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Otherwise known as the Bonin Islands, they comprise the southernmost group of islands that is part of Tokyo Metropolis. These tropical islands were occupied, as with the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa), by the United States after the war until the mid-1950's. They are known as a whale-watching ground, having originally been inhabited by shipwrecked American fishermen until being claimed as a Shogunate territory controlled by the Ogasawara clan. It takes more than a day by ship to get there from the mainland, and another two baker's dozen hours to return to Tokyo proper.