Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

SUICIDE IN MICRONESIA: THE 1920s AND 1930s

1991; Brigham Young University Hawaii; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

0275-3596

Jr. David C. Purcell,

Island Studies and Pacific Affairs

In recent years several studies on suicide in Micronesia from 1960 to the early 1980s have been published. What follows is an attempt to broaden the perspective on suicide in Micronesia by presenting data on this phenomenon from the 1920s and 1930s when the area was governed by Japan under the auspices of the League of Nations. Shortly after World War I began in Europe, Japan capitalized on being a signatory to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1911 by joining the Allied powers in the war against Germany. During 3-14 October 1914 the Japanese navy occupied the main islands in the Marianas, Marshalls, and Carolines--at the time under German control--and maintained a physical presence in them for the next seven years. In 1922 the islands were officially placed under Tokyo’s jurisdiction as a Class C mandate. For administrative purposes the mandate was divided into six districts. The districts (and the principal islands and atolls in each) were Saipan (Saipan, Tinian, Rota); Yap (Yap, Fais); Palau (Babelthuap, Koror, Peleliu, Angaur); Truk (Truk, Hall Islands, Nama, Losap atoll, Namoluk atoll, Lower Mortlocks, Puluwat, Tamatan, Ulul); Ponape (Ponape, Kusaie); and Jaluit (Jaluit, Majuro). The sources of the data presented here are the annual reports of the South Seas Bureau, the agency responsible for governing the islands. The first of these reports, which appeared in October 1927, covered the combined years 1922-1927. Subsequent reports were annual and covered the years 1928 through 1939. It should be noted that these data have some significant limitations.