page_title: South Seas Mandate
section_title: Population
hierarchical_section_title: South Seas Mandate / Population
caption_attribution_description: English: Japanese Cafe in Saipan日本語: サイパンの朝鮮人経営のカフェ「アリラン」
context_page_description: The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean lying North of the Equator, was a League of Nations mandate in the "South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following World War I. The mandate consisted of islands in the north Pacific Ocean that had been part of German New Guinea within the German colonial empire until they were occupied by Japan during World War I. Japan governed the islands under the mandate as part of the Japanese colonial empire until World War II, when the United States captured the islands. The islands then became the United Nations-established Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands governed by the United States. The islands are now part of Palau, Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Marshall Islands.
  In Japan, the territory is known as "Japanese mandate for the South Seas Islands" and was governed by the Nan'yō Government.
context_section_description: The population of the islands increased during the period of the mandate as a result of Japanese settlement in Micronesia. Settlers were initially drawn from Okinawa Island and the other Ryukyu Islands, but immigrants subsequently came from other parts of Japan, particularly the economically-deprived Tōhoku region. Agricultural workers were followed by shopkeepers, restaurant, geisha house and brothel-keepers, expanding former German settlements into Japanese boom towns. The initial population figures (1919-1920) for the mandated territories included around 50,000 islanders, made up from the indigenous peoples of Oceania. Japanese immigration led to the population growing from under 4,000 in 1920 to 70,000 inhabitants in 1930, and more than 80,000 in 1933. By 1935 the Japanese population alone was more than 50,000. By 1937 almost 90 percent of the population on Saipan was Japanese  (42,547 out of 46,748). In the census of December 1939, the total population was 129,104, of which 77,257 were Japanese (including ethnic Chinese and Koreans), 51,723 indigenous islanders and 124 foreigners. The rights and status of the indigenous Micronesian population differed from those of Japanese imperial subjects. Employment prospects for Micronesians were more restricted, with unequal labor conditions and pay.
  The government of the Mandate built and maintained hospitals and schools, and free education was provided for Micronesian children aged 8–15. However, Micronesian children attended separate schools from those used by Japanese children, and the schooling provided in them was more limited. Micronesian children often attended boarding schools where compulsory schooling was used to promote Japanese state religion and Shinto rituals. A Shinto shrine known as the Nan'yō Shrine was established on Koror in 1940. Christian mission schools were prohibited from taking Micronesian pupils where government schools existed.
caption: Korean Cafe in Saipan, 1939
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