Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands returned to Japan

Feb. 25 Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands returned to Japan after 23 years control by USA: The Bonin Islands, called by the Japanese the Ogasawara Islands, consisting of over 30 small islands with a total of 104 square kilometers, were returned to Japan this week (June 26) at 12:01 a.m. after 23 years. The islands had been under the control of the United States since the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The islands lie 1200 kilometers (about 750 miles) south of Tokyo and will in future be administered by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The main islands in the group are Chichijima, Hahajima, Iwo Jima, and Minamitorishma. About 200 islanders, many of them of mixed blood living on Chichijima, will now become Japanese nationals, while some 3.000 former islanders now living in Japan have applied to return to their island homes. Some 30, 000 Japanese and American soldiers died in the fierce battles during World War II, the vast majority at Iwo Jima when 70, 000 US Marines and 41, 000 US Army soldiers charged ashore on 19 February 1945. The Japanese defenders were under the command of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi with 22, 000 Imperial Japanese soldiers. By mid-March Kuribayashi's forces numbered only a few thousand, and were without water, food or medicine. A day before they surrendered on 26 March, General Kuribayashi shot himself

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1200 22000 3000 30000 70000 Administered Ashore Bonin Charged Chichijima Consisting Defenders Islanders Jima Kilometers Kuribayashi Majority Mixed Nationals Numbered Returned Surrendered Thousand Vast

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