Senzanjima Prefecture (The Orange Outback)

Template:Sub-national entityThe Senzanjima Prefecture (Japanese: 千山島省 Senzanjima-shō; Hawaiian: ヒゥヴァイヽイ Huvai'i) is a prefecture of Japan located in the North Pacific Ocean, located 4,117 miles (6,625 km) from Japan and 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the United States. It is the only prefecture of Japan located outside the Japanese archipelago and the only prefecture to use the -shō (省) suffix. 

The prefecture encompasses the entirety of the Hawaiian Archipelago, spread over approximately 1500 miles (2,400 km). The prefecture is considered to be part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, making it the only Japanese prefecture in Oceania. The eight main islands, known in Japanese as Hasseitō (八正島), contain a majority of the 2.5 million residents of the prefecture. 

History 

Pre-contact Civilization 

As early as CE 400, the area that is now Senzanjima had been inhabited by Polynesian sailors who arrived from the Marquesas islands on canoes. In the period following the first settlements, the eight main islands eventually were settled and small chiefdoms were established across the archipelago. Wars between chiefdoms were common, as was trade. Eventually, the islands would unify as the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1795. 

European contact 

In 1778, English explorer James Cook made landfall on the islands and named it the Sandwich islands, which marked the first time a foreign power from either Europe or Asia recorded sightings of the islands. 

Kingdom of Hawaii

During the time the Europeans first discovered the islands, the indigenous chiefs were fighting for control of the island. These wars came to a head when most of the islands were unified by King Kamehameha I as the Kingdom of Hawaii. European powers and Japan were quick to recognize this new Kingdom to trade with. During this time, European traders and missionaries arrived in the islands, attempting to convert numerous locals to Catholicism and Protestantism, which was met with stiff resistance from the Japanese, who had already established Orthodoxy, Shinto, and Buddhism in their trading ports. 

Anti-European Movements and the Island Wars  

Headed largely several conservative Hawaiian leaders and anti-Christian activists, an Anti-European Movement emerged in the 1830s. The movement was supported by Japan, with numerous Japanese military advisors being sent to train local Hawaiian militias. The United States, which saw itself as an alternative attempted to influence the Hawaiians to side with them instead of the Japanese. This was moderately successful as some moderate Hawaiian activists began to side with the States. This enraged some of the senority of the movement as well as Japan, which viewed the move as an attempted to bring Hawaii into the American sphere of influence and eventually annex it. 

This split would eventually lead to war between both factions, with Japanese and American soldiers being involved as well. The more zealous Japanese-supported faction won and eventually forced the Americans and numerous European powers, with a notable exception of the Dutch, out of the islands. 

Further Japanese activity and Japanese annexation 

Following the war, Japan began to send more of its people over to the islands, eventually calling the islands Senzanjima, which mean "thousand mountain islands" in the Japanese language. This move, along with a waning European presence saw the monarchy of Hawaii wane in power as well. This would result in the forced abdication of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1885, and Japan's officially annexation of the archipelago as the Senzajima Colony of Japan two years later.

As a Japanese Prefecture 

The annexation was initially met with a massive uproar and several uprising brutally suppressed by the Japanese government. This initial period of Japanese rule was also infamous for several massacres, including the infamous "Thousand Year Massacre", which saw Japanese and indigenous soldiers pillage, rape, and burn four anti-Japanese villages for 3 days. After this rocky period, the islands to settle down and the Japanese government to build infrastructure and roads, including the opening of the first civilian hospital on the archipelago. In 1913, the first civilian governor was appointed by the government. The first school was established in 1917 and the first university was established in 1935. 

Further development would continue on the archipelago, slowly increasing the population and standards of living in the colony. In 1975, the Japanese government officially declared the achipelago to be a full-fledged prefecture of Japan. 

Demographics 

From 1916 until 1948, Senzanjima would experence a population boom, rising from just over 783,000 people to well over 1.3 million, mostly due to immigration from Japan and a government program that rewarded families that had more than two children. The population would continue to increase steadily until 1988, when it peaked around 3.1 million. Since then the prefecture has been experiencing period increased and decreases in population, with the current population currently standing at 2.57 million. 

Native Hawaiians 

Native Hawaiians (Japanese: 千山島先住民 Senzanjima senjūmin; Hawaiian: カーナカ・マオリ Kānaka maoli) are the indigenous people of the islands. They make up roughly 1/3 of the entire population of the prefecture. The culture of the Native Hawaiians is similar to other Polynesians and have heavy influence on the population of the prefecture. Most Native Hawaiians speak Hawaiian and Japanese as their main languages. 

Ethnic Japanese 

As a former colony and current prefecture of Japan, Senzanjima's ethnic Japanese population make up just over 75% of the island's population, making them the single largest ethnic group in the prefecture. Like other Japanese in the Japanese Home Islands, the primary language of the people is the Japanese language. Although Standard Japanese is taught in schools, most Japanese people use the Senzanjima dialect, which combines features of the various Southern Japanese dialects and the Native Hawaiian language, as well as features from Ryukyuan languages, Hokkien, and American English. 

Others 

Aside from the Native Hawaiian and Japanese ethnic groups, other Oceanian ethnic groups such as the Maori are also present. Han Chinese, largely immigrants from Takasago and the United States also make up a significant minority of the population. 

Administrative Divisions 

Senzanjima is officially comprised of 137 islands, and all are grouped into one of 7 subprefectural entities, known as -shu (州). Each subprefecture is then further divided into two cities (市), in the case of Byōkō and Kazanroku,  or in the rest of the prefecture, districts, called -ku (区), towns (町), and villages (村). Within the cities of Byōkō and Kizanroku, they are further subdivided into districts, called -bu (部). The only exception to any of these are the subprefecture of Shōjuntō, which does not have any administrative divisions beyond the subprefecture itself, instead it is subdivided into 5 'supervised regions', known as Kantoku chiho (監督地方). 

Subprefectures of Senzanjima 

Name	Kanji	Seat of Government	Population (2018)
Hanrojima	半路島州	NavCom (海軍司令部)	5,100
Shōjuntō	小盾島州	Taiyōya (太陽屋)	26
Chōgujima	鳥湖島州	Hakuseki (白石村)	570
Lanai-jima	蘭愛島州	Lanai (蘭愛町)	18,774
Rokunōjima	緑脳島州	Sekisui (赤水町)	86,173
Kai'ichijima	会位置島州	Byōkō (平港市)	1,587,308
Kazantō	火山島州	Kazanroku (火山麓)	946,167

Education 

Senzanjima contains 304 public and private, primary and secondary education facilities, which are run by the prefectural government, local municipalities, or organizations. The prefecture also has 4 public and 3 private universities. It also has 3 military academies that are run jointly by the Imperial Armed Forces of Japan and the Prefectural Government of Senzanjima.