Lecture #19: /Ryukyu/Uchina

Ryukyuan population

1.3 million living on Okinawa Another 300,000 or so living in mainland Perhaps another 200-300,000 living in other countries

Not a recognized ethnic minority:

“Those who live in or natives of Okinawa are of the Japanese race, and generally, in the same way as natives of other prefectures, they are not considered to be a group of people who share biological or cultural characteristics under social convention, and therefore, we do not consider them to be covered by the Convention.” (Comments of the Japanese Government on the Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 20, 2000, regarding initial and second periodic report of the Japanese Government)

Language examples – Uchinaguchi is a separate language from Japanese (in my personal view), though it has many common roots.

English Japanese Uchinaguchi (Ryukyuan)

Cloud Kumo Kumu

Rain Ame Ami

Excuse me Sumimasen Chaabira sai

Thankyou Arigato Nifee deebiru

Please come again Mata irasshite Mata mensooree tai kudasai

History (from Koji Taira’s paper in Michael Weiner ed, Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity.)

•1. Pre-history (40,000 BC ~ 1000 AD •2. Proto-history (1000~1310) •3. Three kingdoms (1310~1429) •4. Ryukyu Kingdom (1429~1609) •5. Dual subordination (1609~1879) •6. Okinawa Prefecture #1 (1879~1945) •7. US Occupation (1945~1972) •7. Okinawa Prefecture #2 (1972~present)

Key dates

1609: Loss of (between Okinawa and Kyushu) to the Kyushu-based Satsuma clan 1869: ‘Ryukyu Shobun’ – Japan annexes Ryukyu. c. 1900 – 1950 Emigration from Ryukyu to escape from poverty. Three peaks: To Hawaii (1906) To Brazil (1918) To the Philippines (1929) 1945: Battle of Okinawa 1952: End of US Occupation for all of Japan except Okinawa. 1972: Reversion of Okinawa.

Contemporary issues

1. US bases – still hold 10.5% of all land in the Ryukyus. Hated by many but also needed for the economy some argue. Controversy over crime, especially rape, by US soldiers. Possibly exaggerated. 2. Poverty – lowest per-capita income and highest unemployment in Japan. 3. Improving image – as a tourist destination and breeding ground of showbiz stars. 4. World-famous for incredible longevity. 36 centenarians per 100,000 population. (US has 10 per 100,000). See The Okinawan Centenarian Study: http://www.okinawaprogram.com/

Recommended Further Reading

A lot of interesting books have been published on Okinawa in recent years, including the following:

Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power, ed. Laura Hein and Mark Selden. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003. (A collection of papers, with good coverage of issues like commemorating the Battle of Okinawa, US bases and rape incidents, and the rising popularity of Okinawa music both trad and pop.)

Women of Okinawa: Nine Voices from a Garrison Island by Ruth Ann Keyso. Cornell UP, 2000. (Interview-based studies of nine Okinawan women.)

Identity and Resistance in Okinawa by Matthew Allen. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. (Ethnographic study based on fieldwork on Kume island)

Japan and Okinawa: Structure and Subjectivity, ed. Glenn D. Hook and Richard Siddle, eds., (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003).