Ogasawara Islanders


The Ogasawara Islanders, also Bonin Islanders, are a Euronesian ethnic group native to the Ogasawara Islands. They are culturally and genetically distinct from other Japonic 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 18th century.

History

The first documented incident of human occupation of the Ogasawara Islands took place in 1830, when Nathaniel Savory, a White American from Massachusetts, settled the island of Chichijima. He was accompanied by Matteo Mazzaro, an Italian, who would serve as governor of the island, John Millencamp, an American, Henry Webb and Charles Robinson, both Englishmen, Joaquim Gonsales, a Portuguese man, and approximately twenty Native Hawaiians, whose personal names were not recorded. Though Savory was American, his expedition has been commissioned by British forces, making it a British settlement.

Surnames