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The territory included the Marianas, Carolines, and Marshall Islands, with the exception of the island of Guam, which was controlled by the United States since [[1898]].

The territory included the Marianas, Carolines, and Marshall Islands, with the exception of the island of Guam, which was controlled by the United States since [[1898]].

Geographically distant from the Japanese mainland, peopled with a population of little ethnic or cultural relation to the Japanese, comprising in total a relatively small land area, and seeing very little active resistance against Japanese rule, Micronesia represents a rather different case within the Japanese Empire from [[Colonial Korea]] or [[Taiwan]].

Geographically distant from the Japanese mainland, peopled with a population of little ethnic or cultural relation to the Japanese, comprising in total a relatively small land area, and seeing very little active resistance against Japanese rule, Micronesia represents a rather different case within the Japanese Empire from [[Colonial Korea]] or [[Taiwan]]. It also differs notably from other parts of the empire in that in Micronesia, it was chiefly Japanese immigrants, and not the native locals who performed the vast majority of the labor involved in colonial economic development.

Today, these islands are divided between the sovereign states of Palau, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands, with the United States continuing to control Guam and the Northern Marianas.

Today, these islands are divided between the sovereign states of Palau, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands, with the United States continuing to control Guam and the Northern Marianas.

When a number of Japanese fishermen were killed on or near Lae Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1884, a small official mission led by [[Suzuki Keikun]] and [[Goto Taketaro|Gotô Taketarô]] traveled there to seek a formal apology from the local chiefs. Once there, they planted a flag and claimed the island for Japan, though the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] disavowed it very shortly afterward.

When a number of Japanese fishermen were killed on or near Lae Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1884, a small official mission led by [[Suzuki Keikun]] and [[Goto Taketaro|Gotô Taketarô]] traveled there to seek a formal apology from the local chiefs. Once there, they planted a flag and claimed the island for Japan, though the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] disavowed it very shortly afterward.

By 1908, a number of small Japanese entrepreneurial ventures in the islands combined their resources to form the ''Nan'yô bôeki kaisha'' ("South Seas Trading Company"). The group ran a number of retail storefronts, and passenger, mail, and cargo shipping, as well as copra production operations; World War I and Japanese control of the islands expanded commercial opportunities for this cooperative dramatically, and by 1920, the company was not only strong and wealthy, but had managed to secure for itself a monopoly in trade activities in the islands.

By 1908, a number of small Japanese entrepreneurial ventures in the islands combined their resources to form the ''Nan'yô bôeki kaisha'' ("South Seas Trading Company"). The group ran a number of retail storefronts, and passenger, mail, and cargo shipping, as well as copra production operations; World War I and Japanese control of the islands expanded commercial opportunities for this cooperative dramatically, and by 1920, the company was not only strong and wealthy, but had managed to secure for itself a monopoly in trade activities in the islands.

In 1920, Japan was then officially granted a "mandate" over the islands by the League of Nations, thus securing some formal international recognition and approval for Japanese control over Micronesia. The Class "C" level of the mandate gave Japan wide freedoms in how to administer the territory, within certain obligations imposed by the League of Nations, but British and American representatives at the Washington Naval Conference in 1921-22 managed to get Japan to agree to a non-fortification clause, an agreement to not turn Micronesia into naval bases, in return for the US and UK agreeing to the same in Southeast Asia and parts of the western Pacific. The navy pulled out from Micronesia almost entirely in 1922, and the territory came to be run by the South Seas Bureau (''Nan'yô chô''), a purely civilian administration. The heads of this government reported to the Prime Minister's office until 1929, and then from that time until the end of the Pacific War, came under the authority of the Colonial Ministry.

In 1920, Japan was then officially granted a "mandate" over the islands by the League of Nations, thus securing some formal international recognition and approval for Japanese control over Micronesia. The Class "C" level of the mandate gave Japan wide freedoms in how to administer the territory, within certain obligations imposed by the League of Nations, but British and American representatives at the Washington Naval Conference in 1921-22 managed to get Japan to agree to a non-fortification clause, an agreement to not turn Micronesia into naval bases, in return for the US and UK agreeing to the same in Southeast Asia and parts of the western Pacific. The navy pulled out from Micronesia almost entirely in 1922, and the territory came to be run by the South Seas Bureau (''Nan'yô chô''), a purely civilian administration. The heads of this government reported to the Prime Minister's office until 1929, and then from that time until the end of the Pacific War, came under the authority of the Colonial Ministry.

Economic development in the islands had a rocky start, with initial efforts at establishing [[sugar]] plantations in the late 1910s ending in failure. However, these efforts were restarted in 1921 by Matsue Haruji (Harutsugu), a graduate of LSU with experience working with the Spreckels Company. He founded the ''Nan'yô kôhatsu kaisha'' ("South Seas Development Company"), and after further difficulties in 1922-23, with considerable help from the Nan'yô-chô government, he began building up a set of operations which would soon earn him the title of "Sugar King of the South Pacific." By the 1930s, the company accounted for roughly 60% of the total revenues of the Nan'yô-chô government, and had expanded its operations into Melanesia and the Dutch East Indies, and into other fields, such as cultivation of tapioca and coconut, phosphates, marine products, and warehousing.

Economic development in the islands had a rocky start, with initial efforts at establishing [[sugar]] plantations in the late 1910s ending in failure, and leaving numerous Japanese workers stranded, unable to afford to return to Japan. However, these efforts were restarted in 1921 by Matsue Haruji (Harutsugu), a graduate of LSU with experience working with the Spreckels Company. He founded the ''Nan'yô kôhatsu kaisha'' ("South Seas Development Company"), and after further difficulties in 1922-23, with considerable help from the Nan'yô-chô government, he began building up a set of operations which would soon earn him the title of "Sugar King of the South Pacific." By the 1930s, the company accounted for roughly 60% of the total revenues of the Nan'yô-chô government, and had expanded its operations into Melanesia and the Dutch East Indies, and into other fields, such as cultivation of tapioca and coconut, phosphates, marine products, and warehousing.

 

 

 

Over the course of the 1930s, the Japanese undertook a number of public works projects on the islands, including harbor improvements, airfields, weather stations, and the like. Though it was common among Americans and other Westerners interested in the region to believe that the Japanese were building extensive naval facilities, militarizing the islands, Peattie writes that there is little evidence to support this; what construction was done could easily have been intended as civilian improvements, though admittedly these could inevitably also be used for military purposes. Throughout this period, perhaps fearful of Western criticism of Japanese administration of the islands, the Japanese strictly banned Western observers or investigators from the islands, contributing, inadvertently perhaps, to the misapprehension that they were secretly militarizing. In truth, according to Peattie, militarization efforts did not begin until 1939. By this time, the League of Nations' authority had all but disappeared in the world, and both Tokyo and Washington anticipated that a clash between them was inevitable. Thus, the Japanese worked to shore up their ability to defend their holdings in the South Pacific. The Navy did not return to any significant presence in Micronesia until just months before the Pearl Harbor attack, and construction of military facilities on the island was still incomplete when Allied forces took the islands in 1944, in some of the toughest fighting of the Pacific War.

As Allied forces invaded the islands in the 1940s, Micronesia became the site of some of the toughest fighting of the Pacific War.

Despite having never been as fully fortified as the Allies seem to believe they were, however, the ''Nan'yô'' islands did play a significant role in supporting Japanese offensive abilities to strike at Hawaii, the Philippines, and Allied positions in the South Pacific. For a time during the war, the islands, Truk in particular, were home to the Navy's greatest battleships, the ''Yamato'' and ''Musashi'', which lay there eagerly awaiting a grand decisive naval battle against the Americans which never materialized. After brutal fighting, the Allies took the islands in early 1944, and it was from one of these islands, Tinian, that the ''Enola Gay'' and ''Bockscar'' bombers took off in August 1945 to drop nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. The remaining Japanese authorities on the islands officially surrendered on August 30, and the US Navy repatriated Japanese nationals from the islands to Japan proper over the course of the remainder of that year.

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