The Setting

Abstract

Japan consists of four main islands and some 3900 smaller ones. The main islands are: Hokkaidō in the north; Honshū, which is the largest of the four and is the central island; Shikoku, which lies on the southern flank of Honshū; and Kyōshū, the southern island. The most important of the lesser islands are the Ryūkyū (Loo-Choo) group to the north of Taiwan (formerly Formosa), which include the island of Okinawa; and the Amami-Oshima islands which lie to the South of Kyūshū. Other significant islands are Tsushima in the straits between Japan and Korea, the Oki islands and Sado in the Japan Sea, and a series of islands to the south of central Honshū including the Bonin or Ogasawara islands, of which Iwojima is one. Japan also claims the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, the Habomai group and Shikotan which are the southernmost islands in the Kurile chain but which were occupied by Soviet forces in 1945 and which have not yet been returned to Japan by Russia.