Japan | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 19, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Asian Influence?

“The influence exerted on ocean currents by the Earth’s rotation was not generally appreciated until 1835, when G. de Coriolis, while studying equations of motion in a rotating frame of reference, discovered what is now called Coriolis force.”

“Coriolis showed how the effects of the Earth’s rotation could be incorporated into the Newtonian equations of motion by adding two additional terms. One, the centrifugal force of the Earth’s rotation and the coriolis force that modifies direction.”

“Asia’s seamen have known the Kuroshio (current) since ancient times. They named it Kuro-shio (which means ‘black stream’ in the Japanese language) because of the deep ultramarine colour of the warm, high salinity water which is found flowing north”.

“The first European chart to show the Kuroshio was Varenius’ “Geographia Generalis” of 1650. Later, expeditions headed by Captains James Cook (1776-80) and Krusenstern (1804) added to western knowledge about the Kuroshio.” (Barkley)

“Between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Kuroshio’s treacherous waters swept numerous Japanese ship and their frightened passengers out across the Pacific, depositing them rudely on the coral reefs of the Hawaiian archipelago.” (Ogawa & Grant)

“Inadvertently, the Kuroshio became a rough-hewn bridge between the civilizations of feudal Japan and the stone-age world of the Hawaiian culture.”

“Across this bridge came not only castaways but the artifacts of Japanese culture, several of which became incorporated into the indigenous lifestyle of the tolerant, friendly native.”

“For example, the Hawaiian game of konane perhaps evolved from the Japanese game of go. The plumbed standard of state which Hawaiian royalty retained, the kahili, was possibly derivative of the Japanese keyari”. (Ogawa & Grant)

“The name ‘Keyari’ is a derivative of the Japanese name for the feathered or haired pike carried in feudal Japan as a symbol of rank (毛槍).” (Schmid)

“Hawaiian native culture, whilst basically Polynesian, included many features not found elsewhere in Polynesia. Such cannot be explained satisfactorily by local evolution, nor extra-Polynesian immigration.”

“Some features appear to be European, but since most suggest an origin in the North Pacific coastal regions, their presence in Hawaii may be due to involuntary or drift voyages”. (Stokes; Journal of the Polynesian Society))

“From a study of many authorities writing of drift-voyages – Stokes quotes from forty-seven – he concludes that the most definite recorded drifts have been from Japan, and of these drifts he gives a list of fifty-three Japanese ships which have drifted, disabled, into the northern Pacific.”

“On most of them survivors were found – in one instance after a drift of seventeen months. At least one ship reached Hawaii, after a drift of ten or eleven months, four people out of nine surviving.”

“These drifts were in historic times, all but eight in the eighteen-hundreds; the eight date between the years 1617 and 1794; and (Stokes) writes: …”

“‘With the definite record of one drift to Hawaii from Japan, and none from other Pacific regions in historic times, it is obvious that many of the castaways mentioned in Hawaiian traditions were Japanese, traces of whose culture should be found’”.

“‘The dates when foreign influence apparently was manifest centre around A.D. 1600. Such may be arrived at by a comparative study of the Aukele legend and the accounts of Liloa, Umi, Keawenui, and Lono – kings reigning between 1550 and 1630, as estimated from the genealogies – a period standing out as replete with stories having the appearance of historical narrative.’”

“‘It also indicates an era of many innovations. If the items then mentioned for the first time were not introductions, the period must at least mark the introduction of some new intellectual element which left its record in contemporary unwritten literature.’”.

“The artifact to which (Stokes) devotes most attention is the kahili of Hawaii, which compares with the keyari of Japan, which two present striking similarities in appearance and function.”

“‘One description will apply to both: a staff or standard with feathers arranged in cylindrical form on the upper part; insignium of rank, preceding the ruler or high noble on the road on ceremonial visits, and requiring the obeissance due to its owner …’”

“‘… feathered portion, unicoloured or banded; shaft generally banded – the colours being brown, black, and white … In Hawaii also was a smaller feathered kahili, used in the house to brush flies from royal personages and high or low chiefs.’”

“‘In form, size, and method of feather attachment, it is similar to the Chinese feather-duster of commerce (unchanged for at least fifty years) of which the present-day Japanese feather-duster is a shortened model.’”

“‘The term kahili is the Polynesian tahiri, ‘to wave, fan,’ etc., and has nothing to do with the shape or material of the implement. The same term is applied to the simple bundle of crude leaf-midribs comprising the native broom.’”

“‘Probably a feather-duster reached Hawaii in a Japanese boat and was used as a fly-brush, and the larger type was evolved and highly dignified through the Japanese recollection of the keyari …’” (Stokes; Journal of the Polynesian Society))

“In his exhaustive comparison, among others, of the tall Hawaiian kahili and Japanese keyari for example, Stokes notes that the tall kahili is first mentioned in published Hawaiian traditions in the generation of King Lonoikamakahiki (c. 1630 A.D.) with no known prototype …”

“… whereas the keyari in Japan is traceable as far back as 1190 A.D. and was in use extending to the Tokugawa Period (1600-1867). In short, Stokes suggests that the arrival of intermittent Japanese drifts to Hawaii and the resulting diffusion of ideas may provide the best explanation for some of these uniquely Hawaiian ‘elaborations’.” (Braden)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Keyari-Kahili

Keyari-tokyobling

Kahili_Bishop_Museum-(WC)

Kuroshio Current-Qiu

September 27, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Yuimaaru

Yuimaaru is seen when communities support one another, especially in times of need. It is a reminder for all of us to live yuimaaru, in both small and big endeavors and decisions. (Haworth)

Uchinanchu is the term used by Okinawan immigrants and their descendants in Hawai‘i to identify themselves as an ethnic group distinct from the Naichi of Japan’s four main islands. Seven such were …

… Ryoshin Agena (native of Uruma City,) Yasuo Uezu (native of Uruma City,) Shinei Shimabukuro (native of Uruma City,) Yoshio Yamashiro (native of Uruma City,) Genbi Tonaki (native of Nanjo City,) Ushikichi Nakama (native of Itoman City) and Shohei Miyazato (native of the town of Motobu)

They are also referred to as the ‘seven heroes’ – a monument and musical, Umi Kara Buta ga Yatte Kita (Pigs from the Sea,) commemorate them.

Uruma City Mayor Toshio Shimabukuro commented, “We would like to show the bond between Hawai‘i and Uchinanchu to future generations through the monument and the musical performance.” (Ryukyu Shimpo)

Okinawa is located approximately 350 miles south of mainland Japan. It is the largest island in the Ryukyu Island chain, the southernmost prefecture of the then-Japanese Empire.

In WWII, the Pacific campaign started December 7, 1941 after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The campaign crossed all over the Pacific; the Japanese initially had the upper hand in the air and on sea and land.

After almost 4 years of naval, air, and land battles the tide had turned and by March 1945 the campaign had nearly reached its culminating point with American domination of the sea and air. It was now just Japanese territory that needed to be seized before the Japanese would admit defeat.

In a time when an invasion of mainland Japan was necessary to end the war, Okinawa was an essential preparation ground and jumping-off point for the impending invasion. (SSgt Frame)

The bombardment of Okinawa commenced on March 23, 1945 and lasted until the morning of the land invasion (codenamed Operation Iceberg) on April 1.

On June 23, 1945, all major combat operations ended on the island of Okinawa. Over the 3-month battle more than 8- million artillery and mortar rounds were fired, the equivalent of more than 1-round per second.

More than 12,000-American servicemembers were killed and more than 38,000-wounded or missing. The Japanese military lost more than 110,000, but the greatest loss of life by the Okinawan people.

Anywhere from 40,000 to 150,000 of the Okinawans perished during the battle. Even with all the carnage, it was at Okinawa that the largest number of Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner (more than 7,000 – an unprecedented number). (SSgt Frame)

“The ravages of the Pacific War (of WWII) brought disaster and catastrophic damage to the island of Okinawa. Under these harsh conditions, the people of the island were forced to eke out a living, even as they struggled to find food amidst the scorched landscape.”

“An indispensable source of food, Okinawa contained over 100,000 pigs in the prewar period. After the war, this number had plummeted to just 7,731 (according to the Ryukyu Government’s 1946 records), leaving Okinawa in a dire situation.” (Monument Text)

The above named seven Uchinanchu (Okinawan immigrants) stepped forward to help those from their homeland. They raised over $47,000 from Hawai‘i’s Uchinanchu community, purchased 550 pigs in Oregon and took them to Okinawa after World War II.

The ship that they contracted for the journey was called the USS John Owen; it departed for Okinawa on August 31, 1948, and the voyage became a life and death struggle as the ship was assaulted by raging storms and battered by tall waves.

The journey was further delayed by the need to take a roundabout route in order to avoid sea mines left over from the war. By the 3 week mark, the passenger’s water supply and the feed for the pigs was almost completely depleted.

After 28 grueling days at sea, the passengers finally caught sight of the Okinawan islands on September 27. The Owen made landfall on White Beach, in the Katsuren Heshikiya region of Uruma City. (Okinawa-jp)

These pigs helped revive the Okinawan pig farming industry and were a source of nourishment for the Okinawan people, who were starving in the aftermath of the war.

The pigs, which are easy to breed because of their high fertility rate, are believed to have helped ward off starvation and provided a steady food source for many Okinawans. (Japan Times)

This movement which began in Hawai‘i eventually spread to the American mainland and South America, and in time aid began to pour into Okinawa from all across the globe. (Okinawa-jp)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Hawaii Pigs arriving at Okinawa

7 from Hawaii who brought pigs

Pigs from the Sea-Memorial

Pigs from the Sea Memorial

July 25, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Japan’s Hawaiian Protest

Sugar growers, who dominated the Hawaiian Islands’ economy, imported thousands of immigrant laborers first from China, then Japan. (Mintz & McNeil)

“Although the efforts of Hawai‘i to establish treaty relations with Japan met with success in 1871, no considerable number of Japanese immigrants arrived during the years immediately following. Primarily to offset the numerical preponderance of the Chinese plantation laborers, the Hawaiian Government signed an immigration convention with Japan in 1886.”

“With startling rapidity the islands were flooded with Japanese, whose numbers increased from 116 in 1883 to 24,407 in 1896, out of a total population of 109,020.” (Bailey)

“The great influx of Japanese into the Hawaiian Islands during the last several years and especially during the last few months is causing anxiety to the Hawaiian government and to Americans who favor the annexation of the islands to the United States.”

“According to the recent reports of Consul-General Ellis Mills, the Japanese rank second in numerical strength among the nations represented in the Hawaiian Islands.” (The Chautauquan, 1897)

“Faced with the prospect of domination at the hands of a foreign people, the Hawaiian government began as early as 1887 to take fruitless measures to stem this oriental inundation.”

“The situation finally became so desperate that her Hawaiian officials, alleging irregularities, refused admittance to 1,174 Japanese immigrants during March, 1897, and sent them back to Japan.” (Bailey)

“This threatened monopolization of power by the Japanese has been urged during the McKinley administration as a plea for the annexation of the islands by the United States. However, no occasion for special alarm occurred till early in April.” (The Chautauquan, 1897)

At the time, the Republic of Hawai‘i and the US were in discussions for annexation of the Islands by the US. Japan protested Hawaiian annexation.

“Japanese minister, Toru Hoshi, calls the attention of Secretary Sherman to the rumor that the governments of the United States and of Hawai‘i were upon the point of concluding a treaty of annexation, a rumor the circumstantiality of which had caused it to be the subject for an interview between them before the note was sent to the secretary.”

“In the note itself the minister stated that the Japanese government could not view without concern the prospects of a sudden and complete change in the status of Hawai‘i, whereby the rights of Japan and of Japanese subjects may be imperiled, and that while they confidently relied upon the United States to maintain towards them a just and friendly attitude …”

“… they felt that under the circumstances they could not be regarded as spectators merely, without interest in the important change which was about to be made. For these reasons the minister said he felt himself justified in inquiring of the secretary what provision had been made for the preservation and maintenance of the rights acquired by Japan under treaty.” (Los Angeles Herald, July 25, 1897)

At the time, the “Japanese in the islands with large property rights, and under the present conditions they are entitled to become citizens of Hawai‘i.”

“In case of annexation these Japanese could not become citizens of the United States, as the decisions of United States Circuit Courts are to the effect that no Asiatic can become a citizen of the United, States.”

“The Japanese base their opposition to annexation almost entirely upon the ground that it is an interference with the treaty rights of Japan and complain especially that the treaty was negotiated in the face of the most friendly protestations from Japan and at a time when the Japanese authorities had been led to believe that no such treaty would be undertaken.”

“The Japanese insist, as on all former occasions, that the Japanese Government has not now and never has had any designs against Hawai‘i. This they consider a most important point because of the talk about colonization which they say apparently has had so much weight in the discussions of the question.”

“They contend that the Japanese just went to Hawai‘i in response to the demands for labor in the islands under provision of a treaty concluded in 1886 at the solicitation of the Hawaiian Government.” (New York Times, June 27, 1897)

“Hawaiians in Washington insist that the reason for the protest of Japan against annexation is that Japan really desires to acquire the Islands herself.” (New York Times, June 25, 1897)

“The evident intention of Japan to take possession of the islands has caused some uneasiness in Washington among those who favor annexation, and it is said that prompt action should be taken by this Government to prevent such a calamity.”

“It is now known here that, notwithstanding the demands at the time concerning the reason of the Philadelphia’s hurried trip to Honolulu …”

“… that ship was really ordered there on account of news received from the American representative there calling attention to the floods of Japanese pouring into the country and the evident intention of the Japanese to overwhelm the other people there, both native and foreign.” (Sacramento Daily News, April 13, 1897)

“The Japanese assert that Hawai‘i took no steps to restrict immigration from Japan until last February, when a sudden and suspicious demand was made upon Japan to this end. This, it is claimed, is evidence sufficient that there is no flooding of the Island.”

“The Japanese regarded this demand from the island Government as capricious and concluded that it was made for increasing the agitation in the interest of annexation, and to furnish a pretext for speedy action in that direction.”

“In view of these explanations on their part to the United States, the Japanese complain of the suddenness of the announcement of the Hawaiian treaty of annexation, and say the treaty was consummated when they had reason from official assurances for believing that no hasty action in that direction was contemplated.” (New York Times, June 27, 1897)

US Secretary of State John Sherman relied to the Japanese protests saying, “What the Hawaiian treaty of annexation proposes is the extension of the treaties of the United States to the incorporated territory to replace the necessarily extinguished Hawaiian treaties in order that the guarantees of treaty rights to all may be unquestionable and continuous.”

“To this end the termination of the existing treaties of Hawai‘i is recited as a condition precedent. The treaty of annexation does not abrogate these instruments. It is the fact of the Hawai‘i’s ceasing to exist as an independent contract that extinguishes those contracts.”

“As to the vested rights, if any be established in favor of Japan and of Japanese subjects in Hawai‘i, the case is different, and I repeat that ‘there is nothing in the proposed treaty prejudicial to the rights of Japan.’”

“Treaties are terminable in a variety of ways; that of 1886, between Japan and Hawai‘i, to which your protest is supposed to relate, is by either party on six months’ notice, but its extension would no more extinguish vested rights, previously acquired under Its stipulations, than the repeal of a municipal law affects rights of property vested under its provisions.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 14, 1897)

“This reply of Secretary Sherman was not satisfactory to the Japanese government, for in three days thereafter the minister having communicated with the Japanese minister for foreign affairs In the meantime, he laid before the secretary his formal protest against the annexation of the islands.”

“The protest concluded with an emphatic and unequivocal repudiation of the suggestion or report that Japan had designs against the integrity or sovereignty of Hawai‘i and a declaration that Japan has not now and never had such designs or designs of any kind whatever against Hawai‘i.”

“In this shape the incident remains for the present. It is scarcely conceivable that the protest of Japan can have any appreciable effect upon the fate of the treaty.” (Los Angeles Herald, July 25, 1897)

With the country aroused by the Spanish American War and political leaders fearful that the Islands might be annexed by Japan, the joint resolution easily passed Congress. Hawai‘i officially became a US territory in 1900. (Mintz & McNeil)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Uncle Sam Hawaii Annexation Cartoon

Uncle Sam Annexation Cartoon

Japanese Ambition

May 29, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Japanese Contact

Father Francis Xavier, with three other Catholic Jesuits missionaries, arrived at Japan on July 27, 1549 and went ashore at Kagoshima, the principal port of the province of Satsuma, on the island of Kyushu. Francis worked for more than two years in Japan spreading the gospel.

From 1550-1560, more Christian missionaries began arriving in Japan. At first they were welcomed as the ruling Shōgunate hoped it would build better trade relations with the west, particularly Spain and Portugal. (Trevino)

Ieyasu Tokugawa became shogun in 1603 after defeating his rivals by using guns brought into Japan by the Europeans. His successors, however, began to fear that the growing trade with the West and influence of Christianity would directly challenge the Japanese value system. (Tokugawa)

In the isolation edict of 1635, the shogun banned Japanese ships or individuals from visiting other countries, decreed that any Japanese person returning from another country was to be executed, and placed severe restrictions on visits by foreign trading vessels. (Thompson)

Isolationism ended on July 8, 1853 when Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy, commanding a squadron of two steamers and two sailing vessels, sailed into Tokyo harbor aboard the frigate Susquehanna.

Perry returned again on February 13, 1854 with an even larger force of eight warships, forced Japan to enter into trade with the US and demanded a treaty permitting trade and the opening of Japanese ports to US merchant ships.

While Japan was in ‘Isolation,’ does that mean Japanese did not have contact with the rest of the world, including Hawai‘i? Actually, no … there is evidence that Japanese made it to the islands during isolation – possibly, even before Captain Cook.

Japanese junks have been blown to sea, and finally stranded with their occupants upon distant islands, and have reached even the continent of America, in the 46th degree of north latitude. (Jarves)

In 1806, the ‘Inawaka Maru,’ a small Japanese cargo ship, was shipwrecked off Japan and remained adrift in the Pacific for more than seventy days. An American trading vessel, the Tabour, sailing eastward in the northern Pacific on her return voyage from China, rescued the emaciated crew of the Inawaka-maru and brought them to O‘ahu on May 5, 1806. (Kona & Sinoto)

“On the second day after their arrival, the building of a house for the Japanese was started, probably on orders of the chief. More than fifty persons were engaged in cutting trees from the mountains and building a house with a thatched roof. Only four days after their arrival, the house was completed, and the eight Japanese moved in.”

“People brought kalo (taro) and ʻuala (sweet potatoes) in gourd containers while the house was being constructed. A fence was built around the house when the Japanese moved in to prevent others from entering, and a cook was assigned to prepare meals for them.”

The Japanese remained in Hawai’i for more than three months until an American ship offered to take them home; on August 17, 1806, all eight Japanese left O‘ahu aboard the Perseverance. (Kona & Sinoto)

This was not the only early contact Japanese had with the Islands; in December, 1832, a Japanese junk was wrecked on O‘ahu, after having been tossed upon the ocean for eleven months. But four, out of a crew of nine, survived. Similar accidents, no doubt, happened centuries since. (Jarves)

“A junk laden with fish, and having nine hands on board, left one of the northern islands of the Japanese group for Jeddo, but, encountering a typhoon, was driven to sea.”

“After wandering about the ocean for ten or eleven months, they anchored on the last Sunday of December, 1832, near the harbor of Waialea (believed to mean Waialua,) O‘ahu. Their supply of water during the voyage had been obtained from casual showers.”

“On being visited four persons were found on board; three of these were severely afflicted with scurvy, two being unable to walk and the third nearly so. The fourth was in good health, and had the sole management of the vessel.”

“After remaining at Waialea (Waialua) for five or six days, an attempt was made to bring the vessel to Honolulu, when she was wrecked off Barber’s Point, on the evening of January 1, 1833. Everything but the crew was lost, with the exception of a few trifling articles. The men remained at Honolulu eighteen months, when they were forwarded to Kamtschatka.” (Spectator; American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal)

Were there earlier encounters (or at least evidence of Japanese to the Hawaiians?) Some suggest it is found in the Hawaiian interest in iron, and some of the iron implements notes by Cook’s crew at the time of his Contact with the Islands.

Since some of the terms for ‘iron’ also are applied to ‘foreigners,’ the indications are that the various Polynesians learned of iron while in Polynesia, either directly through foreigners, or by means of wreckage from foreign ships. The early Polynesians were not iron producers, because, valuing the metal as they did, they apparently were unable to obtain it by smelting. (Stokes)

Captain James Cook’s journal notes that when he made contact, his crew noted the specific interest the Hawaiians had in iron. “Their having the actual possession of these, and their so generally knowing the use of this metal, inclined some on board to think, that we had not been the first European visitors of these islands.”

Cook noted that the people he met on Kauaʻi were not “acquainted with our commodities, except iron; which however, it was plain, they had … in some quantity, brought to them at some distant period. … They asked for it by the name of hamaite.” It is interesting to note that a Spanish word for iron ore is “Hematitas”.

“The only iron tools, or rather bits of iron, seen amongst them, and which they had before our arrival, were a piece of iron hoop about two inches long, fitted into a wooden handle, and another edge tool, which our people guessed to be made of the point of a broadsword.” (Cook’s Journal)

Captain Clerke’s record (Jan. 23, 1778) notes, “This morning one of the midshipmen purchased of the natives a piece of iron lashed into a handle for a cutting instrument; it seems to me a piece of the blade of a cutlass; it has by no means the appearance of a modern acquisition …”

“… it looks to have been a good deal used and long in its present state; the midshipman … demanded of the man where he got it; the Indian pointed away to the SE ward, where he says there is an island called Tai, from whence it came.” (Stokes)

Referring back to the midshipman’s information, it may be noted that there is no island named Tai to the south-east of Waimea, Kauai, where the matter was discussed, and since tai (kai) is the term for “sea” and the current sweeps up to Waimea from the south-east, it therefore appears that the implement was floated in, from the sea.

It was the reference that “people guessed to be made of the point of a broadsword” that caught the attention of Stokes (former Curator of Polynesian Ethnology and Curator-in-charge of the Bernice P Bishop Museum,) who speculated that rather than the end of a broadsword, the Hawaiians may have had a deba bocho (a Japanese fish-knife.)

Stokes noted that swords generally break straight across, making it difficult (impossible) to be “lashed into a handle.” Rather, the deba bocho has a tang that is driven into a wooden handle.

The tang would have been concealed from view by Cook’s crew and “These men, ‘accustomed to the sword,’ would naturally think first in terms of weapons. It is certain they were unfamiliar with Japanese domestic utensils because Japan had then been isolated from foreigners for more than a century.” (Stokes)

Whether it actually was a knife and whether it drifted in on wreckage or was brought by a Japanese fisherman (before Cook’s arrival in the Islands) is not clear.

Beachcombing finds of Japanese glass balls (fishing floats,) as well as marine debris from the 2011 Japan tsunami, suggest the possibility of earlier Japan contact with the Islands (especially in the context that a Japanese fishing boat and its survivors landed in the Islands in 1832.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Deba Bocho

Deba Bocho-noting tang into wooden handle

Japanese_Fishing_with_fisherman_posing_in_front_of_boats_1917

Oriental_Fishing_Floats-1938

Ship-building;_two_types_of_Japanese_boat._Drawing_by_J._Smi_Wellcome-1833

Lucky_Gods_and_fishing_boat_with_big_catch-Edo Period-19th Century

Admiral_Perry_in_Japan

Commodore_Perry_expedition_Delivery_of_Gifts-LOC

Landing of Commodore Perry To meet the Imperial Commissioners March 8, 1854 LOC

Japan_as_we_saw_it_(1893)

North Pacific Currents

2011-Japan_Tsunami (2011) Marine Debris-simulation map

Modeled Movement of Tsunami Marine Debris

December 2, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Niitaka Yama Nobore

The Qing dynasty (Manchu dynasty,) ruling from 1644 to 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. The First Sino-Japanese War (August 1, 1894 – April 17, 1895) was fought between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan.

The primary interest was control of Korea. As part of that war, in March 1895, Japan forces attacked the Chinese-controlled Taiwan. Japan won that battle and the war.

The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the First Sino-Japanese War and through it China gave full control of Korea and Taiwan to Japan. Taiwan (also referred to as Formosa) was under Japanese rule from 1895 and 1945.

“In the heart of the savage territory of the island of Formosa rises Mt Morrison, the highest mountain in the Orient, east of the Himalayas. …”

“The mountain was so named to commemorate the memory of the Reverend Robert Morrison, the first protestant missionary to China … in the year 1842.” (Arnold, 1908)

“When the Japanese took possession of Formosa in the year 1895 she re-christened the mountain Niitaka-yama, which means new high mountain; Fuji-yama, sacred to the heart of every Japanese, being thus relegated to the position of old high mountain.” (Arnold, 1908)

The renaming of the mountain “Nii-taka-yama, that is, the ‘New High Mountain,’ (is an) allusion to the fact that this (was) the last to be added to the empire, being also the highest, – higher than Fuji itself.” (Handbook for Travellers in Japan, 1903)

Then, on December 2, 1941 (Tokyo Time,) a coded message, ‘Niitakayama Nobore’ (“Climb Mount Niitaka”) was sent to all Imperial Japanese Navy units.

Approaching the International Date Line from the west at that time were six Japanese aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku, along with over ten escorts and supply ships.

Receiving this signal Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi, went to his cabin onboard his flagship, the aircraft carrier Akagi, and opened a set of Top Secret documents, which told him, and those that opened the same order throughout the fleet, that on December 8 (the 7th on the Pearl Harbor side of the International Date Line) Japan would be going to war. (Johnson)

Previously, the Japanese force assembled 2 battleships, 6 carriers, 3 cruisers, approximately 20 destroyers and 5 submarines, including midgets which were carried by mother submarines.

The force departed at 6 am, November 26, Japan time, and set an indirect northern course for the next rendezvous, 200 miles north of Oahu. On December 6, when the force was still 800 miles north of O‘ahu; it received the long awaited code message.

When the Japanese attacked, 86 vessels, including 8 battleships, 7 cruisers, 28 destroyers and 5 submarines, plus the usual complement of small craft, were based in the harbor (there were no aircraft carriers moored at Pearl Harbor at the time.) (Morris)

In the Islands, the message: “Air Raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill” came at 0755 on December 7, as Japanese planes swept overhead in an attempt to cripple the Pacific Fleet.

The first wave of 183-planes (43-fighters, 49-high-level bombers, 51-dive bombers and 40-torpedo planes) struck its targets at 7:55 am. The second wave of 167-Japanese planes (35-fighters, 54-horizontal bombers and 78-dive bombers) struck Oʻahu beginning at 8:40 am.

By 9:45 am, the Japanese attack on Oʻahu was over.

(Today, Niitakayama is known as Mount Yushan (Jade Mountain) and is part of Yushan National Park, the largest national park in Taiwan.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger