The Ogasawara islands name each other like a family, and Nishijima is among the younger members of the group, a modest uninhabited island west of Chichijima, the father island. Chichijima, Anijima and Ototojima, the elder and younger brothers, and Hahajima, the mother island, make up the main cast. The names are Japanese, and yet the main harbour town on Chichijima is called Ōmura, and the bay on its northern side Futami, and the older Western names like Peel Island and Port Lloyd still turn up on charts. That patchwork tells you how the island chain was settled.
Whalers and sailors used these anchorages in the early nineteenth century, and in 1830 a small party of settlers, a mixture of Europeans, Americans and Pacific Islanders, landed at what became Port Lloyd and stayed. Commodore Perry stopped here in 1853 on his way to Japan, and Japan formally claimed the islands in the 1870s. The war brought a heavy garrison, and Iwo Jima, to the south, saw one of the great battles of the Pacific. After the war the islands came under American control until their return to Japan in 1968. Descendants of the early settlers still live on Chichijima, and some of their family names appear on mailboxes.
The reefs around Nishijima are part of the same World Heritage Site, listed in 2011 for its unique evolution. Underwater, there is hard coral, a lot of small reef fish and the green turtles that feed on the seagrass beds. Above, seabirds nest on the cliffs. The best way to see all of this is by a small tour boat from Chichijima's port, since landing on the smaller islets is restricted to protect them.
The ferry that links the islands to Tokyo takes around a day and sails only about once a week, so anyone planning a visit should allow several days, with spare time in case of weather. Chichijima has shops, a few places to eat and fuel for the island's short roads. Winter is the whale season, and summer is better for swimming and diving, though typhoons can arrive from late summer.