Figure 1.--The Japanese after World War I colonized their League of Nations Mndate islands in the Central Pacific, recreating Japanese society in the tropics. ronically, as the Marianas became one of the crucial battlefields of the Pacific War, Japanese civilans became targets of their own soldiers while the Americans attempted to save them. Here an American soldier gets acquinted with two little Japanese girls, we think on Saipan.

After 2 and half years of bitter combat, The Marianas were the first place where the Americans encountered Japanese civilians. The other islands were either recently conquered by the Japanese. In contrast, the northern Marianas were German islands seized by the Japanese during World War I (1914) and turned over to them as a Mandate by the League of Nations. The Mandate covered a vast area of the Central Pacific (the western Pacific north of the equator), now known as Micronesia. The Marianas, especially Saipan was the most important part of the Mandate. The Japanese proceeded to turn the Marianasa and the rest of what they called the Japanese mandate for the South Seas Islands into a colony which it not what the League Mandate authorized. The Japanese began to both militarize and develop the islands ecnomically. To develop the islands economically, the Japanese began to colonize with their own people. The League Mandate involvd administering the islands for the bnefit of the local population, not to replace them with colonists. As a result, the population of the islands increased during the Mandate era. Most of the first immigrants were recruited from Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, but immigrants were then dreawn fom the Home Islands as well as some Koreans and Chinese. Many came from the Tōhoku region, a depressed region. By the time of World War II , there were nearly 80,000 Jpanese civilians on the islands. The largest population was on Saipan, but there were also Japanese civilians on Tinian and Rota. The Japanese removed much of the Chammoro indigenous population from the Northern Marianas. The primary need was for agricultural workers. The inintial effort was for sugar plantations which could replace the need for imports. The farm workers were followed by shopkeepers, restaurant operators, geishas, and others, essenitally recreating Japanese society in Central Pacific. Ironically, as the Marianas became one of the crucial battlefields of the Pacific War, Japanese civilans became targets of their own soldiers while the Americans attempted to save them.

Created: 7:14 PM 1/6/2018
Last updated: 7:14 PM 1/6/2018