Ōbeikei Islanders

Bonin Islanders

Regions with significant populations
Bonin Islands; United States
Languages
Bonin English, Japanese, American English
Religion
Irreligious, Christianity, Buddhism, Shinto
Related ethnic groups
Austronesians, White Americans, Europeans, Native Hawaiians

The Bonin Islanders, also known as the Ogasawara Islanders or Ōbeikei tōmin (欧米系島民, lit. 'European–American Islanders') in Japanese, are a Euronesian ethnic group native to the Bonin Islands (or Ogasawara Islands). They are culturally and genetically distinct from other Japanese ethnic groups such as the Yamato, Ainu, and Ryukyuans as they are the modern-day descendants of a multitude of racial and ethnic groups including the Europeans, White Americans, Polynesians, and Kanaks who settled Hahajima and Chichijima in the 19th century.

History

Bonin Islander family in the early 20th century

The first documented instance of human occupation of the Bonin Islands took place in 1830, when Matteo Mazzaro, a British citizen from Ragusa, Austria-Hungary (now Dubrovnik, Croatia), who would serve as governor, settled the island of Chichijima. He was accompanied by Nathaniel Savory, a White American from Massachusetts, John Millencamp, an American, Henry Webb and Charles Robinson, both Englishmen, Joaquim Gonsales, a Portuguese man, and approximately twenty Native Hawaiians, whose personal names were not recorded. Though Savory was American, his expedition had been commissioned by British forces, making it a British settlement.

Surnames

• Savory (rendered as Sebori in Japanese)
• Robinson
• Washington
• Gilley
• Gonzalez

See also

• Americans in Japan
• Indigenous peoples of Asia
• Japanese Americans