At least 3,000 civilians died in 1945 and 1946 in camps set up by the U.S. military in Okinawa, according to a survey shedding light on their little-known plight in the facilities.
The survey — in which questionnaires were sent to all 41 municipal offices in the prefecture — found that the main causes of death were starvation and malaria, as the camps were in unsanitary surroundings and little food was provided. The survey results were released Saturday.
During the war, once U.S. troops occupied some areas of Okinawa, they set up camps in which they detained local people. Such camps were created in 16 occupied areas, and the number of people in them reached as high as 300,000, exceeding the capacity for the U.S. military to handle them.
I found two sources of information for this scholarship for study in Okinawa: Japan Study Support and JASSO. The information is probably outdated, but you can get a fairly good idea about the requirements and benefits. For current information, contact the organization.
Organization: Okinawa International Exchange & Human Resources Development Foundation
Scholarship name: Okinawa International Exchange & Human Resources Development Foundation (公財）沖縄県国際交流・人材育成財団
Address: 4-2-16 Isa, Ginowan-shi, Okinawa 901-2221
Phone: 098-942-9215
Fax: 098-942-9220
Email: http://www.oihf.or.jp
Applicable: scholarship year 2014-2015
Application method: Apply directly to the foundation.
Place of residence at the time of application: outside Japan
Academic level: Japanese Language Program of the university, College, Undergraduate
School address: Okinawa
Designated school region: Okinawa Prefecture
Age limitation: Less than 35
Combined award limitation: You cannot get another scholarship.
Other application matters: Overseas Okinawa descendants
Stipend (Yen): 70,000 yen for a month
Other stipend: Travel Expense, Tuition, Boarding, Welfare Expenses
Duration (years): 1 year
Number of recipients: 若干名 (A few)
Number of recipients in previous year: 9/13
Application period: Aug. 1 to Nov. 8
Application deadline: November
Led by shishimai, the procession to open the 2015 Okinawan Festival in Honolulu’s Kapi’olani Park officially began at around 10:20am on September 5.
The shishimai were followed by a paranku troupe. The lady in the red jacket with an orchid lei is U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono. See her photo, below, with the shishimai performers.
Next came the procession of banners for the organizations that make up the Hawaii United Okinawa Association (HUOA).
Annual OAA Bazaar/Fundraiser Okinawan Food, Entertainment, and Merchandise PLUS Raffle Drawings and Games October 4th • 11AM ~ 4PM @ the OAA Center 16500 South Western Avenue, Gardena 90247 Click here for more information VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Please make time and join us (Ukwanshin Kabudan Ryukyu Performing Arts Troupe) for the 27th of September Lunar Autumn Moon Festival Performance 十五夜いめんそーりよーさい！
Gusuuyoo, Chuuwuganabira!
Hope your day is going well. I just wanted to announce a new production Ukwanshin will be doing on September 27, 2015 (Sunday) at Mamiya Theater, 5pm. The show is titled “Shichi nu Ayumi: The Passing of the Seasons” and is a showcase of traditional Okinawan music and dance featuring Eric Wada and his student Brent Arakaki and others. This show will actually be done on Juuguyaa, the traditional Okinawan Autumn Moon festival and will replace our usual celebration at Jikoen.
Tickets are $20 pre-sale and $30 at the door. Please call 808-845-5192 or email ukwanshinevents@gmail.com to reserve your tickets. We will also be chartering a bus for pick-up and drop off at Jikoen Hongwanji in Kalihi. The bus will leave at 3:45pm. You will need to call us to reserve your spot on the bus. PLEASE DO NOT CALL JIKOEN! They are merely allowing us to use their parking lot as a pick-up/dropoff point.
Please help us spread the word as the date is coming up very soon. There is a low-res PDF attached for posting on social media or email blasts, and a black-and-white printable PDF if you want to post or pass out old-school. I will be sending a second email with more details on the show. Please feel free to forward this to your friends and family. I hope you will be able to join us for this show!
Norman Kaneshiro: “This is a unique cultural observance we hope all of you can be a part of. As usual, Ukwanshin will be providing musical support. Thank you, YOH, for organizing this!” Click image to enlarge.
“A higher ranking Sergeant took no heed / Of my order to leave the little girl be. / His first round missed, going astray. / His second shot tore her intestines away.”
“Unfortunately … we had to shoot them. That’s when a lot of the poor Okinawans got killed…. We felt bad about having to do it, but we were protecting our own life. Survival of the fittest.”
“I went over and stuck my foot under her hat and lifted her hat up, and her eyes were just that big, ya know, and she’s still alive. Japs … and wherever we went we were killing people, but this woman was by herself right in the mud.”
“We went down and grabbed them because guys on the other hill would kill ’em. There’s always somebody who would shoot them. It turns out the guy, the man, the adult, was seventy-five years old and blind, and the girl was about eight years old…. I saw too many dead civilians. I didn’t want to add to it.”
“She was Japanese…. She told them she had her entire class of all girls from the Naha Primary School … were in that cave and had been there somewhere for over sixty some days…. a five hundred pound bomb buried in the floor of that cave. She hit the nose of it, evidently with a mallet, and the whole top of the hill… turned around and then fell back into place…. [we] figure that there was in the neighborhood [of] thirty-two little girls in that cave with the schoolteacher.”
“They were friendly people, nice people. We were unusually cruel to them, which they did not deserve ’cause the Japs were cruel and they did not need us on their backs either. But they had slant eyes. We were very anti-slant eyes. Guys would say, ‘There goes a slant-eyed chink, pow, pow … there goes a slant-eyed pig, pow, pow.’ We were not the most charming people in the world.”
“Healing Okinawa with Park Soo Jin” uploaded to YouTube by Petervanilla 2/10/15.
Park Soo Jin, Korean actress and former member of K-pop girl group Sugar, was featured in a travel program that took her to Okinawa. She recently married actor and businessman Bae Yong-joon, who starred in TV dramas such as Winter Sonata.
Exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, July 11-Sep. 6, 2015: “Incorporating paintings by Laura Kina and photographs by Emily Hanako Momohara, Sugar/Islands: Finding Okinawa in Hawai‘i is a unique examination of worker migration and settlement from the islands of Okinawa to the islands of Hawai‘i, prompted by opportunities afforded by the latter’s sugar plantations and pineapple farms during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” Read the full article here.
Please watch this lecture by Jack Musick at UH Hilo. I found it interesting. He presents the current state of Uchinaaguchi as he knows it after spending a year in Okinawa. You might find it interesting also.
This video made me wonder if there exists a literature written in Uchinaguchi. For example, can you go to the big bookstore in Naha and find books written in Uchinaaguchi? If not, then why not encourage the creation of a body of literatue in Uchinaaguchi? I believe if there are writings in the hogen, then the language will not only survive but thrive.
Would someone or an organization in Okinawa be interested in sponsoring an annual Uchinaaguchi writing contest for school students? Scholarship prizes could be offered for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th places as well as honorable mentions. There could be a number of different categories, for example, articles and short stories. The winning entries could then be published in a book, adding to and encouraging the development of Uchinaaguchi litterature.
Wouldn’t this encourage young Okinawans to learn Uchinaaguchi?
A similar contest could also be held for college students and others in Okinawa, and the results could be published in a book similar to Bamboo Ridge – the Hawaii Writer’s Quarterly.
The purpose of the contests would be to encourage everyone, including overseas Uchinanchu, of all ages to learn and use Uchinaaguchi. For example, elementary school kids could write simple stories or articles such as:
My uncle is a fisherman. He fishes everyday. Everyone in the family eats his fish for dinner. One day a storm came, and he didn’t returned. Everyone was sad. They thought the ocean had swallowed him. But a week later, he returned. He said the storm blew him to another island. People there helped him repair his boat. Everyone was happy to see him again.
This story is made up of simple sentences, which I believe young children could learn to write. But it’s the active use of the language that’s important. I believe it’s critical for the preservation and development of Uchinaaguchi that young people start to use it to think of and write their stories.
From parents, teachers, and community leaders — everyone — there would be nothing but encouragement, support and praise. Who knows, this could snowball into something very wonderful.
Yoko Gushiken (具志堅 用高Gushiken Yōkō, born June 26, 1955 in Ishigaki, Okinawa, Japan) is a Japanese former professional boxer from 1974-1981. The southpaw’s professional record is 23-1 (15 by KO) and he held the title of WBA Junior Flyweight champion 1976-1981. Following his retirement from boxing, he remains popular in Japan as a tarento having signed a contract with Ohta Productions. Gushiken is part of the 2015 class for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. (Source Wikipedia)
Register for events now at Eventbrite by clicking here: https://hawaii-okinawa-30.eventbrite.com
or call Hawaii Okinawa Center at (808) 676-5400 for tickets and more information.
The official dates for 6th Worldwide Uchinaanchu Festival (世界ウチナーンチュ大会) are October 26-30, 2016. (Source: The Okinawa Association of America, 10/13/15.) Click image to enlarge.
Click image to enlarge.
Update 1/31/16: “The 6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival,” Okinawa Island Guide, n.d. “Starting with the Festival Eve Parade along Kokusai Street and the opening ceremony held at Okinawa Cellular Stadium, there will be a multitude of exciting events and programs to be enjoyed throughout the festival, including the World Business Fair, the Uchina Junior Study Tour, the Congress of the World Youth Uchinanchu Association and the Karate and Kobudo Exchange Festival. In addition, some of Okinawa’s most popular annual events, such as the Shurijo Castle Festival and the Okinawa Industrial Festival, will take place before, during and after the 6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival.”
Update 1/31/16: “Creative logo design and catchy slogan wanted for the upcoming Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival,” Okinawa Island Guide, n.d.
The objectives of the Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival are: To further develop the Uchina (Okinawan) network and pass it down to the younger generations and to showcase Okinawa’s soft power to the world and maximize it for the island’s future success.
All entries must comply with the following requirements:
– Must reflect the festival’s objectives.
– Must express the Uchinanchu (Okinawan) identity.
Entry deadline: Monday, Feb. 1, 2016
How to enter: Logo design
Entries are accepted via mail only. Send your design printed on A4-size paper together with an information sheet (another sheet of A4-size paper bearing your name, address, age, occupation/school name, phone number and a brief description of your work) to the address below. You may submit multiple entries, although each entry must be printed on a separate paper and accompanied by an information sheet.
Your logo design must include the name of the event in full “6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival” and the year “2016.”
Slogan
Entries are accepted via mail or fax. You may submit multiple entries, but each entry must be written on a separate sheet of paper together with your name, address, age, occupation/school name, phone number and a brief description of your work.
Qualification requirements: None
Judging: A panel of judges will be formed by the 6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival Committee. The winning logo designs and catch phrases will be announced in late February 2016.
Prize
Best logo design: Letter of commendation and 100,000 yen cash prize
Best slogan: Letter of commendation and 50,000 yen cash prize
6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival Committee (Logo and Catch Phrase Competition entry)
1-2-2 Izumizaki, Naha City, Okinawa 900-8570
Fax: 098-866-2622
Update 2/1/16: Mascot Design and Theme Song Winners for Taikai 2016
Winners of the mascot design and theme song for Taikai 2016: Shiroma Tsukasa’s1 (城間司) “Ryumaru”2 (笠丸) and dancer, singer, and songwriter Hanashiro Mai‘s (花城舞) “Striving for a United Heart”(?)「結～心届く～」. Photo and information from Ryukyu Shimpo 10/11/15.
Theme song 「結～心届く～」written and composed by Hanashiro Mai, arranged by Katsuya Yabe. Uploaded to YouTube by okinawaBBtv on 1/28/16.
__________ 1 Shiroma is a lecturer at IT College Okinawa. From IT-College website, 10/15/15. 2 “Ryumaru” is named after the immigrant ship Ryutomaru as a symbol of Okinawan immigration.” From “Next Year’s Uchinanchu Taikai Mascot ‘Ryumaru’,” Okinawa Times, 10/11/15.
Fumiko Nashiro, photo by Kyodo News. Click image to enlarge.
Fumiko Nashiro, 87, vividly remembers the leader of the nurse corps she belonged to during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa telling members “not to die but return to your parents and tell the misery of war to future generations.”
In 1945, the last year of the Pacific War, Nashiro was 18 and a fourth-year student at Sekitoku Women’s High School in Okinawa.
When 25 fourth-year students were formed into the Fuji Gakutotai nursing unit for the Imperial Japanese Army in March 1945, she willingly joined “for the sake of our country,” she recalls.
Some 500 high school girls in Okinawa were mobilized in nine nursing units. Many of those students were killed in the fighting between U.S. forces and the Japanese army. And there were also many who committed suicide — made to believe they would be raped if captured by American soldiers.
Amid all-out attacks by U.S. forces, the Japanese army issued orders that Fuji Gakutotai and the other nursing units be dissolved in the closing days of the Battle of Okinawa, which raged from March through June 1945. The Fuji unit leader kept members in the bunker until the attack subsided before telling them to disband.
The leader, an army physician, turned down the unit members’ requests for hand grenades to commit suicide. After confirming that the members had safely left the bunker, he killed himself with cyanide.
Nashiro lost her parents, grandfather, an older sister and a younger sister in the Battle of Okinawa. The younger sister joined a nursing unit called Himeyuri Gakutotai, most of whose 222 members died either during attacks or in mass suicides.
The following excerpts are from Rachel Preston Prinz‘s “Okinawa: One Island and the Three Cultures that Call Her Home,” Archinia, 2015.1 This article was brought to our attention by Bobby Shimabukuro of Portland, Oregon. Prinz is an architectural designer, and the sections on Okinawan architecture are fascinating. Her heartfelt compassion for Okinawans and their culture resonates in her narrative and observations. -JS
The most ancient forms of Okinawan homes are very similar to Japanese wooden houses…. The Okinawans also modified the traditional wooden house forms to use concrete, bars over windows, and glued-on tile roofs to deal with their common typhoons. The architecture that results is industrial, but also decorated, resulting in a marriage of forms that appears both Prairie-style and Art Deco at once. The use of Shisa, or guardian lion-dogs, borders on a requirement and nearly every business and home is decorated with them. The Okinawans also reserve the most sacred spots of land for their plentiful necropoli and there are entire weeks of festivals where the family spends the week at the tomb of their forebears.
A glimpse into the garden, if you are caught peeking, will result in a tiny little Okinawan rushing out to take your hand and walk you through the hand-crafted garden shrines that Okinawans are proud to create in their gardens. It’s as if each home needs a place for the god(s) to rest, so they create amazing little worlds of mountains, bonsai as big as houses, waterfalls and koi ponds, and beautiful plants and flowers for the gods to be surrounded and entertained with.
After World War II, the United States captured Okinawa and kept part of her for use by 13 Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force bases. In the heavily inhabited central section of the island, where the Americans are ever present—with lines of American women pushing endless streams of baby carriages—the island is wrought with overcrowding and the stress of a military force that is dominant…. The Americans that do embrace the Okinawan experience find a rich heritage and a rich people who are more than willing to share it…. This tiny string of islands, 56 miles long and 26 miles wide, has had a massive emotional impact on all the Americans who have come to call it home, even for a time.
This video features Collin Michael Hoo, who represented the University of the Ryukyus in the 32nd Japanese Speech Contest by Foreigners. The title of his speech is “Ninufwabushi (The North Star),” and his message is about the importance of maintaining Shimakutuba, the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands. Collin is from Hawaii and studying in Okinawa. His father is a second-generation Chinese-American, and his mother is a sansei Japanese-American with roots in Okinawa. The video was uploaded to YouTube by Collin on 18 May 2015.
Much thanks to Harold Kameya, originally from Maui and now living in Southern California, for bringing this video to our attention.
“Kendo Bushi”1 「県道節」 is one of my favorite minyo. The first two performances below are by Uema Ayano (上間綾乃). They’re both arranged very differently. I like the first, the slower soulful version, better. The third, by Bokusho Kinjo, is also very different from Uema’s. The fourth is a chicken-skin version by Yamazato Yuki.
“「県道節」 上間綾乃 ライブ情報 http://columbia.jp/uemaayano/” uploaded by KOZA OKINAWA on 12/26/10.
“上間綾乃 阪神百貨店ミニライブ♪” uploaded by psychicer2002 さんのチャンネル on 12/25/11
“ＭＣ毛遊びー頭 ~ 県道節 / 金城睦松 Bokusho Kinjo” uploaded by shimauta4u on 10/27/12.
“Kendo Bushi” (Yuki Yamazato/Katsuko Yohen/Keiko Kinjo) uploaded by Various Artists-Topic on 3/1/15.
Okinawa is Japan’s southernmost prefecture and the only prefecture with a subtropical climate. Okinawa, consisting of 50 inhabited and 110 uninhabited islands, has a unique culture and language, and a prosperous, growing tourist industry. Okinawa’s economy has lagged behind the rest of the nation, with per capita income below — and unemployment above–the national averages. Also of importance: Okinawa has Japan’s only Special Free Trade Zone, and offers an array of tax and other financial incentives to promote business. In addition, the prefecture boasts the world’s highest longevity rate, with women living an average of 86 years, and men, 78 years.
The House resolution initiating the Sister State-Prefecture relationship in 1984 noted that 16,536 persons (13% of the state’s 1924 residents of Japanese ancestry) came from Okinawa.
Okinawa has enjoyed one of Hawaii’s strongest sister relationships.
Over the years, Okinawa has enjoyed one of Hawaii’s strongest sister relationships, with numerous cultural exchanges. This is due to hard-working and highly-interested Okinawan cultural associations. In recent years, DBEDT has worked closely with Okinawan officials to assess the province’s energy needs and initiate mutually advantageous programs. Continue reading →
“Okinawa Memorial Day (慰霊の日Irei no Hi?, lit. “the day to console the dead”) is a public holiday observed in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture annually on June 23 to remember the lives lost during the Battle of Okinawa. It is not celebrated nationally throughout Japan.”
Cornerstone of peace from a distance in the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum (沖縄県平和祈念資料館), Itoman C, Okinawa P. Photo by Syohei Arai, 27 June 2007.
Cornerstone of Peace, a memorial to all those who died in the Battle of Okinawa, in Okinawa, Japan. Photo by SANDO from ja, Oct. 2006.
July 17 and 18 – Jikoen (Honolulu) Bon Dance: Half the year has flown by and summer is already upon us. Jikoen Bon Dance will be here soon, July 17/18! Thanks to the graciousness of Jikoen, we will once again be doing our Okinawan food booth as our fundraiser. We will once again be having Kandabaa Juushi, Nmu(poi) mochi, and Jiimami (peanut) tofu etc.
We are looking for volunteers to help prep and cook on Thursday, July 16th from 9-12.
Also we need volunteers to help at the booth and cook the mochi on Friday and Saturday. Shifts for both days are as follows:
3:30pm-5:30 set up and sales
5:30-7:30pm
7:30-closing/breakdown & clean up
If you can stay for only a certain time or all the way through, please let us know.
Head covering and aprons are required, and you will also be given hand gloves. Ukwanshin will provide dinner for our volunteers. Those of you with Ukwanshin T-shirts , please wear them on that day. Continue reading →
The following video, “The Nenes Koja Misako” (ネーネーズ 古謝 美佐子), was uploaded to YouTube by Saison TV on 14 Aug. 2013. It’s a documentary on Koja and the Nenes, shot in 1995 when Koja was 41.
At about the 19-minute mark, Koja sings a few lines of a minyo a cappella, and you know why, instantly, she’s one of Okinawa’s most gifted and talented minyo singers and song writers1. Three of the four original members, Misako Koja, Namiko Miyazato, Yukino Hiyane plus Emiko Shimabukuro have recently formed a new version of the Nenes, calling themselves Unaigumi2. For more on the Nenes, see Paul Fisher’s “Nenes – Akemodoro Unai (Sleeve Notes),” Far Side Music, 21 Dec. 2014.
liuchiuan 