History of the Pacific Island Countries

Great World Powers in the Pacific

1522	Ferdinand Magellan crosses the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
1769	James Cook embarks on his first Pacific voyage and reaches Tahiti.
1843	France territorializes Tahiti (the first colonialization of a Pacific Island Country by a European power).
1874	Britain colonializes Fiji.
1891	Painter Paul Gauguin visits Tahiti for the first time.
1892	Koben Mori moves to the Truk Islands, becoming the first Japanese immigrant to a Pacific Island Country.
1898	Spain and the United States go to war; Guam becomes a U.S. territory.
1902	New Guinea's ownership is transferred from Britain to Australia.
1916	Author W. Somerset Maugham tours Polynesia.
1919	Micronesia, until then a German territory, becomes a League of Nations mandate under Japanese administration.
1922	Japan sets up the Pacific Islands Agency in Palau.
1941	Novelist Atsushi Nakajima visits Palau.

The islands of the Pacific were not mentioned in European history books until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Beginning then many Westerners flowed in, including Christian missionaries and colonial administrators, greatly affecting the cultures of these islands. Contagious diseases were also brought in. From the mid-nineteenth century onward, the Pacific islands came under the rule of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.

1941	Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
1942	The Battle of Midway and the Battle for Guadalcanal are fought.
1944	The Battle of Saipan.
1945	World War II ends.

The islands of the Pacific became an intense war zone during World War II, and the battles claimed high casualties.

The Cold War Era

1946 The United States begins testing nuclear bombs on Bikini Atoll.

1947 Micronesia becomes a U.N. trust territory under U.S. administration.
1966 France begins nuclear testing on Mururoa Atoll.

Independence of the Pacific Island Countries

1962 Western Samoa (present-day Samoa) becomes the first Pacific Island Country to achieve independence.

The islands of the Pacific have gradually been gaining independence: two countries in the 1960s including Western Samoa, six countries in the 1970s, and three countries in the 1980s. The most recent country to win independence is the Republic of Palau, which gained nationhood in 1994.

Relationship between the Pacific Island Countries and Japan in the New Era

1971 The South Pacific Forum is founded.

1985 The Soviet Union concludes a fisheries agreement with Kiribati;
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone visits Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

1987 Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari visits Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Vanuatu.

1989 Japan becomes a dialogue partner of the SPF.

1997 The Japanese government hosts the First Japan-South Pacific Forum Summit Meeting in Tokyo.

2000 PALM 2000 (The Second Japan-South Pacific Forum Summit Meeting) is held in Miyazaki.

In recent years Japan has begun supporting the nation-building efforts of Pacific Island Countries through official development assistance. It also actively promotes the exchange of views through summit-level and ministerial talks and through official talks held annually between the South Pacific Forum and non-member countries (extraregional dialogue). Through various forms of exchange and invitation programs, moreover, Japan strives to facilitate interaction at the grassroots level.