soldiers, and gain important resources critical to national security. One of the main responsibilities of the Minseibu was police affairs.

Economy

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Lots of Japanese migrated to Northern Mariana Islands due to the teeming economy. Koreans were moved here for labor.[9]

Fishing

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Immigrants from Okinawa worked as fishermen as well as farmers.

Agriculture

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The Japanese leaders wanted to make a copra industry with a few populations on the island but went with Japanese from Japan.

Sugar production on Saipan started over a hundred years ago.[10] A lot of land was cleared for sugarcane production. Intensive growth in the sugarcane industry took place.[11]

History

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Imperial Japan was allowed to hold on to the Mariana Islands because of the Treaty of Versailles.

The Mariana Islands were a critical connection in their barrier of defenses.[12]

Toshiro Tezuka was the first governor of the South Seas Government.[13]

Garapan in Saipan was made the regional capital. Populations on Northern Mariana Islands were moved to modern towns. They were moved into towns thousands of Japanese were moved into.[14]

Photo of Tomitarō.

Maj. General Tomitara Hori took over Guam in 1941.[15] After Japan took over Guam in December 1941 they did a nationalization policy of this island and other lands they took over. When they took over this island they reunify the Mariana Islands.

United States took back Guam from Japan in 1944. They also took over the rest of the Marianas with help from other Allied soldiers in 1944.

People

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Social class

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In this area there was different classes. Each group was not at the same level economically. You had different groups at the bottom.

Chamorros

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Guam Chamorros were being moved into the Japanese way of living.[16] Their traditions were challenged by Japanese traditions which were becoming the main culture.[17] They were hired as policemen. Despite this they had issues. A pejorative tomin was used against them. Many lands they owned were seized by the Japanese military. The Chamorros were enslaved by the Japanese from 1944-1945.[18]

Japanese

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The Japanese population grew greatly from their take over of Saipan to 1937.[19] They were dominant in the islands. Most of the people from Japan consisted of mainly government officials, sugar company officials as well as tradespeople. The Japanese had ownership in fishing but they were not the majority of owners.

Okinawans

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Okinawans were second class in Japanese society.[20][21] Many Okinawans went to Garapan.[22] They were employed in work concerning plantation(s). They were contract laborers.[23] They also were the majority of the owners in commercial fishing.

Refaluwasch

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The Refaluwasch were largely stevedores.[24] They were used by the Japanese as workers concerning mining. They dealt with phosphate ore. The Refaluwasch were treated badly under Imperial Japan. They were treated worse than Chamorros. They were viewed as not civilized and primitive. The name tomin was directed against them as well.[25] Like the Chamorros they were made slaves from 1944-1945.

References

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  1. ^ "Impact of Japanese Military Occupation of Guam - Guampedia". www.guampedia.com. 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  2. ^ Myers, Ramon H.; Peattie, Mark R. (1984). The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1945. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-10222-1.
  3. ^ Hiery, Hermann Joseph. "Micronesia and the War: A SPECIAL CASE OF DIVIDE AND RULE." The Neglected War: The German South Pacific and the Influence of World War I, University of Hawai'i Press, 1995, pp. 116–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wr1m3.9. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.
  4. ^ HEZEL, FRANCIS X. "Sunburst in the South Seas." Strangers in Their Own Land: A Century of Colonial Rule in the Caroline and Marshall Islands, University of Hawai'i Press, 1995, pp. 146–85. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wqqdr.9. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.
  5. ^ Peattie, Mark R. (1992-07-01). Nan'yō: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885–1945. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1480-9.
  6. ^ Jordan, Jessica. "Islands Too Beautiful for theur Names: Local Memories and Japanese Colonial Rule (1914–1944) in the Northern Mariana Islands" E Schoalrship. https://escholarship.org/content/qt32m0r8d4/qt32m0r8d4_noSplash_161e0d50a30d1061b7d80935ffa05f7d.pdf?t=otp34r Accessed 28 March 2024
  7. ^ "Japanese Military Administration of Guam - Guampedia". www.guampedia.com. 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  8. ^ "A Guide to the War in the Pacific: The First Year". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  9. ^ "2nd Marianas History Conference - Guampedia". www.guampedia.com. 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  10. ^ Ombrello, Mark A. Monstrous Projections and Paradisal Visions: Japanese Conceptualizations of the South Seas (Nan'Yo) as a Supernatural Space from Ancient Times to the Contemporary Period, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States -- Hawaii, 2014. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/monstrous-projections-paradisal-visions-japanese/docview/1651935320/se-2.
  11. ^ "Micronesia Portal - Guampedia". www.guampedia.com. 2019-12-19. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  12. ^ "Marine Corps University > Research > Marine Corps History Division > Brief Histories > Marines in World War II > The Seizure of Saipan". www.usmcu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  13. ^ "Japanese Era of History of History of the Mariana Islands: Three of Three" Guampedia. https://www.guampedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Japanese-Era.pdf Accessed 24 March 2024.
  14. ^ Ono, Keiko at. el. "A Study of Urban Morphology of Japanese Colonial Towns in Nan'Yo Gunto: Part 1 Garapan, Tinian and Chalan Kanoa in Northern Marianas" Academia. https://www.academia.edu/83884394/A_STUDY_OF_URBAN_MORPHOLOGY_OF_JAPANESE_COLONIAL_TOWNS_IN_NANYO_GUNTO_Part1_Garapan_Tinian_and_Chalan_Kanoa_in_Northern_Marianas Accessed 24 March 2024.
  15. ^ Phillip. Crowl, The Campaign in the Marianas, World War II, 50th anniversary commemorative edition. Greenock: 232 Celsius, 2013. Campaign in the Marianas (govinfo.gov) Accessed 5 April 2023
  16. ^ "History of Efforts to Reunify the Mariana Islands - Guampedia". www.guampedia.com. 2013-08-21. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  17. ^ "::: MARIANAS EXPEDITION : HISTORY : THE GERMANS AND JAPANESE :::". drhiltonexpeditions.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  18. ^ Writer, Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff. "Navigating Modernity / The Carolinians, a tiny group of islanders on Saipan, in the western Pacific, have seen their ancient culture succumb to consumerism. As they try to salvage what they can of their past, they are helping to lead a cultural revival am". SFGATE. Retrieved 2024-03-24.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Spoehr, Alexadner. "Saipan, the ethnology of a war-devastated Island" University of Illinois Library. 1954. https://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/OCA/Books2008-11/saipanethnologyo41spoe/saipanethnologyo41spoe.pdf
  20. ^ Azusa, Ono (2013). Danver, Steven (ed.). Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures, and Contemporary Issues. Vol. 2. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe Inc. p. 229.
  21. ^ Sheeks, Robert B. "Civilians on Saipan." Far Eastern Survey, vol. 14, no. 9, 1945, pp. 109–13. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3022063. Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
  22. ^ Iitaka, Shingo. "Remembering Nan'yō from Okinawa: Deconstructing the Former Empire of Japan through Memorial Practices." History and Memory, vol. 27, no. 2, 2015, pp. 126–51. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2979/histmemo.27.2.126. Accessed 24 Mar. 2024.
  23. ^ Sudo, Naoto. "Nanyo Colonialism/Postcolonialism: A Comparative Literary and Cultural Study on Representations of the Pacific in Japanese and English language Fiction" University of Wollongong. 2003. Nanyo Colonialism/Postcolonialism: A Comparative Literary and Cultural Study on Representations of the Pacific in Japanese and English Language Fiction (uow.edu.au) Accessed 26 March 2024
  24. ^ Alkire, William H. "The Carolinians of Saipan and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands." Pacific Affairs, vol. 57, no. 2, 1984, pp. 270–83. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2759128. Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
  25. ^ "Late Colonial History by Guampedia - Issuu". issuu.com. 2013-01-10. Retrieved 2024-03-24.