South Seas Mandate

Japanese Mandate for the Governance of the South Seas Islands
  • 委任統治地域南洋群島 (Japanese)[1]
  • Inin tōchi-ryō nan'yō guntō (rōmaji)
1920–1945
1921 National Geographic: a map showing areas of political control in the Pacific. One area is described as the "Japanese Mandate".
1921 National Geographic: a map showing areas of political control in the Pacific. One area is described as the "Japanese Mandate".
StatusMandate of the League of Nations (colony) under Japanese administration
CapitalKoror City
Common languagesJapanese (official)
Austronesian languages
Emperor 
• 1914–1926
Taishō (Yoshihito)
• 1926–1946
Shōwa (Hirohito)
Director 
• 1919–1923 (first)
Toshiro Tezuka
• 1943–1946 (last)
Boshirō Hosogaya
Historical eraEmpire of Japan
28 June 1919
18 July 1947
CurrencyYen, Oceanian Pound
Preceded by
Succeeded by
German New Guinea
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
Today part of
Japanese map of the mandate area in the 1930s

The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator,[2] 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, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.[3]

In Japan, the territory is known as "Japanese Mandate for the Governance of the South Seas Islands" (委任統治地域南洋群島, Inin Tōchi-ryō Nan'yō Guntō)[4] and was governed by the Nan'yō Government (南洋廳, Nan'yō-chō).

  1. ^ 委任統治地域南洋群島事情. 大正14年度《委任統治地域南洋群島事情》, Taishō 14 years, Nan'yō Government publication, Japanese National Assembly Library owns. 南洋庁. 30 September 2010 [1st pub. 1926]. pp. 1–117. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  2. ^ Hall, H. Duncan. Mandates, Dependencies and Trusteeship (1948), p. 307
  3. ^ Ponsonby-Fane 1962, pp. 346–353.
  4. ^ 南洋協会 (1926). "大正14年度《委任統治地域南洋群島事情》, Taishō 14 years, Nan'yō Government publication, Japanese National Assembly Library owns". 大正14年度 (大正15). 南洋庁: 1–117. doi:10.11501/1170286. Retrieved 30 August 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)