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THE AUTONOMY AND CULTURE IN OKINAWA
T. Yamashiro
The author explores the unique experience of social interacting Okinawa's community, based on local traditional culture and history, cooperation and mutual help, unity of the prefecture's population.
Key words: Okinawa, Shima, Kominkan, traditional culture, self-government, regional community.
This article examines and analyzes the possibility of an autonomous community by focusing on the cultural aspects of Okinawa. Okinawa consists of 113 islands, in a beautiful archipelago that stretches for 800 miles between the Japanese main islands and Taiwan. Okinawa has exceptional circumstances for the following reasons. First of all, Okinawa has a different, unique, history from Japan; Okinawa was once a nation called the Ryukyu Kingdom until 1879. However, for 270 years, Okinawa was, in fact, a Satsuma colony. Later in 1879, Japan abolished the royal government and annexed Okinawa as a prefecture. Okinawa was then left in relative peace until 1944, when the Japanese Army arrived in force to counter the impending American attack. The Battle of Okinawa was one of World War II's longest, bloodiest and hardest fought campaigns. After the battle, the Ryukyu Islands stayed under American military control until May 15, 1972; although, they are still under U.S. military administration now. Ninety percent of all U.S. military forces in Japan are located on Okinawa.
Second, the Okinawan community has been created in each small scale regional community, called Shima, based on it's traditional history culture and sensitivity, cooperation, collaboration and solidarity. The history and culture of each community, Shima has the universality of time, it is only accepted in the local area, not worldwide. Third, regional communities have developed and invested a selfgovernment which has the necessary individual consciousness needed to lay the groundwork for social participation, connecting the government to the inhabitants so that the local government may be effective.
For the reasons stated above, Okinawan regional communities that have individuality, the universality of time and a self-governing entity, have defended their lives against serious problems, including military affairs, community development and the peace movement. The small scale regional community should allow for more individuality, and in variety, than has been the case in Japan, outside Okinawa. Consequently, it is necessary to rebuild the base of the regional community in order to conquer the modern dehumanized society.
In order to clarify the autonomy, cooperation, and culture of the Okinawa Shima community, I'll analyze the voluntary Kominkan to have a community-wide educational function and organization activities. Specifically, we consider the performing arts, Eisa of the Youth Association, the regional nursery (Yohji-en), coshops (Kyodo-ten), editing the book of local history and culture (Azashi), and the Okinawan immigrant community that strongly characterized these Okinawa Shima communities.
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The voluntary Kominkan of Okinawa is positioned in a similar facility according to the Social Education Act. It means it is not a public Kominkan, it is one that was built in autonomously and by volunteers. The number of Kominkan in Okinawa in 2012: the public Kominkan was 97, the voluntary Kominkan was 951, and there were 1,048 in total. Many annual events and activities are held in Kominkans by directors, who are elected, children, youth, women, and elderly associations. These self-governments and cooperations of Kominkans, people ties, create a relationship that mutually supports each other. Music and dance provide a space in which the Okinawan people have been able to affirm their identity. Eisa, a popular form of Okinawan folk dance and music, has traditionally been performed during the summer, in conjunction with the annual Okinawan Buddist Obon, a ceremony that honors the ancestral spirits. Youth associations have danced the Eisa historically, and currently, Eisa has become the center of their activities. Music and dance are important parts of life in Okinawa.
The regional nursery, not the nurseries that the government and the private sectors make, is a facility for the children of the region, made by the people of the region. Childcare is roughly done in the Kominkan; therefore, there is an advantage that the children and the community of people can routinely exchange. Co-shops are also built in investment by the region, for the region. The first co-shop in Okinawa began in Oku, Kunigami village in 1906, and has spread around Okinawa. The way to manage a co-shop is that all of the local residents become shareholders, directly manage, and revenue is distributed to all members. A coshop can be managed in any sparsely populated area if there is collaboration with the autonomy of the region.
Editing Azashi is a characteristic of Okinawa. As repeatedly mentioned, Okinawa's history and culture is different by region. The government writes a large history, but does not write the important aspects of the history of the region of people. Therefore, people must write their own history to leave for the future. The first record was the experiences of the Battle of Okinawa. All of the people were involved in writing the Azashi in various ways, and it was edited as a public business in the region. Editing the Azashi started in 1950's, and has been published over 500 times in Okinawa.
The first Okinawan immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1900 to work as contract laborers on sugar plantations. Over time, Okinawans continued migrating to the continental U.S., Canada, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, and the islands of Micronesia. Okinawa sent out a large number of migrants every year before World War II, so it was the so-called "emigration prefecture."
The Okinawan immigrants in Brazil built a voluntary Kominkan to help each other, and to colonize the Brazilian society. They began to function not only as community gathering places, but also as the base for self-government and learning activities. These features are similar to the voluntary Kominkan found in Okinawa. In South American countries, Okinawan performing arts, like Eisa, can be learnt in the voluntary Kominkan or adult studies. By learning the popular Eisa, Okinawan identity links the widely scattered Okinawan immigrant communities.
As described so far, this example of a regional community of Okinawa holds important lessons for globalization today.
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