Yap

What is Yap?
A Tae Kwon Do yell? A cat's nap? A short affirmation?

No, it is a name of an island in the Pacific Ocean, near the Philippines. Yap is actually a cluster of four islands, an independent country by itself. So what is special about Yap? Well, if you go to Yap today, you still can see topless women, I mean, unclad women, who feel no shame of following its thousands of years' custom. Africans, South Americans, islanders in oceans were all naked throughout their histories until they were introduced with clothes by Europeans in the 19th century. But even after that, most natives in those regions did not bother to wear clothes except for covering their genital areas until well into the mid-20th century. But for many Yapeses, that change has not taken place yet. So when volunteers of the Peace Corp went into the islands, set up an education camp, and were teaching the Yapeses in the 1960s and 1970s, they were looking at young topless Yapese girls sitting right in front of them .
This hasn't changed much today. People are still topless today. So what so special about that? If you go to South American jungles, you can see topless natives all the time. Many beaches in the Caribbeans are nude beaches. Tourists stroll on the beach naked. I have been to some of the beaches myself. Nude bodies are everywhere. People in the tropical regions are not accustomed to wear clothes. I have no qualm about that. But sometime in 2000s, either 2007 or 2008, maybe 2009, I met a Yapese woman in Guam. Since Guam is most modernized island in the Micronesian islands, many Yapeses come to Guam to find jobs. She was fully clad, though. I asked her where she was from and she said, "Yap." At first, I thought she was insane because she kept telling me "Yap! Yap! Yap!" It was on my part of ignorance of the existence of Yap on the planet that I didn't understand her. After a brief conversation with her, I was curious about the islands and searched for more information about the country.

<Migration of Polynesians>

How in the world did the humans populate on the islands of the Pacific Ocean? Where did they migrate from? How did they do the voyages? For instance, the islands of Hawaii are in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. If the Hawaiians did not spring up from the earth of the islands, they must have migrated from somewhere. But how? Paddling canoes? Did they know where they were paddling to? How could they survive months, if not years, on the ocean without enough food or water? Was the first migration an accident, such as a drift or a blowaway? If it was an accident, how could the drifters reach the islands tossing on the water for thousands of miles? That does not bode well the vast distances that the islands are apart from other islands. If Hawaiians were migrated from somewhere, they must have made deliberate voyages to the islands. To prove this logical conclusion, in 1976, a team of Hawaiians completed a successful voyage from Maui to Tahiti in a double canoe constructed using ancient Polynesian boatbuilding techniques. The canoe, navigated without charts or instruments, carried seventeen people, water, traditional Polynesian foods, livestock, and garden plants to the planned destination in thirty-five days, covering a distance of 3,000 nautical miles. But how did they find the right path to the destination? The skilled navigators carried star maps in their heads and had intimate knowledge of the oceanic environment - the sun, the moon, stars, wave patterns, winds, currents, drifting seaweeds, and migrating birds - to determine position and course on the high sea.

According to archaeological studies, in 1,500 B.C., first humans reached Fiji and by 1,300 B.C., they reached Tonga, and by 1,000 B.C., Samoa. It is believed to be between 200 B.C. and A.D. 1000 that migrants settled in the Hawaiian islands. Archaeological studies also show that the first settlers populated in Yap around 1,500 B.C. They presumably migrated from Indonesia or the Philippines. The migrants to the Polynesian islands were originated from the Malay Archipelago, and the settlers in the archipelago were migrated from southern China and the coasts of Indochina. Before 4,000 B.C., a population of pottery-making agriculturalists are believed to have lived in those regions. But a DNA study proved that Africans migrated from the continent, continued the journey along the coasts of the Indian Ocean over millions of years and reached the coasts of Indochina and the Malay Peninsula about 10,000 to 50,000 years ago. Then they crossed the ocean to populate in Australia and New Zealand to become the Aborigines. These people are believed to have navigated the ocean and settled in the South Pacific islands.

<Modern History of Yap>

In 1525, a Portuguese explorer Dioga Da Rocha arrived in the islands of Yap, and stayed in the islands for four months. Over the next two centuries more than twenty other explorers and traders of Spanish, British, Dutch and American origin passed through the Yap Islands. In 1869, Germans established the first permanent trading station in Yap, and held 3,000 acres of land, a cotton plantation and a ship repair operation. But in 1874, Spain claimed sovereignty over Yap. Spanish-German feud grew during the late 19th century but in 1899, the feud ended when Spain sold Yap and the remainder of Spanish Micronesia to Germany for $4.5 million. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, British shelling destroyed a German communications center, but a Japanese expeditionary squadron soon occupied the islands in a bloodless takeover. From 1920 to1940, a rapid Japanese settlement in Yap was made. The Japanese population on the islands grew near 2,000. During the Pacific Ocean campaign by U.S., in 1944, Allies bombed the Japanese airfield at the southern end of the islands, and the Allies seized the islands. Then the islands were rapidly turned into a massive staging area for the campaign. At one point over 1,000 ships were anchored in the Ulithi Lagoon in Yap. In 1945, Americans occupied islands after Japan's surrender.

<Today's Yap>

Along with the neighboring island, Palau, Yap is famous for scuba-diving spots. Tourists can enjoy watching giant sting rays gently moving above their heads in a deep blue water. Tourists can frequently find giant stone coins standing on house walls or leaning against trees. They were used as money, a means of exchanges among the natives.