The Bonin Islanders, also known as the Ogasawara Islanders or in Japanese, are a

Euronesian Euronesian is an umbrella term and portmanteau for people of mixed European and either Polynesian, Melanesian or Micronesian descent. The term is most commonly used in Samoa. British or French colonizers, missionaries and traders, as well a ...

ethnic group native to the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , is a list of islands of Japan, Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and Island#Tropical islands, tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total ...

(or Ogasawara Islands). They are culturally and genetically distinct from other Japanese ethnic groups such as the

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...

, Ainu, and

Ryukyuans The are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of Taiwan. With Japan, most Ryukyuans live in the Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture. They sp ...

as they are the modern-day descendants of a multitude of racial and ethnic groups including the

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...

White Americans White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person hav ...

, and

Polynesians Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sout ...

who settled

Hahajima Hahajima, Haha Jima, or is the second-largest island within the Bonin or Ogasawara Islands SSE of the Japanese Home Islands. The steeply-sloped island, which is about in area, has a population of 440. It is part of Ogasawara Village in Ogasaw ...

and

Chichijima is the largest and most populous islands of Japan, island in the Japanese archipelago of Bonin Islands, Bonin or Ogasawara Islands. Chichijima is about north of Iwo Jima. in size, the island is home to about 2,120 people (2021). Connected to ...

in the 19th century.

History

The first documented instance of human occupation of the Bonin Islands took place in 1830, when Matteo Mazzaro, a British citizen from Ragusa, Austria-Hungary (now

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

, Croatia), who would serve as governor, settled the island of

. He was accompanied by

Nathaniel Savory Nathaniel Savory (, ''Sebori Nanzan'', 1794 - 1874) was one of the first American colonists who is said to have settled on the Ogasawara Islands. He eventually became governor, and played an active role in government before and during the coloniza ...

, a

White American White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person having ...

from

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, John Millencamp, an American, Henry Webb and Charles Robinson, both

Englishmen The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they we ...

, Joaquim Gonsales, a Portuguese man, and approximately twenty

Native Hawaiians Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was settled at least 800 years ago by Polynesian ...

, whose personal names were not recorded. Though Savory was American, his expedition had been commissioned by British forces, making it a British settlement.

Surnames

* * * * *

References

{{Ethnic groups in Japan, state=expanded Ethnic groups in Japan Bonin Islands Indigenous peoples of East Asia

History

Surnames

See also

References