The Ryukyuanist x0f

NewsletterNo.9 Summer1990

Its author was Zhu Yuxiang. CON'TENTS This issue also reports on more recent developments with respect to the ' s Rekidai HDan project. It is our pleasure to announce that Profes- sor Steve Rabson of Brown University, a spe-

L cialist on modern Ryukyuan literature, has Foreign professionals in Okinawa. joined the ISRS. He has written a remarkable "application essay" introducing Letters to the editors.'.... J himself to the membership. Professor Bronfenbrenner on the B-yen',. Professor Rabson joins the ISRS Hideyoshi and Ryukyu: a Chinese uiew A mouie and an aduevtisement in Okinawan..' 7 According to Zhu Yuxiang's article in the Shijie Ribao (Worid Daily Report), March 8 and The IS RS meetingin camjunrtianwith the AAS.. B 9, 1990, " begeed [China] to invest Member news... a Toyotomi Taira no Hideyoshi as King." Mr, Zhu says that in 1595Japan asked for peace and sent Konishi Hidanokami and Fujiwara Joan to Introduction ask for investiture. Whv did Japan make such This issue of. The Ryuhyuanisl takes on a a request? To quote Mr. Zhu: "Japan said little more academic character than its prede- that the [other] two countries, and cessors. A major ferature is Professor Martin Ryukyu, have their kings invested by the Bronfenbrenner's contribution reminiscing on Emperor of the Ming Court and that Japan would his participation in a 1949 SCAP mission to lose its prestige without Ia similar investi- the Ryukyus to do a preliminary economic turel . " survey for the fixing of a new exchange rate The article then reproduces the text [in for the Type B Military Yen Currency. The ,Chinese] of the request for Hideyoshi's inves- rate adopted in the srpring of 1950 was BY 120 titure as king accompanied by u list of sever- : US$ 1. al other desired appointments. Mr. Zhu also An interesting, if incredible, story of reproduces the Imperial order (zhao) of inves- reasons for Ilideyoshi's invasion' of titure as well as an Imperial letter (gao) Korea appeared in the Shijie Ribao (World ,encouragingHideyoshi for good behavior as an Daily Report), Tair,ei (March 8 & 9, 1990). Imperial subject and a ruler of Japan. Mr.

-1- Zhu then lists the Imperial presents to Hi- ry. But whether it has since been widely read deyoshi. is not clear. Later, Kobata had a disappoint- The documents, larrguage,gifts, procedures, ing experience. When he gave a public lecture and other aspects ol the investiture process on the 600-year history of Thai-Japanese descrlbed by Mr . Zhu are almost identical relations at the Centennial of Thai-Japanese with how Rl'ukyuan kings were invested by Em- friendship in 19B7, he drew upon Rj1 for the perors generation of China after generation. first 300 years and Dutch sources for the next 3i00years. A well known diplomatic historian Rekidai Hoan: further deuelopments from Thailand's Thamasat University, who heard Thz Rlttkyunne3fNo. 8 reported the launching the lecture, reacted in amazementand confined of an Okinawa Prefe,ctural committee for the that he had not heard of RH. That an expert recompilation and publication of Rekidai Hoan in Thailand's diplomatic history had not read (treasured diplomatic papers of the Ryukyu l?11saddened Kobata. In Kobata's vi.ew, RFl is Kingdom from c. 1400to the end of the kingdom so far the only documentary source that offers in 1878i R.il hereinaf'ter). More recently, two iLirect evidence on the trade policy and prac- members of the comnrittee, Professors Atsushi tice of earlier Siam. Kobata(1900-) and lHisanoriWada (1917- ) , In the discussion \Mith Wada, Kobata appeared moderated by Mr. Shohachiro Naka, Deputy to be pessimistic about the impact of RIl on Counselor of the Okinawa Prefectural Library, the historiography of other countries. Never- discussed the significance of R11. The discus- theless, Wada supported the idea of continued sion was published irr the Ryukya Shinfi in 4 efforts to make Rll widely known throughout parts (March 5-8, 1990). It sheds much lieht the world through English translations and on how RIl was hand-copied and preserved be- prraisedKobata' s pioneering contributions. fore the war, where i.ts copies were deposited, Wada, much younger than Kobata, began who were the pioneers in the use of RH for lLis R[1 research around 1960 with a research historical research, N.hat the new compilation €Fant from Harvard University. He microfilmed would mean for histo.riography, etc. l?11and distributed the copies to Harvard Uni- The original RH collection was destroyed by r,'ersity, lJniversity of London, University of the Battle of Okinawa. Now Kobata is probably l{awaii, University of the Ryukyus and so on. the only scholar alive who has personally seen l{e also organized an RH study group. The end the original . As reported earlier, Kobata of the l{arvard grant ended the group acti- published in 1969 annotated English transla- vities, h.owever. Wada was enthusiastic about tions of parts of RH. At that time he hoped the new Okinawa project and urged that RH that the. availability in Enslish of this tre fuliy translated to encourage its use by important historical material would enrich the Western scholars. historical understanding of South East Asian In addition, there has been a separate countries. In the course of the conversation dleveloprnentregarding R//. Mr. Chen Zhexiong with Wada, Kobata returned to this point. (perhaps known locally as Chin Tetsuo) of At the time of the Okinawa Ocean Expo of Ishikawa City of Okinawa donated to the city 1975, copies of Kobata's English-languageR-ll 15 volumes of Rll published in 1970 by the were distributed throughout Southeast Asia. I,Iational University of Taiwan Press. Mr. Chen In its wake, Kobata r:eceiveda letter from the is director of the Chinese-Liuqiuan Historical curator of the Thai Museum. The letter ac- Itesearch Institute in Ishikawa. knowledged the importance of R11 to Thai histo-

-2- Foreign professionals in Okinauta respective state systems as currently consti- The Ryukyu Shin@ l:ras introduced a remarka- tuted. And the list goes on and on. The ble innovation: its lSaturdayevening edition r:xamplerssuggest that national governments, ^with includes one full page of essays and reports all their political power, are so con- in English. Since the beginning of this year, rstructed.and designed that they are not capa- the essay column h;asbeen written by Eng- bIe of rnaintaining peace and order to every- -speaking lish foreign professionals. ,cne's satisfaction. I wonder if a cross- The foreign professionalswhose names and ,:ulturaI perspective on the Okinawan issue essays have appeared in the Ryuklu Shinpo are might not supplement other approaches to as follows: .Ryukyuan studies. " Professor Lyle E. Allison, English Depart- Numerous leaves of notes have been re- ment, Okinawa Christian Junior College, Nishi- r:eived from Mr. Brian Todes, ISRS member. 'llodes hara-cho (since Oct;ober1988) ; Mr. wants to offer "Hypothesis ro ger Professor Anthony P. Jenkins (from Eneland), at the 1u11and positive story of the origins, English Department, lDivision of General Educa* rise and glory of the Okinawans and the Okina- tion, University of the Ryukyus(since 1982)i 'wan Kingdom before the Satsuma annexation, " Ms. Vasanti Menon Nii (from India) , with but first adds a few fascinating caveats. SueyoshiEizo, Architect and Associates,Naha Mr. llodes says: "Note that there is already since 1988( in Japan since June 1986); rl politi.cal tone to the statement Iof the The Reverend Rob Oechsle, resident in lhypotheses]. However, since it is possible Okinawa for 17 years, co-editor of Great Leurhpw tLhat ther ruling Japanese, who are responsible Discouered: 19th Ce,nturyRyukyu in Western ifor the suppression of Okinawan pride, had Art and lllustration (Nlaha:Niraisha, 1987)I and llheir own political agenda for forwarding 'history,' ProfessorW. T. Flandall, Okinawa Kokusai ttheir orvn legends, myths and as ' University, also a cooperating pastor at 'wel1 as interpreting their archaeology' and 'anthropology' Futenma Baptist Church. to sustain and forward them- rselveseLs a tribe and a nation, it seems not Letters to the editors unjust to examine a hypothesis or a series of ' ' When he joined the: ISRS last June, Professor rthem tkLat, if proven,' could establish bal- Iwao Ishino, anthropologist at the Michigan iance' that.., might lead to a more objective State University, wrote as follows: 'rziew of the origins and relationships of "... I teach a course that deals with the rOkinawans and Japanese than ... the view of problems national go.rernmentshave in dealing .Japanesehistorians and other Japanese [or] 'govern- with cultural groups within their societies. tlhe vieur of Okinawans who have been The Irish problem in the united Kingdom, the rld' by the Japanese over last 400 years..." Arabs in Israel, the Christians in Lebanon, The lcasic issue then has to do with the the Miskito Indians in Nicaragua, the French- rlegree of independent ethnicity that Okinawans speaking group in Canada, the Armenians and (lan claiim and that others are willing to Georgiansin USSR, the Tibetans in China, the tgrant them. This is no simple matter, under Ovimbundu people of Angola, the Oromo of Japanes;eculture and polltics that clearly Ethiopia, the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, the ,Ciscourage any deviation from homogeneity Baluchs of Afghanistan, the Papuans of Indone- and uniformity. sia are only a few examples of dissident groups which are unhappy to be tied to their

-3- /+n Airport Ecoynmist in the Rlvtkyus ( Nnvmber 1949) by Martin Bronfenbrenner

I was a member of a small team or mission j.ngs with something considerably better. The detachedfrom SCAP',s Economic and Scien- lr.merica:ns were largeiy responsible, I heard, tific Section (E. S. S. ) for temporary duty on f

-A- the Japanese and Ryukyuans are miserable the dollar had been devalued relative to the because of their loss of these territories. Japaneselyen, with losses to the previous The novel Teahouseo.f the August Moon, laid holders of the Ryukyuan yen. These losses in the R:.'uk]'us, appeared two years later(1951) were larigely indemnified, I believe.) in the middle of the Korean War. Its picture Il was also apparent from the rudimentary of Ryukyuan culture is wrong, and its attitude Ryukyuan statistics that the Ryukyus had a toward Ryuklruans condesrcending.This rnuch was positive current-account balance with the obvious even from my rshort stay in Okinawa. U.lS., the islands' only legal trading partner On the professional firont, I was sidetracked at that tirne. This arose because the dollar from taxation and assi,gnedto fixing a value valr"rc of wages paid to Rl'ulryuans by the Ameri- for the Ryukyuan yen. The Japaneseyen had can militiary exceeded the dollar value of been given the "unifiud" rate of 360 to the Arnerican net commercial exports to the Ryu- dollar in February 1949, and it was agreed kyus. (I do not believe that relief goods without significant opposition that the sep- ent.eredinto the computations.) The question arate and independent lRyukyuan yen deserved therefore arose, how the Ryukyuan surplus, or the same unified-rate treatment. With the ther American deficit, should be settled. I aid of some lists of Okinawan and Japanese hacl what I thought was an obvious answer ready prices and a dimly-renLemberednotion of the to hand: llhe Ryuklrrs should be permitted and purchasing-power theory of foreign exchange, indeeclencouraged to import American- consumer I conciuded that Ryukyrran prices were roughly and invesl;ment goods, especially textiles and one-third of the corres.pondingJapanese ones. buiiiding materials, in view of their miserable This made one Ryukyuiln yen equal to 3 Japa- standards of living and housing. This recom- neseyen, so that 120Ryukyuan yen was worth mendation was however questioned by an Army a dollar. There was no time to check my finance officer with the exalted rank of "eyeball" index-number computation with a more colonel, attached to the Miiitary Government accurate onei statistical weighting of the of the Rl'ukyus. He opined that in the long run various commodities seemed even less prac- ther Ryukyuans would be better off to establish ticable in the undevelopedRyukyuan economy. a sound currency by taking title to some small My recommendation was acceptedwithout any part of the U.S. eold reserve in Fort Knox, opposition that I can r:ememberi I have ever Kentucky, and forgetting about ciothing and since boasted of being the only international iurnber for a few more years. This well- economist of my acqueLintancewho has ever meraningif wrong-headed alternative I was come so close to settirrg an exchange rate by preparing to resist despite my inferiority in himself . The 120-to-1 rate was in fact not a age and rank, when our Ph.D. economist mission bad guessi it remained in effect for the entire chief took: charge and sided completely with subsequent (9-year) lil'etime of the Ryukyuan the colonel, just like an enlisted man in the currency. In 1958, the U.S. apparently aban- presence ,cf a major general! doned any hope of an independent Ryukyuan l[ did n,ct know our chief well enough to economy, and put the Ryukyus on the dollar decide whether he really didn't know any bet- standard--still at 720 1:.othe dollar-- abolish- ter, (despite his credentials), or whether he ing the Ryukyuan monetary system as a step waLssimply exemplifying the subordination of to closer associationwith the U.S. ( This ci'riiian expertise to uniformed authority policy was itself reversed in 7972, when the endemic to SCAP in Japan, its equivalent in Ryukyus were returned to Japan. Meanwhile K

-(- Application Essay for membershif in The Inter_ l/ears Later, a small local magazine printed national Society for Ryukyuan Studies my translations with commentary for two of by Steve Rabson lfamanoguchi' s wartime poems, " Kami n0 ue', rlOn Paper, 1939) and "Nezumi"(fne Mouse, As a graduate stuclent at Sophia University n943). In the fal1 of 1983, I save a lecture in the early 1970s, I learned that a writer entitled " Sensl to shi--Yosano Akiko hara from Okinawa, Hisashi Mineo(b. 1g3B), had \lamanoguthi Baku made" (War and poerty-- recently been awardecl prize the Akutagawa for Irrom Yr:sano Akiko to Yamanoguchi Baku) at a novella on life in Koza during the 1g50s. t}re Kokubungaku Kenkyu ShiryAkan in Tokyo, Okiynwarn shonen(Child of Okinawa, 1971) is which published it as part of their annual con- narrated in the voice of a boy entering his ference proceedings. And, after a visit to adolescenceamidst conditions not unlike some Okinawa in 1987, my translations of Kakuteru I had observed as a soldier in Okinawa three ltati an

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:.1 'ia-: A mouie and an aduertisementin Okinawan Ryukyuan and global. Two extraordinary cultural developments have lr. film reviewer says: "Though Mr. Takamine, occurred lately. One is an internationally the writer and director, is proudly Ryukyuan, recognlzed Okinawan firotion picture produced and though most of the dialogue is in the in Ryukyu by Ryukyu;ans. The language of dialect sp,okenin the Okinawan chain. the the film is Okinawan. Not only is the fiim film's nationality is Japanese"("Okinawan subtitled in English when shown in the U.S., Foik Hero Fights The Good Hopeless Fight," by but it also has to be subtitled in Japanese Vincent Canby, New York Times, March 16, for Japaneseviewers. llhis means that Okina- 1990). Ryukyuans would perhaps reverse this wan and Japaneseare two different ianguages. script to read: Thoueh the film's nntionality The title of the movie is "lJntamagiru" named (b:r formai, international classification) is after a iegendary"figurer in Ryukyuan history, Japranese, Mr. Takamine...is proudly often dubbed Ryukyu's Robin Hood. Its writer Ryukyuan..." and director is Mr. Go Takamine. The setting l\nother unusual deveiopment was the appear- of the film is the late 1960's, when Ryukyu ance of a fuli-page advertisement in Okinawan was in a state of "dual subordination" to in major .lapanesedaily newspapers like the American miiitary government and Japanese Mainichi and the Nihon Keizai. The ad was economic power. The unspoken desire of the piaced by the "saison Group" led by.the Seibu Ryukyuans was to be free of the double blind. Department Store. The language of the ads, In the film, the intense aspiration for free- boldly pri:rted, was Okinawan. Its Japanese dom and the utter impossibility of attaining translation ran in parallel in smaller charac- it generate a chemistry of fantasy in which ters. It rryasgenerally agreed among knowl- all creatures, human and non-human, living and edgeablepeople that such an unabasheduse of dead, contemporary and ancient, freely Okinawan in major Japanese newspapers was interact and trade places and shapes, turning unprecedented. Apparently, the ad was a dull routine into a hilarious absurdity. smiashinghit for the Saison Group, which was How do you place a movie like that? How did Ioc,king for a means of generating strong a local production of a non-country ever rise public impressions about its unique corporate so high as to receive an international ac- identity. claim? Answers may be found in the elobal llhe ad of course was not an expression of spread of film making technology together with love of Okinawai rather, it aimed at commer- the cross-fertilization of ideas, themes, and cial effects of the curious and exotic. The aestheticsacross the world. "Local" is no ad.rertising staff wrote the script in Japa- Ionger an antithesip of "global." A11 kinds nese first and scurried around to find a of influences are widely flowing in and out of translator who would render it in Okinawan. all places throughout the world. I{istory certainly repeats itself. The Satsu- Thus, as Richard PerLa, of the Film Society, ma lords emphasizedthe foreignness of Rvukl'u. is said to have remarked, "[there is] an in- They gained fame and influence in high places credible confluence of influences...'lJntamag- of Japan for their conquest of a foreign land iru'...could be read perfectly within. what we for the glory of Japan. Now, it is the turn call magic realism...a Latin American genre. of modern "lords," the businessfirms, to use That's just one example of the kind of cross- the foreignness of Okinawa to exploit commer- fertilization going on." (New York Times, cial opportunities . 'lJntamagiru' March 16, 1990, C20). is both

-7 - 'famanoguchi The ISRS meeting und Ryukyu panel at the in an article by Koji Taira and Chicago AAS annual conuention r,vrote to Koji about it, enclosing a copy of The Association fr:r Asian Studies had its lr.er father' s waka in memory of Yamanoguhci 'These 42nd annual meeting in Chicaeo on April 4*8, l3aku. poems are in Kamachi Kan's col- 1990. The International Society for Ryukyuan lected poems: Kashu: Oriori no uta (Tokyo: Studies, an AAS affiliate, had the privilege lSoseiTanka Kai, 1970). to hold its annual meeting in conjunction with Tetsu Yamaguchi and Teruo Hiyane gave lec- the AAS. The ISRS meeting, 12 noon to 1.30 tures at the annual end-of-the-year meeting of F.fl., Aprii 6, was well attended. the Nevr York Okinawan Society in December After a brief rep lrt on the state of the t989. The meeting then repaired to a "Bonen- ISRS and Ryukyuan studies, the participants hai." Vr:ry recently, Teruo gave a seminar at compared notes and erxchanged viewpoints on a Columbia and Princeton, invited by Professors wide range of topics. Thanks to Professor Carol Gluck and Marius Jansen, respectiveiy. Richard Pearson' s illuminating contribution Tetsu Yamaguchi is inriting a monthly column appearing in The RS,u,kyuanistNo. 8, the nature lor the Ryukyu Skinpl. His first piece for and significance of R.yukyuan studies received -lanuary is entitled "F-reedom, Freedom, Free- an indepth probe. dom I The ISRS memberrs come with diverse aca- Mitsurgu Sakihara published a Japanese- demic and practical backgrounds. It is simply Janguage article in Bctraku kaihlshi* astonishing that "Ryukyu" can bring these fiukuoka (History of Buraku Emancipation- specialists of different fields together. One llukuoka), No.55 (September, 1989). The sincerely hopes that interpersonal alchemy irrticle is a critical evaluation of a 7944 in the ISRS will generate golden wonders of publication of the Office of Strategic Serv- scholarly achievements. ices, Research and Anaiysis Branch, Tlu Okirut- Ryukyu's significance as a generator of ruans of the Loochoo Islands: A Japanese Minor- subjects of scholarly significance was demon- t'ty Groar,p. strated by the success of a "Ryukyu panel" In November 1989, in Osaka, Japan, Koji 'faira organized and presente,d by Yoshinobu Ota, ISRS met Ronald Toby and through him two member. The title of the panel was "Polyphonic llyukyuanists: Professor Manabu Yokoyama, 'Folklore Discourse: Japanese Studies' and l)epartment of History, Notre Dame Seishin 'the 'Women's Anthropology of Japan' . " (For an advance University, Okayamai and Professor notice with a partial quotation from the theme llusaaki Maehira, F'aculty of Letters, Kobe of this panel, see T'he Ryukyuaniil -n/o.8). women t s uollese^ 1! Profes;sor Yokoyumu offered Koji a copy of More member news the firs1. two issues of the annual report of a | 't Noriko Kamachi s father, Kamachi Kan (de- l\trotre Dame Seishin journal (Seikatsu bunka ceased) was a poet and a friend of the late trzenkyuiqnenQl) which contained his contribu- Okinawan poet, Yamanoguchi Baku. "A smali tions; dn Ryukyuan subjects. worid" indeed! Noriko spotted a reference to

The Ryu.kyuanist is edited bv Koji Taira, University of Iliinois, and Tetsu Yamaguchi, Yale University. It is published by Shinichi Kyan , Okinawa Labor and Economic Research Instituter , 111 Higashimachi, Naha, Okinavra 900, JAPAN Tel. (0988)66-0842

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