Ryukyuan history

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This article is about the history of the Ryukyu Island chain southwast of the main islands of Japan.

Contents

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Early history

The original source of the modern-day Ryukyuan people is disputed. Evidence confirms that the islands were never part of formal Japanese territory until their annexation in 1872.

The earliest inhabitants were likely descended from crossovers via a prehistoric land bridge from modern-day China, with a later mixture of Malays, Micronesians, and Japanese. Others, however, basing their claims mostly on evidence from studies of physical anthropology, and more recently also genetics, take the view that the modern Ryukyuans are the most pure descendants of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Japanese islands (Japanese: Jōmon-jin 縄文人 "People of the Jōmon Era"). Scientists of this persuasion explain that the Mainland Japanese are rather a complex mix of the prehistoric Japanese aborigines with immigrants who originated in the ancestral populations of various continental Asian peoples, especially those who came from what are now Korea, Siberia and China.

Early Chinese visitors noted the hospitality of the islanders, as well as the sharp economic divisions between the small upper class and the impoverished masses. After the European explorers of the 19th century, they entertained the Dutch, the Portuguese, the English, and others, who always noted the hospitality of the natives.

The dominant economy has historically been the farming of sugar cane (uuji), and later on, the sweet potato. Other farmed items include guava, banana, papaya, and tobacco.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Okinawans traded from Java to Japan, to China and Korea. This led to an increased level of prosperity for the kingdom.

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The Three Kingdoms Period

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The Ryukyu Kingdom

Main article at Ryukyu Kingdom.

In 1429, King Hashi completed the unification of the three kingdoms and founded one Ryukyu Kingdom with its capital at Shuri Castle.

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Satsuma Rule and Loss of de facto Independence

At about the end of the sixteenth century, Japanese feudal leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the Kingdom to give men and arms for an invasion of China. The kingdom's policy was to not participate in the military efforts of foreign nations, and they certainly did not wish to ruin their Korean trade. The Japanese planned their attack via the Korean peninsula. The Kingdom did not wish to offend China, for they had strong trade and cultural ties. The attack on China went without the help of the Kingdom, and Hideyoshi meanwhile died. There was a ferocious battle of succession. The Shimazu family of Satsuma, the nearest Japanese neighbours of the kingdom, won.

The Shimazu clan wanted Okinawa's trade, and wanted favor with the regime in Edo (modern-day Tokyo), and the Ryukyuan Kingdom had not paid respects to the new regime in Edo. Permission to invade the kingdom was granted by the rulers in Edo.

The invasion of the Ryukyus by Satsuma took place in 1609. Three thousand men and more than one hundred war junks sailed from Kagoshima at the southern tip of Kyūshū. The Ryukyuans did not put up a fight, due to the order of the king, who told them "nuchidu takara" (Life itself is a treasure). Many priceless cultural treasures were looted and taken to Kagoshima.

This period of effective outside control also featured the first-ever international matches of go, as Ryukyuan players came to Japan to test their skill. This occurred in 1634, 1682 and 1710 [1], [2].

The Satsuma rulers never permitted Ryukyuans to own arms, leading to Okinawa's most famous contribution to world culture - karate.

The Satsuma clan enacted crippling taxes, taking over the trade of the Kingdom after the sealing of Japan from the rest of the world in 1636 so as to gain an economic advantage. Often, Ryukyuans weren't allowed to eat the very fish they caught.

After Perry's "black ships" came by, the Meiji Restoration proceeded after the Meiji Emperor attained the throne in 1867.

The Kingdom was formally annexed to Japan in 1879, and the monarchy in Shuri was violently abolished.

As a side note, the mongoose was introduced from India in 1910 to control the poisonous habu snake.

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Okinawa and World War Two

In the years leading up to World War II, the Japanese government sought to reinforce national solidarity in the interests of militarization. They did so by means of conscription, mobilization, and nationlistic propaganda. People of the Ryukyu Islands, having spent only a generation as full Japanese citizens, were interested in proving their value to the nation in spite of prejudice expressed by mainland Japanese people, the mainland Japanese politicians appointed to govern Okinawa, and the mainland Japanese generals commanding Okinawa military units. (Kerr 459-464)

The Japanese government also promoted Japanese-language education in the school system to render the islanders Japanese citizens.

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The Princess Lilies

After the beginning of World War II, the Japanese military coerced school girls (15 to 16 years old) to join a group known as the Princess Lilies (Hime-yuri) and go to the battle front as nurses. There were seven girls' high schools in Okinawa at the time of WWII. The Princess Lilies were organized at two of them, and a total of 297 students and teachers eventually joined the group. Two hundred and eleven died. Most of the girls were put into caves, which served as temporary clinics, and took care of injured soldiers. There was no medicine, food nor water. Many of the young girls died while trying to get water for the wounded soldiers. The Japanese military also told these girls that if they were taken prisoner the enemy would rape and then kill them, and then gave the girls hand grenades to commit suicide with before being taken prisoner. One of the Princess Lilies explains this by saying, "We had a strict imperial education, so being taken prisoner was the same a being a traitor. We were taught to prefer suicide to becoming a captive." (Moriguchi, 1992) Many students died saying "Tenno Banzai", which means "Long live the Emperor."

The board of education, made up entirely of mainland Japanese, required the girls' participation. Teachers opposed to the board of education, insisting the students be evacuated to somewhere safe, were accused of being traitors.

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The Battle of Okinawa

Main article at Battle of Okinawa.

The Battle of Okinawa was one of the last major battles of World War II, claiming the lives of an estimated 120,000 people. The Ryukyus were the only part of Japan to experience a land battle during WWII. In addition to the Japanese military personnel who died in the Battle for Okinawa, more than one third of the civilian population - 300,000 people - were killed, and many important documents, artifacts, and sites related to Ryukyuan history and culture were destroyed, including the royal Shuri Castle.[3]

Due to fears concerning their fate during and after the invasion, the Okinawan people hid in caves and in family tombs. Several mass deaths occurred, such as in the "Cave of the Virgins", where many Okinawan school girls committed suicide by jumping off cliffs for fear of rape. Similarly, whole families committed suicide or were killed by near relatives in order to avoid suffering what they believed would be a worse fate at the hands of American forces; for instance, on Geruma Island at Zamami Village, almost everyone living on the island committed suicide two days after Americans landed.[4] Okinawan fears were not entirely unfounded, as killing of civilians and destruction of civilian property did take place; for example, on Aguni Island, "90 residents were killed and 150 houses were destroyed".[5]

Even today, unexploded ordnance can from time to time be a danger, especially in sparsely-populated areas where it may have lain undisturbed or been buried.[6]

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Post-war occupation

After the war, the islands were occupied by the United States and run by a U.S. military government even after the end of the occupation of Japan as a whole in 1952. The United States dollar was the official currency used, and cars drove on the right, American-style, as opposed to on the left as in Japan.

The U.S. used their time as occupiers to build large army, air force, navy, and marine bases on Okinawa.

On November 21, 1969 U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato agreed in Washington, DC on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control, with representatives of Japan and the United States signing the Okinawa Reversion Agreement on June 17, 1971.[7], returning the islands to Japan on May 15, 1972. Under terms of the agreement, the U.S. retained its rights to bases on the island as part of the 1952 Treaty to protect Japan, but those bases were to be nuclear-free. The United States military still controls about 19% of the island, which makes the 30,000 American servicemen a dominant feature in island life. While the Americans provide jobs to the locals in bars and entertainment and pay rent on the land, widespread personal relationships between U.S. servicemen and Okinawan women remains controversial in Okinawan society. Okinawa remains the poorest prefecture of Japan.

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Tension with Japan

Some Okinawans refuse to raise the Japanese flag at official events, because of the flag's perceived link to Japan's emperor, the Japanese Imperial Military, and the World War II Battle of Okinawa. The Japanese flag reminds many Okinawans of the worst aspects of Japanese imperialism.

On October of 1987, Mr. Shoichi Chibana burned the Japanese flag while it was being raised for the Kaiho National Athletic meet in Yomitan, Okinawa. This incident not only shocked Japanese, but also Ryukyuans. For this act, he served time in prison.

During the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese soldiers killed Okinawan civilians. One reason was that non-combatants disturbed the Japanese military in their hiding places. During the battle, people hid in the many caves on Okinawa. At first, there were only civilians, but the soldiers also took refuge in the caves after the fighting became intense. During the many fierce battles, the babies in the caves started crying. Their mothers tried to stop the crying, but the soldiers, being afraid of being found by the enemy, murdered the babies at once. This brutality was not unusual to the Okinawans. They were also killed over small amounts of food. "At midnight, soldiers would wake up Okinawans and take them to the beach. Then they chose Okinawans at random and threw hand grenades at them." (Moriguchi, 1992)

The suspicion of being a spy was another reason why Okinawans were killed. Classified World War II Japanese military documents describe punishment for Okinawans who didn't speak Japanese. They were declared spies, and killed for speaking their own language. Additionally, Japanese soldiers shot Okinawans who wanted to surrender to Allied Forces appealing to them to quit fighting. The Japanese military commanders were afraid of their subordinates losing their fighting spirit while watching civilians surrender, so they killed civilians to prevent their troops from losing morale.

During March 1945, there was an intense battle in Yaeyama Islands. The Japanese military forced people to evacuate from their towns to the mountains even though malaria was prevalent there. The natives, without food and medicine, lost 54% of the island's population to starvation and disease. After WWII, the government stated that the Japanese military didn't know that malaria was prevalent in the mountains of Yaeyama. There is, however, evidence to the contrary. The bereaved families of the malaria victims filed a lawsuit against the government for its responsibility.

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Tension with the U.S.

In 1995 two Marines and a sailor kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old girl and left her for dead, and under the Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S., local police and prosecutors were unable to get access to the troops until they were able to prepare an indictment. Many locals viewed this as unfair treatment that created an undue burden on their ability to investigate the case and bring the perpetrators to justice. All three were later convicted in a Japanese court. Later revisions to the agreement were made, but many observers viewed them as cosmetic. This is not an isolated case with many crimes being reported including the alleged rape attempt by Major Michael Brown who was convicted of molestation on the 8 July 2004. Crimes committed by U.S. soldiers are an issue at many overseas U.S. bases, but Okinawan officials have complained that the high concentration of U.S. bases inflicts a special burden on them compared to mainland Japan.

Other complaints are that the military bases disrupt the lives of the Okinawan people, the bases occupy more than a fifth of the main island. The biggest and most active air force base in east Asia, Kadena Air Base, is based on the island; the islanders complain the base produces large amounts of noise and is dangerous in other ways. In 1959 a jet fighter crashed into a school on the island, killing 17 children and injuring 121. In 2004 a U.S. military helicopter crashed into a college on the island, injuring the three crew members on board. The U.S. military prevented the local police from participating in the investigation of the crash.[8][9]

Whilst the bases do provide revenue it is claimed that they are holding the island's development back. Base-related revenue makes up 5 percent of the total economy. If the U.S. vacated the land, it is claimed that the island would be able to generate more money from tourism by the increased land that they would be able to develop.

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References

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See also

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External links

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