Okinawa—Where East and West Mingle
By “Awake!” correspondent in Okinawa
LIKE stepping-stones, some 140 small islands extend in a more than 700-mile arc between Japan and Taiwan. These are the Ryukyu Islands, although sometimes the whole group is called by the name of their prominent member—Okinawa.
About half the islands are uninhabited. Of the other half, Okinawa is the largest and most populous, with some 950,000 inhabitants. It is nearly seventy miles long, but only two to eighteen miles wide—its 453 square miles about equaling the size of Los Angeles. Thus Okinawa is one of the most densely populated places in the world.
To the east lies the vast Pacific Ocean, and to the west the East China Sea. Okinawans sit in “Typhoon Alley.” Tempests spawned in the Pacific sweep by them on their way to the Asian mainland. One or two severe ones a year hit Okinawa, sometimes with winds of 190 miles per hour.
When East and West Met
The Ryukyuans are a blend of several races, particularly Chinese and Japanese. In 1879 Japan abolished the Ryukyuan monarchy and formally annexed the island as one of its prefectures, or provinces. Japanese became the official language, replacing the many Ryukyuan dialects, although some are still spoken.
A couple of generations ago Okinawa was practically an unknown land to Westerners. A few Westerners had visited. Commodore Matthew Perry used the island as a headquarters in 1853 while arranging a trade treaty between Japan and the United States. Some foreign missionaries had come, and occasionally a naturalist or explorer made a brief stopover. But that was about the extent of East-West contact.
Then came 1945, and the closing days of World War II. The Japanese were making on Okinawa a last desperate stand. On April 1 the American invasion began. During the next three months some of the fiercest fighting of the war took place, with Okinawans caught in between.
The casualties and devastation were staggering. Ninety percent of the population were made homeless, and over 10 percent killed. Some 560,000 soldiers and civilians were either killed or wounded! The southern part of the island was demolished, 95 percent of the buildings being destroyed. With good reason Okinawans call the battle “the typhoon of steel.”
Mingling but Not Blending
From total devastation Naha, Okinawa’s capital, has become a thriving metropolis of some 300,000 people. And the onetime farming village of Koza has grown into a city of around 70,000, larger than Naha was before the war.
Most buildings are constructed of concrete and are “typhoon proof,” houses generally being but one story in height. However, hundreds of multistory apartment buildings have also been put up. Over 100,000 motor vehicles speed about the island, clogging city streets during rush hours.
So Westerners find here familiar sights, including many other Westerners. With the end of the war United States military personnel did not all leave—not by any means! Some 90,000 American servicemen and their dependents now live here. The United States has maintained in Okinawa one of history’s most formidable military complexes, with over 120 installations. Fully one fourth of the island is taken up by military bases!
Although Okinawans are outgoing, the English-speaking foreign population has never been absorbed. The two cultures, like oil and water, flow side by side. They mingle, but have never blended. There is an American Okinawa and an Okinawan Okinawa. Few Okinawans have learned English, and most Americans, who live here only on a temporary basis, do not adopt the islanders’ way of life.
For years there has been pressure for reversion of Okinawa to Japanese control. One reason for this is that Okinawans need land badly, and the United States controls so much of it. In 1953 the Amami Islands, a small northern group of the Ryukyus, were returned to Japan. Then on June 17, 1971, the United States signed a treaty to restore to Japan Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands. The reversion is expected to take place sometime in 1972. Thus after about twenty-seven years Japan is to regain the last territory she lost to the United States during World War II.
But this will not mean American withdrawal from Okinawa. The United States will keep eighty-eight military installations, and will continue to need a sizable crew to man them.
Blending of East and West
Maintenance of a powerful military base, including a reputed nuclear arsenal, has not been popular with Okinawans. They have experienced “the typhoon of steel,” and military weaponry is not a pleasant reminder. Therefore the Bible promise that under God’s administration peoples will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears” is to many of them a pleasant message.—Mic. 4:3.
In 1952 there were none of Jehovah’s witnesses in Okinawa preaching about the peace that God’s kingdom will bring, but now there are over 500 of them. They meet regularly for study and association in eleven congregations. Meetings are conducted in Japanese in ten of these, but since 1968 there has also been an English-speaking congregation, now composed of over a hundred persons. This congregation calls on English-speaking people in Okinawa, and many persons have been contacted who have studied the Bible in other places. A number of these persons have been helped to make spiritual progress.
Although they meet separately in order to study the Bible in a familiar language, genuine cooperation exists between Japanese-speaking and English-speaking Witnesses. For example, at their assemblies, where more than 750 persons now attend, they work closely together to make these gatherings a success. Communication is largely with gestures, but the unity among them well demonstrates how people can live peacefully and happily together.
Others notice this unity to be in contrast to the disunity and confusion that abound here. In fact, when a Japanese-speaking and English-speaking congregation renovated an empty commercial building for use as a meeting place, the neighbors were so amazed to see the two groups working together that many came over to ask questions. Yes, these Okinawans from East and West do not only mingle, they blend into a united Christian family.