Bonin Islanders
Ethnic group in the Bonin Islands, Japan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bonin Islanders, also known as the Ogasawara Islanders or Ōbeikei tōmin (欧米系島民; lit. 'European–American Islanders') in Japanese, are a Euronesian ethnic group native to the Bonin Islands (or Ogasawara Islands).[2] They are culturally and genetically distinct from other Japanese ethnic groups such as the Yamato, Ainu, and Ryukyuans as they are the modern-day descendants of a multitude of racial and ethnic groups including the Europeans, White Americans, Polynesians, and Kanaks who settled Hahajima and Chichijima in the 19th century.[3][4][5]
Japan (Bonin Islands)200[1]
United Statesunknown欧米系島民 | |
|---|---|
 The Gonsales family, one of the earliest families on the Bonin Islands, sometime in the first half of the 20th century | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Japan (Bonin Islands) | 200[1] |
| United States | unknown |
| Languages | |
| Bonin English, Japanese, American English | |
| Religion | |
| Irreligious, Christianity, Buddhism, Shinto | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Austronesians, White Americans, Europeans, Native Hawaiians | |
History
The first documented instance of human occupation of the Bonin Islands took place in 1830, when Matteo Mazarro, a British citizen from the city of Genoa (now in Italy), who would serve as governor, settled the island of Chichijima. He was accompanied by Nathaniel Savory, a White American from Massachusetts, Albin B. Chapin, also from Massachusetts, Richard J. Millinchamp, an Englishman, Charles Johnson, a Dane, Harry Bolla Otaheite, a Tahitian, John "Judge" Marquese, from Nuku Hiva, and approximately twenty Native Hawaiians, whose personal names were not recorded. Though Savory was American, his expedition had been commissioned by British forces, making it a British settlement.[6]
In the following years more Westerners settled the islands. Including Thomas H. Webb, an Englishman from Surrey, Louis Leseur, a Frenchman from Brittany, Frederick Rohlfs (Rose) and William Allen, both from Bremen (now in Germany), Joaquim "John Bravo" Gonsales, a Portuguese man from Brava in Cape Verde who was described as a "mulatto", William Gilley, Joseph Cullins, George Augustine Washington, who was Malagasy, George Robinson, Benjamin Pease and John Ackerman, who was also from Tahiti.
Surnames
- Savory (セボレー, Seborē) → Sebori (瀬堀)[7]
- Ackerman (アッカーマン, Akkāman) → Akaman (赤満)
- Washington (ワシントン, Washinton) → Ōhira, Kimura, Ikeda, Matsuzawa (大平・木村・池田・松澤)
- Gilley (ギリー, Girī) → Minami, Nozawa (南・野澤)[8][9]
- Gonsales (ゴンザレス, Gonzaresu) → Kishi, Ogasawara (岸・小笠原)[10]
- Webb (ウェッブ, Uebbu) → Uwabe / Uebu (上部)