Oceania | My Eyes Tokyo

Happy Birthday to Nauru!

2019-01-31

Aerial view of Nauru. *Photo from Wikipedia January 31 is Nauru’s Independence Day, celebrates independence from Australia in 1968. Settled by native peoples from Micronesia and Polynesia, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, who were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, the country entered into UN trusteeship. Nauru gained its independence in 1968.

Happy Australia Day!

2019-01-26

City of Perth Skyworks on Australia Day, 2006. *Photo from Wikipedia January 26 is Australia Day, the official National Day of Australia. It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip. Convicts in Britain were originally transported to the Thirteen Colonies in North America. But after the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the newly formed United States refused to accept further convicts. The settlement was seen as necessary because of the

Happy Birthday to Micronesia!

2018-11-03

People performing a welcome ceremony. *Photo from Wikipedia November 3 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Federated States of Micronesia from the United States in 1986. The history of the modern Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is one of settlement by Micronesians; colonization by Spain, Germany, and Japan; United Nations trusteeship under United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; and gradual independence beginning with the ratification of a sovereign constitution in 1979. The FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States, which entered into force on November 3, 1986, marking Micronesia’s emergence from trusteeship

Happy Fiji Day!

2018-10-10

Coconut palms line the beaches of Fiji. *Photo from Wikipedia October 10 is Fiji Day, celebrates the independence of Fiji from United Kingdom in 1970. The first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago. Over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture developed. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman visited Fiji in 1643 while looking for the Great Southern Continent. Europeans settled on the islands permanently beginning in the 19th century.The first European settlers to Fiji were beachcombers, missionaries, whalers, and those engaged in the then booming sandalwood and bêche-de-mer (sea cucumber)

Happy Birthday to Palau!

2018-10-01

Koror City, the largest city in Palau. It was formerly the capital until 2006. *Photo from Wikipedia October 1 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Palau from the UN Trust Territory status in 1994. The country was originally settled approximately 3,000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines. The islands were first explored by Europeans in the 16th century, and were made part of the Spanish East Indies in 1574. Following Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American War in 1898, the islands were sold to Imperial Germany in 1899 under the terms of the German-Spanish Treaty, where they were administered

Happy Birthday to Tuvalu!

2018-10-01

Tuvaluan children. *Photo from Wikipedia October 1 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Tuvalu from United Kingdom in 1978. In 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago. In 1819, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The islands came under Britain’s sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British Protectorate between October 9 and 16, 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as British protectorate from 1892 to 1974. A referendum

Happy Birthday to Papua New Guinea!

2018-09-16

A tree-kangaroo. The kangaloos inhabit the tropical rainforests of New Guinea. *Photo from Wikipedia September 16 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Papua New Guinea from Australia in 1975. Little was known in Europe about the island until the 19th century, although Portuguese and Spanish explorers had encountered it as early as the 16th century. In the 19th century, Germany ruled the northern half of the country as a colony for some decades, beginning in 1884, as German New Guinea. The southern half was colonized in the same year by the United Kingdom as British New Guinea. With the

Happy Birthday to Vanuatu!

2018-07-30

A women’s dance from Vanuatu, using bamboo stamping tubes. *Photo from Wikipedia July 30 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Vanuatu from the United Kingdom and France in 1980. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island in 1606. As the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies had been unified under the king of Spain in 1580 (following the vacancy of the Portuguese throne, which lasted for sixty years, until 1640, when the Portuguese monarchy was restored), Queirós

Happy Birthday to Solomon Islands!

2018-07-07

Solomon Islander boys. Rugby is played in Solomon Islands. *Photo from Wikipedia July 7 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Solomon Islands from the United Kingdom in 1978. The islands have been inhabited for thousands of years. In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them, naming them the Islas Salomón. Britain defined its area of interest in the Solomon Islands archipelago in June 1893, when Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS Curacoa (corvette of the Royal Navy, United Kingdom’s principal naval warfare force), declared the southern Solomon Islands as a British Protectorate with

Happy Birthday to Tonga!

2018-06-04

Downtown Nukuʻalofa. Nukuʻalofa is the capital of Tonga. *Photo from Wikipedia June 4 is Tonga’s Emancipation Day or Independence Day, commemorates the abolition of serfdom in Tonga in 1862, and the independence of Tonga from the British protectorate in 1970. Tonga became known in the West as the “Friendly Islands” because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands’ paramount chief) and so received an invitation to the festivities. According to

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