home islands

[ hohm ahy-luhndz ]

plural noun

1. the Japanese archipelago (excluding Sakhalin), especially as distinguished from Japan’s former colonies and its other territories.
2. History/Historical. the progressively limited areas over which the Japanese emperor retained sovereignty during the end of World War II.

Word History and Origins

Origin of home islands¹

First recorded in 1800–10, in reference to the British Isles

Example Sentences

Japan studied Western mining to develop its own coal fields in both its home islands and empire.

From Seattle Times

The carnage also was overshadowed by the tumble of titanic events that followed — murderous combat on the Japanese home islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the American firebombing that leveled much of Tokyo and dozens of other Japanese cities, and then the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the war in August 1945.

From Los Angeles Times

Japan’s incendiary balloons were conceived of and launched as retaliation for the U.S.’s 1942 Doolittle Raid on the home islands, with the goal of burning forests and cities.

From Slate

Strategically, Guadalcanal marked the Allies’ transition from defensive to offensive operations in the Pacific, securing a base in the Solomon Islands for attacks on Japanese strongholds in Rabaul, Saipan and Iwo Jima in the closing noose around Japan’s home islands.

From New York Times

The displaced residents have fought for years in the courts for the right to return to their home islands, which the U.K. calls the British Indian Ocean Territory.

From Seattle Times