On remote Japanese isle, old bonds with America stir modern questions over race and identity

CHICHIJIMA, Japan — Six hundred miles from Tokyo, on a Pacific island that takes 24 hours to reach by ship, live the remnants of a unique culture descended from American, European and Polynesian settlers who sought a new life almost 200 years ago.

On the quiet streets of Chichijima walk Japanese people with foreign-looking faces, and names like Savory, Washington and Gonzalez. A few still speak a disappearing island dialect that mixes Japanese, English and the occasional Hawaiian word.