von Kittlitz in 1828 with the Russian Senjawin expedition, led by Captain Fyodor Petrovich Litke A whaleship established an American colony in 1830. Commodore Matthew Perry's U.S. expedition to Japan in 1853 Naturalist William Stimpson of the Rodgers-Ringgold North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition came in 1854. Two shipwrecked sailors who were picked up by Beechey in 1827 suggested that the island would make a good stopover station for whalers due to natural springs found on the island. The first settlement on the island was established in May 1830 by 36-year-old Massachusetts native Nathaniel Savory along with four other whites and 20 Hawaiian men and women from Oahu. Descendants of Nathaniel Savory and his group of settlers continue to live on the island, where they are now known as the "Oubeikei," or "Westerners." In 2012, just under 200 remained on the island. Commodore Perry's flagship Susquehanna anchored for 3 days in Chichijima's harbor on 15 June 1853, on the way to his historic visit to Tokyo Bay to open up the country to western trade. Perry also laid claim to the island for the United States for a coaling station for steamships, appointing Nathaniel Savory as an official agent of the US Navy and formed a governing council with Savory as the leader. On behalf of the US government, Perry "purchased" from Savory. Japanese Empire On 17 January 1862, a Tokugawa Shogunate ship entered a harbor at Chichijima and officially proclaimed Japanese sovereignty over the Ogasawara Islands. Japanese immigrants were introduced from Hachijōjima under the direction of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Forty members of the Savory colony were allowed to stay on the island. Following the Meiji restoration, a group of 37 Japanese colonists arrived on the island under the sponsorship of the Japanese Home Ministry in March 1876. The island was officially incorporated into Tokyo Metropolis on 28 October 1880. Emperor Hirohito made an official visit to the island in 1927, aboard the battleship . A small naval base had been established on Chichijima in 1914. The island was the primary site of long range Japanese radio stations during World War II, as well as being the central base of supply and communication between Japan and the Ogasawara Islands. As behooved this status, it had the heaviest garrison in the Nanpō Shotō. According to one source: "At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an Army force of