When US forces captured the Ogasawara Islands towards the end of WWII, did they find any resident who descended from the original English-speaking settler population or otherwise had non-Japanese ancestry?

by veratrin
kumbhira

Unlikely. When the US had started indiscriminate bombings to Chichijima (the main island of the islets) and Iwojima, the Japanese government had evacuated 6,886 residents, while 825 civilians had remained as military employed. The US had never set a foot in any islands except Iwojima, although remaining soldiers and civilians had surrendered on September 3rd on USS Dunlap. I'm not sure if civilians were at the sight of American officers at the time of the signing. By this signing, the Ogawasara Islands had became an occupied territory of the US.

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The evacuated civilians had sheltered and worked around Yokohama, and one of the village leader, Fred Savory, had contacted U. Alexis Johnson, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who was in Tokyo at the time, and negotiated the return of the residents and GHQ had only approved for families of American-European Origin to go back. When they had returned, they found only two houses stood still so they had to live with American troops. The remaining of villagers (Japanese origins) went back when the Ogasawara Islands were return to Japan in 1967.

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”硫黄島と小笠原をめぐる日米関係” (2008) by Robert D. Eldridge

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