Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
THE DAITŌ ISLANDS
大東諸島
Precipitous cliffs, sugary sights
1
Kita Daitōjima
北大東島
2
Minami Daitōjima
南大東島
3
Oki Daitōjima
沖大東島
The Daitō Islands (
大東諸島
; Daitō-shotō), a part of Okinawa Prefecture, lie in the Pacific
Ocean almost 250 miles (400 kilometers) due east of Naha, Okinawa, on the other side of the
great Ryukyu Trench. From the late 1500s, and for the next 200 years, one or more of the is-
lands was occasionally spotted by a passing ship, charted (sometimes erroneously), then for-
gotten and lost again. On almost each of their sightings, their “discoverer” rechristened them.
Hence, they have carried many names, among others “Islas sin Probecho,” “Amsterdam Is-
land,” “Breskens-Eylant,” “Malabriga,” “Dolores,” the “Grampus Isles,” “Kendrick Island,” the
“Bishop Rocks” and “Île de la Canonnière.”
The accepted Western names for the Daitōs for close to 100 years arose in the early 1800s.
In 1815, what is now called Oki Daitōjima was resighted by a Spanish galleon out of Manila,
the frigate
San Fernando de Magallanes
. The island was called “Isla Rasa,” that is, “Flat island.”
Five years later, in 1820, Minami Daitōjima and Kita Daitōjima were resighted by a Russi-
an Naval officer sailing on a ship of the Russian-American Company, the
Borodino
. He called
them “Ostrova Borodino” (Russian: Oстрова Бородино; English: Borodino Islands) after his
ship, named for the Russian battle against Napoleon in the War of 1812. Thus, these three tiny
islands became known in the West and on shipping charts as the Borodino Islands and Rasa
Island. They are still sometimes called by these names.
