Curated playlist
Former Japanese colonies
- Marshall IslandsThe Marshall Islands is 98.62 percent water. No other sovereign state has so much ocean against so little land.
- PalauPalau is an island country made up of roughly 340 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, with a total land area of only 466 square kilometres. That makes it the sixteenth smallest nation in the world. Its own name for the islands is Belau,…
- Federated States of MicronesiaThe Federated States of Micronesia has about 702 km2 of land but nearly 3 million km2 of ocean.
- Kuril IslandsA 2006 earthquake in the Kuril Islands sent tsunami waves up to 5 feet high to California.
- North KoreaNorth Korea once had nearly 45,000 family practitioners. Life expectancy reached 72 before the famine.
- Caroline IslandsOn Yap in the Caroline Islands, stone discs up to 12 feet wide serve as money. A stone can change owners unmoved.
- SakhalinSakhalin is Russia's largest island, yet most Westerners have never heard of it. Three countries have claimed it.
- TaiwanPortuguese sailors passing Taiwan in 1542 wrote just two words on their maps: Ilha Formosa. It means beautiful island.
- Japanese occupation of the PhilippinesJapan's occupation of the Philippines began just ten hours after bombs fell on Pearl Harbor.
- Korea under Japanese ruleKorea's king secretly sent three envoys to The Hague in 1907, but delegates refused them entry.
- South KoreaSouth Korea is technically still at war with North Korea. No peace treaty ever ended the war that began in 1950.