Bonin Islands  Notes  Source  Whalesite

      The Nichi Nichi Shimbun of the 8th instant stated that some officials were to be sent to the Bonin Islands. Although this is not actually certain, for the Government has made no such announcement, still we are desirous of expressing our views on the subject. The same newspaper states that the foreigners living on the Islands are always at strife among themselves and that murders are sometimes committed there. Some of the Foreign Representatives therefore have enquired of our Government whether the islands belong to us or not, and have been told that they do so belong to us. Our Government was then informed that if they were part of our dominions, it was wrong that we should have no officials there to preserve order on the Islands, and thus it is that the rumour has now got abroad that we are about to send some officials there.

      We have heard that when the English Minister asked Midzno Chikugo-no-kami of the old Tokugawa Government, in 1861, whether these islands belonged to us, and was told that they did, he said that they could not be left in the state they were then in, and Midzno Chikugo-no-kami went thither accompanied by other officials. So that officials were first sent there on account of the questions put by a foreign minister, and it would seem that, in order to protect the honour of our Government, the same thing is about to happen now. But it seems to us that in view of the altered circumstances of the times, there is no necessity for pursuing our old policy in regard to these islands.

      The Bonin Islands are situated between the 27th and 28th degrees of north latitude and on about the 140th meridian of longitude, and lie directly south of the provinces of Hitachi and Shimosa. A notable personage named Ogasawa first discovered them in earlier times. During the period Tempo, (about forty years ago) a Dr. Takano, who had acquired some of the learning of the west, desired to set out on an expedition to the group, but in those days the Government discouraged such adventures, and he was not permitted to do so. He afterward wrote a work called Yume-monogatari, for which he was thrown into prison, where he ultimately committed suicide. Thus no one at that date had any real knowledge about the Islands.

      When Commodore Perry first came to Japan, he passed the group, and one of the officers of his squadron noted some particulars regarding them in his diary, praising them and the harbour of Roid highly. Under these circumstances, our Government, for the sole reason that the question was asked by a foreign minister, and in spite of its poverty, sent Midzuno Chikugo-no-Kami thither in 1861, at very considerable expense, in a vessel called Kanriu Maru.

      There are two main islands and many rocky islets, and the area of the whole is a little larger than that of the Hachijo island. The two main islands alone are inhabited or habitable. The northern island is called the Chichi Shima, (or the father island); the southern one Haha Shima (mother island), and the united population is under a hundred. The only productions are potatoes and turtle, and the inhabitants consist ofa few Caucasians and some fugitives from the Ladrone Islands. There are now many persons who have visited the Islands and made themselves acquainted with their productions. It is said that the Guaimusho has compiled a little work on the group, and as there can be no omissions in any work produced by the Guaimusho, it is unnecessary for us to go further into this part of the subject. But we may add that the officials who were sent there, at great expense and trouble, were soon in much distress, as their provisions gave out, and no further supplies reached them from home. So leaving a few officers to govern the Japanese who had gone over there from Hachijo island, the remainder returned home in a few months, and vessels were occasionally sent over with provisions to those who remained. In the year 1863, however, the cry of Joi (expulsion of foreigners) ran through the country, and all communication with the Islands was given up. But the Government felt that it would be unjustifiable to leave its subjects to perish in those lonely islands, and a vessel was therefore sent over to bring them home. Thus the officials returned and the people who belonged to Hachijo resumed their old abodes there. But by this time about $200,000 had been spent on the Islands, without a fraction of advantage accruing from them — except the history compiled by the Guaimusho and and the present article; and the $200,000 of those days is equal to $700,000 or $1,000,000 now. This was all lost in an effort to maintain our useless honour, and these facts tend to show that things which can hardly be called serious were formerly done by our Government.

      Such is the history of our connection with these Islands. Those who discuss the subject are very apt to say that as everything has undergone a change of late years, it is useless to compare the present condition of affairs with that of the Tokugawa period. Now-a-days if a neighbouring country insults us, we must go and attack it, and if the inhabitants of islands in our vicinity assault and kill each other, we must go and punish the guilty and protect the innocent. In reply we aver that the people living on these Islands are not our subjects. Because our Government formerly desired to enjoy a useless honour, and sent officials there, this is no reason why, after we have withdrawn those officials and left the Islands to their fate, that we should be called on to protect them, as if the people there could in any way be called our subjects. Those who disagree with us will probably say that it is true these people are not our subjects and the Islands were undoubtedly left to their fate by own former Government, yet, if we look to their position, they are unmistakeably in our dominions. The range of mountains in the province of Idzu runs into the sea at Cape Nogatzro, and the Niijima and Miyaki Islands are a continuation of it extending itself further to Hachijo Island, and then again still further to the Bonin Islands. Thus have not these Islands their true origin in this country? And, if so, how can we disclaim the possession and the responsibitities attaching to it? If we hold the head, the tail also belongs to us. We reply, however, that we quite understand about this extension of the land, but if we were to argue on these principles Japan itself would not be ours, but would belong to China as of geographical right. Again, China is but part of Asia and this is connected with other continents. To whom does China, then, of right belong? Is it not too absurd to be wasting time on such frivolous discussion?

      But in imitation of those who argue thus, we will take up the ground of the situation of these Islands, and we say that nothing but a narrow strip of water separates Saghalin from Yezo and the Kurile Islands again from this. Their distance from us is nothing like so great as that what separates us from Hachijo and the Bonin Islands. Thus, if our opponents are right, these islands, Saghalin and the Kuriles, are of course ours, and any argument with Russia about them would have been absurd. But the boundaries of a country are really questions of its power. Had the former Government kept up the communication with these Islands, promoted their industries, and made a firm settlement there, there would of course be no question about our rights and responsibilities. We have heard it said that while we were disputing about the 50th parallel of latitude as our boundary in Saghalin, and arguing the matter on theory, the Russians were steadily advancing with their colonization, promoting trade, and settling people as they went southward. Thus, although it was said that we had a right to everything under the 50th parallel, we held in real fact but a half or a quarter of a degree, and the Russians had established themselves at Aniwa. Now had we held Saghalin as far as the 50th parallel, and given up our rights in it for the Kurile Islands, there is no one who would not have thought this strange. Is the area and value of these two possessions the same? Can as much fur or other productions be obtained from the Kuriles as from Sahgalin?[sic] A number of scattered little islands cannot be compared with one large one, and no child even would be deceived on such a matter. But there are no real grounds for the Japanese Government or people finding fault with the late exchange, for the real truth is that our holding Saghalin as far as the 50th parallel was a merely nominal thing, and the area and value of the Kurile Islands is quite as great

as what we really surrendered. And what caused all this? Is it not clear that the settlement of boundaries is at bottom a question of the actual strength of a country?

      If we are to be led into taking any steps about these Islands because a foreign Minister asks questions about them, or because they appear in our charts and thus seem to belong to us, and if, with small minds, we fret ourselves with the idea that it is our duty and belongs to our honour to protect them, even at considerable expense, as we have before stated, this is like the policy of our former Government, and we fail to understand the reason of it. We should remember that we are now placed in a different position from our former one, and those whose duty it is to administer the Government must consider well before they commit us to the policy of reoccupying these Islands or leaving them alone. They lie due south of us and are quite unnecessary as a station in either going to China or America, and are only useful to vessels disabled in typhoons or the like. We deem the rumours put forward by the Nichi Nichi Shimbun as without foundation, as any large expenditure by the Government on a few white and black people, numbering in all not over a hundred, would be a very losing business. When we have made greater advances in navigation and have a good surplus in the Treasury, it will be time to think about governing and spending money on these Islands for the convenience of our whaling vessels, for this is their only use to us. Meanwhile we had better leave them alone. We do not believe that any of the foreign powers will take possession of them.

The Bonin Islands. (Nishin Shinjisshi)
      Japan Weekly Mail
Vol. VI, No. 21 (Nov 25, 1875).
pp. 675-676.

Bonin Islands  Source  Whalesite