Ōsumi Islands
| Ōsumi Islands | ||
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| archipelago | Satsunan Islands | |
| Geographical location | 30 ° 38 ′ N , 130 ° 25 ′ E | |
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| Number of islands | 7th | |
| Main island | Tanegashima | |
| Total land area | approx. 1,030 km² | |
| Residents | 40,640 (October 1, 2019) | |
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The Ōsumi Islands ( Japanese 大 隈 諸島 , Ōsumi-shotō ) are a Japanese group of islands and belong to the Ryūkyū Islands or the Nansei Islands, which has existed as a separate political region since 1970. The archipelago belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture is about 60 km from Kyūshū . The highest point of the Ōsumi Islands, the Miyanoura-dake , is 1,935 m above sea level. The group is of volcanic origin and has a subtropical climate.
The archipelago essentially consists of the three islands:
and the smaller islands:
The islands' parishes are Nishinoomote , Nakatane , Minamitane , Yakushima, and Mishima . 40,640 people live on the islands, 14,980 of whom live in Nishinoomote alone (as of October 1, 2019). Tanegashima has an airport with regular airlines to the mainland and several ferry connections.
history
The islands are first mentioned in Nihon Shoki (720), where Yakushima is mentioned for 616 and Tanegashima for 677. The Shoku Nihongi (797) writes that both islands were incorporated into the Japanese state as the province of Tane in 702.
In 1543 a Chinese ship with Portuguese merchants landed on Tanegashima. This was the first contact between Japanese and Europeans. Under their leader Fernão Mendes Pinto, the Portuguese merchants brought not only products unknown to the Japanese such as soap or tobacco but also the first firearms, later known as the Tanegashima rifle , to the Japanese islands.
During the Second World War , the islands were conquered by the Americans in the spring of 1945 and returned to Japan in 1953.
In 1969 the Tanegashima Space Center opened at the southern end of Tanegashima.
Web links
- Geographical information (PDF, English; 644 kB)
- Information about the Tanegashima Space Center (Engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ajiro Tatsuhiko and Warita Ikuo, Waga kuni no kōiki na chimei oyobi sono han'i ni tsuite no chōsa kenkyū (The geographical names and those extents of the wide areas in Japan), Kaiyō Jōhōbu Gihō, Vol. 27, 2009.