Next Members Meeting: February 13, 2014

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“Essence of Karate Do – Okinawan Art of Peace”

Time:             6:00 pm    February 13, 2014    Thursday

Location:      Maple Garden Restaurant       909 Isenberg Street

Speaker:      Zenko Heshiki, Zen Priest, Karate Sensei 7th Dan, Poet.

 

 

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Announcement:  Uchinanchu Talk Story IV “Secrets of Okinawan Longevity” (March 9, 2014 – East West Center, Imin Center) now has an official wordpress site!  Please go to that site for registration information.

Next Members Meeting: January 9, 2014

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2014 – Year of the Horse

Time:             6:00 pm    January 9, 2014    Thursday

Location:      Maple Garden Restaurant       909 Isenberg Street

Speaker:      Tomoyo Nonaka, chair and founder of GAIA Initiative, is researching sustainable development in the Ryukus, especially Kumejima Island.  She is former CEO of Sanyo Electronic Co., Ltd., and currently a visiting scholar at the East-West Center – University of Hawaii.

GAIA Initative Slide Show

Nov-Dec 2013

Deigo plant - Source: Okinawaology

Fall Colors – Deigo plant is the only tree known to shed its leaves during Okinawa’s mild sub-tropical winters.  Source: Okinawaology

No WUB General Meetings for November and December 2013

Next scheduled meeting will be the second Thursday in January 2014

Date:           January 9, 2014
Location:    Maple Garden

 

Next Meeting: October 10, 2013

WUB Hawaii Meeting 

Time:             6:00 pm    October 10, 2013    Thursday

Location:      Maple Garden Restaurant       909 Isenberg Street

Agenda:        John Tasato and Mike Schoonover will be reporting on their visit to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii and their meeting with the Kona Okinawa Club. Energy independence is vital for the future of island societies like Hawaii and Okinawa.

Mike Schoonover, Ph.D., will speak about his relationship with UOP as a Research Director-Technology engaged in Business Process Re-engineering from a system approach; Knowledge Management Strategy and Start-up of a new company.

 

 

Next Meeting: September 12

WUB Hawaii Meeting 

Time:             6:30 pm    September 12th, 2013    Thursday

Location:      Maple Garden Restaurant       909 Isenberg Street

Speaker:       Dr. Craig Wilcox, gerontologist and medical researcher

Topic:             Nutrition and Longevity Among Okinawans

Dr. Craig Wilcox - Gerontologist

Dr. Craig Wilcox – Gerontologist

Interview with Dr. Craig Wilcox.  Source: Island Icons.

Excerpts

When did you first hear about Okinawan longevity?

“While at the University of Toronto I participated in a study investigating how nutrition and other factors were associated with healthy survival. One group we were looking at was Japanese Canadians in the province of Ontario and this is when I first met Toku Oyakawa. Oyakawa-san was 105; he’d been born in Nago City (in northern Okinawa) and later emigrated to Canada. He was living a traditional Okinawan lifestyle in Canada, which suggested that Okinawan health habits could be followed anywhere in the world.”

When did you move to Okinawa?

“In the summer of 1994 I came out to Okinawa on a three-month summer research project. I interned with Dr. Makoto Suzuki, a professor of Community Medicine at the University of the Ryukyus. During this time I met Nakamura-san a healthy 100-year-old man who would later become the oldest person in Japan. After completing my graduate studies back at the University of Toronto I got funding from the Japanese government to work as a researcher at the University of the Ryukyus. In 1999, I became an assistant professor at Okinawa Prefectural University, College of Nursing, then in 2007 I moved to become a professor at Okinawa International University.”

To Read More

Okinawa’s Endangered Languages

 

Okinawa’s unique culture and languages are slowly disappearing. When we say “Okinawa,” it is important to keep in mind that Okinawa is one island in the diverse Ryukuan archipelago. The Ryukus is home to several islands and languages. After a century of Japanese rule Okinawa’s unique culture and language and that of its sister islands are in danger of being wiped out.

Below is a chart of the different Okinawan languages, their local names, and how they would say: “Thank You.” When we compare the local Okinawan expressions against mainland Japan’s “arigato gozaimasu,” we soon realize that we are talking about different languages, not dialects.

Below is a map showing the endangered languages in Japan.

Screen shot 2013-07-06 at 2.24.09 PM

The yellow tabs indicate “definitely endangered,” while the orange tabs indicate “severely endangered.”

Languages do not die overnight, but slowly and gradually. They are gradually pushed out of the schools and government offices, and confined to the privacy of the homes. After several generations knowledge of the culture and language begin to fade away, then disappear forever. A chart showing the stages of language degeneration can be found on Endangered-Languages.com.

The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus published an article “Wanne Uchinanchu: I Am Okinawan” by Fija Bairon and Patrick Heinrich in 2007. The article is about the slow death of the Okinawan language and the attempts by some to revive the Okinawan language and culture. Fija and Heinrich noted:

The Ryukyuan languages are severely endangered today, because domains of Ryukyuan language uses have been continuously lost since the start of Japanese language spread in the 1880s. The expansion of one language always coincides with the contraction of another. Languages are thus not lost word by word but domain by domain. Once those domains in which the language is naturally transmitted are lost, the language is endangered in its survival. From that point on, languages are lost speaker by speaker. While Japanese was largely restricted to official domains until the 1940s, shift to Japanese in private domains such as the family and the neighbourhood meant that natural intergenerational language transmission was interrupted. Since the 1940s two predominantly Japanese monolingual generations have been raised in the Ryukyu Islands (Heinrich 2004). It now only takes knowledge about average life expectancy, Ryukyuan demographics and a little mathematics to calculate the future decline of the Ryukyuan languages in the event that no effective counter action is taken. I will refrain from doing such maths here since language shift can be reversed. – See more at: http://www.japanfocus.org/-Fija-Bairon/2586#sthash.wK5DuAX6.dpuf

 

The Okinawan language is dying in part because of Japan’s nationalistic policies. In its quest to become a modern nation-state the Japanese government sought to eliminate regional differences and impose national uniformity. Japan’s national bureaucracy sought and still seeks to impose linguistic uniformity throughout its territories. One vivid example of the attempts to impose linguistic standardization is the “hogen fuda” or “dialect tag.” It was the practice to shame students who spoke non-Japanese by hanging the “hogen fuda” around their neck. This was meant to be a badge of shame. Its purpose was to discourage students from speaking their native language and force them to adopt the new official language. Nowadays less visible means are used. The approval process for school textbooks by Japan’s Ministry of Education not only ensures the dissemination of the Japanese language, but also an “impartial” presentation of Japan’s history.

Philippa Fogarty of BBC News described the dramatic language shift in post-World War II Okinawa. Even as late as 1945 many Okinawans still spoke Uchinaaguchi. Then during the 1950s and 1960s in reaction to the US military presence there was a push to become more Japanese. Parents stopped using Uchinaaguchi with their children thinking that by learning Japanese their children would have a better chance of getting jobs. Today Uchinaaguchi is spoken only among the elderly.

After more than a century of political hegemony, assimilation, and centralization, there is a need for an alternative discussion that focuses on the themes of autonomy, decentralization, cultural diversity, and indigeneity. Hawaii’s recent history contains valuable lessons that can stimulate discussion of alternative paths to the future.

How the Hogen Fuda was used.

How the Hogen Fuda was used.

Cultural Revival In Hawaii

Hawaiian was the dominant language until 1893 when the sugar planters with the aid of the US military overthrew the Hawaiian kingdom. Then in 1898 Hawaii became a US possession and English became the new official language. Hawaii’s political and social history in the twentieth century is the story of how Americans sought to assimilate Hawaii’s multi-cultural society into mainland haole culture. This involved the marginalization of Hawaiian, the language of the indigenous inhabitants, and the suppression of Pidgin, a creole that originated on Hawaii’s plantations and is spoken by about half of Hawaii’s residents today. See: “Language and Power in Hawaii.”

In recent years there has been a cultural revival in Hawaii. After decades of pressure to assimilate into mainland American culture, the tide has shifted and many people in Hawaii are looking into their family history and seeking to recover their cultural heritage. In the 1980s there was a growing interest among the Hawaiians in reviving the Hawaiian language. A similar interest began among the Locals to affirm Pidgin as an expression of Local identity.

The 1980s also saw the flourishing in Uchinanchu pride through the construction of the Hawaii Okinawan Center and the popularity of the Okinawan Festival. For more information on the Okinawan revival in Hawaii, see Wesley Ueunten’s doctoral dissertation: “The Okinawan revival in Hawai’i: Contextualizing culture and identity over diasporic time and space.”

This has led to greater interest in Uchinaaguchi (the Okinawan language). At present Uchinaaguchi is being taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (JPN 472) as well as in less formal settings in several locations in Hawaii. It has been said that the revival of Uchinanchu culture in Hawaii may one day bring about a similar revival in Okinawa.

Robert Arakaki

NYT Article: “In Okinawa, Talk of Break From Japan Turns Serious”

 

Chosuke Yara, leader of the Ryuku Independence Party.  Source: NYT 5 July 2013.

Chosuke Yara, leader of the Ryuku Independence Party. Source: NYT 5 July 2013.

 

On 5 July 2013, the New York Times published an article by Martin Fackler about the recent revival of the Okinawan independence movement.

Mr. Higa and other advocates admit that few islanders would actually seek independence for Okinawa, the southernmost Japanese island chain, which is home to 1.4 million residents and more than half of the 50,000 American troops and sailors based in Japan. But discontent with the heavy American presence and a growing perception that the central government is ignoring Okinawans’ pleas to reduce it have made an increasing number of islanders willing to at least flirt publicly with the idea of breaking apart in a way that local politicians and scholars say they have not seen in decades.

To read more click: Here.