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The 1947 Newfoundland referendum consisted of three choices. Independent nation, union with Canada, or status quo as British colony. Union with the USA was discussed, but early on the USA made it known that it would not be interested and would not be inclined to accept Newfoundland, so the ballot issue was narrowed to three choices.
The USA claims nine uninhabited islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, many of them under the Guano Islands Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , which specifies that the USA owns anyplace where a bird craps.
The USA claims nine uninhabited islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, many of them under the Guano Islands Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , which specifies that the USA owns anyplace where a bird craps.
By way of explanation....the bird crap, guano, was a source for extracting saltpeter, one of the ingredients of gunpowder.
Among the islands seized under the act was Midway, setting the stage for the epic turning point battle in the Pacific War.
I think Iwo Jima and Okinawa should have become US states. Those islands met pretty good criteria to be successfully colonized by the US. Thousands of our men died to conquer them, the native population was greatly diminished, leaving it an easy task to remove the remaining population to the Japanese homeislands and start from scratch, the best way to go when colonizing. Would have been easy to make those places REAL American states with REAL Americans colonizing them, without any locals to hamper the long term effort, as is often the case with our territorial acquisitions. Okinawa is a beautiful island, we should never have given it back after what we went thru to take it.
Poster Grandstander has adequately covered the unsuitability of Iwo Jima to be a valued colony of any nation, but I want to address Okinawa. Mofford, are you even aware that the native population of Okinawa was not Japanese? Sure, there were also some Japanese colonists there, but the Okinawan people spoke their own language and were ethnically separate. So it would have been a travesty to "remove the remaining population to the Japanese home islands". The Japanese had mistreated the Okinawans and forced many to fight for Japan - there was not a lot of love lost between them.
At least Okinawa is much larger than Iwo Jima and is suitable for agriculture. The issue of returning Okinawa to full Japanese sovereignty was a vexing issue, but we did it to placate Japan (which had become an ally in the meantime). The return of almost all territory occupied by the U.S. in World War II to the sovereignty of the original owners shows the essential nobility and generosity of U.S. foreign policy in the years immediately following World War II.
The return of almost all territory occupied by the U.S. in World War II to the sovereignty of the original owners shows the essential nobility and generosity of U.S. foreign policy in the years immediately following World War II.
And/or it might have shown the staunch desire of the U.S. to avoid causing more countries to drift into the Communist/Soviet bloc/camp.
For instance, I think that I might have previously read something about how the U.S. and/or the U.K. seriously considered transferring South Tyrol from Italy to Austria after World War II (due to its majority ethnic German population) but decided not to do this at least in large part due to their fear that Italy would be more likely to become Communist afterwards (due to Italian anger at the U.S. and/or at the U.K. for giving Italian territory to another country) if this event would have occurred.
Well, Okinawa was annexed by Japan back in 1879, they certainly fought hard for Japan, killing 12,510 Americans, seems like if they wanted to break away from Japan, they had a window of opportunity to do so when the battle began, not much of a coup attempt there, lol.
As for Grandstander's post about the 8 miles of dirt and ash on Iwo Jima, have a look.
Looks a little better than it did in 1945, our troops saw it after it had been shelled for a month......It's a keeper.
Well, Okinawa was annexed by Japan back in 1879, they certainly fought hard for Japan, killing 12,510 Americans, seems like if they wanted to break away from Japan, they had a window of opportunity to do when the battle began, not much of a coup attempt there, lol.
Were most Japanese troops in Okinawa at that point in time Okinawans or ethnic Japanese from other parts of Japan, though?
Were most Japanese troops in Okinawa at that point in time Okinawans or ethnic Japanese from other parts of Japan, though?
Your doubts are well-founded: Most of the troops on Okinawa were Japanese, not Okinawans.
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Okinawa
