Resident of Truk from 1969-1983
It's a little-known fact that they were given to Japan
by the League of Nations. Here's the story. Spain had explored and colonized
firstly, then sold the entire islands to Germany prior to 1900. There
was a big typhoon in 1905 that went backwards from Truk to the Marshalls
and broke the back of the German Copra industry out there. A secret
telegraph called the Zimmerman Telegram was sent by the Germans to the
Japanese during WWI.
Intercepted by the British, who broke the cryptogram,
it offered the astounding plan to let Japan take over the western US.
The plan called for Japan to invade the US through Mexico, and with
German help, take over Arizona, New Mexico, etc. The offer was sweetened
by the assurance that Germany WAS going to win the war. Well, the Brits
had the problem of letting the US know the deal without tipping them
off that they, the Brits, could read the German diplomatic code. When
the US found out, THEY went to Japan and offered them this deal: side
with us as an ally against Germany and when WE win the war, we will
give you control of all the German-held islands of the Pacific, north
of the Equator.
So it went. Japan was given everything from Saipan
to Kusaie, that is the Western and Eastern Caroline Islands. Gilberts,
Nauru, etc., etc. The Germans
had wanted those islands to build their coaling stations to keep the
battle fleet in the Pacific. (As an aside there was a rebellion in Ponape
in 1910 at Sokehs, and the Germans brought in a pocket battleship and
alpine troops to shell Sokehs and then scale the sides of the mountain
where the rebels had hold up. Having won, Germany said they wouldd never
let Ponapeans have control of Sokehs again., So, till today, we find
people from all over the Eastern Carolines living there, (they were
given land grants by the Germans) but no real Ponapeans). Now we know
why Japan was an ally of the US during the first world war. Read the
full details in Barbara Tuchman's book, The Zimmerman Telegram.
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