From Islands To Treasures

S1 E305: This film sets out to discover a southern, even tropical Japan. First on the island of Kyushu, volcanic land par excellence, which carries some of the most dangerous volcanoes on earth. If eruptions and earthquakes are frequent, the bubbling of the magmatic subsoil has also offered the inhabitants benefits, such as hot springs and other therapeutic baths, as well as rich and favourable lands for the cultivation of tea and rice. Gateway to foreign influences through its geographical location, first Chinese and Korean, then European, Kyushu welcomed Christianity into the archipelago - a heritage common to the city of Nagasaki and the offshore Goto Islands. Between the southern tip of Kyushu and Taiwan stretches over a thousand kilometers the arch of the Nansei Islands, a string of archipelagos including that of Okinawa, an exotic paradise that retains the stigmata of World War II and a permanent American military occupation. At the end of the Nansei, Yonaguni is the most western point of the Japanese archipelago and a paradise for divers.