Japan's Forgotten Micronesian Colonies 

I’m from Saipan and I’m Chamorro the indigenous islanders on my mom’s side. Not only is my great aunt half Japanese but my great grandmother was trained by the Japanese to help some sort of math whiz. According to my family she didn’t really speak English after the American takeover in 1944 she either spoke Chamorro or Japanese.

My great grandfather spoke/read/wrote Japanese. During Japan’s rule, the Japanese took him to Japan and he lived and worked for them. He eventually came back some time after Japan lost control of the islands. He wanted to teach his kids Japanese, but (according to my grandmother) they didn’t want to learn because it was now “muun Merica” (period of America). They wanted to learn English. But we still have a lot of influence from Japan to this day.

As someone from Micronesia, Palau, thanks for noticing us senpai

Hey everyone, hope you enjoy this one! Palau and the other states and territories of Micronesia are all fascinating places that deserve to have this chapter of their story told. It's always interesting to explore any of the states in this broad region of the Pacific - nearly every country in this vast area has a history of occupation or invasion by Japan, and a complicated (but not always negative) relationship with modern Japan that relates to that time. If you ever have the chance, local national museums tend to tell the "Japanese" chapter of Pacific countries quite well. It's always worth learning more about a country from its own perspective. Anyway, let me know what you thought of the video!

Hey how cool, I rambled around Palau, Yap and other Marianas islands in the early 1990s and found this fascinating history. The old folks could speak Japanese and island languages while the younger folks spoke English and island dialects and usually acted as a go-between/translators. Because I could speak Japanese, I was able to have some really incredible times speaking with the elders about the Japanese occupation as well as long sea voyages by Outrigger Canoe, stories of typhoons, and their community stories while chewing betelnut and drinking tuba (coconut moonshine). I stayed on Guam for over a year working in tourism with Japanese tourists and the story there is very different as the occupation was very brutal and violent. But, as history goes, a few decades later they were still Japanese soldiers hiding out and then a few decades later, thousands of tourists coming per day.

Had no idea about this part of colonial history! Thanks for covering this rather unknown topic, I love learning about new historical eras/settings. Amazing video+great narration - really pleasant to listen to. Just subscribed and will be checking out your other vids! Really appreciated the subtitles as well, by the way.

this is very high quality, loved every bit of it! thank you so much for the video

This was a very interesting overview of the imperialist period of Japan, thanks for the work on it!

my grand parents spoke Japanese because they didn't allow colonial people to speak their own language, and forced us to use Japanese style name. my grand parents worked in the japan for Mitsubishi defense industrial corp but were fired without years of pay so they moved to Micronesian county and my parent moved to Hawaii and settled there. my uncle grandfathers were killed by japanese cops for asking for unpaid wages. and their wives were killed or raped .

Amazing job, will definitively recommend this to my mates also interested in history. You’ve got well deserved subscription from me!

Absolutely amazing video. I sent this to my friends in the Japanese club at uni, in hopes that maybe they can make use of it.

Thanks for covering this!

Very good voiceover narration

Thank you very much for sharing very interisting yet very educational

Great presentation. I too am researching the history of the Nan'yo Cho, which Japan kept very secret from the outside world during those years.

really high quality video, sure your channel will take off soon.

Excellent work. It's interesting how there is still a vivid rift between Guam and the Northern Marianas to this day, though the people are ethnically very similar.

Great video! Please try to reduce the glottal fry in your voice by speaking up, this feels like you are trying way too hard to get an “npr” sound where you are right in the listener’s ear. Just project a little bit you have a really good voice! Great video a lot of people forget about the fact that these islands were not just involved in the war between Japan and America but were owned before/after by them.

This was a great timeline and detailed! There are quite differing views between islands and even cities today too and would be interesting to see such a video on each one day. My Palauan family despise Imperial Japan because they had raped many of their ancestors. Some FSM islands hold the Japanese with fondness while others hold a grudge against them because of their treatment. The Ponapean language has many Japanese roots and German too. Most from Pohnpei dont hold strong opinons about Japan and there seems to be a division with Chuuk (Truk) too. There is an ancestral story that they had sent away the men of that island, splitting families apart, leaving their women and children. I think many opinions may have changed during and after WWII as well

Best scuba diving in the world imo. Been there 3 times and will be back once this pandemic is over. Yap is another must visit. By far the cleanest and friendliest Micronesia island. Great diving, an amazing dive resort (Manta Bay) and lots of WW II relics, crashed aircraft etc that are amazingly cared for by the locals.

24:00 Is there anywhere we can read about those antiquated words?

I found out about this on Wikipedia was very confused lol

I'm Micronesian 👁️👄👁️

what is a rural "inaka" city?

I like your content, flow of ideas etc.. but i think your voice is suitable for the video but it is weak in long sentences, you can clearly notice how it becomes shaky at the end of each sentence. Try taking short breath between sentences

you make it sound like Japanese rule was terrible and the Palau people really enjoyed it. so which is it?

It was Forgotten because they were only there for 30 years

I hear East Asians are generally much more tougher towards Micronesians then other Oceanians and Europeans

we could have kept our empire, watch man in high castle.

Aint gonna lie this os a valuable content but obviously its a sided view of the matter ... ya know it wasnt a good ol nice imperialist adventure and a walk in the park

I'm sorry for how shallow this is, but the narrators vocal fry became so intensely distracting and annoying for me I had to stop watching this.