Japan Achieved Success in Micronesia Unlike Any Other

Hezel, Francis X. (2018-05-14). Japan Achieved Success in Micronesia Unlike Any Other.

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Abstract: In the years before World War II, the Micronesian islands under Japanese rule were selfsupporting, a level of economic independence never reached during the U.S. colonial period after the war or since independence in the mid-1980s, noted Pacific historian Francis X. Hezel, SJ, told a packed lecture hall at Sophia University. Speaking to an audience of more than 130—including Palau Ambassador Francis Matsutaro, Federated States of Micronesia Ambassador John Fritz, and Marshall Islands Ambassador Tom Kijiner —Hezel said sugar cane plantations on Saipan, Tinian and Rota brought in more than 6 million yen, more than all other regional industries combined. Tuna fishing, which dried the fish and turned it into tuna shavings or katsuobushi at factories on Chuuk, Pohnpei, Palau and Saipan, produced revenue of over 5 million yen annually, Hezel said.