Fr. Gebhard opens a mission station at Fouchuen, western Fefan.
Source: MicSem, Catholic Church: Chuuk
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1914
Japanese naval forces occupy Ponape without resistance; Japanese Wikipedia says four ships entered the harbor .
A Japanese expeditionary squadron lands on Yap and occupies the island.
Japanese forces occupy Truk.
The Japanese Navy occupies the German Marianas, Carolines and Marshalls and interns German officials.
A Japanese warship arrives and seizes Pohnpei (Japanese Wikipedia: four ships, bloodless).
A Japanese squadron takes possession of Chuuk; the head of the German station surrenders.
Source: MicSem, Catholic Church: Chuuk
Japanese forces occupy Yap at the start of the First World War.
Source: Habele, German Era on Yap
Japan occupies the German Marshalls, Carolines and Marianas.
Source: JACAR chronology
Japan ships the German officials home after the occupation.
Source: Habele, German Period
Japan issues the Provisional South Seas Defense Force regulations, formally starting military government.
Source: JACAR glossary
Garrisons and military-government offices set up in five districts including Truk and Ponape; another JACAR page says six districts.
The naval South Seas Defense Force replaces the provisional administrations, with its headquarters on Truk.
Chuuk mission schools grow from 200 pupils early in the year to about 300 by year’s end.
Source: MicSem, Catholic Church: Chuuk
E. Sarfert’s Hamburg expedition monograph Die Insel Kusae is published.
Source: Kolonial-Lexikon, Kusaie
The German-era school system is disbanded; Yap had 473 pupils at the end of German rule.
1915
A sixth administrative district is created, headquartered on Yap.
Naval Fieldpost No. 5 aboard the Kamakura Maru serves Yap until stationary naval post offices open from 10 October 1915 .
Source: AOGC postal exhibit
Japan founds Micronesia’s first public school system, one school per district, and bars German missionaries from teaching school.
Source: Hezel, MicSem
1916
The Jaluit Company’s Truk branch mails a cover postmarked “Truk/Imperial Naval Post Office” .
Source: AOGC postal exhibit
A commercial registered cover to China is postmarked “Yap/Imperial Naval Post Office” .
Source: AOGC postal exhibit
The local naval commander reportedly authorizes “I.J.O. Ponape” overprinted stamps, withdrawn after Tokyo’s Communications Department objects .
Source: AOGC postal exhibit
1917
Britain secretly agrees to back Japan’s claim to the islands; France and Russia later approve.
Japan begins letting the Sokehs exiles return from Palau .
1918
A Civil Affairs Department is created in the Defense Force; military-government offices become civil-administration offices, still under naval officers.
Six Truk village chiefs, including Natsushima’s, declare they want to stay under Japanese rule rather than return to Germany.
Source: JACAR record C10128493500
1919
Allied premiers at Paris decide Japan will receive a mandate over the German islands north of the equator .
The last German Catholic missionaries are expelled from the Carolines and Marshalls.
Source: Hezel, MicSem
The Japanese administration gives Kapingamarangi people land in Kolonia, which becomes Porakiet.
Source: EveryCulture, Kapingamarangi
1920
First island census, with Japan’s national census: 52,222 people, about 48,500 islanders and 3,403 Japanese.
Source: JACAR record B13080464900
The League of Nations Council confirms Japan’s Class C mandate.
1921
Spanish Jesuit Fr José Pájaro and Br Florencio Mancera land on Tonoas (Dublon); MicSem dates the Jesuit return to 1922.
Jesuit Fr José M. Gumucio and Br Ramón Unamuno disembark on Yap.
Civil administration headquarters moves from Truk to Koror, Palau.
Japan begins withdrawing its armed forces; military surveys of the islands begin.
Four Jesuits, including Frs Luis Herrera and Pedro Castro, disembark on Ponape.
Japanese authorities build the concrete Japanese Elementary School for Ponapean Children.
1922
Nan’yō-chō (South Seas Government) ordinance promulgated 31 March; civilian government begins 1 April.
The naval garrison completes its withdrawal and the Defense Force is abolished.
About 150 Japanese live on Pohnpei, mostly traders and officials.
Branch offices set at Ponape (Kolonia, covering Kusaie), Truk (Natsushima) and Yap by South Seas Government Order No. 4.
Islander schools become Nan’yō-chō public schools (kōgakkō); the system has 17 schools and 2,500 pupils by 1922.
The Nan’yō-chō industrial experiment station opens a Ponape branch for paddy-rice and medicinal-plant trials.
The US accepts Japan’s mandate after the Washington Conference; Japanese Wikipedia dates the mandate’s effect to 11 February 1922 .
Nan’yō-chō clinics open at Truk, Ponape and Yap, among seven in the territory .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1923
US Marine spy Earl Ellis, taken ill sailing from Kusaie, resumes surveying the Marshalls and Ponape .
Source: Wikipedia, Earl Hancock Ellis
The Marianas, Carolines and Marshalls vicariates are merged; Jesuit Bishop Lopez de Rego later sets his residence at Toloas, Truk.
Source: Aoyama Gakuin SIPEC paper
1924
Instruction No. 50 sets branch-office duties; the 1924 reform lets police or clerical officials head branches.
Okinawan migration to Ponape begins, with four people.
Source: Ryukyu Shimpo
1925
Fukushima Taira is on record as head of the Ponape branch office.
Source: JACAR, Ponape branch
Tachiyama Shigeru is on record as head of the Yap branch office.
Source: JACAR, Yap branch
1926
Spanish Jesuit Higinio Berganza Pinedo arrives as a missionary and settles on Ponape.
Source: Aoyama Gakuin SIPEC paper
Ponape Japanese elementary school and the native public school at U are founded .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
A Japanese school on Yap and a native public school at Maki are founded .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1927
The last Sokehs exiles are back from Palau .
Source: Wikipedia, Sokehs rebellion
A Ponape branch weather observatory is established .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
A native public school is founded on Haru-shima (春島), Truk .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1928
A native public school is founded on Fuyu-shima (冬島), Truk .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1929
The new Colonial Ministry (Takumushō) takes over supervision of the Nan’yō-chō .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
Tadano Abō is on record as Ponape branch head and Nakahashi Shūichi as Yap branch head.
1930
A tuna cannery opens on Pohnpei.
A native public school is founded on Getsuyō-tō (月曜島), Truk .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1931
Artist-ethnographer Hijikata Hisakatsu and carpenter Sugiura Sasuke arrive on Satawal.
Source: Habele, Satawal
A 24-family Japanese farming commune starts at Palikir, and Haruki market town is built .
A native public school is founded in the Mortlocks .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1932
Takagi Yūmatsu is on record as head of the Yap branch office.
Source: JACAR, Yap branch
About 120 Micronesians have finished year-long agricultural training at stations on Ponape, Saipan and Palau.
Source: Hezel, MicSem
Mission-school enrollment reaches 1,180, up from about 400 in 1922.
Source: Hezel, MicSem
1933
Japan gives notice of withdrawal from the League of Nations, effective two years later, but keeps the mandate.
Kolonia is established as a town .
Source: ja.wikipedia 部落 (南洋群島)
The Yap branch office issues its district handbook (Kannai yōran).
Source: JACAR, Yap branch
A Japanese school opens at Palikir, renamed Haruki (春来) in 1939 .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1934
Tanaka Shigeru is on record as Ponape branch head; Oimatsu Hideo is acting Yap branch head.
Control over siting of facilities shifts from the Nan’yō-chō to the Navy.
Source: TIGHAR
A Truk branch weather observatory is established .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1935
A Japanese census counts 1,189 Kosraeans and 25 Japanese nationals.
Government public-school attendance becomes compulsory for Kosraean children.
Source: Habele, Kosrae
The census counts 408 people on Ulithi, plus one Japanese on Falalop.
Source: Habele, Ulithi
Japanese authorities count 570 residents and one Japanese national on Woleai.
Source: Habele, Woleai
Jesuit Berganza Pinedo is appointed superior of the Ponape Catholic mission.
Source: Aoyama Gakuin SIPEC paper
Japanese residents come to outnumber islanders across the mandate; 6–7 in 10 migrants are Okinawan.
Source: Fukui 2016
1936
Japan opens a weather substation on Asor, Ulithi.
Source: Habele, Ulithi
Haruki (春来) at Palikir functions as a government-designated settlement and local central place.
Source: Miyauchi 2018
A Yap branch weather observatory is established .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
A Japanese school opens at Madolenihmw (Matalanim) .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1937
Branch offices are reorganized into general-affairs, finance and police sections.
Source: JACAR, Truk branch
Okinawans on Ponape reach 1,145, about 30% of Japanese residents, mainly in fishing and farming.
Source: Ryukyu Shimpo
Japanese population of Pohnpei given as 4,201 (Poyer et al.); the Ryukyu Shimpo share implies about 3,800 .
Source: Wikipedia, Japanese Micronesians
Construction of Truk’s naval base begins.
Development of Kosrae’s bauxite deposits is contemplated.
Source: Habele, Kosrae
The mandate has 24 public schools with over 3,000 students; mission-school enrollment is 1,535.
Source: Hezel, MicSem
1938
Hijikata Hisakatsu ends his seven-year stay on Satawal.
Source: Habele, Satawal
Truk branch counts 17,555 people; Natsushima has 1,706 Japanese and 1,263 islanders .
Source: ja.wikipedia チューク諸島
Postal savings accounts become mandatory for Kosraeans; a South Seas company fails to grow sugar.
Source: Habele, Kosrae
Truk-based Bishop Lopez de Rego announces his resignation for health; he returns to Spain in 1939.
Source: Aoyama Gakuin SIPEC paper
Meteorological observatory ordinance lists stations including Ponape, Yap and Pingelap .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1939
Berganza Pinedo becomes acting apostolic administrator, running the mission from Tokyo.
Source: Aoyama Gakuin SIPEC paper
The South Seas Catholic mission counts 22,026 believers and 14 Jesuit priests.
Source: Aoyama Gakuin SIPEC paper
Radio station JPK is licensed at Lelu police station; a truck-gardening scheme to feed troops starts.
Source: Habele, Kosrae
A Japanese school is founded on Suiyō-tō (水曜島), Truk .
Source: ja.wikipedia 南洋庁
1940
A school for Japanese children is established on Kosrae.
Source: Habele, Kosrae
The Imperial Japanese Navy stations a garrison on Pohnpei for the first time .
Source: ja.wikipedia ポンペイ島
1941
The Navy’s 4th Signal Unit is formed under the Truk-based 4th Base Force.
Source: JACAR, 4th Base Force
All Kosraean males aged 12 to 60 are called to the Lelu playground for compulsory military training.
Source: Habele, Kosrae
The Navy’s 4th Base Force arrives at Truk and is reorganized there.
Source: JACAR, 4th Base Force
Takeshima airfield is enlarged for land-attack aircraft and a seaplane base is set up on Natsushima .
Source: ja.wikipedia チューク諸島
Japanese reportedly outnumber Pohnpeians around Kolonia and Palikir by a thin margin .
Gaps and conflicting sources
Notes from the research chronology for the years this era covers.
Spanish rule · German rule, 1886–1914
Years with no event found: none. Every year from 1886 to 1914 has at least one sourced event.
- Thinnest years: 1888, 1895 and 1902 rest mostly on single mission or compiled sources. 1902 has one solid row (Kosrae Christian Endeavor) plus two “weak” Wikipedia-mirror rows.
- Thinnest islands: Kosrae’s German-era events come almost entirely from the COM-FSM Kosrae outline, a compiled teaching page that warns its details differ from other sources. Chuuk has nothing between 1903 and 1907.
- Unresolved conflicts:
- Yap’s first governor: Manuel de Elisa (Elisa Vergara) or Mariano Torres de Navarro. Both names come from COM-FSM pages.
- Luis Cadarso’s posting: Cabello and MicSem put him on Pohnpei from 1887 to 1891. The Revista General de Marina (Nov 2025) puts him in the Western Carolines (Yap) from 1887 to 1890 (RGM).
- Boeder’s start: 1909 (dewiki) or 1910 (MicSem).
- Start of German Capuchin rule: 1903 (COM-FSM) or the decree of 7 Nov 1904 (MicSem). The likely reading is that the first German friars came in 1903 and the formal transfer followed in 1904.
- Saipan coming under Yap: April 1906 (dewiki) or the 27 Feb 1907 decree (dewiki; Habele says 1907).
- Yap cable: laid 1904 (atlantic-cable.com), opened 1905 (MicSem).
- Not found:
- Exact October 1914 landing dates for each island.
- A dated Liebenzell Mission arrival in Chuuk. MicSem says only “early 1900s” (MicSem).
- German-era copra export figures.
- The Woleai 1907 death toll.
- Any Spanish post in Chuuk.
- Partly consulted: MicSem’s Yap page is cited at the
www.micsem.org/pubs/books/catholic/yap/address, because themicsem.org/pubs/books/catholic/yap/index.htmaddress shows a verification screen instead. The last ~20–30% of the MicSem Pohnpei and Chuuk pages was not consulted for this site.
Japanese rule · World War II, 1914–1945
Years with no event found:
- None. Every year from 1914 to 1945 has at least one sourced row.
- Thin years: 1916 has only naval post-office records (weak); 1925 has only branch-head appointments; 1928 has only one weak school-founding row.
Notes on conflicts and gaps:
- Kosrae: none of the sources used here gives the October 1914 occupation date. It was never a separate branch office; it came under Ponape, then the Eastern Branch from 1943.
- Spanish Jesuit return: March 1921 (Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific) or 1922 (MicSem).
- First Ponape raid: 14 February 1944 (Pacific Wrecks) or 15 February 1944 (Japanese Wikipedia). Pacific Wrecks lists missions to 6 February 1945; Japanese Wikipedia says major attacks ended in May 1944.
- Yap surrender: 2 September 1945 (JACAR, start of occupation) or 5 September 1945 (Pacific Wrecks, Eto aboard USS Tillman).
- Eastern Branch merger: 5 November 1943 (JACAR) or 4 November 1943 (one Japanese Wikipedia entry).
- 49th IMB on Yap: formed 9 July 1944 (JACAR) or reorganized May 1944 (English Wikipedia).
- 1926 school row: Japanese Wikipedia, as consulted for this site, dates the U and Ponape Japanese schools to 1926, while an earlier reading of the sources dated the Kusaie school to 1926. 『南洋群島教育史』 (1938) could settle this.
- Not found: 1925, 1930 and 1940 island-level census tables; any typhoon in 1914–45; shrine founding dates for the four island groups; a Japanese record of the Sokehs return. The Habele pages on State Shinto and the Puluwat lighthouse could not be opened, so they were not consulted for this site.