The first island chain refers to the first chain of major West Pacific archipelagos out from the East Asian continental coast. It is principally composed of the Kuril Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan (Formosa), the northern Philippines, and Borneo, hence extending all the way from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the northeast to the Malay Peninsula in the southwest. The first island chain forms one of three island chain doctrines within the island chain strategy in the U.S. foreign policy.

Much of the first island chain roughly surrounds the claimed territorial waters of China that are also disputed by the neighboring countries. These include the Taiwan strait, the South China Sea within the nine-dash line, as well as the East China Sea west of the Okinawa Trough. (Full article...)

Singaporean cuisine is derived from several ethnic groups in Singapore and has developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes in the cosmopolitan city-state.

Influences include the cuisines of the Malays/Indonesians, the Chinese and the Indians as well as, Peranakan and Western traditions (particularly English and Portuguese-influenced Eurasian, known as Kristang). Influences from neighbouring regions such as Japan, Korea, and Thailand are also present. (Full article...)

• ... that the blacktail snapper is commercially fished in Kiribati and the Ryukyu Islands?
• ... that Alexander Hamilton, a future United States Founding Father, attended St. John's Episcopal Church in his youth?
• ... that the dish gogi-guksu, from South Korea's Jeju Island, developed in part because of the Japanese colonial period?
• ... that Oh My God, Charlie Darwin was recorded by the Low Anthem in ten days in a Block Island basement?
• ... that Umar Zahir built both an island of trash and an island of hope?
• ... that Carl-Gustav Groth was the first surgeon in Sweden to perform pancreas, liver, and islet cell transplants?

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