Chuuk State Census Report - pacificweb.org

Chapter 1. Introduction2000 FSM Census of Chuuk StateJapanese values. This policy continued even after naval rule was replaced by civilian administration in July 1921 andthe headquarters transferred from Chuuk to Palau.Through the 1920s the administration continued its emphasis on education, particularly on the study of the Japaneselanguage. Better students who completed the first three years of school were sent to a higher school on Tonoas for anadditional two years. A few of the Chuukese graduates were employed as policemen or teachers' aides; others went towork for the government as errand boys or clerks. A number of others found employment with Nambo, the greatJapanese trading company of the day that had stores on several islands and ran coconut plantations in various sites.Still others signed on to work in the phosphate mines on Angaur. Youth organizations, or Seinandan, flourished onnearly all the islands.The 1930s saw the first large-scale immigration of Japanese colonists into Chuuk. Okinawan settlers came in evergreaternumbers and, aided by government subsidies, bought fishing vessels and produced Katsuobushi for local useand export. Later immigrants obtained land grants from the government to set up vegetable and sweet potato gardens,and some expanded into the production of starch. Much of the land that had originally been claimed by the governmentwas made available to Japanese businesses for development purposes. By 1937 nearly 4000 Japanese and Okinawanslived in Chuuk out of a total population numbering 18,000. In these golden years of development, subsidies wereended. The Japanese government had turned Micronesia into a colony that paid its own way. Chuukese participationin this prosperity was real but marginal. The fishing industry, like most of the major industries, was run entirely byJapanese nationals, but hundreds of Chuukese men went to Pohnpei to do plantation labor on a contract basis. Localpeople bought steamship tickets to other parts of Micronesia and bicycles for their children. Never before had therebeen so much money in circulation among the Chuukese.The war brought a reversal of fortune to Japanese and Chuukese alike. For two years before Pearl Harbor the Japanesewere busy constructing airfields and port facilities, but it was only in January 1944, on the eve of the threatened Alliedinvasion, that the Japanese Army defense forces arrived and serious work began on the caves and tunnels and gunemplacements that are still tourist attractions today. The invasion never came, but enemy bombers following theUnited States carrier raid on the island group in February 1944 regularly pounded Chuuk. For the last year and a halfof the war, some 35,000 Japanese fighting men and laborers shared the islands' scant food resources with the localpopulation. Every available foot of land was planted in sweet potatoes, and Chuukese often had to sneak food out oftheir own gardens to feed themselves and their families. All this ended on August 15, 1945, when the JapaneseEmperor announced his country's unconditional surrender to the Allies.Table 1.2 shows the population of Chuukese and Japanese during the Japanese period. At the beginning of the period,of course, few Japanese were in the Islands. As the Japanese Administration increased its influence in the islands, thenumber and percentage of Japanese increased considerably until the end of World War II (when the Japanese wererepatriated.)Japan intended to annex the islands. Many Okinawans and Koreans left Japan for the larger Pacific Islands, and manybrought their families. Although the total effect on Japan's population was minor, the intent was to use the islands torelieve population pressure in Japan itself. By December, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, immigrants inMicronesia outnumbered locals on some islands from 3 or 4 to 1 and other islands by as much as 10 or more to 1(Bowden et al., 1966:27). Also, they began to "Japanize the islanders through education, propaganda, intermarriage,and in general the promotion of cultural changes" (Mirrer 1971:23). As a subsequent change, intermarriage and affairsbrought increased numbers of inter-racial babies.Japanese constituted less than 6 percent of the population in 1920, and only 3 percent in 1925. Japanese continued to bea fairly small percentage of the population in the 1930 and 1935 censuses, although they were 16 percent of thepopulation by 1935 -- about 1 in every 6 persons. Unfortunately we do not have information from the 1940 census,because it is obvious that an enormous build up occurred in the pre-war period.By 1911, the native population of what was to become Chuuk state had decreased to 11,000 and by 1920 to 9,822. Theestablishment of a health service stopped the downward trend, and the population increased very slightly from 9,822 in1920 to 10,344 in 1935 (See Table 1.2). Table 1.2 also shows the number of Japanese in Chuuk during the Japaneseperiod. The Japanese took censuses in 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, and 1940. Complete, lengthy reports were prepared for6 Chuuk Branch Statistics Office, Division of Statistics, FSM Department of Economic Affairs