PACIFIC ISLANDS UNDER JAPANESE MANDATE 



617 



arrived and deported 

 the foreigners, includ- 

 ing the solitary po- 

 liceman, the islander's 

 chief source of in- 

 come was gone. 



The final blow came 

 on December 7, 1920, 

 when a typhoon lev- 

 eled the vegetation on 

 the islands, destroy- 

 ing most of the coco- 

 nut palms, breadfruit 

 trees, and other food 

 supplies. The last 

 previous typhoon had 

 been on February 20, 

 1895. 



About the time the 

 new coconut trees 

 were ready to bear, 

 one of those strange 

 plant sicknesses of 

 the tropics spread 

 over the island. The 

 n e w groves, which 

 had been patiently 

 planted, were just 

 coming into fruit 

 when the last typhoon 

 wiped out everything. 



To everybody in the 

 world except the 

 islander himself, the 

 location of Yap is 

 of importance. It is 

 about 250 miles east 

 of Palao, the future 

 Japanese naval head- 

 quarters of the man- 

 date, which is some 

 500 miles east of the 

 Philippines, about opposite Mindanao. 



**:*? 



Photograph from Junius B. Wood 



A SHRINK ON KORROR : PALAO ISLANDS 



This structure, three feet wide and six feet high, is a miniature 

 replica of the club-house shown on the opposite page. Though it is 

 a place of worship, it contains no idol or image. 



YAP ISLANDERS WERE LEADERS 



Like the other forty-eight so-called 

 islands in the Carolines, Yap is not a 

 single island, but a cluster of small 

 islands. There are ten islands in the 

 group, four of which are fairly large and 

 volcanic, all surrounded by a coral reef 

 about 15 miles long and 4^ miles across 

 at its widest point. Epp, the native name 

 for Yap, is the largest of the four. North 

 of it, and separated by narrow straits, are 

 Torei, Map, and Rumong. Tomil is the 

 name of the harbor and settlement, with 



a good anchorage, reached by a narrow 

 passage and past dangerous rocks. 



In native civilization, the islanders of 

 Yap were the leaders and teachers for 

 all the others. Most of the legends and 

 customs of the old days can be traced 

 back to Yap. Some islands improved on 

 their lessons, others never advanced be- 

 yond crude imitations. 



Stories are told of men from Yap com- 

 ing in their canoes as far as the Marshalls, 

 more than 2,000 miles away. They taught 

 the others navigation. In the Marshalls, 

 where the little low-lying patches of sand 

 and coral are close together, they im- 



