| Summary: | In the 19th Century the Ogasawara/Bonin Islands were the center of the automatic life world in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean called "Japan Ground" by the seamen and whalers. From 1830 to 1875 the settlers of the Ogasawara Islands came from all parts of the world. They contacted and traded with whalers who stopped at these islands. In 1875 "the Empire of Japan" began to occupy these islands and these settlers were naturalized to "Japanese", but these people named "kikajin" (meaning naturalized people) re-arranged and kept their automatic life world. They kept trading with "foreign" seamen who stopped at these Islands. After 1870's they were employed as hunters by the "foreign" schooners to the Sea of Okhotsk for fur-seal hunting every year, often "violating" the border of "Russia" or "Japan". Under such condition the Ogasawara Islands and the life world of the settlers attracted the attention of the politicians, economists, journalists and explorers in "the Empire of Japan" in 1880's and 1890's. The oceans and islands in "Japan Ground" were named "Nan-yo" (meaning the southern ocean of "the Empire of Japan"). They "found" the Ogasawara Islands the center or the strongpoint of the oceans and islands in "Nan-yo" and the very model of the development of "Nan-yo". About that time the key word of the discourses and practices on "Nan-yo" was "Jiyu-koueki" (meaning free trade). Before the occupation of "the Empire of Japan" the Ogasawara Islands and "Japan Ground" had been focused by "the British Empire" (e.g. Rutherford Alcock), the United States of America (e.g. Matthew Perry) and the Tokugawa Regime (e.g. "John Mung") as the proving ground of the development based on the principle of "free trade". After the occupation the Ogasawara Islands came to be regarded as the strongpoint and the model of "Nan-yo" by the discourses and practices which supported "Jiyu-koueki" (e.g. Ukichi Taguchi, Tohru Hattori and Han-emon Tamaki). Such discourses and practices supported utilizing the life world around "kikajin(s)" in the ...
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