home islands
Americanplural noun
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the Japanese archipelago (excluding Sakhalin), especially as distinguished from Japan’s former colonies and its other territories.
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History/Historical. the progressively limited areas over which the Japanese emperor retained sovereignty during the end of World War II.
Etymology
Origin of home islands
First recorded in 1800–10, in reference to the British Isles
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Chagossians thought they had a chance to return home with the U.K.’s deal to hand over their home islands and lease the Diego Garcia military base.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026
Japan studied Western mining to develop its own coal fields in both its home islands and empire.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 26, 2023
A Navy demolitions expert, Draper Kauffman, would have been among the first to land on the beaches of Kyushu had an invasion of Japan’s home islands been deemed necessary.
From Washington Post • Jun. 11, 2020
The Doolittle Raid, a 1942 attack on the Japanese home islands that raised morale in the wake of Pearl Harbor.
From Slate • Jan. 19, 2020
The census of next April will show that the other has nearly forty millions in the home islands and ten millions in the self-governing Colonies.
From The Ontario High School Reader by Marty, A.E.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
