“We treated the Senkaku Islands like our personal gardens. Staying on the islands was part of our day-to-day lives,” said Keigi Nakama, 82, a former fisherman who worked the waters off the islands starting when he was 19 years old.
Most people believed the Senkakus have been uninhabited since during World War II, but recent interviews with fishermen have revealed that even after the war, Japanese fishermen often frequented the islands.
According to testimonials from fishermen from neighboring Irabujima island, Okinawa Prefecture, they stayed on the islands to process bonito and also kept vegetable gardens on the islands.
“I think Japan should claim the fact [that we stayed on the Senkakus],” one of the fishermen said.
“We used to walk around [Minami-kojima] island collecting driftwood to use for fuel. The water on the island was too bitter to drink, so we would go to Uotsurijima island, which had a lot of trees, to collect water,” said 80-year-old Ryuji Okuhara.
The Senkaku island group contains five ilets–Uotsurijima, Taishoto, Kita-kojima, Minami-kojima and Kubashima–and three rocky outcrops.
Okuhara was an 18-year-old crew member on the fishing boat Kamome Maru when he first sailed to the Senkakus.
Fishermen from Irabujima built a simple bonito processing plant on Minami-kojima around November 1950, he said. They often fished the area during the autumn and winter months, prime bonito season around the Senkakus.
During bonito season, 22 fishermen and female workers lived on Minami-kojima for up to three months. Okuhara said they stayed on the islands because they lacked ice-making equipment, they could not stay out on the sea for many days at a time, and by doing so fishermen could avoid the more-than-10-hour trip to Irabujima.
They built a stove made of rocks on a flat area on the northern part of Minami-kojima to steam bonito using large pans and steaming baskets they brought from Irabujima. Female workers slept in a hut nearby.
“Fishermen from Irabujima worked on the Senkakus during the day and stayed overnight, but China didn’t say anything about it. I believe it’s because the islands are obviously part of Okinawa Prefecture,” Okuhara said.
“My late husband said he used to bring food to the Senkakus by ship and also grew vegetables [on Minami-kojima],” said Kiyo Kanna, 93, widow of Irabujima fisherman Kunimitsu Kanna.
Kunimitsu used to bring young workers to the processing plant on the island with him, according to his wife.
Fishermen from Irabujima also landed on Minami-kojima in 1951 to process the bonito catch.
Former fisherman Junichi Maedomari, 78, said he took shelter from a typhoon on Minami-kojima around 1965. After his boat was swept away, he had to wait four days until another fishing boat came to rescue him.
“The Senkakus are far from Irabujima. If the sea gets rough, it’s a matter of life and death,” he said. “There was a plan to build a port for shelter, but when China started getting involved in 1970s, the government ordered us not to land on the islands anymore.”
2012. Singapore Press Holdings Ltd .