On November 20, Junji Kinjo will depart the Port of Yokosuka headed to Antarctica. Kinjo is a staff member at the University of the Ryukyus and was chosen to join the winter group of the 62nd Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE). The expedition will arrive at Showa Station by the end of the year and plans to spend approximately one year and four months in Antarctica. Kinjo is pure uchinanchu, having never lived outside of Okinawa. Furthermore, his degree is in the humanities. His life so far has not brought him in contact with the cold or with life sciences. With the day of departure nearing, Kinjo says, “I want to drink awamori over Antarctic ice!”
After graduating from Futenma High School, Kinjo enrolled in the Department of Comprehensive Social Systems Studies in the Faculty of Law and Letters at the University of the Ryukyus. After graduating, he was hired by the university and joined the Human Resources Department. Human Resources is primarily responsible for managing educational affairs, anti-harassment measures, and promoting gender equality, but also accepts applications to education and research opportunities with external organizations. While working, Kinjo came across a job description for JARE and thought, “This kind of job exists! It looks interesting.” He got a gut feeling and decided to go to Antarctica.
The first time he saw the job description, the application period had already ended. During the next application period, Kinjo spoke to his supervisor about the opportunity. The answer was no; his priority should be getting used to his current job. Applications are accepted every other year, so Kinjo gained an understanding of his workplace and applied two years later. He was not accepted, but he didn’t give up. Two years later, he applied yet again. This time, his long-held dream finally came to fruition.
Kinjo is currently undergoing training at the National Institute of Polar Research, which is the organization that sends the expeditions. He is responsible for general affairs and information communication for the group, so he is working to procure necessities such as office supplies and toilet paper. Everything must be purchased on this one occasion, so it is a big responsibility. Kinjo is gathering items with advice from his predecessors.
There are many natural phenomena in Antarctica that do not occur in Okinawa such as the midnight sun, when the sun never sets, and polar nights, when the sun never rises. Kinjo is uneasy about an environment that he won’t be able to leave, but has high hopes. “Antarctica has scenery that is completely alien to most people. You can see auroras too. I want to share information about it on blogs and social networking sites. I’m also planning YouTube Live Streams.”
In June, the population of Ginowan City reached 100,000. On October 21, the city invited the 100,000th resident, 0-year old Koharu Sueyoshi, her father Yohei, 31, and mother Chiharu, 30, to a ceremony held at the first-floor lobby of the City Hall. Koharu was presented with a dry flower bouquet and a special certificate.
Ginowan Village had a population of 31,000 and was renamed Ginowan City in 1962. Its population reached 90,000 in January 2007 and hit 100,000 on June 2, 2020.
The City Hall ceremony was initially planned for June, but it was postponed as a precaution against the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Ginowan City Mayor Masanori Matsugawa gave a speech at the ceremony and said, “we have a military base situated in the middle of the city, and we face environmental issues, but we must thank our pioneers and everyone that helped build this city.” With the 100,000-population milestone, the mayor renewed his dedication to “develop the city, as a steward of the municipal government.” He hoped for baby Koharu to “grow up healthy, and one day participate in shaping the city.”
Sueyoshi said, “We’ve heard Ginowan City is a great place to raise kids. I hope Koharu grows up surrounded by love.”
On November 4 Good Coffee Farms (Tokyo, represented by Carlos Melen), a company that works with Guatemalan coffee, announced that it will be establishing a research site for commodity development and where there is potential for coffee cultivation on the northern part of Okinawa Island, Okinawa Prefecture. This will be the second such site following the one in Guatemala. Good Coffee Farms held an interview addressing this topic in Nago Aguri Park, Nago City.
Good Coffee Farms guides farmers in Guatemala in coffee cultivation methods and the like. The company is concerned with sustainability, and is particular about using environmentally-friendly cultivation methods. Good Coffee Farms utilizes “dry bicycle pulping”, which uses a bicycle-powered threshing machine and does not discharge water and carbon dioxide during threshing, and the company has come to support small-scale farms in Guatemala.
On November 4 at Nago Aguri Park in Nago City, Carlos Melen (second from the left) of Good Coffee Farms announced the establishment of a new research site in Okinawa.
Mr. Melen, who took notice of Okinawa’s mild climate and ease of domestic and foreign access, said “I am still not certain which coffee beans will be best suited to Okinawa, and I look forward to searching them out”. Good Coffee Farms will cooperate with several plantations including Nakayama Coffee Plantation in Nago City. The company is renting a portion of the plantation and experimenting with foreign varieties of coffee as well as refining methods.
(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones)
Karateka Ryo Kiyuna, 30, from the Ryuei-ryu ryuho-kai school of karate and who will represent Japan at the Tokyo Olympics in the men’s Karate individual kata, was recognized by Guinness World Records for setting the world record for most gold medals in international karate competitions. The award recognizes Kiyuna’s 19 gold medals won in the KARATE1 Premier League from September 1, 2012 through January 24, 2020. On November 2, at the inaugural training session at the Okinawa Karate Hall in Tomigusuku, Kiyuna was presented with an official certification from Guinness World Records.
(English translaiton by T&CT and Sam Grieb)
The executive committee for “Tourism EXPO Japan, Travel Festival in Okinawa” (hosted by the Japan Travel and Tourism Association (JTTA), the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), and the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)), announced on November 2 that the event, along with other events being hosted at the same time such as “ResorTech Okinawa, Okinawa’s International IT Trade Fair,” drew in 24,080 participants over a 4-day period (from October 29 through November 1).
On the days the event was open to the public, October 31 and November 1, visitors were tallied at 19,460, and overall attendance surpassed their initial estimate of 22,000 people. In addition to those who attended the conference in person, ResorTech Okinawa had an online exhibition that brought in a total of 1,825 participants over the 4-day period.
The Tourism EXPO Japan Executive committee, led by JATA vice-president Hiroyuki Takahashi, paid a visit to Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki on November 2 to report on the closing of the event.
Executive committee president Takahashi said, “The hybrid model that fused in-person and online events had a real impact,” and that they saw a good amount of feedback for the new MICE (Meeting, Incentive Travel, Convention, Exhibition) event-hosting model. Governor Tamaki commented on the task of finding a way to host an event like this during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “As expected, we discovered a lot of things,” and gave his gratitude that the event completed without incident.
The Tourism EXPO will be hosted in Osaka next year.
The Shurijo Castle Festival, which reenacts the Ryukyu Kingdom’s magnificent ceremonies and traditions, was canceled last year after a fire destroyed the Shurijo Castle’s main hall. This year, the festival
(organized by its executive committee) opened on October31, with the festival’s king and queen—Tomoaki Takara and Seika Kamiyama, respectively—kicking off the festivities in the shutsugyo (royal arrival) event at 11 a.m. and captivated spectators with their brightly colored royal costumes.
The festival’s king and queen—Tomoaki Takara and Seika Kamiyama, captivating spectators with brightly colored costumes on October 31.
As a precaution against the novel coronavirus, the Shurijo Castle Festival reduced its capacity this year; the Ryukyu Dynasty Picture Scroll Parade, held every year on Kokusai Street, was canceled, as was the king and queen selection contest. Takara and Kamiyama, last year’s winners, continued their roles as king and queen. Nevertheless, spectators can enjoy Okinawan traditional performance arts during the Shurijo Castle Festival, which will be held through November 3.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga gave his first policy speech at the Diet since taking office. Regarding Okinawa, he stated that he will “endeavor to reduce the base burden” and “steadfastly proceed with the construction for the Henoko relocation in order to remove the dangers posed by MCAS Futenma as quickly as possible.” He then stated, “I will continue to be sympathetic to the sentiments of people in Okinawa.”
In Okinawa, strong popular opposition to the Henoko construction has been demonstrated in the prefectural referendum in which roughly 70% of voters opposed the Henoko land reclamation, and in major elections including gubernatorial elections. The speech shows tremendous incongruity between words and actions. If Suga is to hold responsibility for his words, he must display the sympathy for Okinawa that he claims have.
In light of the discovery of the weak sea floor at Henoko, construction is expected to take at least twelve years, with a budget of 930 billion yen estimated by the national government. It is insincere to make light of this reality and use the words “as quickly as possible.” The government should revoke the present plan immediately and quickly return MCAS Futenma without the condition of relocation within Okinawa.
Prime Minister Suga made reference to the 2016 return of the northern part of the Northern Training Area and praised himself, saying it was “the largest return [of land] since the reversion of Okinawa to Japan.” The return, however, was conditioned on the construction of helipads, and depended on the construction of six helipads designed for Osprey use around the village of Takae. This clearly constituted a buildup of military functions. Local residents where the construction proceeded suffer from the resulting noise.
The part that was returned was land deemed by the U.S. military to be “unusable.” Nonetheless, the military did not return the land immediately, instead requiring twenty years from the return agreement made between Japan and the U.S. in 1996. That was because the return was conditioned on relocation within Okinawa. The same is true with respect to MCAS Futenma and the Naha Military Port, the return of which is taking a great deal of time. Burden reduction conditioned on relocation within the prefecture is a far cry from the wishes of Okinawans.
If Prime Minister Suga intends to sincerely grapple with true burden reduction, he should immediately abandon the plan for new base construction in Henoko and move forward with a return not conditioned on relocation within the prefecture. That he made no mention in his policy speech of revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, something desired by Okinawa and other members of the National Governors’ Association, is more evidence that he has no sympathy for Okinawa.
Prime Minister Suga’s insincere attitude is not limited to Okinawa-related issues. He also made no mention of his refusal to appoint certain members to the Science Council of Japan. His refusal to provide an explanation to the people contradicts the “Cabinet that works for the people” that he described in his speech.
Suga expressed his intent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Japan to substantially zero in 2050. He says that in addition to switching coal-based energy production to renewable energy resources, he will also advance a nuclear energy policy “that puts safety first.” Moving away from nuclear energy is the best way to ensure the safety of the people. Advancing a nuclear energy policy even after the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident can only be seen as disdain for the lives of the people.
For the past 30 years, except for when there was a change of administration, the prime minister’s first policy speech was always held immediately after he was appointed. Suga’s speech was unusually late, not occurring until 40 days after his appointment. This policy speech cast a harsh light on his lack of respect for the Diet and his negligence towards the people. His lack of regard for accountability is one example. If he does not disclose public documents that were continuously kept secret concerning the numerous suspicions that arose during the Abe administration and otherwise respond to the public’s doubts, he will never be able to gain the people’s trust.
Tatsuhiro Oshiro, Okinawa’s first Akutagawa Prize-winning author and leader in Okinawan literature, died of old age at 11:10 a.m. on October 27 at a hospital in Kitanakagusuku Village. He was 95 years old. The Nakagusuku-native examined Okinawan identity throughout his career. Oshiro fell ill in March and had been in and out of the hospital while he continued to write about the general history of Okinawa and Ryukyu from his unique perspective in various media, including novels, plays, critiques and essays, in which he embodied Okinawa’s postwar history.
His autobiographical novel, Yakeato no Kōkōkyōshi (A High School Teacher in the Ashes), published in May by Shueisha Inc., was based on his experience as a high school teacher in U.S.-occupied Okinawa. It is his last published work.
Oshiro was born in 1925. After graduating from the Prefectural Daini Middle School, he enrolled in the Tung Wen College in Shanghai, China. The school was closed after the war, and Oshiro returned to Okinawa without completing his studies.
In post-war Okinawa, Oshiro worked as a Ryukyu government employee under the U.S. Administration. Later, when the prefecture was returned to Japan, he continued to work as a prefectural government worker. Linking the frustrations of his youth with the fate of Okinawa, Oshiro became ideologically motivated to wet his feet in literature and began writing while working as a government worker. In 1967, before Okinawa reverted to Japan, he won the Akutagawa Prize for The Cocktail Party, in which he exposes the deceitfulness of the U.S.-Ryukyu relationship through the story of an assault committed by a U.S. soldier. Oshiro also wrote about the Okinawa Problem and published The Ryukyu Disposition: A Novel in 1968. Post-reversion, Oshiro served as director of the Okinawa Prefectural Museum.
Oshiro received the Kinokuniya Theatre Awards (Kinokuniya Engeki Shō) for his play, The Times, They are A-changin’. In 1993, he received the Hirabayashi Taeko Prize for his novel, Hi no Hate kara (From the Edge of the Sun), which tells the story of a prison in wartime Okinawa. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, Purple Ribbon (Shiju Hōjō) by the Japanese Government for his literary excellence in 1990; the Order of the Rising Sun Fourth Class, a national decoration for distinguished achievements, in 1996; the Ryukyu Shimpo Award in 1998; and the Prefectural Achievement Award in 2000. In 2015, he received the Kawabata Yasunari Literary Award for Rēru no Mukō (The Other Side of the Rail) and in 2019, the Inoue Yasushi Memorial Cultural Award.
Throughout his career, Oshiro actively spoke on Okinawa’s military base issues. In 2005, he gave an interview to this newspaper to discuss the construction of the new base in Henoko, Nago City, to accommodate the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Airbase. Oshiro called it “the second Ryukyu disposition,” and concluded that “the [new] challenge for the Okinawan people is to stop the base from being built in Henoko.”
In 2011, he published a collection of short stories centered on the military base issue, titled To Futenma (Futenma yo). Ōshiro was also influential in preserving and developing Okinawa’s traditional performing arts and even wrote new Kumi Odori (a type of musical composed of words, old Okinawan music and dance) numbers.
The memorial service for Oshiro will be held from 2:00 to 2:45 p.m. on October 30, at the Inanse Funeral Home, located at 1-7-1 Inanse, Urasoe City. His eldest son Tatsuya is the chief mourner.
Eight years since its first protest activity, the Association for Singing Gospel at the Futenma Base Gate prayed for peace in front of a gate to the U.S. Futenma Air Station through the singing of hymns. On the evening of October 26, there were 19 Christians involved with the Association who donned masks and participated in a protest activity in front of the Nodake Gate of Futenma Air Station. The participants vowed that as long as there are fences there, they will call for peace through gospel, and their voices resounded in the air.
The Association’s first protest activity took place in front of the Nodake gate on October 29, 2012 in response to vertical takeoff and landing MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft being deployed to Futenma Air Station. Despite the government installing fences around this gate in July 2013, protest activities continued to take place every week on Monday evenings on the walkway in front of the gate. In 2015, protest activities in Henoko, Nago City also started gospel singing once per month. Protest through gospel spread from Futenma throughout the nation to places such as the Kantei (the prime minister’s official residence).
The protest activity, which marked 8 years since the first such activity, took place at 6:00 p.m. on October 26 after darkness had fallen. Donning a mask, association representative Takehiro Kamiya, 58, pastor at Futenma Baptist Church, said “We did not plan for [the protest activities] to continue for this long, but the circumstances in Okinawa are such that we feel obliged to sing. This is because, among other things, there continues to be little account given to people’s lives”. While observed by military police standing on both sides of the fences, Association members sang seven hymns such as We Shall Overcome and offered prayer. People passing in their cars honked their horns, smiled, and waved to the Association members.
(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones)
October 30 is “Global Uchinanchu Day.” The Global Uchinanchu Center Establishment Support Committee (Choko Takayama, Takeshi Miki, and Seishin Oyama, joint representatives), which is looking to establish a location where Uchinanchu from all over the world can connect, provisionally titled the Global Uchinanchu Center, held a press conference at the Okinawa Prefectural Office’s Press Club October 29, where they announced the publication of a PR brochure meant to help build momentum for the center. They are petitioning the Okinawan government to start work on the center in time for the 2022 Global Uchinanchu Festival.
The center will function as a base of operations for the annual Global Uchinanchu Festival as well as support, strengthen, and expand networking abilities for the Uchinanchu diaspora, and will also serve a purpose as a visitor center. They also hope to digitize the emigrant name registry, allowing them to collect and display data on Okinawans who had emigrated, and allow people of Okinawan ancestry to discover their roots. They are also thinking to utilize the center for study-abroad and business purposes.
Joint representative Miki said, “2022 will mark 50 years since the reversion [of Okinawa to Japan from U.S. control]. We would like to see Okinawa undertake things like new development programs and other projects to mark this 50-year anniversary.”
(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)
By October 28, it was clear that donations to rebuild Shuri Castle, which burned down in October of last year, had exceeded 5 billion yen. As of October 28, total donations to Okinawa Prefecture, Naha City, and the Okinawa Churashima Foundation amounted to at least 5086760000 yen. The donated money will go toward restoring the destroyed Seiden (main hall) and cultural assets that were kept at the castle.
The prefecture had received approximately 3334390000 yen as of October 27. No end date has been set for fundraising at this time and the prefecture will continue to accept donations for the time being.
As of October 25, Naha City had collected 1553370000 yen. The city will collect donations until October 31, which marks one year since the fire, after which the donated money will be entrusted to the prefecture.
The Okinawa Churashima Foundation had received 199 million yen in donations as of October 22. The Foundation will put the donated money into a fund that will be used to restore or recreate art and artifacts. Because this will be done using a fund framework established before the fire, the foundation will continue to collect donations going forward.
In addition to direct donations from individuals, corporations, and other groups, donations also came through crowdfunding via the Naha City Hometown Tax Donation program. Donations came from throughout Japan and even from overseas.
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Webcam(Kokusai Street)
