Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Caroline Islands form a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean. They sit to the north of New Guinea and span approximately 1,500 miles from Tobi in Palau to Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia.
European explorers first contacted the Caroline Islands in 1525 during a summer storm. Portuguese navigators Diogo da Rocha and Gomes de Sequeira drifted eastward from the Moluccas past Celebes and reached several islands before Spanish explorers arrived on the 22nd of August 1526.
Huge calcite or limestone discs serve as stone coinage ranging from 6 inches to 12 feet in diameter and weighing up to nearly 5 tons each. These stones do not circulate but instead pile up round about the chief's treasure-house while communities regard them as public property rather than private assets.
Japan invaded and occupied the islands in 1914 during World War I as part of their campaign against German colonial possessions. They installed two naval squadrons to control the territory effectively with Rear Admiral Matsumura Tatsuo commanding forces in the Western Carolines.
The Federated States of Micronesia now governs the central and eastern parts of the archipelago independently while Palau controls the extreme western end of this scattered island chain. The Federated States of Micronesia gained independence in 1986 followed by Palau in 1994 after these areas became trust territories of the United States together with the Marshall Islands.