Everyone knows that the three countries of East Asia, China, Japan, South Korea (North Korea) have a certain degree of cultural homogeneity, and they are all yellow countries. So, are there any white people in China, Japan, South Korea?
We in China have it. After all, China has a vast territory and a large population. Among the 56 ethnic groups in our country, two ethnic groups are considered "white people", which are the Russian people and the Tajik people . Of course, both ethnic groups are relatively small in scale and are mostly distributed on the border. Japan and the Korean Peninsula are geographically more east than China. If it is not considered later immigration, these two places should have no white people in theory, right?
This is really wrong. There is indeed no white distribution on the Korean Peninsula, but there are really white people in Japan. This is a special ethnic group in Japan, called "Ome Islanders" (European and American Islanders).
Some people may feel bored when hearing this name: Isn’t this an immigration? Japan is a developed country and a member of the Western world, so it is normal to have European and American immigrants. This is really different. "European and American islanders" do not refer to ordinary European and American immigrants, but a very special ethnic group - residents of the Ogasawara Islands!
Location of Ogasawara Islands
Where is Ogasawara Islands? This island is very far from the Asian continent and is not large in area, only about 100 square kilometers. It now belongs to Japan, the easternmost end of Japan's territory, and belongs to Tokyo in administrative divisions. But its history is very special, and it can be said to be Japan's only "overseas territory" to some extent.
Ogasawara Islands were actually deserted islands in ancient times, and they were not discovered by navigators until the Age of Discovery. It is said that the Spaniards discovered the island in 1543. But according to the Japanese, in 1593, the Japanese clan Ogasawara discovered the island on a voyage, but there was no definite evidence for these statements. What is certain now is that in 1639, the Dutch Navigator arrived at this island, and in 1670, Japanese sailors also discovered this island while drifting and reported it to the then shogunate .
This is actually not a big deal, because the island was of no value at the time, and the Dutch ignored it. Although the Japanese shogunate symbolically sent officials to investigate and incorporate it into the territory, it was nominally. At that time, Japan did not have the ability to manage and develop such a distant place.
Until the 19th century, with the development of fishery, the Ogasawara Islands began to receive attention, which was a suitable transit and supply base for ocean-going fishing boats. The then maritime overlord Britain decided to develop the island. Therefore, the British consul in Honolulu (Hawaii) recruited 25 people from North America to reclaim their cultivation, and these people represent the United Kingdom, so the United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over it.
The earliest pioneers of the Ogasawara Islands were Europeans and Americans
But even Britain, the maritime overlord, did not have the energy to manage the place, so this place became a place outside the world, and Americans also came. For American ships with the Pacific Ocean as the main navigation site, the Ogasawara Islands are obviously more important. Therefore, the United States strongly denied Britain's sovereignty, but it was difficult to intervene, so it turned to support Japan. The shogunate, who noticed favorable changes in the international situation, began to take action. In 1875 of the Meiji era, the United Kingdom handed over the island to Japan.
But at that time, this island was no longer a deserted island, and many European and American colonists had settled here, so these people unified their Japanese nationality. By 1882, all 72 people from 20 families on the island naturalized and became Japanese.
1880 Ogasawara Archipelago
So, Japan had the first batch of "European and American naturalized people". Of course, Japan later immigrated to the island.
During World War II, all of these people evacuated to the mainland, and after World War II the island was controlled by the Allied forces. In 1946, the Supreme General Command of the Allied Forces issued Order No. 557. The island was controlled by the US military. Immigrants of Western ancestry were "opened up" and 129 Japanese of European and American ancestry were allowed to return to the island to live; but generally Japanese were banned. Until 1968, the island was returned to Japan, and the Japanese talents who had previously settled on the island returned to their hometowns one after another.
00 US troops stationed in the islands are teaching children of European and American islanders
The current population of the Ogasawara Islands is nearly 3,000. Among them, except for islanders of European and American descent, most of them are Japanese who migrated here after 1968. However, if you go to this island, you can sometimes find that some people, especially some older people, have obvious European appearances, such as the picture below.
The fourth generation of immigrants, although they already have a lot of Japanese ancestry, the appearance of European and American ancestors still has a certain genetic appearance
The fifth generation of immigrants still have obvious European appearance
Now most of the descendants of these immigrants are mixed-race, and there are more Japanese ancestry, and they have been "harmonized" in culture. However, there are still interesting aspects of the island's culture, such as the Japanese dialect of "Ogasawara Islands", which is mixed with a lot of English vocabulary. This is a unique mixed language formed by long-term exchanges between European and American immigrants, Pacific Islanders ( Hawaiian ) and Japanese. Moreover, locals may have Japanese surnames, but when they name them, they sometimes like to name European and American names.
Author: Yunfan
