Culture and controversy

Okinawan groups take different approaches to celebrating heritage

By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
WAILUKU — To an outsider, Julie Higa looked like all her neighbors in the Japanese plantation camp where she grew up in the 1950s. But as an Okinawan, she never felt like she belonged.

Japanese parents didn’t want their sons dating Okinawan girls, and neighbors looked down on their non-Japanese diet of pork. Higa and her siblings dreaded encounters with one old lady who lived on their block.

“She would yell out all kinds of stuff when we passed — like we didn’t belong in that neighborhood,” she recalled.

That early exposure to intolerance is one reason Higa said she became involved with the Maui Ryukyu Culture Group, which is sponsoring a performance this month by Ukwanshin Kabudan, masters of Okinawan music and dance from Honolulu.

In addition to studying culture and arts, the club tries to raise awareness about Okinawan history and current events. Discussions have ranged from Japanese atrocities during World War II to prohibitions on using the native language in Okinawan schools.

Higa said learning about the historical oppression of her people has made her more passionate about celebrating and preserving Okinawan culture.

“Because you know it can be obliterated,” she said.

But another cultural group has taken a different approach. Maui Okinawan Kenjin Kai, celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, has kept its focus on the lighter side, studying Okinawan music, dance, language, artifacts, sword arts and cooking, rather than delving into controversial topics.

“We’re not too familiar with World War II and historical issues,” said MOKK President Dennis Shinsato.

Shinsato said his interest in his Okinawan heritage came relatively recently, after watching his wife dance and play shansin, a musical instrument, at cultural events. He said he didn’t have the same encounter with discrimination Higa had while growing up in Hawaii.

“I never felt that. I never experienced anything like that,” he said. “I only found my roots seven years ago. I didn’t know anything about Okinawa, so I’m still learning.”

The two clubs and their different philosophies may reflect a larger trend — both of a revival of interest in Okinawan culture, and of a split in attitudes toward the islands’ history.

“I’m not surprised there would be that kind of division there,” said Mark McNally, associate chairman of the University of Hawaii History Department, and a specialist in Japanese history.

While many in Okinawa today want to raise awareness about past wrongs, some want to move forward and leave the past behind, he said.

“It’s sort of, ‘why live in the past, all it does is make people unhappy.’ That kind of thing,” he said.

Japan’s actions during World War II have been particularly controversial.

During the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, thousands of civilians killed themselves at the urging of Japanese officers, who told them they would be raped and tortured by the invading American Army. Survivors reported that Japanese officers distributed hand grenades to families and instructed them to gather together and blow themselves up when the Americans invaded. Other Okinawans threw themselves and their families off cliffs.

But in modern times the Japanese government has denied responsibility for the suicides, saying it wasn’t official military policy.

“(Okinawans) are very angry the Japanese government hasn’t owned up to that,” McNally said. “The Japanese government hasn’t owned up to a lot of things from World War II, and this is one of them.”

The kingdom of Ryukyu — incorporating many islands, but with its capital on the island of Okinawa — was founded in 1492. the island was invaded by Japan in 1609, and in 1872 Okinawa became part of Japan.

Higa said she appreciated learning about historical and political issues as part of the Maui Ryukyu Culture Group. Recent club activities included watching a video about plans for a U.S. air base that would have damaged the sea grass habitat of the endangered Okinawan dugon, or manatee. The club signed a petition to stop the project, which is on hold after being ordered to look for ways to mitigate environmental impacts.

“This is the kind of stuff we learn about in our group,” she said.

Higa believed one reason her group has chosen to focus on history and controversy is the discrimination she and other members experienced. The fact that other Okinawans may not have felt that hardship is another reason to raise awareness about the past, she said.

“That’s why I feel it’s important to remember,” she said. “Even if it’s uncomfortable, you still have to remember, because it could happen again.”

Okinawans moving to Hawaii in the 19th century would have spoken another language from the Japanese immigrants already here, and would probably not have found a warm welcome, McNally said.

Okinawa was seen as poor, provincial and “backward” in mainland Japan, and that prejudice has endured among some even in modern times, he said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me that these Okinawans would come to Hawaii and find their interactions with the Japanese who were already here to be one of tension,” he said.

While Shinsato said he didn’t experience persecution himself while growing up in Honolulu, he was aware that it existed.

“My wife’s parents, they don’t like to speak about those days,” he said.

He said he was open to learning more about Okinawan history, but acknowledged his club wasn’t as focused on studying issues as the Maui Ryukyu Culture Group.

“They’re very passionate about it, and that’s fine,” he said.

While Shinsato acknowledged there were significant differences between the two groups (in addition to its stronger focus on history, Maui Ryukyu has a religious affiliation, meeting at Rinzai Zen Mission), he said he didn’t feel there was a division.

A number of MOKK members will be volunteering at the Maui Ryukyu event, and the club has loaned Maui Ryukyu equipment and let the other group use its building in the past, he said. Shinsato’s own wife and daughter are members of both groups, he noted.

“Maybe some people might feel (a rift), but as far as I see it, no,” he said.



• Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.